Pierre’s Dog Emporium – Teaching Your Dog To Sit & Name Recognition/Watch Me

In this week’s installment of the emporium blog, we will give you some tips on how to teach your dog to recognize their name and how to sit.

I learned these tips while attending a dog training class at PETsMART. I’m not an expert so consult with a training expert about how best to train your little puppy.

THE CLICKER/MARKER
You can purchase a clicker at your local pet store. The clicker will be used in many of the training exercises that will follow in the weeks ahead.

The clicker helps your dog to recognize desired commands.

NAME RECOGNITION
Name recognition is an important element in dog training. Many of the commands that you give your dog will state their name prior to the command.

Name recognition helps you get your dog’s attention.

Place the clicker in your hand. Call your dog's name. When your dog looks at you, click the clicker and repeat his/her name.
Continue to repeat this exercise until your dog recognizes their name at your command.

Watch me is a variation of name recognition. Watch me is used to help your dog pay attention to you.

Call your dog’s name and then say “watch me”. When your dog looks at you, even a glance counts, mark the behavior with the clicker and then reward your dog with a treat.

You will want to gradually increase the amount of time your dog pays attention/looks at you. To do this, gradually increase the time before rewarding your dog with a treat.

I also believe in training your dog to pay attention with a physical cue.
To do this take the treat and raise it to your eyes. When your dog has made eye contact, mark the behavior, repeat the verbal command and give your dog a treat.

Like the verbal cue, you can increase the time that your dog pays attention to you.

TEACHING YOUR DOG TO SIT
Take a treat in your hand and place it between your index finger and thumb. Make sure to keep your palm open, facing the upward.
Start lifting the treat above your dog’s head. As you do this, your dog should naturally sit. When they do sit, mark the behavior and reward your dog with a treat.

Make sure not to verbally name the behavior at this time. Repeat this behavior until your dog has mastered sitting with your silent/physical command.

Now you can teach your dog the verbal cue. Follow the steps above but when your dog sits, say “sit” and reward your dog.

Remember to practice these commands regularly (both verbal and silent commands).

Once your dog has mastered sitting, you can alter the command by calling you dog’s name and then saying “sit”.

I hope that these tips have been helpful.

Next week, we will discuss how to discourage unwanted behavior and loose leash walking.

Welcome to week two of Pierre’s Dog Emporium tips and news. This week we’re going to be talking to you about feeding your dog. We hope that your potty training has gone well and the tips that I gave you were helpful.

Please note: I’m not an expert. Consult your dog experts (pet trainer, vet or dog store such as Petsmart).

I’m not going to recommend any particular dog food brand. I believe that’s up to you to discuss with your dog’s vet. Each dog has different needs.

What I will recommend (and it’s my opinion) is that once you’ve started using a particular food, you stick with it (unless your vet recommends something different or your pup ages from puppy to adult).

Your dog may go through stages of not wanting to eat his/her food. This is normal, especially during the early training of your dog. During this time, you will be training your dog with treats.

Your dog will love the treats and may come to expect them. They’re no different then us. Wouldn’t we prefer to eat chocolate rather then fruit or pasta other then vegetables? Of course most of us would but it’s not healthy.

Our dog Pierre went through a stage of not wanting to eat his food. We were able to use a couple of techniques to get him back in the game.

So what can you do? The first thing to remember is to feed your dog at set times during the day. We feed Pierre twice a day, in the morning and evening. He gets half his food at those times.

If Pierre doesn’t eat in the morning we take the food and add it to his second feeding. If he doesn’t finish his food we put it back in the dog food container and start fresh the next day.

We never leave his food bowl out. We believe he needs to be aware of when his feeding times are. Don’t worry if your dog has not eaten very much. Most dogs have the capacity of storing food for a decent amount of time (if you’re not sure if he/she is ok, consult with your vet).

Like most training it’s important to stick to a routine. It makes it much easier to train your dog.

Ok. You’re still wondering about the techniques you can use to try and get your dog to eat their food. I mentioned earlier that you will be using treats to train your dog. Your dog will come to expect those rewards when he/she does a particular training element correctly.
When Pierre wasn’t eating his regular food, we substituted his food for the treat. Pierre still thought he was getting a treat.

When we put his dog bowl out, he was more inclined to eat his food.
The second step we took was to point at his food when we gave it to him and said “eat your food”. As you will learn in the weeks that follow, it’s important to use repetitiveive actions and words that your dog will learn.

Pierre now knows the hand and verbal cues for him to eat. He understands he’s not just being put in his pen (Kennel).

Those were the techniques that we used and they’ve worked for us.

PLEASE NOTE: Always keep a bowl of water out for your dog. Your dog requires lots of water and unlike the food, drinking water throughout the day is healthy for him/her.

Next week we will talk about teaching your dog to sit.

Wednesday’s Blog with Pierre’s Dog Emporium, Week 1 - Potty Training Your Little Pup

Potty training your little friend takes time and commitment. The training can take anywhere from 4 weeks to 6 months. Expect your dog to regress from time to time. He or she is just learning their environment.

Please note that the tips that I’m providing are my opinion and what has worked for my wife and I. I suggest that you take a dog training class from experts in the field of dog training.
My wife and I are really happy with the dog training classes provided by Petsmart. It has worked for us so far.

Patience
Be patient with your dog. Dogs can sense when their dog parent is upset with them and this can cause problems with their potty training development.
Never punish your dog. Dogs have short memories and probably won’t associate your corporal punishment with their accident.

What my wife and I do when we catch Pierre having an accident is to gently pick him up (while he’s in the act) and say "AH UH" (in a patient and calm tone).

Your dog will stop doing his business when he’s interrupted and will continue outside.
They will also learn that this behavior is unwanted.

We believe that being patient with your little friend will go a long way with their development and it will help to develop that close bond that every pet owner wants with their dog.

Routine/consistency
I have to admit that when we first got our dog Pierre we didn’t start him on a routine right away.
After a couple of weeks we decided to put him in a routine that consisted of leaving him in his pen overnight.

We suggest that you crate or pen your dog overnight or when you’re not home. Dogs are den animals and will not mind being crated.

Our nightly activities were confined to a specific area of our house where we could keep an eye on him at all times.

We took Pierre out to go potty every hour on the hour and we looked for cues that he might give us that he had to go potty.
This is important. Every dog will give their own cues. It’s important for you as their dog parent to learn their cues.

When we take Pierre out to make, we always take him out through the same door and say “outside” (you can say what ever works for you).

We were and are consistent with all his training. Pierre picked up on our teaching tools and is now about 85 % potty trained after 4 weeks of being on his new routine.

We are still learning his cues and making sure to pick up on them as they occur. Pierre now goes to our front door and waits for us to take him out.

One suggestion that a friend mentioned to us is to put a bell on a rope by the door where you take your pup out to make. Every time that you take them out to make, ring the bell with their paw. Hopefully they will learn to ring the bell when it’s time for them to go.

These are a few of the things that my wife and I have learned so far. Every day is a new learning experience for us as dog parents but it’s been very rewarding for us and we have created a great bond with our little guy.

Next week’s topic will be about feeding your dog. In a couple of weeks I will return to some more dog training tips for you. For now it’s important to work on your pup's routine and potty training.

If you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know by posting your comments here or emailing them to us at support@itstherightway.com

Pierre's Dog Emporium

ItsTheRightWay.com is pleased to announce the opening of its newest store - Pierre's Dog Emporium

The goal of the store is to help you find quality dog products and services. We definitely try to "Put the woof into your online dog shopping".

My wife and I began our journey about 3 months ago when we adopted Pierre, our lovable Bichon Poo. Pierre has taught us a lot about being dog parents and he's brought tremendous joy into our lives.

Pierre teaches us something new every day. He also provides us with unconditional love. Our lives have truly changed since his adoption.

That's why on behalf of Pierre and ItsTheRightWay.com, I decided to create our very own dog store, where our customers could find quality services and products at reasonable prices.

While we don't carry any merchandise we are affiliated with 5 of the top online pet stores in America .

Every Wednesday, starting on May 17th, I will be sharing my dog parenting stories, tips, articles and general dog ownership ideas on this Blog. We hope that you will also post your comments, suggestions and dog parenting experiences.

We want to make your visit at Pierre's Dog Emporium as rewarding as possible. If you are looking for a particular product or service you can email us at support@itstherightway.com and we'll do our best to find it for you.

Travel Tips

This is a great time to plan your next trip or vacation. If you have kids, they will soon be out of school. You may be in college or high school and that too is coming to an end. Maybe you just want to get away from the stress of a busy work week.

In this installment of What’s Happening we’re going to look at different tips and tools you can use to plan your next getaway.

So sit back and enjoy.

Last Minute Travel
What if you didn’t have time to plan your vacation but wanted to get away in the next week or two? Well there are a number of services available to you to help and they offer inexpensive extended weekend getaways known as last minute travel.

The following merchants offer this type of services:

Priceline.com
Site59.com
Cheap Tickets
Travelocity.com
EasyClickTravel.com
Travelselect (UK)
Expedia Germany
WarnerBreaks.co.uk

Recently, my wife and I wanted to get away. We hadn’t had a vacation in over 2 years. We used Priceline.com to plan a last minute extended weekend vacation (Planned 1 week in advance). We ended up going to San Francisco for 4 nights. The trip cost us $480 per person and included flight and hotel.

We had a great time and we were very happy with Priceline.com.


Planning Your Trip in Advance
The services that I listed above can be used to plan a trip that you will take in the future. Those services can help you with all aspects of your vacation needs (Air, Hotel, Car Rental, Vacation Packages, Cruises, etc.).

We advise that if you are planning a longer trip that isn’t last minute that you do your research.
Find out as much as you can about your desired destination. There are many travel books that you can purchase (Lets Go 2006 Europe, Frommers', Fodor's, etc.) and they can be purchased at Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com and Bookplace Ltd (UK).

Reading up on your planned destination will help you to have a more enjoyable and rewarding vacation. Travel Books will also give you tips about your destination and will tell you about the important places to see. Most travel books will also include a section on safety, which is especially important for females when they travel.

Do comparison shopping. You want to get the best available price and amenities that you can afford.
Use the following services to find the best rates on your travel booking.

Priceline.com
Site59.com
Cheap Tickets
Travelocity.com
EasyClickTravel.com
Travelselect (UK)
Expedia Germany
WarnerBreaks.co.uk

You may find yourself feeling that you can’t afford the cost of an airline ticket. Planning ahead will help you with this.

You can earn points with air miles visa or master cards and use those points to purchase airline tickets.
The following credit cards have these offers:

The Miles Card from Discover® Card
Continental Airlines World MasterCard® from Chase
WorldPerks Visa

Planning ahead here is very crucial as you will need to accumulate a certain amount of points and will need to know any restrictions that the miles have.
Many cards today will offer you a free ticket when you join.

Check out this great offer: 3 Night Vegas Vacation - $49">Vegas Vacation

The final thing I would like to mention is to make a checklist of the things that you may need when traveling. Examples include:
Passport
Travel Visa
Required travel items (Hiking Boots, Swimsuits, etc.).

This was a just a brief guide to help you plan your next vacation. There are many other things to consider when planning a vacation or trip. Do your research and plan ahead.

3 Night Vegas Vacation - $49"

Please note: If you’re looking for a specific product or service (not just travel) ItsTheRightWay.com would be happy to do its best to help you find it. Just email us at support@itstherightway.com and we’ll do our best to locate that product or service for you.