5) In situations where your dog shows fear towards strangers or visitors to them home, try and explain to visitors that you would prefer if simply ignored the dog completely, not even looking at the dog once or paying them the slightest bit of attention. Very often visitors feel the need to try and ‘comfort’ the dog and this can lead to the dog feeling even more threatened.

Once the dog has learned not to react at all to visitors, ask the occasional ‘dog-knowledgeable’ guest to nonchalantly and without any ceremony, simply drop a treat by the dog and then walk off in another direction. It is important they don’t try and make a fuss of the dog or offer the treat from the hand. Doing this regularly with different guests will accustom the dog to the idea that all visitors are not intruders to the ‘den’ and they are not intent on causing harm to the dog or his pack.

4) Complimentary therapies and treatments can be very helpful for aiding nerves. Diet also plays an important role. If a dog is unusually nervous, listless, depressed or lacking coat condition a change of food may be in order. There are specialist dieticians and holistic vets who may be able to greatly increase your dog’s physical and psychological well-being, thus improving the dog’s confidence and reducing nervousness. Try the Internet or Yellow pages and look for holistic vets and animal dieticians.

3) Keep in your mind at all times how your body language impacts the shy or nervous dog. You are a very large creature with an ability to make all sorts of frightening noises (hoovers, washing machines, shouting at the TV). Imagine another creature that was the equivalent distance in size to what you are to a dog and you will have an appreciation of how the shy or nervous dog may see you.

Now imagine that creature ‘bearing’ down on you with wide eyes, a booming voice and hands the size of saucepans on their way to touch your face. Frightening isn’t it? Well, to a shy or nervous dog that can be how they see the world of humans and your body language can be interpreted wrongly by the dog.

The fact that you are so much bigger than him and the fact that people at large generally have a tendency to approach dogs from a standing position thus bearing down on them can make the world a scary place. Always try and narrow the size difference with a nervy dog by getting down to their level. Avoid direct eye contact at all times, don’t wear sunglasses (to a dog, they look like a pair of wide, staring eyes that never go away) and remember how the dog sees the world from different angles than you. Body language is vital in helping nervous dogs overcome their fears.

2) Make use of other dogs. Dogs, as a rule, will copy and emulate their canine counterparts. If you have a nervous dog it can be a wonderful experience for him or her to meet a carefully selected friend. Just one other dog to begin with. Let them play, let the explore and the nervous dog will very soon begin to absorb the confidence of their bolder playmate and mimic their behaviour around people. It may take a while but regular ‘play sessions’ with other dogs can be the ultimate technique for curing many of the nervousness dog’s hang-ups about life.

Ensure the play mate is well selected, is playful but not boisterous and has no aggressive tendencies. Don’t, under any circumstances try and help a nervous dog by introducing them to an equally nervous playmate, it will double the problem. Meeting other dogs is a pastime best done socially where a ‘screening’ process can take place. Taking a nervous dog somewhere where there are likely to be lots of other dogs can be problematic. Explain your problems to friends, family, co-workers and be honest about your need to find a well-mannered, confident dog for yours to play with from time to time.

1) Consistency is a word used by all dog trainers and behaviour experts on a, well, consistent basis. Never is it more pertinent than in the case of the nervous or shy dog. You may be an erratic person, disorganised, impulsive, loud, prone to bad moods or shouting with none of these characteristics meant for the dog’s consumption. However even the most ebullient of pooches will catch the vibes if something’s ‘up’ in the household.

Ensuring stability, calm and an even tempered approach to home life will not only allow you to live longer and avoid an ulcer it will, above any other training tip or technique, help the more nervous of dogs to adjust to the world. Be patient, be calm, be understanding and be empathetic towards the dog’s disposition. Even if he or she has done something particularly naughty you must accept that there are certain ways to correct the problem that may work on 99.9% of dogs, even on dogs you have previous owned, but on THIS nervous or shy pet, the wrong response from you could literally kill their spirit.

Send article as PDF to

Dogs who chase their tails aren’t necessarily as happy as they appear. When they don’t know how to deal with a situation, such as meeting a strange dog, chasing their tails acts as a distraction. It buys them time while they think about what they’re going to do next.
This sounds like a silly way to cope with confusion, but people do similar things. It’s called displacement behaviour. Suppose you’re having an internal debate about whether to complain about the service in a restaurant or just to keep the peace and keep eating. While you’re making up your mind, you may rap your fingers on the table or fiddle with the napkin.

The physical activity is a stalling tactic, and it helps dispel some energy at the same time. Dogs who chase their tails may be doing something similar. Any stressful situation can lead to tail chasing. Dogs aren’t able to say, “Hey, take a break; it’s stressful”. Instead, they turn to a behaviour they know, as a way of calming themselves.

Dogs who chase their tails all the time may have a compulsive personality disorder. One clue is whether they do other odd things as well. For example, dogs who chase their tails also may chase shadows or the moving sunlight on the carpet. Or they’ll groom themselves constantly. Compulsive behaviours can be quite serious, and often need medical treatment.

Chasing Their Pain

Dogs do a lot of things that are utterly mystifying to people, but sometimes the underlying reason is the simplest one imaginable. Some dogs chase their tails because they hurt, and they want to give them a lick and bite for relief. Sometimes, a dog gets her tail caught in a door, stepped on, or injured in a fight, and no one even knows it’s wounded until they call their vet because they’re worried about the tail chasing. Once the problem is taken care of, the tail chasing will stop as well.

It might seem like harmless entertainment to watch dogs chase their tails, but it’s something that shouldn’t be encouraged.

It’s best for your dog if you work on distraction techniques if they start chasing their tail. Begin by simply encouraging your dog to stop the behaviour and reward them when they do.

Send article as PDF to

5.) Aggression towards other dogs – Watch your temper! If you are tense, frustrated, or angry, your dog will mirror that energy right back at you, so it’s especially important to remain calm when dealing with an aggressive dog. But remember, always put your safety first! Seek the help of a professional to deal with this potentially dangerous issue.

4.) Overexcitement or hyperactivity – Overexcited or hyperactive dogs are not being challenged enough. Most often, they just require more exercise! Find a new activity to try with your dog – hiking, swimming, agility courses – or step up your current walk routine. Dogs require at least 30 minutes of a structured walk every day. Talk to your vet about how much exercise your dog can safely handle.

3.) Barking while the owner is away – This is most often a symptom of separation anxiety. You can help your dog to relax by communicating that being apart is no big deal. Instead of showering your dog with affection, practice no touch, no talk, and no eye contact for at least five minutes when entering or leaving your home.

2.) Barking at a specific stimulus – Take time to simulate the cause of the barking, and practice correcting your dog. If it’s the doorbell that sets your dog off, ring it when no one is coming over, so you can stay focused on the task at hand: helping your dog overcome this unwanted behavior.

1.) Problems on the walk – A canine pack leader leads, and so should you! Your dog should always be next to you or behind you, never out in front. Make sure you are the first one out the door and the first one to come back in.

Send article as PDF to

The phrase “destructive chewing” may sound redundant, because – by its very nature! – all chewing is destructive. Your dog has strong jaws full of sharp, pointy teeth: just about anything she starts to chew on is probably going to show the effects of it inside of a minute. So just to clarify, when I use the phrase “destructive chewing”, I’m referring to inappropriate chewing: the kind of chewing that’s focused on your own possessions and household items, instead of on your dog’s own designated toys and chews.

The three main reasons why dogs chew:

- Most dogs have a natural desire to chew. It’s fun, it passes the time, and it’s a self-rewarding, self-reinforcing activity (for example, if she’s chewing on something that tastes good.)

- Chewing provides a nervous, bored, or lonely dog with an outlet for her emotions. To an anxious dog, the repetitive act of chewing is soothing – it’s the doggie equivalent of comfort food.

- Underexercised dogs often use chewing as a way of burning up nervous energy and giving themselves something to do.

- How to prevent destructive chewing -

Dogs are perfectly capable of learning not to chew your stuff – you just have to put in a little effort first, that’s all.

1. Take control of the situation: manage your own possessions. Your first step should be to dog-proof your home. Even if you have the best-behaved dog in the world, there’s still no reason to test her self-control – after all, dogs explore the world with their mouths.

Dog-proofing your home means taking whatever you don’t want to end up in her mouth, and making it unavailable. Consider her size and agility when deciding whether something’s out of reach: can she jump? Can she climb, or leap onto something else to reach the desired object? How tall is she when standing on her back legs?

Common targets in the home include books, eyewear, clothing, shoes, household rubbish (ever find your dog has got in to the waste bin at home?), and small crunchy appliances like cameras, mobile phones, and even remote controls.

It should go without saying that all food needs to be put securely away: don’t leave snacks on low tables (or even countertops – you’d be surprised how acrobatic she can be when there’s food at stake!), put all food into containers or the pantry. Rinse your dirty plates clean of any food scraps before leaving them by the sink.

2. Prevent her from learning the joys of illegal chewing. The more times she manages to snatch a jawful of a forbidden substance – a chair-leg, a pillow, a running shoe – the more readily she’ll target those items in future. If you can prevent her from chewing your stuff in the first place, it’s a lot easier for her to understand what you expect of her. Practically speaking, this means confining her in a dog-proofed area until you’re confident of her understanding of the house rules.

3. Don’t set her up for failure by blurring the boundaries between her stuff (OK to chew) and your stuff (not OK to chew). Don’t offer your dog cast-off clothes, shoes, or towels to chew and play with: realistically, you can’t possibly expect her to be able to tell the difference between your current shoes and the one she’s got in her mouth that you gave her five minutes ago.

4. Provide her with lots of tasty alternatives to your stuff. If her environment is relatively barren of attractive, appropriate chewing objects, you can hardly blame her for targeting your possessions. Remember, most dogs need to chew; if she’s an adolescent (under three years) or a puppy (under one year), her needs will be even more pronounced. Go on a toy and chew shopping spree, then give her two or three to play with at a time. Rotating the available toys every few days will keep things novel and interesting for her.

5. Spend lots of time in active supervision. Yes, it might be easier for you to just keep her penned up in her crate, run, or the yard – but that’s boring and horrible for her, and hardly much fun for you either (if you wanted a pet that you don’t need to interact with, you’d have got a goldfish, right?) She can’t learn what you expect of her if she’s spending all her time boxed up in the dog-proof zone: she needs the opportunity to explore the boundaries of your expectations, so she can understand what’s appropriate and what’s not.

6. When you catch her chewing something inappropriate, interrupt her by making a loud noise: clap your hands or make an “Ah-ah-aaaah!” noise. Then, immediately hand her a tasty and dog-appropriate alternative (a rawhide bone or other chew toy); as soon as her jaws close around it, praise her lavishly. There is no better way to get your dog to understand that chewing “her” toys equals praise from you, but everything else equals trouble.

- Maintain a productive attitude -

Above all, remember to keep your expectations realistic. You’re not perfect, and neither is your dog: there’s likely to be at least one incident where a cherished item is damaged by her curiosity.

Particularly in the early stages of your relationship, she’s still learning the ropes: it’ll take awhile before she’s completely reliable (and even then, if she’s left by herself for too long or feels neglected, she may choose your stuff over hers to occupy her time and jaws with.) Remember to give her time to learn the rules, and plenty of ‘you-time’ to help her learn faster – and don’t forget to take precautions and keep things out of reach until she’s got the hang of the chewing rules!

Send article as PDF to

Here is what you have to do. Decide on a certain behaviour which you want to teach or reinforce your dog to do. A number of behaviours/actions come naturally to the dog like sitting, eating, standing, barking etc. and these need just to be reinforced so that your dog knows when you want him to do what. Various other actions like acting dead, shaking hands, rolling over etc. do not come naturally to the dog and need to be taught. Clicker training can be used to do both.

Clicker training works according to the basic principles of operant conditioning, by associating the sound of the clicker with a food item which the dog particularly likes. Now all you have to do is use the clicker to ‘mark’ when the dog does something you want them to do on command. You click, then treat.

Let us take an example to illustrate the method better, suppose you want to teach your dog to sit, you put a cookie on your dog’s nose playfully and then move it upwards, the dog will obviously follow the movement of the biscuit with its nose and will then naturally rest its posterior on the floor, thereby putting himself in a sitting position.

Now time your clicking to be so accurate as to occur right as the dog seats himself, now give him the biscuit and praise him. Continue doing this for sometime till the dog begins to associate the clicking with the food until the click makes him sit without you luring him with treats.

Now teach him another behaviour, but remember to attach the clicking cue only once the animal himself offers you the behavior otherwise the clicking will not be connected to anything in the dog’s head and he will be confused regarding what it means.

Your dog is one smart little animal and it’s time you gave him due credit for that. A number of trainers have been known to use negative reinforcement techniques alongside the clicker method but this simply doesn’t work because punishment at all times creates a number of unwanted behaviour even if it serves the primary purpose of teaching the dog to not do something temporarily.

Any kind of training is a strenuous and rigorous process and needs time and patience. Although clicker training method has a high success rate it might not work for certain types of dogs, if you see that it’s not working for your pet you would be well advised to use some other technique to teach it tricks.

Send article as PDF to

Studies show that pet ownership helps reduce stress, lowers blood pressure and fends off feelings of loneliness and depression.

While nothing can top the love and companionship of a dog, there are some unpleasant behaviours that just won’t do – from barking all night to wetting the floor to chewing on your shoes when you’re not looking.
If your dog is exhibiting this type of behaviour, it may be acting out due to boredom, a lack of stimulation or simply because it hasn’t had enough training.

With proper lifestyle adjustments and diligent training, you’ll be on your way to having a happy, well-behaved pet. The following tips will help your furry friend become more obedient:

1) Dogs love stimulation – ALL dogs. Even if your schedule is tight or if you just plain feel tired out, make some time every day to play an interactive game with your dog. They will love it and it helps to break up the monotony of their day. Physical stimulation is one thing (going for a daily walk) but too many dogs are lacking stimulation of a mental kind. Keep their brains as fit as their bodies and you will notice a huge difference in the way they behave.

2) Routine. Dogs thrive on routine. Try and ensure that most things in your dog’s life have a routine, it helps to avoid confusion and stress. For example, if you are going out for a while, have a routine where you settle your dog in to their bed with a treat – if you do this EVERY time, after a while they will associate this with your going out. In some cases, they’ll actually be quite excited by the fact you’re going out! This applies to other aspects, travel, feeding, walking etc – try your hardest to maintain a routine, you’ll see how contented your dog will become when they work out what’s happening.

3) Socialiation is key. Dogs are social animals. Whilst you should never simply thrust your dog on other dog owning members of the public, it’s a really valuable bonus if you can find other dog owners whom your dog can strike up a friendship with. This stimulation and socialisation will make them feel so much happier.

4) Patience is a virtue. We live in a society where we want things now, instantly. Dog training is much like building a house, without the foundations in place, it might look like a house but it’s ready to fall down at any moment. Do the boring things with your dog such as teaching them to stay, walk to heel, come when called (first time, every time) – work on their discipline by teaching them to wait for food, to wait before jumping in to vehicles and to stay even when tempted to break (i.e. by teaching them to wait until being asked to fetch a retrieve you have thrown). These ‘boring’ tasks all go toward a magnificent set of foundations and well create a much more stable, reliable dog.

5) Recall. Never short change yourself on recall work. It’s a subject in its own right – and a hefty one at that, which we will be covering more via The Better British Dogs website and our mastermind group – but teaching a dog to come when called is really, really important. Never assume that because your dog comes ’sometimes’ that this is enough. It isn’t. First time, every time – that’s your goal!

Send article as PDF to

5) In situations where your dog shows fear towards strangers or visitors to them home, try and explain to visitors that you would prefer if simply ignored the dog completely, not even looking at the dog once or paying them the slightest bit of attention. Very often visitors feel the need to try and ‘comfort’ the dog and this can lead to the dog feeling even more threatened.

Once the dog has learned not to react at all to visitors, ask the occasional ‘dog-knowledgeable’ guest to nonchalantly and without any ceremony, simply drop a treat by the dog and then walk off in another direction. It is important they don’t try and make a fuss of the dog or offer the treat from the hand. Doing this regularly with different guests will accustom the dog to the idea that all visitors are not intruders to the ‘den’ and they are not intent on causing harm to the dog or his pack.

4) Complimentary therapies and treatments can be very helpful for aiding nerves. Diet also plays an important role. If a dog is unusually nervous, listless, depressed or lacking coat condition a change of food may be in order. There are specialist dieticians and holistic vets who may be able to greatly increase your dog’s physical and psychological well-being, thus improving the dog’s confidence and reducing nervousness. Try the Internet or Yellow pages and look for holistic vets and animal dieticians.

3) Keep in your mind at all times how your body language impacts the shy or nervous dog. You are a very large creature with an ability to make all sorts of frightening noises (hoovers, washing machines, shouting at the TV). Imagine another creature that was the equivalent distance in size to what you are to a dog and you will have an appreciation of how the shy or nervous dog may see you.

Now imagine that creature ‘bearing’ down on you with wide eyes, a booming voice and hands the size of saucepans on their way to touch your face. Frightening isn’t it? Well, to a shy or nervous dog that can be how they see the world of humans and your body language can be interpreted wrongly by the dog.

The fact that you are so much bigger than him and the fact that people at large generally have a tendency to approach dogs from a standing position thus bearing down on them can make the world a scary place. Always try and narrow the size difference with a nervy dog by getting down to their level. Avoid direct eye contact at all times, don’t wear sunglasses (to a dog, they look like a pair of wide, staring eyes that never go away) and remember how the dog sees the world from different angles than you. Body language is vital in helping nervous dogs overcome their fears.

2) Make use of other dogs. Dogs, as a rule, will copy and emulate their canine counterparts. If you have a nervous dog it can be a wonderful experience for him or her to meet a carefully selected friend. Just one other dog to begin with. Let them play, let the explore and the nervous dog will very soon begin to absorb the confidence of their bolder playmate and mimic their behaviour around people. It may take a while but regular ‘play sessions’ with other dogs can be the ultimate technique for curing many of the nervousness dog’s hang-ups about life.

Ensure the play mate is well selected, is playful but not boisterous and has no aggressive tendencies. Don’t, under any circumstances try and help a nervous dog by introducing them to an equally nervous playmate, it will double the problem. Meeting other dogs is a pastime best done socially where a ‘screening’ process can take place. Taking a nervous dog somewhere where there are likely to be lots of other dogs can be problematic. Explain your problems to friends, family, co-workers and be honest about your need to find a well-mannered, confident dog for yours to play with from time to time.

1) Consistency is a word used by all dog trainers and behaviour experts on a, well, consistent basis. Never is it more pertinent than in the case of the nervous or shy dog. You may be an erratic person, disorganised, impulsive, loud, prone to bad moods or shouting with none of these characteristics meant for the dog’s consumption. However even the most ebullient of pooches will catch the vibes if something’s ‘up’ in the household.

Ensuring stability, calm and an even tempered approach to home life will not only allow you to live longer and avoid an ulcer it will, above any other training tip or technique, help the more nervous of dogs to adjust to the world. Be patient, be calm, be understanding and be empathetic towards the dog’s disposition. Even if he or she has done something particularly naughty you must accept that there are certain ways to correct the problem that may work on 99.9% of dogs, even on dogs you have previous owned, but on THIS nervous or shy pet, the wrong response from you could literally kill their spirit.

Send article as PDF to