How do you deal with your tiny force to be reckoned with – by training him, of course! Luckily, you don’t have to do this on your own. You and Thor can enlist the help of a trainer to make the training process easier. If this idea doesn’t strike you as appealing, it might be a good idea to get a training DVD seminar instead. Tackling puppy training on your own, especially if you are first time puppy owner – but even if you’re a pro – is not recommended.

Trainer
So what are the advantages of hiring a trainer over going by a book or DVD? Well, the single greatest advantage that a trainer will give you is adaptability. He or she will be able to adapt their training to your little Thor. Just like people, dogs are individuals with different personalities, strengths, and weaknesses when it comes to learning. A good trainer will be able to pick up on these and use them to your advantage during training, making the whole process a lot smoother for all parties involved.

Though this advantage may seem to outweigh any disadvantage working with a trainer may carry, this is not the case. Trainers can be pricy, and sometimes have their own way of doing things that may not mesh with how you want to bring Thor up. In addition, working with both a trainer and an owner may be confusing or stressful for your four-legged friend.

Also, there are good and bad dog trainers, as is the case in any profession – research will be your best friend in the process of finding the right trainer for you and Thor. Look for trainers with recommendations or high ratings, don’t just take the first one that comes along.

DVD Training
The greatest advantage to the do it yourself approach, a.k.a. the DIY, with the help of a training DVD is the flexibility that your training schedule can have. If you’re a busy person, scheduling something like a doctor’s appointment is difficult, nonetheless something more trivial like puppy training lessons. If you are working with your pup yourself, then training sessions can happen on your schedule when you have time. In addition, if your little Thor takes a little longer to learn a certain command or trick, you won’t end up paying more money for more lessons. A DVD is a one-time purchase, meaning it costs the same whether your Thor takes a few weeks or a few months to complete his training.

Unfortunately, in the case of DVD training, you lose the personalized, one-on-one attention that a trainer would give your furry little friend. In addition, if the training method endorsed by the DVD doesn’t fit with Thor’s learning style, then you’ve wasted your time and money.

When choosing the method of training that you will employ for your mighty little Thor, think over what is most important – timing or personalized attention. Paying for puppy lessons you constantly have to miss or reschedule won’t do you or Thor any good – no matter how much special attention he would receive there. Similarly, if you are a first time puppy owner with no clue at all how to train a puppy, doing so on your own time may sound appealing, but the odds that you will succeed without help are fairly slim. To ensure that Thor will receive the best training to turn him into the best pup he can be, you will need to be ready to put time and genuine effort into the process, from choosing your method to teaching him his last trick.

How do Anti-Bark Collars Work?
There are a few different types of bark-correcting collars on the market. The kind that most people think of is a shock collar. This device will deliver a little jolt of electricity to Bailey’s neck each time she barks at a certain volume. Some will produce different levels of shock depending on the loudness of the bark. A citronella bark collar will spray some nasty citronella in Bailey’s face when she barks. She won’t like it; dogs hate the smell. Finally, an ultrasonic collar emits a high-pitched sound in response to a bark. You won’t hear it, but Bailey will and she will find it very annoying.

Benefits of Using an Anti-Bark Collar
While just about any problem behavior that Bailey exhibits can be corrected by a professional dog trainer, it can be tempting to buy a collar instead. They are certainly less expensive than a trainer and they will produce the desired effect much more quickly. The annoyance of a shock, screech, or spray of citronella can correct barking pretty efficiently. When Bailey realizes that barking creates the thing she doesn’t like, she will be effectively trained to not bark. Whether using any of the collars is cruel is an individual decision. What is certain is that none of them harm dogs. The idea behind the devices is to get Bailey’s attention rather than to hurt her.

The Downside to Anti-Bark Collars
So why shouldn’t you use an anti-bark collar to correct Bailey? It’s not very nice. The type of training that is involved with these collars is called positive punishment. Don’t be fooled by the word positive. This means that something Bailey does not like is introduced to punish her and to deter her unwanted behavior. While effective, it’s not a very pleasant experience for her. Most contemporary dog trainers use techniques that are described as positive reinforcement. That means giving Bailey something she likes to reward her and to encourage her good behaviors. It is a much nicer way of training and can be used to solve any problem. It may not be as fast, but positive reinforcement is just as effective, if not more so, than an anti-bark collar.

The deterrents used in collars are not physically harmful to dogs. Imagine you got a light slap in the face every time you said a certain word. That might give you an idea of what Bailey would be in for. A slap doesn’t cause you harm or injury, but it is unpleasant and could have psychological effects. If Bailey is getting shocked or sprayed on a regular basis, she could become timid and shy. In fact, she may even develop other undesirable behaviors like jumping, peeing in the house, or hiding as a result of the anti-bark collar.

Whether you use an anti-bark collar to help Bailey become a quieter dog is a personal choice. There are many experts and veterinarians who promote their use. On the other hand there are plenty of trainers and animal rights groups that believe they represent cruelty. Consider the pros and cons carefully and decide what will work best for and for Bailey.

Trainability
If you want your Andy to be famous, he must not only be well trained, but he also must be trainable. This does not mean smart, and this does not only mean obedient, but it means that he must have the capacity for learning and retaining new commands.
On a film set, in a stage show, or during a photo shoot, he will need to learn commands, and he will need to be able to take them from other people besides you. Though you will inevitably be his handler before he gets big, he may have a director, an assistant handler, or a human actor that he has to listen to.

Personable, and Other-animal-able for That Matter
Andy being able to take commands from others leads us to our next point – he must be personable, pretty unconditionally. He needs to be able to get along with kids, adults, groups, and other animals too. In other words, he needs to play well with others, even and especially if they are strangers. One bite, one nip can put him out of show business permanently.

Physical Perfection (Or Quirkiness)
Just like a human actor or model, you dog should be fairly physically attractive – weird to say, right? – to make it in the biz. This is not just being cute, or fluffy, this mean being a prime specimen of their breed in peak physical shape… or it should be quirky looking in some way. Eyes too big, tongue too long, too many wrinkles, and so on, as long as the quirk is cute.

Craigslist, Youtube, and the Want Ads
If you plan on making your dog a star, you will do a lot of work – just as much, if not more than if you planned on making yourself or your child a star. You will need to social media your dog all over the Internet. He will need a Facebook, a Twitter, a flickr, and a myspace as well as a youtube and a vimeo. He may as well be LinkedIn while you’re at it.

In addition, you should have work to put on said websites, meaning that you need to peruse craigslist, the want ads, and also, pet contests through pet food brands, pet stores, and so forth to find work for you pet. Many photographers do something called “TFP,” which means time for prints. Find photographers who will work this way (rather than you having to pay them) to get high quality images of Andy on a budget.
If your dog Andy is ever going to get big time famous, he will eventually pick up an agent and a handler, a prep team, and so on. This is where the view from the top comes in. The sad truth about an animal like Lassie or Rin Tin Tin is that they belong to showbiz, and to America. If Andy were to “get famous,” and “make it big,” he may not even really be your pet anymore.

All that being said, there is a happy medium that can be found between super stardom and complete mediocrity – not that there is anything wrong with that. If your dog is well behaved enough to have you as a handler, he can be a local celebrity of sorts. He can be the dog that the community theatre relies on for their canine roles. He can be the pooch that students put in their films during film school. The most important thing is that your dog will always be a star to you, and honestly, that is probably enough for him.

Many of the tricks that your dog will learn are optional. Your dogs do not need to roll over. Your dog does not need to “speak.” All of these are examples of optional tricks that are “neat” but not necessarily important to train your pet. That is why these tricks are less common, especially with busy dog owners.

There are also the important tricks. Tricks like “Come” and “sit” are all extremely important if you want your dog to be well behaved. Only by teaching your dog these common commands will you be able to ensure it stays out of trouble. These tricks are taught to almost every dog.

But there is one trick that is both uncommon but also very important for your dog’s health. That is the “Leave it” command.

What is the Leave it Command?

The “Leave it” Command is designed to get your dog to ignore the items that it is interested in. Basically, you are training your dog to leave things alone. The purpose of this trick is to:
• Make sure your dog doesn’t eat anything that may be dangerous.
• Make sure your dog doesn’t get its face in anything gross.
• Make sure your dog leaves your items or dropped food alone.
It is important to make sure your dog doesn’t put things into its mouth that are bad for it or bad for you. This makes the trick very important and one that all dog owners should train their pet.

How to Train Your Dog to Leave It
• Put a treat on the ground in front of your pet. Don’t move your hand very far away.
• When your pet goes for the treat, say “Leave It” and immediately move the treat away, grabbing it with your hand.
• Continue this until the dog gets frustrated and stops going after the treat. Once they no longer go after the treat (taking their eyes off the treat and moving away), praise your pet and give it a different treat.
• Wait a little while and repeat the process again. Do not give the dog the treat on the ground. Always give the dog a separate treat.
• Try mixing up the types of treats, and possibly even a toy or two to ensure your dog realizes that it is supposed to ignore whatever it is interested in, not just the treats you trained it with.
• Make sure you also train your dog the same trick while on a leash and outdoors.

Always Remember to Keep Praising Your Pet

In order for this command to work in public, you must always continue to reward your pet when it successfully ignores an item. The moment your dog moves away from something it wanted, you must shower it with praise (and treats, if you have any) and make it glad that it listened to your command.

By doing so, not only are you training your dog to ignore these items on command, but you are also showing your dog that IF the pet ignores the item it was interested in, it gets a possibly greater reward from you. All of these only serve to help enforce the idea that your dog needs to listen to the command the moment it is uttered.

“Leave It” may not be very common, but it is one of the most important commands you can teach your pet. It ensures that your dog will not eat anything harmful to it. It helps to keep your dog away from bad behaviors with the food you spill on the floor. And it makes sure that your dog does not put your own inedible items into its mouth.

Trick training is easily one of the most overall beneficial activities that you can engage in with your pet. However, trick training is not that easy. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of patience, two things that not every pet owner has in today’s busy world.

Yet there are ways that you can make trick training much easier, and still enjoy the time that you spend with your pet while coming up with clever little tricks that you can show to your friends.

What is a Trick?
The first thing you need to ask yourself is what a trick really is. A trick is an unusual behavior that your dog performs on command. “Sit,” and “Stay,” are not necessarily considered tricks, but beyond those two simple commands, tricks can be anything the dog owner wants to train their dog.

Most of the time when a new dog owner thinks of tricks they think of something very complicated, such as getting a soda from the refrigerator or standing on its hind legs. Dog tricks do not need to be that complicated. All you need to have a successful dog trick is to have a:
• Behavior
• Command

Everything else is optional. It does not matter what the behavior is, nor does it matter what the command is. You simply need to have both of those and Voila! You have yourself a dog trick.

Making Dog Tricks Easier
There are a number of complicated tricks you can train your pet. But to make trick training easier, all you need to do is find a behavior that your dog already does and give it a clever name. For example, when a dog stretches they often put their head to the ground with their rear in the air and hold it for two or three seconds. Use a command such as “Bow” and suddenly you have what appears to be a complicated dog trick, but is actually a behavior your dog already performed without prompting. You can easily do this with all of your dog’s interesting behaviors, and in no time you will have a large number of tricks you can command at your disposal.

How to Train These Tricks
All you need to train your dog in these tricks is a clicker. First, train your dog to recognize the clicker with basic classical conditioning techniques. Once your dog understands the clicker, simply keep the clicker (and a few treats) on you at all times and wait until you see your dog performing one of these desired behaviors.
As soon as your dog performs the behavior, click and give the dog a treat. From then on you should focus only on that trick until your dog does it easily on command. Most likely your dog will perform the behavior again right away and you can give the dog another treat. If not, simply wait until the next time your dog does the behavior and click again.

Once your dog is doing it often for more treats (always give a treat after they do the behavior), start prompting with the command you have chosen and only give the treat if the dog does the trick after you have said the command. Your dog will quickly learn that the command is for the behavior and will pick up on this simple trick easily. You will not need to go through any excessive clicker training or worry about leading your pet.

Within no time, you will have a large number of tricks you can call on at any time. You and your dog will have bonded and you have a number of interesting and cute behaviors you can show to your pet.