Take your dog to work day June 21st 2013

Is your dog ready to go to work with you?
Ready? Yes... make sure your pup is ready to go to work with you before you take them.
You want your dog to be on their best behavior if you take them out, especially in your workplace. Set a good example of what dogs can be like when they are trained.

• Make sure your dog is friendly and enjoys meeting new people and visiting new places.
• If your not sure, take them out to some different parks, shopping centers, restaurants with outdoor patios.
• If your dog is friendly with others can they wait till you allow them to greet then greet appropriately and semi calmly?
• Does your dog get along with other pets/animals that may be at the workplace as well?
• How is your leash walking? 
• Make sure your dog can have a reliable heel and loose leash walk before going to the office. 
• You want your dog staying right with you in the office and not pulling, sniffing and knocking things over.
• Have you thought about stairs, escalator/elevators, and sleek floors that might spook your pup?
• Is your dog familiar with any or all of these?
• Some outdoor malls in the area have these that you could see about practicing with.
• Wait, Sit, Down - Solid
• Make sure your dogs obedience is solid so that you can leave them in a command when you are waiting in areas crowded with people. 
• How is your dog riding in the car?
• You want to make sure your dog is comfortable riding in the car.
• You don't want to start off your day with a stress-full car ride. Being in your work environment and having to deal with all of the new things will be enough for your dog.
• PLACE... how reliable is your "place"?
• At some point you will need to WORK at work right? In which case you will need your dog to stay and settle. I recommend using a Place for a few reasons. If you bring a blanket or towel for place that will be less dog hair you'll leave behind as well as it allows your dog to get comfortable not just holding the down position.
• Can your dog leave it when asked?
• There are so many strange/new things in the workplace that your dog isn't used to, make sure that they know leave-it well and you can get them to leave things alone if they show interest. 

Need a little extra work on any of these commands? 

Contact Paws In Progress dog training

www.pawsinprogress.com

(916) 735-7496

trainer@pawsinprogress.com

FOR CURRENT CLIENTS:

Field trips are a great place to work on this.

Housebreaking

1st I use this rule for ANY age dog not just puppies.
Some people seem to think housebreaking an older dog is different. Not at all!

SUPERVISION
Daily routine with a new dog/puppy
Dog is being crate trained and sleeping in a crate at night.
If your dog has no potty accidents in the crate the crate can be as big as you want it and you can then also start moving to an expen if you would like to give your pup some more freedom after a week of no accidents in the crate.
If your dog has ANY potty accidents in their crate you want to make the crate so small and confined that they aren't able to get away from their mess if they potty in the crate.
1st thing in the morning - open crate door and run with puppy outside. DO NOT pick up puppy.
Once your outside stand in one spot and wait for your puppy to go potty. If your puppy tries to play at this time put a leash on so that they have to stay in one spot with you. Give them less than 3 min. to sniff and go potty if they don't go take them back inside to their crate. Try again in 10-20min.
If they do go potty PRAISE like crazy get excited - NO TREATS, if the puppy goes i would then allow my puppy to hang out with me.
If puppy is inside - my eyes are on the puppy or he is crated/expen. No other options!
If my eyes aren't on the pup - he's crated or expened.
Pottying in the house
You are only setting yourself back if the puppy has the option to potty in the house without you catching him in the act. If you find it after the fact DO NOT punish the pup.
If your pup is able to go in the house without you catching it, it is praise in itself because it is a physical relief for them.
If you do catch the pup in the act Yell/Scream enough to surprise the pup to stop then physically drag the pup outside by the collar or scruff of neck. You want to make it as unpleasant as possible then once your outside you become normal and allow your pup to finish going outside praise if they go outside. Then put your puppy back in their crate so you can clean up if there is a mess inside as its difficult to supervise the pup and clean up a mess.
100% Supervision is key! If you are careful and the pup never gets a chance to go without you catching him in the act and you are able to catch him in the act once or twice your dog will be house trained in no time.
Water + Food
Do not free feed your pup or leave water down for them all the time.
Instead make meal time at set times from 8-11 weeks you can feed 3 times a day but they can eat twice a day by the time they are 12weeks.
Put their food down for 5-10min. If they don't eat it take it up until the next meal.
For pups or new dogs I will often feed them in their crate so they can't wander away from it and it creates more positive associations with the crate. But same rules apply I give them 5-10min to eat ... if they don't eat.. i pull it up and they will wait for their next meal.  Water I give to the pup periodically throughout the day but I keep it up the rest of the time so I know when the pup drinks water -that way I will know when the pup has to go out. NO food or water 2hrs before bed time that will give you plenty of time to potty your pup before bed to make for a whole night of sleep.
The other thing I have used for water are the hamster/rabbitt lixit bottles on the pups crate so they can have some water without drinking a bunch at one time.
Some pups between 8-12weeks will need a potty break in the middle of the night. By 12-14weeks they should be able to hold it throughout the night in their crate.

Doggy Doors / Prevention
Reminder: Your pup has to make the mistake of going in the house at least once to learn that it is not ok to go inside. Otherwise If you just prevent your pup from having an accident inside you are managing the dog. Or if your pup has a doggy door and always has access to outside.. if for some reason the doggy door is closed or you are at a friends house don't be surprise if your pup pottys by the back door - they never learned not to go inside just learned they can go outside.  Make sure to teach your puppy its not ok to go inside before you give them access to a doggy door. They NEED the opportunity to make the mistake to learn from it.
PEE Pads
Unless you live in a condo and work more than 11hr days I don't recommend using Pee pads at all.
I would rather my pup just learn - I don't potty in the house period. Instead of learning sometimes its ok if its on newspaper or pee pads. Avoid them all together it will be easier.
Moving on
As you start to trust your puppy i move them from a crate to an expen.
Then I give them a small room. Kitchen or bathroom. move to a hallway.. etc...
My dogs earn their right to be loose in my house. It makes them have more respect for the space and they are less likely to chew and destroy things if they have had more managed crate time early on.
Don't give them more freedom than they are ready for.

GOOD LUCK!
Contact us for a lessson if you need help!
(916) 735-7496
www.pawsinprogress.com

Fire safety prep for your dog

Many pets get lost to house fires because they get scared and hide and they are never able to be found in time.
Once your dog has a solid Recall to come to you.
Practice the Recall paired with the sound of your smoke alarm.
Play the smoke alarm sound and call your dog to you.
Change the room every time and practice this until they understand it then practice once every few months to keep it fresh in their minds.
I hope none of you will ever need this. But it sure could save your dogs life if it happened.
Also make sure to have one of these stickers: By your front door so that a fireman knows how many animals you have to help save them.

Listen to your dog

When we work with our dogs and work on training it often becomes a 1 way street. We give commands and get upset and frustrated when they dont do what weve asked.
Its important to listen to your dog too. If they arent obeying or doing something youve asked take a step back and listen to your dog. If you think they should know it and have to make more than 1 or 2 proper corrections...
Either... Your dog doesnt understand and know it as well as you think they do.and you need to do more foundation work.
Or your dog is trying to tell you something. LISTEN
You are building a relationship with your dog, what kind of friend are you if you cant listen sometimes.
Making excessive corrections for something your dog doesnt completely understand is not fair and will only frustrate your dog.
If they are disobeying for a reason trying to communicate with you ...it will only hurt your relationship to punish.
Great examples :
~ Maxx
Maxx was hanging out for the day he has done extensive training with me and i know he knows all of his commands very well and he is normally more than happy to perform all of them for me just because i tellhim good boy. So he was on a "place" command and he had just been outside playing with Tye. He kept trying to get off his place i put him back twice on the 3rd time i put him back im starting to wonder why hes challenging me not 3seconds later and he pukes up a ton of water all over my living room floor. ... shouldve listened to him!

~Ritter
A few months ago we were at Douglas in the evening playing with Agility with Cali. We were working offleash and he stops working with me and runs to the door so i take him out to potty. He poops its solid normal but then instead of darting back to the training room as he normally does he heads straight for the parking lot where the car is parked. I call him he comes but then still wants to head to the car. This is something he has never done before. We go back in the training room he works with me, romps with cali then asks to go back out... I'm a little confused because he was just out but take him out anyway as hes not one to bluff. He poops again but solid and normal... just abnormal for him to poop twice in the evening. I dismiss it and again instead of going back to the training room he tries to head to the car..?? I am so confused he has NEVER done this hes always wanting to go back to the room. So we go back to the room he runs around and is playing with Cali and then we notice he has BLOOD dripping from his butt?! Just dripping... there was no blood in his stool 2mn. ago. I am now concerned and realize he was trying to tell me something. Felt good enough to play and romp but obviously knew something was wrong with his body. We headed straight for Loomis Basin and it didn't turn out to be anything. Still don't know what happened and hes back to being perfectly healthy.
But thats another perfect example of my dog trying to tell me something and i wasn't a good enough listener.

I learned a long time ago that ritter is a clean freak and will only break his commands if he needs to go out to potty.

These are lessons I have learned from but thought I should share them with you.

Daily dog inspirations

Daily dog inspirations

Daily dog inspirations