Colorado Dog Training

Having to go through the exciting experience of dog training myself, it was the people I met, courses I found and personal experiences with Giles that promoted me to create  Colorado Dog Training, along with that i wanted to give others a head start by providing this information so they don’t have to start from scratch like I did.

There are so many systems and so many different ideas regarding different dog training techniques – it’s hard to know who to trust and what to believe.

After having success with Giles and growing a better understanding of the theories behind dog training, here is what I personally believe to be crucial, and will always strive for if I find another dog or when friends or family ask:

• First create a happy environment for your dog and have them well socialized
• Build the relationship between yourself and you dog, one that is based on mutual respect and trust
• Make sure you have confidence in your dog and and have control over your dogs in any situation
• To work with your dogs natural drives and instincts.
• Absolutely no cruelty or harsh “old school” training techniques. This is a sure fire way to break a dogs spirit.

In my scenario, while following the Secrets of Dog Training, what we found was Giles and his (my dog) behavioral problems may have been from the result of separation anxiety in the year prior to him being put in the shelter. Many dog behavior problems (such as barking, chewing and digging) may have come  from a lack of communication, or miss communication between  the previous owner and your dog. Simply put, your dog is not aware of what is expected of them.

I would never really say there’s a correct time to implement obedience training, as it’s down to the owners tolerance to their dogs behavior. If it’s OK with the dogs owner that they chew on the brand new couch, bark at the mail man every morning and leave dead patches of grass all over the summer lawn, then there is no need for the dog to be trained, BUT in many cases most of us would be close to a heart attack by now….

Applying the correct obedience training early on (the earlier the better!) is the most effective technique to correct any  dog behavior problems, and also to prevent any reoccurring future problems. The fact that you are reading this page possibly means it is too late for this tip! and again that’s why I decided to create Colorado Dog Training

What you must do is set boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable behavior for your dogs, and stick to them. Be consistent, make it simple for your dog:

• You must make it clear that you’re the alpha dog (leader) in your owner dog relationship.
• Make it clear to him what is unacceptable behavior – every time.
• Make it clear to him what is acceptable behavior – every time.
• Even though it may seem as though your dog is behaving poorly to spite you or annoy you this is not the case. In the vast majority of dog behavior problems there will be a cause or trigger which sparks the behavior. Identifying these triggers is the crucial first step towards solving the problem.
• Be careful you are not inadvertently rewarding the very behavior you are trying to eliminate. An example of this would be if your dog is barking excessively outside, you then go to the door and call him inside. You’re encouraging and rewarding the behavior, and therefore he is sure to do it again!.

We needed to make a decision quickly on how we were going to train Giles and my first move was to send him to one of the local dog training schools, some friends of ours had recommended a few  local  Colorado dog training schools and groups for new dog owners and that  dog training classes can be a great way to learn about dog psychology and to socialize a dogs with other dogs and humans. This seemed a great idea and would certainly give us an insight into training and how to work with Giles at home.

I can see how many first-time dog owners find it easier to learn from a weekly dog training class than from a book, video, or other resource because the dog’s learning relies less on the owner’s discipline and they can get help and ask questions from a professional dog trainer.

But I soon found a few things I hadn’t taken into consideration:

Cost:

When we were phoning around we found a variety of different training methods and found the prices jumped all over the place for different Colorado dog training groups

Group classes at the local community centers, dog day cares or pet stores would costing from $50 to $160 for hourly sessions for 4 to 8 weekly sessions.

Private classes with a trainer, which is the way we wanted to go at the time, which could be at our home or at the trainer’s place of business, usually cost from $30 to $100 per hour-long session — so about $240 to $600 for six sessions.

Dog obedience boarding schools usually cost from $950 to $2,500 or more for two to four weeks of board-and-train, where the dog lives at the trainer’s home or at a boarding kennel and receives hours of one-on-one attention daily but of course you never get to see your dog and they become obedient with that trainer and may behave totally different back in your hands.

Rewarding:

If we had chosen the private lessons, we would never have been there when Giles would have sat for the first time, rolled over, or wanted to shake your hand. Yes we would have seen results from him maybe not chewing on the couch, peeing in the carpet or jumping up and strangers and barking. But at the same time we wouldn’t understand the real reason as to how he was taught these techniques.

Schedule:

Although many of these courses were on weekends it was cheaper during the week but this never matched out schedule so we would of had to sign up on the weekends when many other dogs were in the class and Giles wouldn’t of received the full hour.

Giles had quite a few flaws that we had to control and one particular issue was house training, after reading the Ultimate House Training Guide again we had a much clearer idea of  what needed to be done and the techniques on how to get there.

This handy manual is a complete guide to what’s arguably one of the most widespread, challenging and frustrating issue faced by any and all dog-owners: house training.

So after several hours spent trawling through the online opinions on dog training techniques, it was sigh of relief that I stumbled across this online book entitled “The Ultimate House Training Guide?, by Martin Oliver. As the title suggests, literally all aspects of the subject are covered, and in a manner both chatty and educational – it’s kind of like having a friendly conversation with a knowledgeable canine behaviorist (with the added benefit of being able to refresh your understanding of the matter at any given time, simply by scrolling back to the relevant section!) plus reading through i didn’t feel you had to be experienced in dog training and obedience training to see that this guy knows what he’s talking about (and did I mention he’s a vet?)

Some of the topics the course goes over are:

Common house training problems – this is particularly handy! A huge variety of issues are covered, from territorial marking to poop-eating; and on top of that, each problem comes with a case study, which helps you to put the information into context.

Health-related problems -  are covered in some depth. There’s a section on congenital problems (problems your dog was born with); a section on the disease-related problems that develop later in life; and a section on other problems related to house training, like inappropriate outdoor elimination, or lawn-burn from urination.

Plus Top Ten Tips for hassle-free house training – which is essentially a recap of the most helpful and necessary attitude adjustments, practical tips, and useful nuggets of general knowledge which will come in most handy in your dog’s training.

CLICK HERE to view Ultimate House Training Guide

Hi Lyndsey here,

I decided to start this post Colorado Dog Training to explain the experience I have had with the training of my 1.5yr old black and tan beagle (Giles Eugene ), I may have gone about things incorrectly to start with but today I’m so proud of Giles and myself as to how far we have come.

I adopted Giles when he was around 1 and he had been handed in by the previous owner for an unknown reason, we were walking though the shelter at it was meant to be. We signed all the papers and we had him home within two days.

Now I was expecting there to be a few imperfections with Giles and that i may have to find a Colorado dog training center, but I had no idea what was coming:

• Digging
• Barking
• Chewing
• Pulling during walks
• Peeing/marking (where ever he felt comfortable)
• Slight aggression (we called it mood swings)

All in all we knew this was going to be hard work, but I had no idea about training a dog, obedience training or even if there was a difference between puppy training or dog training. All I knew is I had to find out.

There were many dog training techniques we could have used, and over here there was plenty of options, with different Colorado dog training schools – on leash, off leash training, day cares etc and I’ll explain my experiences with them. But what I found out help me most was that I needed to understand what MY dog was being taught just as much as he did for when we were home or walking down the road, and that is something I will recommend to everyone.