WHAT CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT HEALTHY DOG TREATS? Dog treats are readily available in different shapes, flavors, and colors. You need to beware, as some dog treats are loaded with additives and preservatives. You should read the list of ingredients on the box. Of you are overly concerned with what you see on the dog treat packaging you may want to look into ordering your healthy dog treats from an internet store that specializes in all natural dog treats.

First of all we have soft dog treats. These include human food such as raw hotdogs, bologna, cooked unseasoned chicken, and cheese. These smaller treats are great for training or just to give as a snack.

Biscuits are another dog treat, the beef and liver bones seem to be a favorite with the canine group. Dog biscuits are very easy to make yourself and you really don’t need to bring animal organs into it. You can use peanut butter as a protein, and dogs love it.

Pig ears are a popular treat for small dogs or puppies. They can be kept entertained for hours with one ear. Most of these treats come in smoked flavors, your dog will love it.

There is a great deal of controversy over rawhide dog treats. The rawhide is dried by using chemicals, it cannot be digested when swallowed and can cause serious digestive tract problems. Under no circumstances should you ever give a dog turkey or chicken bones. These bones can splinter and pierce a vital organ. Many dogs have died because they were given chicken and turkey bones.

More often than not, pet owners are choosing to buy organic treats for their dog. These healthy dog treats are free from harmful chemicals and are usually made with added vitamins and minerals. These treats will help prevent skin problems, allergies, kidney problems and diabetes. These healthy dog treats should be high in nutrients and low in fat. Vegetables like broccoli, baby carrots, or red peppers can make even the fussiest dog sit up and take notice. Pineapple, bananas, pears, and grapes could also be incorporated into your dogs diet. He will let you know which ones he doesn’t care for.  ¶ 12:51 AM 0 comments

  Useful Dog Training Manual I found the following package useful with Elmo

Why do you want a well-behaved dog?
Are you having trouble house training your dog?
Is your dog always going in the WRONG place?
Are you sick of cleaning up after your dog?
Are you tired of dealing with dog aggression issues?
Do you want to know how to fix virtually any dog behavior problem?
Or, perhaps you just want the best relationship that you can possibly have with your dog...
Whatever your reasons are, I've designed my cutting-edge dog training package with YOU in mind, so that you will get immensely satisfying results FAST...  ¶ 3:21 PM 0 comments

  Aaaagh he is till trying to bury dog biscuits in the stairs! Dog Training

As anyone who has been monitoring these (latterly infrequent) missives. This has all started out through the desire to show the "family mutt" - Elmo the manic Labrador Cross - 60 lbs of Fun Fur and Chaos, who's boss!

He is till trying to bury dog biscuits in the stairs causing much consternation when coming down for a cup of tea in the morning and I swear I will swing for him one day (only joking animal lovers) and this is turning out to be a battle of wills.

Anyway enough of that,a nother couple of ebooks have come our way as well as Sit Stay Fetch (available through the link at the top of this blog or here ). The moment we have the info on these new ones we will let you kow what we think.

Got to go some to beat Sit Stay Fetch though.

Off to hide the dog biscuits!

Dog Training  ¶ 12:38 AM 0 comments

  Dog Training - What is it with Labradors? Dog Training

What is it with Labradors?

Cute, cuddly, likeable, loveable, you name the description, they all apply. The one thing they lack however in “bucket loads” is……..you’ve got it…”Common Sense”!

Elmo (our Black Labrador / Border Collie cross - 50 lbs of fun, fur and chaos!) is a loveable kind of dog, very affectionate but when it comes to Common sense he must have been out chewing a bone when it was handed out because for such an intelligent dog he has very little of it and I mean little.

He’s taken to trying to bury dog biscuits……..inside the house and not outside! It’s quite laughable really to watch him from a point where he can’t really see you (or perhaps he can and it’s all a wind up?) and see him nudging the biscuit one way with his nose and then the other etc. It’s all very well but not quite so funny when you are coming down the stairs in the morning with a tray and your foot connects with either one or several of these “hidden items” and causes a major panic attack!

I think the real problem lies with the fact that because he is now over the 50 lb mark that everyone looks at him as being an adult dog and nobody takes into consideration that he still is only 14 months old and therefore is very much a big kid.

Read more

I guess thats why I appear to keep on banging on about SitStayFetch. If you buy it from the link above then we earn a commission for the sale. It was fun working our way through it and to be totally honest the one thing that you have to take from all of these books is that you have to adapt and use what works for you. As no doubt many of you have found out - no dog is the same! So go on try it out at SitStayFetch

Dog Grooming / Dog Health/  ¶ 3:42 PM 0 comments

  Views on Training and SitStayFetch Dog Training

SitStayFetch was designed to be the easiest to follow system for learning how to train your dog and change its behavior available. It is jam-packed with information, including how to solve over 25 dog behavior problems, real-life case studies, the best dog training techniques, an email consultation with the SitStayFetch team, piles of photos that will boost your learning AND step-by-step instructions... all within one instantly downloadable book...

SitStayFetch will teach you how to train your dog like a professional trainer, so you can have your dog obey you no matter what the situation and solve any specific problems that you may have with your dog - this is truly cutting-edge material!

Those of you still having fun with trying to train this independently minded being (AKA "the Family Pet") and get it to fit in with your lifestyle as opposed to theirs - you will never know how many people throw in the towel at this stage, will find that SitStayFetch is extremely useful.

Elmo and I had fun - he's as independently minded as the best of them. He still has his moments. When we go walking on the beach not far from where we live, he does what Labaradors like doing best, finds the nearest piece of water and heads straight on in. He is a perfect gentelman however and firmly believes in sharing the experience by insisting upon not shaking himself dry unless he is about six inches away!

What a Mutt!

Dog Training  ¶ 3:13 PM 0 comments

  Sit, Stay Fetch - well worth the money Dog Training

Those of you who have visited this site before will have realised it was motivated by one father’s desire to try and train the family pet so lovingly bought after the usual request from my son, Sam.

That pet was Elmo, a Black Labrador Border Collie Cross, a fifty pound bundle of fun, fur and destruction! As I mentioned and used elsewhere in an article – “Who needs Weapons of Mass Destruction when you have a Black Labrador Pup!”

How we managed to get Elmo to fit in with our family as opposed to us fitting in with him is a series of short stories in itself.

Whilst researching how we went about this Herculean task we encountered a whole series of books leaflets and training regimes, some better than others.

One of the ones that I thought was worth investigation was “Sit, Stay, Fetch” by Daniel Stevens. His premise is quite simple and well worth the money.

As he says in the opening part of the sales page:

Why do you want a well-behaved dog?
• Do you have a generally disobedient dog?
• Does your dog embarrass you in public?
• Are you sick of excessive biting, barking, whining, etc?
• Are you sick of dealing with dog aggression issues?
• Do you want to know how to fix virtually any dog behaviour problem?
• Or, perhaps you just want the best relationship that you can possibly have with your dog.

I thought that this package was worth the money and as you will find out as you stay with us over the months, we managed to make headway with Elmo as well.

Dog Training  ¶ 8:59 PM 0 comments

  “Dad, Why can’t we get a dog as well?” Dog Training

It’s the usual thing every Parent goes through from time to time I guess.

“Daaaad, why can’t we get a dog?”

“Well son it’s like this, they take a lot of caring, they’re a big responsibility, they need feeding (this is starting to sound like a job description for Parenthood in general I know), and they need someone to walk them on cold dark winter nights.” Hit them hard with the triple mantra of “Dog Health, Dog Grooming and Dog Training” I thought, that will do the trick……..

So four weeks later there I was heading with my sister in law to the nearest branch of the Dogs Trust to check out some abandoned puppies from a litter that had been taken in before Christmas and were coming up to eleven weeks old and it was crunch time.

“What sort of dog were you looking for sir and what sort of experience have you had with dogs? We will need to take out references and check out where the dog is going to live, whether it is safe.” Heck, this was starting to sound like a job interview with the local bank not some search for an abandoned pooch.

It would possibly have been easier to pack a suitcase full of cash and hop on the next plane to some third world country and come home with a baby – a contentious view point I know but says more about the shoddy approach to most Intercountry Adoptions but I digress.

Five minutes later there I was walking round the inner courtyard of what sounded like canine hell. There is something deeply tragic about the way we treat our pets in this world (marginally better then we treat our fellow humans I know) and unless we stop treating pets and dogs especially with the same disposable mentality that we use when buying our next cheeseburger it is only going to get worse.

Trying to take a reasoned and rational approach to what can only be best described as a display of truly pathetic (in the truest of senses) wretchedness is extremely difficult. The Dogs Trust is wonderful organisation that copes, alongside numerous others, in a much challenged environment, with a miniscule budget and essentially damaged goods. It is a hard task to manage in a situation whereby the credo of the organisation is “we do not destroy any dogs” means that there is an ever increasing strain on budgets. The upshot of all of this is that you find yourself in a canine equivalent of a used car showroom but without the shiny cars, heating and cheap aftershave to keep you company.

It is a very functional environment whereby the dogs are well cared for, fed, kept warm, safe, dry and medically cared for but the Ritz Carlton it is not. The dogs are kept in pens with wire partitions and once one starts barking the rest join in for what seems to be the fun of it. The inhabitants of this canine community seem to recognise what is going on and pathetically struggle to out muscle, out do, and generally create as much interest in them as possible. Of course there is always the compete opposite, the really damaged ones who seem to have lost all interest in human contact remembering not too fondly the lack of humanity or brutality that led them to be here in the first place.

Interesting choice, I thought feeling rather guilty at the fact that no matter what choice I made there were going to be at least forty or fifty of these frantic barking creatures that would be left here waiting for a better draw from the “lottery of fate” on another day.

I was very aware of the fact that the main driving force behind this choice was the fact that I had a seven year old son who was probably going to be the dogs main companion over the course of it’s life and therefore it would be an idea to find a dog that got on well with humans (not as easy as you think) and kids especially.

Yes, you got it; we ended up with a puppy, a cross between a Black Labrador and a Border collie (we think). It was one of those tragically funny situations when I looked at the paperwork and there it was in front of me, “Mother – Black Labrador, Father – unknown”. Apparently, the litter had been taken in before Christmas and though the mother was acquired at the same time and therefore known, the “likeliest suspect” for the Father apparently was a working dog at the nearest farm thereby giving rise to the “Border Collie, we think” routine.

As most dog owners will testify, despite feeling as if I had accomplished a great deal, it was only the beginning.

Dog Training

Steve Morgan is a freelance journalist who writes in many subject areas. He is a father to seven year old Sam and the family have recently acquired Elmo, a Black Labrador Border Collie Cross bred. 50 lbs of Fun, Fur and Destruction. Information about the goings on with Elmo can be found at http://www.nutsaboutpets.info and http://www.dogtrainingonline.ws plus regular Blog updates can be found at http://dogtraininguk.blogspot.com/  ¶ 12:32 PM 0 comments