Playing and cuddling with your brand new little puppy may cause you to forget just how big your dog might be in just a few short months. Brand new puppies can grow to be forty and fifty pounds or even up to one hundred pounds or more, depending on the breed, of course. Keep in mind, while the behavior of a dog at a young and small age, may seem sweet and cute at this time in its life. There some actions like jumping up and placing their front paws on your body as well as others that will not even be funny when the dog is full grown and large enough to knock someone over.
It is essential for learning proper manners for adulthood, to begin training your puppy as soon as you have a puppy. Puppies are very smart and learn quickly, if they have no proper training, puppies generally go about leaning things on their own. Consequently, this leaves many dog owners wondering why their dog does not behave as it should while it ages.
Long ago, puppy training did not begin until a puppy was six months old, because of the cruel and harsh methods of punishment for not learning was too hard on smaller or younger dogs. Dog trainers at that time only trained puppies that were old enough to withstand the orientation.
Keep in mind that at a puppies growth that at six months, they are larger as well as psychologically tenacious. This means that a six-month-old puppy is willful enough to ignore commands, thereby being generally challenging for training.
Modern Methods and Better Training
Happily, dog training has evolved over the years, as professionals in dog training have adopted procedures for puppies that are more loving and friendly. Today you will find that most trainers accept eight to ten week old puppies into their socialization classes and puppy kindergartens.
Gone are the negative reinforcements of the traditional methods, now dog training teaches with a positive support. Puppies learn a great deal from training, such as how to relax while giving and taking their paw in a polite greeting. They also learn their basic commands of come, sit, stay and lie down. Puppies are even learning to walk calmly on a leash. Such positive reinforcements with simple instructions and other helpful techniques are useful in dog training.
Today Dog Owners Are Actively Involved In Training
Interestingly, more and more dog owners have actively involved themselves in training their own puppies. This one aspect has made a noted difference in the training and behavior of a dog.
This is a credit to some extent to the availability of a great many dog training manuals and other publications. Dog training programs today center along the psychological studies of animal behavior and temperament as well as scientific principles.
Dog owners now make use of simple puppy training programs and techniques such as luring and clicker training.
Clicker Training
Clicker training involves using a small tool that creates a clicking sound when pressure is applied. Upon hearing this particular sound, the dog understands that soon a treat is coming, the dog then repeats the action or behavior it learned to associate with in its training. The dog associates the clicking sound with the treat that is an offer for its performance.
Luring Training
Luring training is simple; it uses a treat or a toy, to lure the dog into displaying a particular behavior in trade for the luring object.
Most dog-owners today probably put down the dog dish without giving much thought to what we are actually feeding our pets. Pet food experts call it dog food as opposed to human food, touted as the only complete and nutritious way we can feed our dogs.
We don't think twice after reading the Nutritional Information on the label, not imagining what harmful dog food secrets could be packed within.
There used to be a time when dogs ate real food. This is a short account of the evolution of what dogs ate, from real food to so-called dog food.
Until processed dog food was introduced, dogs have lived well and long on a natural diet of table scraps or leftovers from their owners. Owners who were more particular would even make specially prepared meals for their beloved pets, just as they would take the time to feed their own children.
That was before the 1940s, before commercial dog food became widely popular for reasons of cost and convenience. Prior to that, in the year 1860, an electrician named James Spratt introduced the first processed dog food or dog cakes made from beetroot, wheat, vegetables and beef blood.
Other companies followed suit, coming up with canine food that was mostly baked. There were not too many secret ingredients back then in those early stages of dog food manufacturing, unlike the amount of untold items now being put in processed dog food.
During the Depression, the traditional practice of feeding dogs human food began to change as dog owners sought more economical options.
Meat was increasingly substituted with more grains, which were introduced with canned processed meat and dehydrated dog food in the 1940s. After World War II, the production and consumption of commercial dog food rose.
Manufacturers took advantage of the availability of inexpensive ingredients like grain hulls and discarded meat from slaughterhouses?basically discarded waste not fit for us humans to eat but apparently good enough for our pets.
From being a mere economical option, manufacturers were then set on marketing dog food as the sole nourishment fit for dogs, rationalizing that table scraps were not adequate for a dog's complex nutritional needs.
Labeling became more elaborate and attractive, and different kinds of diets were introduced for special health conditions and different stages in a dog's life.
Throughout the years, the evolution of dog food has gone further in so-called development as to include more and more preservatives and other secret ingredients.
Along with these advances in manufacturing that ensures longer shelf-life for the products is the rise in the number of early dog deaths due to diseases caused by these substances. Chemicals used in the processing of dog food have been found to cause various cancers, kidney failure and heart disease.
These days, people are becoming more and more aware of the nutritional requirements of their pets, but are still often deceived by tricky dog food labels. It is a fact that back in those simpler times when dogs ate natural food, their average lifespan was much longer that what it is today.
A good number of dog owners now go by a more enlightened way of feeding their pets, and have seen positive effects in the health of their dogs.
These owners share the idea of turning back to traditional ways of feeding and other beneficial dog food secrets. The result should be longer and happier lives for our favorite companions.
Both Joann Henry & John E Adams are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Joann Henry has sinced written about articles on various topics from Family Concerns, Pets and Dogs. Joann Henry operates "Doggie Health Care" , a blog all about our pooches. Joann Henry's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.
John E Adams has sinced written about articles on various topics from Internet Marketing, Terrier Dogs and Dog Breeds. Copyright John Adams Dog Breeds Explained. Learn more about the evolution of dog food and get more info on commercial dog food here: