Scientific studies show that puppies respond to external touch when they are in their mother's womb. A puppy can be studied extensively while it is still in its mother's womb from as early as the fourth week of gestation. It has been propounded that a puppy has a profound sense of touch even as a fetus due to its highly developed motor skills.

The first eight weeks of a puppy's life is crucial because they are its formative years. Puppies that are cuddled and petted during the first eight weeks of their lives grow up psychologically and emotionally fine. Dogs that are problematic in nature most likely never had all the physical contact the needed in their early developmental stages.

A dog has self-esteem just as humans do and can get easily hurt. Shouting at your dog when it fails to obey your commands may damage its self-esteem and render it fearful and hesitant. The self-esteem of your dog should be enhanced during dog training and not destroyed.

You can reward your dog for exhibiting desirable behavior anyhow you want. Some dog owners reward their dogs by using effusive praise. Some dog handlers may decide to reward a dog by giving it a treat such as biscuit bone.

In training your dog, you should endeavor to look at everything from the dog's perspective and not your own. Understanding how your dog thinks and acts enables you to train it successfully. Don't be cruel in giving a dog confusing commands just to see how it will act?that will only render your dogs useless in responding to your commands.

Guard dogs are trained to switch on their protective instincts at will. A command from you can put a guard dog on the defensive. In the same vein, one command from you can put a guard dog on relax mode which means it doesn't attack strangers.

Some dog owners may be concerned about teaching dogs tricks to entertain people. Other dog owners may be more concerned with teaching a dog how to lead blind people. The reason a dog owner trains a dog varies from person to person.

There are some breeds of dogs that are more trainable than others. Look for the dog that can be trained easily and get it to a dog trainer as fast as you can. Make sure that your dog is healthy before any form of training is commenced on it to avoid health complications during training.