A dog's personality is established at birth. There will always be the active, outgoing puppy and subdued puppy. As a dog owner, you can identify certain behaviour you do not like, but with training, you can change them. Here are some useful tips for managing and training your dog:-
- Schedule food and water to better monitor dog's input and output. If you are house-training your dog during summer, do not give food or water three to four hours before bedtime.
- After dog is house-trained, it should always have access to fresh water and food. Never give any leftovers from his previously uneaten meals.
- The dogs have an innate desire to be clean, so they won't eat or sleep where they have used the bathroom. The cleaner the environment, the easier it is to house-train a pet.
- To teach the terms like "Go Potty" or "Hurry Up", apply them while your dog is going to the bathroom so that it associates the word with the behavior.
- Give minimum 10 minutes to your dog to use the bathroom.
- In general, puppies need to go out every 3 hours, while adult dogs better to go out every four to five hours.
- Train your dog to bathroom on various surfaces like grass, grates, pavement, and mud. Also train your dog to do its business on or near the curb as nobody likes to step over it in the middle of sidewalk.
- Fresh food is healthier food. The more unprocessed, whole, and complete the food is, the better it is for your dog. The healthier your dog's diet, the less output there will be from the dog.
- Read/know the body language of your dog to know if your dog wants to go out. Your dog wants to go out if it walks in circles while sniffing the ground, looks uncomfortable, sits near the door, barks/produces noise at a relatively high pitch or stars at you.
- Feed your dog in the same area every time and in a relatively calm environment to create positive associations with the space.
- Bond with your puppy. Teach your puppy using positive methods. Make training fun.
- Realize your puppy will make mistakes, and do not get angry when he does.