Austin Dog Trainer Blog

My dog won't stop chewing up the carpet!

Yikes!  A new puppy, or even an adult dog, can wreak havoc on your home with their endless need to chew.  Those jaws do need exercise, but YOU should control what your dog chews up, not the other way around! 

When you have a new puppy in the house or an avid adult chewer, the following steps will help protect your house and home:

1 - Limit your dog's access when he isn't being supervised.  You can use crates, exercise pens, or baby gates to keep your dog confined to one room or a safe space.

2 - Feed your dog its meals out of interactive dog toys.  There are all kinds of toys designed to dispense treats or your dog's regular kibble.  Instead of feeding your dog from a bowl, put its regular kibble ration in a toy with some peanut butter or a little canned dog food and let your dog work to get the food out.  If your dog is busy working for its breakfast, it won't have time to chew on your carpet!  Just be careful if you have more than one dog - they'll often fight over food-stuffed toys.  Separate them or crate them whenever they have a food stuffed toy.

3 - Provide enticing chew toys to redirect chewing energy and allow your dog to exercise its jaw in safe ways.  Provide several good chew toys and edible chew bones for your dog to work on throughout the day!  Always supervise your dog whenever you give them a new bone or chew toy to be sure they aren't eating large pieces.  Safety first!

Lastly, if your dog's chewing always occurs at doorways and windows and you believe it may be caused by separation anxiety rather than boredom or a need to chew, consult a qualified dog trainer or behavior consultant to rule out separation anxiety.

Cara, Austin Dog Trainer

What is the perfect setup for your dog in the back yard?

There are times when you want to be able to leave your dog outside in the back yard unsupervised, but you need to have the right setup to do this successfully.  Tie downs and ropes are no good (and may be illegal in many areas).  Free run of the whole yard may lead to destructive digging or fence fighting with neighbor dogs.  I think the perfect setup is a kennel run with shade, water, and a dog house.  My friend was nice enough to send me photos of her backyard kennel.  I absolutely love the way she built this for her dog - he is safe and contained, but has everything he needs.

Tammy used a regular chain link kennel and then lined the bottom with patio bricks.  She put shade panels on the side (the material for these can be found in the garden section of Home Depot or Lowe's - she put them onto wood frames and attached them to the sides of the kennel.

Her kennel also has a dog house and a very large water bucket.  The top is covered to add additional shade.  Her dog is quite comfortable out there while he waits for Tammy to come home from work! Here are some pictures:

Cara, Austin Dog Trainer

New Toys are Making a Big Impression at our Austin Dog Training Center!

We don't have a very large retail section at our Austin Dog Training Center.  Our primary focus is, of course, dog training and daycare, but we do carry a few treats, collars, and toys.  All of the toys that we carry at our Austin dog training center are interactive toys that are designed to combat boredom in dogs.  Because of the limited size of our retail section, the dog toys and treats we do carry are screened first.  I usually order a couple and let some of our dog training clients try them out before deciding to carry them. 

We've recently found two new toys that are a huge hit and will be a permanent addition to our retail section at the training center!  They are both made by a company named Premier - in fact, many of the things we carry at the dog training center are from Premier.  The new toys are called the Bouncy Bone and the Tug-a-Jug. 

The Bouncy Bone is a great chew toy that combines a hard rubber ball, nylon bones that stand up to a lot of chewing, and replaceable (and edible) rings (the rings come in two versions - one is a chewy and beefy and the other is similar to a cornstarch bone for dogs).  The rings slip onto the chew toy in a way that makes the dog have to work very hard to eat them.  The thing that I like the most about them is that the dog only ingests a small amount of the beefy or cornstarch ring but it takes as long to eat as a larger rawhide bone.  Great for strong chewers and dogs that need to watch their weight!

The Tug-a-Jug is a very strong plastic jug that you put your dog's dry food into.  The jug has a rope coming out of one end of it and your dog has to learn how to manipulate the rope to get food to come out.  It takes even the most talented of dogs a long time to get the food out and their minds are working the whole time!  One of the fun things about the toy is that all dogs have some different way of getting the food out.  Some learn to hold the rope and pick the jug up in their mouth and shake.  Others hold the rope and spin the bottle to get food to fall out.  Some just paw at the rope to get the food.  It's fun to watch and will keep your dog working for a living!  This is also excellent for dogs that wolf their food down or need to lose weight (they're burning calories the whole time they're working with the toy!).

We've carried the new toys at our Austin dog training center for about a month and they're a huge hit with all of our clients!

Cara, Austin Dog Trainer

Jackie's Story

I'm putting this in the management section because, in addition to being a story about Jack (a beautiful Irish Terrier who attends our Austin Dog Daycare every week), it is a cautionary tale about letting your dog run loose and unsupervised.  Before coming to his current home, Jack was allowed to run loose and suffered a terrible accident as a result.  You can read Jack's full story here.  Jack has recovered and is now in a loving new home, but his recovery process was slow and painful and is not something that most owners would want to go through.  If you don't want to go through a painful recovery, don't take the chance of letting your dog run loose!

Cara, Austin Dog Trainer

5 Ways to Get a Loose Dog Back to You

Okay, so your dog isn't trained to come back to you yet and it slipped off of its leash.  Here are five ways to help get Rex back quickly.

1 - Run in the opposite direction!

2 - Call your dog in a cheerful, happy voice while clapping your hands and backing up quickly.

3 - Lay down on your back.

4 - If your car is nearby and your dog loves going for car rides, open the door (then reward him with a quick ride to the park so he'll come next time!).

5 - Ask a friend or neighbor to call him. 

When he does come back to you, be sure to give him some rewards - a quick romp or play session, some treats (the good ones not the dry crumbly ones nobody wants), and lots of praise.  NO, NO, NO scolding no matter how annoyed or late for work you are.  Then, begin working on teaching a rock-solid recall so you'll be better prepared next time!

Cara, Austin Dog Training and Behavior

Pros and Cons of Crate Training

Many clients wonder whether it is cruel to keep a dog in a crate.  The answer is, maybe.  It might be cruel if

1. You don't take the time to train the dog to like being in its crate - you need to do more than just put your dog in a crate and hope all goes well!  Start by dropping treats in so he discovers them on his own and thinks they "magically appear" there.  Do the same with some fun new toys.  Then, stuff a yummy Kong for him and put him in for a minute or two to work on his Kong then let him back out.  Work your way up to leaving him for longer periods - always leaving him with a good stuffed Kong - until he's happy to be left in his crate.
2. You leave your dog in its crate for too long.  This will depend on the dog and its energy level, but, in general, a dog needs some exercise before going into its crate and shouldn't be in a crate longer than 6-8 hours without a break.  Consider hiring a dog walker or having a friend come over to take a walk halfway through the day if you need to work long hours. 

I recently adopted a puppy to a fabulous family but they were worried about using a crate.  Although he had been crate trained prior to adoption, they wondered if he would really enjoy being in his crate.  They went and bought him a crate anyway.  When I arrived to introduce him to his new family, we let him down to play and within minutes, he had found his crate and was happily checking it out! They regularly send pictures of him AND the family cat hanging out in his crate!

austin dog trainer

Exercise and behavior

If your dog isn't getting enough exercise, I'd be willing to bet it's leading to some behavior problems.  Common problems that lack of exercise can contribute to are excessive barking, inappropriate chewing, stealing items from counter tops, and just general unruliness (jumping up, excessive exciteability).  There's no magic formula to know how much exercise your dog needs.  You should start by looking up information about your dog's breed or mix of breeds to check his or her energy levels and exercise needs.  Or, talk to your vet.  Here are some great ways to increase your dog's exercise fairly easily:

Find a place for your dog to swim

Teach him to play fetch

Jog with your dog

Bike with your dog - this one is great for high energy breeds.  You can use a special attachment for your bike like the Springer Bicycle Jogger.  This allows you to bike safely with your dog and gets your dog the exercise he needs in a short time.  I used to exercise my German Shepherd this way and he was never able to pull me off balance even when he wanted to chase another dog or something.  Some dogs may require some coaching to get used to the bike.  My greyhound is afraid to run on it, but I'll bet I could teach him using some hot dogs and going slowly at first (walking him on it first, then running when he's more comfortable). 

Whatever method you choose, you should check with your vet before starting vigorous exercise and start out slowly.  A five minute jog or bike ride may be good for a start.  Your dog will need to build up endurance and the pads of his feet can get very sore if you go for long distances right from the start.  Also be sure to pack water and avoid running during the peak heat times of the day.

Cara, Austin Dog Training and Pet Sitting

Baby Gates, X Pens, Crates, Tie Downs

Managing your dog's behavior during retraining efforts isn't a cop out - it's an important part of changing your dog's behavior for the better.  Think about it this way - practice makes perfect, so why let your dog practice jumping up on people while you're trying to teach him not to do that?  You need to put an end to that practice while you're teaching new behaviors.  Management is also important for safety reasons.  If your dog is an escape artist, he can hurt himself everytime he runs out the door.  Here are some ways to use management to prevent practice and keep your dog safe while you begin a training plan:

• There are management ideas in this article for dogs having housetraining accidents.
• If you have a dog that jumps on guests at the door, you can use a babygate to keep him from getting to guests when you can't focus on your training efforts.  Or, crate train your dog and then keep a crate near the door - have special chew bones or peanut butter stuffed Kongs ready to hand your dog.  He can run to his crate for his special treat while you open the door for guests.
• If your dog is an escape artist, you can use a baby gate or crate like you would for a jumping dog, or put a tie-down near your door so that you can quickly hook your dog onto the tie-down so he can't scoot out. 
• If your dog chews on your shoes or other belongings, use an exercise pen, crate, or babygates to confine him to a smaller area of the house that doesn't have any of the "off-limit" items to chew.  Then, be sure to leave appropriate chew items and boredom busters for dogs.   

Cara, Buddy's Chance, LLC Austin Dog Training and Pet Sitting