How to Stop Your Dog from Hunting Small Animals

Most dogs, from puppies on up, are going to want to chase small animals like squirrels, bunnies, chipmunks, chickens and even cats.

This is not a behavioral problem as some pet owners might believe. 

It’s what’s known as your dog’s prey drive and it’s instinct. They’re born with it. However, that doesn’t mean that it can’t be stopped. Your dog can learn to control his prey drive with some lessons.

➤ Start Early-Train Your Dog.
You have to start early training your dog to control himself and you must correct the behavior every time he begins a chase.
Understand that when your dog is listening to his prey drive, he’s tuning you out - and that’s only because the drive is strong and natural.

Puppies are easier to distract from their prey drive. The minute they go after prey, immediately step in and stop them. If your dog is small enough, you can easily just pick him up and with a stern no, interrupt his action.

➤ It Will Be Harder With Senior Dogs.
If your dog is an adult or senior dog, it can be a little harder to teach him to stop hunting small animals, but it can be done. You just have to constantly reinforce that his behavior won’t be accepted.

If he’s reached adulthood and has never been trained to stop hunting, then until he is, it’s best that when he’s out, you walk him on a leash.

He’ll still pull forward, wanting to chase the animal, but again, this is instinct and not a sign of a dog that’s out of control or one who won’t listen.

A dog sees a small animal from a distance and usually has a better ability to remain where he is. However, the second he catches a whiff of the dog, he may lunge to chase it.

➤ Dogs Can Smell Other Animals.
Just like most animals, dogs can smell the small animal. So what you have to do is get another scent between the smell of the other animal and your dog’s sensitive nose.

When he’s taken off to chase an animal or he’s lunged forward in that attempt, you can use the treat method to reinforce positive, obedient behavior or you can use the aversion method.

The aversion method usually works best with puppies. To use this, when your puppy starts off running after prey, you vigorously shake a handful of pennies that are in a tin can.

➤ Using Treats Help.
The noise is loud and startling and gets the puppy’s attention. For all dogs, using the treat method is pretty effective as well. You keep dog treats on hand when you’re out with him and tuck one in your hand.




When he’s focused on the area where the animal went and he’s sniffing around, he’s trying to pick up that scent. Keeping the treat out of sight in your hand, briefly bring your hand close to his nose and tell the dog to come.

He’ll pick up the scent of the treat instead. From the time that your dog is a puppy, train him using distraction methods to teach him to stay focused on you and your commands regardless of what’s going on around him.

5 Puppy Training Mistakes That You Can Make

Puppy training can be a challenging undertaking. It takes time, effort and patience to have a dog that is attentive, obedient and wants to please you.

A dog that is well-trained will not bark incessantly or get out of control when strangers or other dogs approach it.

It all starts when they’re puppies. 

If you train them right when they’re young, they’ll grow up into good dogs that you can be proud of.

Many people do their best to train their dogs but often, it takes them longer than they predict and their dogs’ behavior is inconsistent at best.

This is often due to mistakes that are made during the training phase.

Let us look at 5 common mistakes that many ‘puppy parents’ make when training their puppy and how you can avoid them.

➤ 1. Failure to Encourage Your Dog.
Encouraging your dog is very important and makes it want to please you even more.

When your puppy does something right, lavish it with love, attention and verbal encouragement. Do maintain calmness while encouraging your puppy.

Some owners get overexcited and hug and roll around with their puppy as they squeal with joy. This will just overexcite the puppy and cause it to lose concentration.

Encourage your puppy sincerely and calmly. It needs to know that you’re pleased with its actions.



➤ 2. Inconsistency In Your Puppy Training.
The training needs to be consistent and should be done daily.

At most, you want to train your dog for about 10 to 15 minutes at a time. You could train them twice or thrice a day but keep the sessions short so that your dog doesn’t get tired or distracted.

Quality of training is more important than quantity.

The words you use should also be consistent. If you’re training it to sit, always use the command “Sit!” Do not use different words like “Down, boy!” or “Play dead!” or other terms to get the same desired action. Your puppy will only get confused and not know what you want.

➤ 3. Tone of Your Voice When Training.
You need to have a firm and authoritative voice.

The goal here is to have a commanding presence without appearing angry or irritable. You should not shout at your puppy. Being firm and enthusiastic will do the job.

If your dog does not obey your commands initially, be patient.

➤ 4. Repeating Your Cues Unnecessarily.
When you give your puppy a cue, ideally, it should obey the cue immediately.

If you toss a toy and say “Fetch!” your puppy should run and fetch it. If it looks at you lazily and lies on its back expecting a belly rub, do not repeatedly say, “Fetch! Fetch!! FETCH!!!” That’s not going to work.

By repeating cues over and over agin, you’re conditioning the dog to tune you out. The puppy needs to take your cues and commands seriously and not ignore you. So, only give a cue once.

➤ 5. Poor Leash Handling.
You should never drag or pull your pup around on a leash. You shouldn’t let the puppy walk in front of you either when you’re taking it out for a walk.

The puppy should always walk by your side. When you stop, your puppy stops.

If the puppy is always ahead of you leading the way, it’s following a pack mentality and considers itself to be the alpha dog.

It’s not going to obey you over time because you’ve made it think that it’s the boss. If it tries to pull you around, do not move.

Stand fixed till your puppy comes back to you.

At the other end of the spectrum, do not drag your puppy around if it is not following you. Learn proper leash handling. Practice at home with a leash so that the puppy follows you for a few steps.

Gradually increase the distance till it is comfortable walking by your side.

Keep these 5 tips in mind and you’ll have a puppy that’s more obedient and your life will be much easier too since it will learn new tricks and cues faster.

"The animal is NEVER wrong. You get what you reinforce. All behavior has function, including undesirable behavior. The question is NOT 'Why is the animal behaving this way?' but rather, `What is reinforcing this behavior?' —Susan Friedman, PhD

What's the Best Way To Trim Your Dog's Nails?

A major aspect of grooming your dogs is keeping their nails at an appropriate length. Here are some tips on how to safely trim your dog's nails.

There are a number of things that can go wrong if you let your dog’s nails grow too long.

➤ First, your dog won’t be able to walk or run properly.

Imagine trying to walk around with your toes curled under your feet. When the dogs can’t walk properly, it puts a lot of unnecessary strain on their muscles and their spine.

➤ Can Become Ingrown Nails.
 
If the nails grow too long, they can become ingrown, and those ingrown nails are prone to infection and cause your dog a lot of pain.

➤ It’s very important that you start trimming your dog’s nails when they’re a young puppy. 

If you get them comfortable with having their nails trimmed early on, it will make everything much easier moving forward.

To get your puppy comfortable with having its nails trimmed, you should first get them comfortable with the sight and sound of the clipper. Give them some peanut butter, and clip the clippers near their paws without actually trimming their nails.

After some time doing this, they’ll be happy to see the clipper.

➤ Take It Slow.
Make sure you take things slow, because you don’t want to make your puppy afraid of the clippers. When clipping your dog’s nails, it’s very important that you don’t clip the quick.

The quick is the part of the nail that is colored differently and closer to them. On some nails, the quick will appear pink and the actual nail will appear white, while on others, it may appear black on black.

If you clip the quick, it will not only cause tremendous pain to the dog, but the cut will also bleed for hours.

➤ Make Small Clips.
Avoid clipping the quick by making multiple small clips and making your way up before you go too far.

Dog’s nails should be trimmed whenever they get too long, no matter how old they are.

To tell if your dog’s nails are too long, you can see if you hear their claws click against the floor when they walk.

If their claws are clicking against tile or concrete floors, they need to be trimmed. You can also tell by holding up their paw and looking to see if the nail comes down beyond the pad of the paw.

You can choose to use nail clippers or nail files to shorten your dog’s nails, depending on which you feel more comfortable using. The clippers are quicker, while you’re less likely to have an accidental cut with a file.