Continuation of controversy: two dogs growling and pulling a tug. This exercise is a perfect way to develop a sense of competitiveness in dogs, it strengthens the whole trunk and improves dogs’ force and endurance. Why do we need all those things? It’s necessary for example during competition and not to effectively tear off a human leg or kill another dog.

My two dogs, a rottweiler and a Pit Bull, exercise together. Thanks to such exercises I’m able to control their behaviour, I’m capable of exciting my dog and directing his drive towards sport competition, and not another dog. Thanks to that I do not have any problems with fights about any objects, as they always, eventually, belong to me.

I’m really happy that these article provoke some discussion. I don’t expect many likes but I want people to think about the issue before they judge someone. I’ve been often attacked by dogs during trainings. These dogs weren’t usually the ones that are regarded as aggressive, but rather mild, such as labradors or golden retrievers. It’s not about blaming these dogs, but in 90% cases these were dogs that have never done any exercises like these. Dogs do not have to do any exercises to be able to harm another dog or a person. Their natural physical predisposition is absolutely enough to do so.

I decided to write this post in order to influence people and the way they perceive playing/training with dogs. I don’t intend to copy other people’s articles or news available on the Internet or in books. My intention is to reach at least my acquaintances and convincing them that strength and endurance dog training is aimed at neither tormenting not pointless provoking of aggression in dogs.

A dog hanging on a tug which is mounted on the tree may not be a common sight, however, we also do not often see wrestlers training on various gym equipment in the street. Recently during one of such trainings I heard an elderly lady’s comment, ”Don’t you have brains? You’re hurting them!” The lady who said so was holding a quite big dog in her arms herself.

Why is it worth to train high jump?

It’s good for strengthening dog’s neck and grip, developing muscles and help dogs release the excess energy. I think these are very good reasons, however, one of the most important ones for me personally is the fact that during such trainings we may help dogs develop and create an even stronger bond with them.

To sum up, whenever you see a dog in such circumstances, do not immediately judge people who put in a lot of effort and time to help their dogs develop.

It’s one of the most commonly asked questions of people who are about to begin their adventure with dog training. The sooner, the better. As soon as the dog enters our house, we should begin training. Of course, we’ll not train the fetch command but we may make the dog accustomed to simple commans and teach then proper reactions.

Obedience exercises are very important for dogs with certain issues. Whenever we see our dog feeling uncomfortable or nervous in new surroundings or among strangers, we should help him become used to such stressful situations and help then solve them. This is what we need obedience training for.
A puppy who comes to us from kennel is usually 8 weeks old. Its brain is fully ddeveloped at that time. If our training is not too tiring and boring, the puppy is able to learn new commands every single day. These must be strengthened and made more diffucult regularly.

To make a long story short, having trained hundreds of dogs, I recommend that you place a lot of emphasis on training and socialization from the early days. This will help us avoid many problems in the future.
If you don’t do that early enough, your dog may not be particularly willing to collaborate with you in the future

Photo below depicts Kara, an American Staffordshire Terrier

If you feel tired, stressed out or even down in the dumps, find some time to do something crazy and try to unwind. Sometimes what we have is enough to make us feel happy. Just take a look at Rocky

According to scientists, that sweet, puppy-like look of our dog after bumping into another rubbish bin is not a sign of the feeling of guilt. The dog simply responds to our scolding. When the owner thinks that his dog has just eaten a forbidden treat, he scolds him and the dog looks as if was guilty regardless of whether he has actually eaten the treat or not. In fact, dogs who were wrongfully accused of stealing the treat very often look even more guilty than those that have really taken it. After all, as it seems, these sad eyes do not reflect any deeper thinking process.

Source: www.livescience.com

Dogs know that we don’t give them equal opportunities. Study conducted in the year 2008 and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science proved that dogs that saw that other dogs were given treats for doing a trick, for which they didn’t get anything themselves, were agitated, scratched themselves and avoided eye contact. It happened more often that in the situation in which they were alone and didn’t get the treat. Dog jealousy, however, is not as sophisticated as the human one. Animals didn’t seem to care about the fact that other dogs received a sausage whereas they got only bread. They also weren’t bothered by the fact that they had to do a trick in order to get a treat, while others got it having done nothing. However, according to scientists, these discoveries prove that being green with envy is not only the feature of primates.

Source: www.livescience.com

According to the study presented in 2009 during the meeting of the American Psychological Association, dogs may be as smart as two-year-old children. On top of the most intelligent dogs is  a border collie. Some representatives of this breed are able to understand even 200 words.

Poodles, German shepherds, golden retrievers and dobermans also belong to the top five, whereas a  the most popular breed in America – labrador retriever, is on the 7^th place. As scientists point out, older dog breeds, such as hounds, bulldog or beagle, belong to a group of dogs that need more time to learn. Contrary to younger breeds, the task of which is to assisst humans, older breeds were bred to sniff and hunt, thus what was more important was their physical strength rather that cleverness.

Source: www.livescience.com

If someone suffers from cancer, has diabetes or epilepsy, a dog may be the first to know about it. Studies showed that we may train dogs so that they could sense lung cancer, breast cancer, skin, bladder or prostate cancer. Scientists suspec that dogs sense ephemeral, untypical smells which are given off by cells that work improperly.

Dogs are also more and more often used as assisstance dogs helping people suffering from diabetes in whom increase or decrease of sugar level in blood poses danger to health. Specially trained dogs may detect the smell of such fluctuations (sweet smell when the sugar level is high, sour smell when it’s level is low) and alamr their owners before they begin to notice any symptoms.

The most mysterious, however, is the information that dogs may be able to predicts an epileptic seizure 45 minutes before its onset. We don’t know how they do that, but theories try to prove there’s an unknown smell or even a subtle difference in a person’s behaviour.

Source: www.livescience.com

Dogs have been living next to us for about 15 thousand years, so we might think that we know each other quite well. However, dogs are more than just ”fetch” or ”play dead” commands. We’ll show you rathe unknown facts regarding man’s best friends.

Dogs suffer from our diseases… Humans and dogs don’t actually differ that much from each other, at least when it comes to the causes of our diseases. Around 6 mln dogs are diagnosed with cancer yearly. Moreover, dogs suffer from dog kinds of rare human diseases such as neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis which leads to the impairment of walking or muscle control. The disease is a very unpleasant experience for both people and dogs, but sharing it is beneficial for both species. It’s easier to conduct clinical studies on animals because doctors may compare their ailments with those present in humans, as a result chances of recovery increase.

Source: www.livescience.com