Background
I got my puppy from the local animal shelter. The description in the local paper was: “I am a beautiful, lively black puppy from a variety of dog breeds. I was abandonment and desperately need a home. Please come fetch me or else I will be going to doggy heaven”
Needless to say the puppy’s appeal worked and low and behold he was home with me. The abandonment word, led me to call him Bandit. I could not have asked for a more lovable dog.
Unfortunately that cute little puppy grew into a 60kg long-legged lively lovable dog that like a typical teenager listens to nobody!
This became a problem. Big and boisterous it ran my household with furious enthusiasm.
Now, what?
Can you train an 8 month old big dog? (Gosh, I forgot to mention, he must have some Great Dane in his family history somewhere, because Bandit sure stands high!)
Consequence
To be frank! I work long hours and come home late at night, which means Bandit do not get a lot of park time and on top of it I am so tired after a day at the office that I normally become a coach potato in front of the television.
This led to a very lovable but badly behaved dog with behavioural problems.
Considerations
Things I considered doing:
Enrol in the local dog training days, which normally was a Saturday or Sunday.
Look on the internet to see if there is a do-it-yourself course on dog training with written as well as video material.
From what I know of my work schedule and my social schedule I knew that the local dog training days were not an option for me as I wanted more flexibility.
So I started searching the internet.
Oh Dear, what I did not anticipate was the amount of web sites that offer dog training at home.
The search took a couple of days and at last I selected a training program.
Solutions
I chose the dog training program based on the following criteria:
Researched the web site as much as possible to get an opinion from existing users.
Asked some of the dog owners at the park their opinion on do-it-yourself dog training.
Checked the cost of the on line dog training material.
Checked what material the online dog training program offered.
To be honest, although I felt I had done a fair amount of checking, I could still not put my hand on my heart and swear that this online dog training course would be the program I was looking for.
Results
After one month Bandit was a 100% more obedient dog than before. The material, specifically the dog training video material was excellent.
Today, one year later, I have a wonderful obedient dog that listens and behaves when spoken to.
If this story is also your story and you are a dog lover, you owe the training to your dog. He or she would love it as this is another way that you give your dog the added attention he or she needs.
The effort is certainly worth it and you can do it at home like I did with the occasional practise day at the park.
Taking Bandit out for a walk or to the park now is an absolute pleasure. Before the training I became very stressed out when I took Bandit for a walk as fighting to restrain him from running off behind every other dog was difficult.
If you want to find out more about training your dog at home, please visit my web site.
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