Dog Advice

A dog that is out of control can cause a lot of distress and heartache. A trained dog will give you so much enjoyment and pride. So here are my top 10 training tips:

1. Assert dominance: It is important that you assert dominance over your dog by being firm but gentle. Your dog will want to please you.
2. Start training straight away: When your puppy arrives in your home it is crucial you start training straight away, the sooner the better. Training should then carry on throughout your dog’s life.
3. Socialise your puppy: A very important piece of training for your puppy is to gradually get it socialised. It will be imortant for the puppy to meet other people, dogs and experience different sounds in order to build up confidence which helps your dog to thrive.
4. Duration of training:It is important not to make your dog training sessions too long, several 10 minute sessions a day will help to maintain your dog’s interest and prevent boredom.
5. Change training location: When training your dog , make sure that you change location from time to time. This helps to stop the dog relating the training to just one area .
6. Help your dog’s concentration:To help your dog concentrate, initail training should be done somewhere that is quiet and where there are no distractions. As training progresses different areas, where more is going on, can be used.
7. Make training fun: All training for your dog should be fun, treats will help your dog to learn and obey you. Treats should varied,for example, food, praise,exercise or a dog toy.
8. Reward intermittently: Do not give a treat every time your dog obeys you, you can use praise when things are going well but reward intermittently as this will help your dog to learn faster and will encourage improvement.
9. Use the same signals and commands: Anyone who is going to help train or work with your dog must use the same signals and commands as you. This will help prevent your dog getting confused.
10. Not to get angry:I think the most important tip is not to get angry with your dog, patience will have its rewards.

Good Luck with your training and be patient

Hi everyone, I’m Mark the developer of DogMall.co.uk. Although it was one of the last things to get live, I’m really pleased to say the DogMall blog is now alive.

The idea behind DogMall.co.uk is to try and pull together and sort all the best prices for dog clothes, dog toys, dog beds, dog cages, dog leads, dog collars, dog grooming equipment and dog books. That’s a big list of “dog stuff” and it’s likely to grow as we find new suppliers and get new stock ourselves. As well as trying to find the best prices, we’ll also be adding our own reviews of each product and giving advice on how best to use them and on what type of dog.

So why would we want a blog on the site? Well, Ray & Annie (my folks and the people behind DogMall.co.uk) have got 30 years experience of owning and training dogs. What they don’t know about our canine pals, is as they say, not worth knowing. I thought it would be a terrible waste for them not to share all they know, so while they are both new to blogging (a long and rocky road I’m sure), I’ll be helping them out getting some of their collective wisdom online and answering any questions you have.

Until then, I’ll leave you with a rather cheesy, “welcome to DogMall!”