Last week, we discussed bad advice about pets and the fallout it may cause for the animals.
This week, it’s the opposite—we’re going to share some good advice!
I asked friends online to talk about the best advice they’d been given about a pet or pets—management, training, living together happily, whatever—so I could share that advice with you.
Here are some of their responses.
Jorge Melara (Wisconsin) Train the dog in front of you.
Lori Katz (California) Train the pet in front of you.
Peggy Modjeski (Kentucky) Train, don’t complain.
Adrienne Critchlow (United Kingdom) It’ll take as long as it takes.
Denise O’Moore (Ireland) Go at your dog’s pace. (Especially in classes where people try to compete over the little things!)
Jo Jacques (Massachusetts) Train everything in small increments. Think of the pictures in a flip book and train each.
Gwen Jones (California) On basic care: water should be readily available in multiple rooms of the home. One water dish in a multi-room home doesn’t encourage hydration. In our three-bedroom house we have a minimum of five water dishes (three-dog/two-cat household). This advice was given to me by a cancer survivor who was counseling me about my dog Molly, who was going through chemo treatment.
On basic training: create an environment that ensures success; put in place any tools that would help achieve that goal (baby gates, child-proof cupboard closures, etc.). Our Siberian husky “trained” us to child-proof our home for puppies, but we have found it’s been helpful for curious cats as well. Baby gates make it easy to control multi-pet interactions. We’ve been able to have dogs that can be reactive to others residing in the same house and feeling secure that there won’t be any negative interactions. In one word, “management” is key!
Photo by Gwen Jones – Molly, the amazing Katrina/cancer survivor
Trish McMillan (North Carolina) “Whenever you are with your dog, one of you is training the other.” —Steve White
Mandy Collins (United Kingdom) Dogs are learning all the time, especially when you aren’t consciously training them, as that is when you are most consistent!
Donna Weidert (Washington) “Make everything you do with your dog about your relationship.” —Carol Byrnes
Jewels Eilmes-Daly (Washington) A pet is a big commitment. Your pet is for life.
Teresa Tuttle (Texas) Training never stops. We are always learning. Our dogs are, too.
Summer Storm Kingery DVM (North Carolina) Practice makes permanent. What we practice, what our pets practice, perfect or imperfect, will become permanent.
Cheri Spaulding (Oregon) Don’t get another dog until you’ve taught your current dog everything you want them to know.
Martha Louisa Carpenter (California) If my new puppy had an accident in the house, it was my fault for not either getting her out timely enough or for not paying enough attention.
Kenna Stonefern (New Hampshire) I tell my puppy families to remember that their ten-week-old puppy has been alive for a total of 70 days, but blind and deaf for the first 18 of those days . . . and to think about that and their expectations.
Kathy Smith (North Carolina) The best advice I received was not to place expectations on my new rescue dog to be just like another one I had. “Let him settle in and show you who he is.” His personality could not be so radically different than the other dog’s, and that worked great for their relationship. My older dog was a serious, hard-working Samoyed. He had purpose and, while he had a sense of humor, he loved to work and took that very seriously. My (then) new rescue dog is a border collie/golden retriever/Samoyed mix. His brain works like a border collie’s brain, so work comes naturally for him. However, his personality is that of a golden retriever and I’ve never met a more sensitive dog who has boatloads of empathy for people. Being there for people in emotional need is his purpose and that makes for a sweet and tender-hearted dog. Had I tried to make him a hard-working, serious dog, that would have broken his spirit.
Glenda Lee (Maine) The best advice I ever got was to completely ignore all the alpha and dominance garbage. Easy advice to take since being alpha, etc., never seemed like the right way to raise a pup.
Karen Schlosberg (Massachusetts) Don’t treat them like humans or assume they react the way humans react.
Sodonnia Wolfrom (Arkansas) When in doubt, throw food! A lot of my issues get solved by upping the rate of reinforcement for a bit. Also: fear is not operant, and you can’t solve a fear issue with the quadrants.
Michelle Brady (Washington) Reinforce the behavior you want to see more of. My hyper and anxious rescue calmed down a lot once I started reinforcing when he was calm around the house.
George Guba (New York) Crates are your dog’s friend. It makes potty training much easier. It keeps them safe from getting into things (and helps keep your belongings safe, although WARNING: a dog can still have a three foot “kill zone,” even in a Vari-Kennel). It gives them their own safe space. Crates are the safest option in the car, much better than seat belts. If they ever need to be boarded, or stay at the vet, they are more likely to have a better experience.
Neil Rubenstein (Florida) Your dog is not giving you a hard time, your dog is having a hard time.
Tamara A Howard (New Jersey) Dogs do not speak English any better than you speak Dog. Stop yelling the cue! They can hear you, but your cue has not yet been learned, it’s not clear to the dog what you’re asking, or both.
Dogs watch you 100% of the time. Take some of your time to be quiet and just watch them. They’re fascinating beings!
I don’t want to sit on a mound of fire ants, and your dog doesn’t either. Please find out why your dog isn’t responding to a known cue before insisting that they do. Also, don’t insist they do. No one likes a bully.
Lonnie Evans Pearson (North Carolina) We humans speak our language and animals speak theirs. We have to patiently learn their language just as much as we have to patiently teach them ours.
We didn’t learn the rules of the road in a day, they don’t learn rules as a pet in a day.
Gentle training is the best training.
Thanks to all of our commenters for their thoughtful input!
