You may not need to use all of these, but you should be familiar with them. They are listed in “escalating” order. Do not use any of these if you are angry or upset. The point is never to hurt the dog, but to show it who is alpha. They work best if you are calm, firm, and matter of fact. Again, always use the minimum correction necessary.

More important than knowing how to perform an alpha roll is learning to play the alpha role. That means having the attitude of “I am always right and I will _never_ let my dog willfully disobey me” without ever becoming angry or giving up. Picture a small two-year old toddler, for example. You’re not in a struggle over who’s “Mom” but over what the child is allowed to do, and there’s a crucial difference in the two.

Using an alpha roll on a dog who is already submissive but disobeys because it doesn’t know what is expected of is destructive to the relationship between you and the dog. Likewise, using an alpha role on a dominant dog but not using any other positive reinforcements can alienate it. Most dogs never need to be alpha rolled in their lives.

Since most dogs are shorter than you, their natural tendency is to jump up to see you. It is also an expression of exuberance and happiness. However, you may be wearing your Sunday Best. The dog’s paws may be muddy. The puppy may grow too large. Some people are afraid of dogs. Train your dog not to jump on people. If you don’t mind your dog jumping on you, then train it to jump on you only when it’s “OK”.

In general, correct it immediately when it jumps on you, praise it when all four paws land back on ground. A helpful reinforcement is to give them a command and praise lavishly when they do it, e.g., “No! Brownie, sit! Good girl, what a good girl!”

You are trying to tell your dog to come here. It ignores you. You try again getting a bit more frustrated. No matter how much you shout at your dog it does not seem to react. There are simple dog training tricks that can make this work so that your dog will come to you immediately, every time.

First, it is important to understand that you dog is ignoring your commands because it doesn’t understand you. You may have tried to teach your dog this command already, and it may now be that what it is thinking you want is different from what you actually want.

I’m sure you’re as tired as I am of placing upturned laundry baskets and heaping pillows on the couches at night so the dogs don’t sleep up there. It’s a pain in the neck to clean couches, and even despite my best efforts to keep the dogs clean, they still leave a lot of dirt and grit wherever they sleep. Then I found a website selling a dog couch. I thought it was kind of an outlandish concept, but if I had to shampoo the couches one more time I was going to pull my hair out.

So I bought two dog couches and put them in the living room near mine. After a few more nights of upturned laundry baskets and heaped pillows, the dogs slept on their own couches and didn’t want to sleep on mine anymore!

Okay so dog training basics, well there is a lot to say but I will attempt to keep it brief. During my recent research into training my dog I found some every interesting information about dog training.

First of all it seems to be a generally accepted fact that a trained dog is a happy dog. Apparently dogs are like children in this way and crave rules and boundaries in the family unit. They like to know their place and what they are and are not allowed to do. This I found interesting, especially when this information was followed up with the information that much like children, dogs will test their boundaries with you to see what they can get away. I guess this makes sense when you think about it, especially when you realize that your dog actually does test your boundaries even after you have had him for 13 years. Each time you let him out he will run to the edge of where he is allowed to go and then look back to see if you are watching before contemplating whether or not to go further.

Training your dog; what fun this can be. Have you ever watch a person try to train their dog? It is quite comical I assure. When I was a young child and my mom and dad were training my dog, I always loved to watch; at least in the beginning. There is something immensely amusing about a grown adult spending hours on their knees talking to a dog that is staring at them with a look of bewilderment and probably wondering why every time they are told to stand up they are again told to sit down.

Training your dog is a long process and can get to be frustrating, however it is equally fun when you can get them to so things like roll over and shake hands. I always wanted a dog that would get my slippers or bring me the paper; of course while managing to get a minimal amount of drool on either one. Then there are the super cool dogs that do things like back flips with Frisbees and all those other cool tricks you see done by animals on animal planet.