Ginger is the sweetest, smartest, most wonderful dog in the whole world - well of course you are going to think that, she's yours! If you hope the rest of the world will someday notice how clever and wonderful she is, you will need to train her. Nothing will get on potential adoring fans' nerves more than a poorly behaved dog. Before starting the Ginger Fan Club, and get a fan base, you will have to teach her ways to show on the outside how fabulous you know her to be on the inside.

Training Your Pup
The decision to train your dog is a big one, but is most certainly a necessary one. The basic commands - sit, stay and lie down, are completely essential in communicating with your Ginger (regardless of breed or size). Anything beyond that is just a bonus, or is it? Above and beyond commands ensuring you and your dog find a genuine understanding between yourselves, you two may actually find yourselves surfing the same wavelength and speaking the same language - in a manner of speaking.

Basic Commands
One important thing to bear in mind is that dogs are not nearly as complicated creatures as we are. We over complicate things in fact, sometimes to the point of confusion for your dog. That is why the expression, "KISS" is so poignant when it comes to training your dog. Keep It Simple, Sweetie!

We are all familiar with the basic commands a dog should learn in order for them to be introduced to their perspective fans.

Sit
This is a fun one. It will have you pushing down on Ginger's butt for hours begging, coaxing and tearing your hair out for her to sit. When she finally does, bust out the champagne, because this is one of the most important steps to having a trained pooch.

(Lie) Down
Down and lie down are different. The command "Down" is used when a dog is jumping up or onto a person and you want him or her to cease and desist. Lie down tells a dog who is already sitting (because remember, you have mastered this one) to now go down into a lying down position.

Stay
Stay is a simple command that tells your Ginger to stay where she is and continue what she's doing regardless of where you go. This is an especially important one, second only to sit because the moment you tell Ginger to stay and you leave the room, she will want to follow you.

Come, Heel, Roll Over, Good Outside
"Come" instructs, or sometimes permits, Ginger to move from where she is to come to you. "Heel" tells her to keep pace with you during a walk or to go from her seated position to an upright one. "Roll over" tells her to roll around in her lying down position. Potty or house training is an entirely separate article, but once you have that one down, it is always encouraging for Ginger to hear, "Good Outside."

More Advanced
The greatest barrier in training dogs seems obvious. Dogs don't speak English, German, Hebrew, French or any other language. Each word is just a sound, with no context, no familiarity, and no relation. Your job, as Ginger's trainer, is to help her make an association between the sound and what it is you want her to do. This will require practice, repetition, and, you guessed it, patience. With this aspect of training, it is important to note that if Ginger isn't getting it, it is not due to her lack of intelligence. It is due to your inability to create the association between the sound and your wishes.

Nouns
Amazingly, dogs are capable of learning vast quantities of nouns. Not just the basics, like, "ball," "frisbee" or "bone," but sophisticated, complex things like, "newspaper," and "purple duck." One boarder collie purportedly knows over 1,000 words, and learned them over the course of just a few years. Ginger can learn any noun you can distinguish from the rest of the noise that comes out of your mouth, if she can tie the sound to the object in her mind.

Verbs
In dog training lingo, "verbs" is pretty much synonymous with "tricks." Beyond the basics, verbs include things like fetching, dancing or shaking. You could make Ginger do a little "rear" motion with her front paws and call it, "Silver." You can teach her to play dead, or play speed bump where she lies flat with her paws tucked under her. Ginger could learn to scoot backwards thru your legs in response to the word "reverse" if you can get the association between the motion and the action through your head. The sky is the limit for you and Ginger.

Cons
Training Ginger will be a commitment. It will take time and effort and great patience. Also, someone else's ignorance, possibly rewarding her for the wrong thing or something similar, can do unintentional damage that will set you back days in your training.

You have to remember that you and your dog are in this together. You and Ginger are a team, helping build tools to communicate with each other. The key to training is association. Since you and Ginger don't speak the same language, you must help her associate a sound with an object or an action, and chances are, with right work ethic, will power, and determination, she can learn it. And once she does, you can officially introduce her to her new fans who will adore her as much as you do.

Among the different practices and exercises related to pet caring, one of the most exciting and gratifying is the training of our new puppy.

Whereas puppy training and dog training in general are quite the same thing, there are some very important points that we should also consider carefully when it comes to train the behavior and obedience of our little dog.

One of the first things we should bear in mind is the similitude between a puppy and a baby. None of us would expect an infant to learn lots of different and complicated things overnight even if we are the best teachers in the world. A similar thing happens with puppies, because they are newborn dogs and need some time to adapt to their new environment and to understand what they should do and what they should not.

Therefore, a very good piece of advice is that we need to be patient and tolerant with our puppy. On the other hand, we want to correct their bad tendencies, but we should assume a kind and gentle attitude when doing that. Why? Because if we rebuke our puppy or treat it badly, shouting and moving violently, the little dog will consider us as its foes and not as its friends. That would be very negative in our future relation. For that reason, we must correct our puppy with soft movements and with a gentle tone of voice. In addition fo that, we should never forget to show our satisfaction, when the puppy acts according to our expectations, by fondling it and playing for a little while with our little friend.

Another advice for every puppy trainer to bear in mind is the need for being brief and simple when trying to teach his or her puppy. Once again patience, gentleness and tolerance will play a crucial role if we want our puppy to learn the behavior habits we are suggesting to it.

In addition to this, we ought to build a friendly relationship with our puppy dog. We can do that by combining cushy training activities with some little games. This will produce a balanced relationship based on confidence, and this way our puppy will always be willing to remain with us and carry out our bidding.

Bearing in mind all these tips and setting them into practice, we will be able to see our puppy learning progressively, day by day. Our little dog will, this way, become a very nice and beloved companion for all our family.

Isn't it nice to have a dog that you can easily order around and it will directly follow you? These kinds of dogs are one in a million, or two million. But, whatever kind of dog you have, you can have a follower of a dog if you can train it well.

Right timing. This pertains to the right age of the dog when you are going to train him. Also, this will refer to the right times of the day that you are going to train your dog and how long the trainings will be.

Usually, it is recommended that you start training your dog at ages of about five to eight weeks. But, do not get too excited and start very early and before those ages. You will only waste your time, and worse, exhaust your puppy.

If you have the time, you can train your dog every day. This can give you results in a faster rate. Also, take note of the amount of time that you will be allocating for the training. Although it is your goal to make your dog learn as many tricks as soon as possible, you can only put in several minutes in a day for this training. This is so that you will not tire your pet.

Give treats. The most effective method used by dog trainers is with the use of dog treats whenever the dog reaches a certain milestone in your training.

Using positive reinforcement or giving rewards to dogs lets them understand that that action is rewarded because it is correct. So, they will tend to repeat that action as indicated in order to receive more rewards in the form of dog treats.

Even praising your dog is not futile. This will add more to the physical reward that you are providing it.

Consistency is key. Give commands with the same actions each and every time. This is the only way that your dog will learn. So, you need to take note of the action that you are making when you are telling it to 'sit', 'roll over', etc.

Stay in line. This means that whenever you are training your dog, your attention should be towards your dog, 100%. This is to make sure that your dog is tuned in to what you will be ordering him to do. If you are doing something else, you will only distract your dog and it won't know what it is supposed to do.

Be friendly. Use a tone of voice that is non-threatening. However, it should be firm. It is just like using a voice that you use to command another person.

And make sure to keep your cool. Do not lose patience and end up hurting your dog. When you are set to train your dog by yourself, you should be ready to put in countless hours just to teach him one trick. If you are not prepared to do this, you should consider hiring a dog trainer to do this for you.