Pet Training

By Mikkel Becker, via Vetstreet

Q: My dog performs well when he's with his training instructor in class, but I can't get him to listen to me at home. What should I do?

A: Dogs often do well in a classroom setting because they're consistently interacting with their owners - plus they get multiple hours of practice working on certain behaviors, along with predictable rewards for performing the tasks. At home, the interaction between a dog and his owner is often less practiced or rewarding.

Why Home Training Can Be Unpredictable
Whether it's interruptions from kids or dishes that need to be washed, the home environment is full of distractions for both dogs and owners. This is why many people sign up for a training class in the first place - it's simply too difficult to really focus at home.

SEE ALSO: Teach Your Dog to Stop Begging

And although canines may learn to perform given behaviors in the classroom, owners often don't invest enough time to follow up with the training at home, so their dogs may not comprehend what's being asked of them outside the classroom.

We know they're called the Feline Olympic Games, but if you think anything about the training involved is a "game," you're barking up the wrong tree! (Actually, barking up trees is a Canine Olympics event, so please excuse the expression.)

Look, you can't just decide as a 2-year-old adult that you want to be a feline Olympic athlete. You need to spend your whole life preparing. You need to make that decision and start training at 8 weeks old... at the lastest!

Look at these kittens. Do you think they messing around? Heck no! They do this agility training every single day. They're dedicating their lives to their sport. This ain't no walk in the park, jack.

Look at this dog balancing on that chain like that. That's amazing. How does a dog have that kind of patience? How does it find its center of gravity? How much training did this take? Yesterday when I was making breakfast, I bent down to pick up something on the floor and I whacked my head against the counter, yet here's a dumb ol' dog balancing itself on an unsteady, swinging chain.

Oh my god, it's on its hind legs now? That's just showing off.

By Gina Spadafori, via Vetstreet

What compels people get a dog only to keep it isolated outside, away from the family? I have often wondered this as I walk my dogs down streets lined with fences behind which lonely outdoor dogs bark as we go by.

I don't know what they look like and can only guess their size by the deepness of their voices. But I know what the lives of these dogs are too often like. They are animals born to be part of a social structure, a pack or a family, yet this is denied them. They spend their lives on the outside, looking in.

SEE ALSO: Do Any Dogs Need Sweaters or Coats? Only These 3 Do

The experts say many of these dogs will never really bond with owners who interact with them so little.When the puppy is no longer cute and the children grow tired of the care they promised to provide, when the destructiveness escalates or the neighbors complain about the noise, it's often just easier to dump the dog than solve the problem.

I have always had difficulty understanding why people want to keep dogs outside. If keeping a beautiful house and yard are of the utmost importance to you, then don't get a dog. If you know someone in your family can't abide a dog in the house, for whatever reason, then don't get a dog. If you can't let a dog be part of your family, then don't get a dog.

Have you ever wished that your dog could talk? If so, did you really think it through? This might be one of those classic be-careful-what-you-wish-for situations. Even with the mental capacity for language and the desire to speak it, it's not as if the physical facility would allow for easy or coherent speech. You'd probably get only a string of frustrating whines and grunts, and then ask your pooch to please just go back to barking.