How To Stop Your Dogs Excessive Barking

Barking is the dogs instinctive means of giving a warning and it would be against your interest to discourage it. However, once you have been alerted, your dog should realize that his job is done. So select a word of praise, such as Good Dog or Okay, or command such as quiet, and give your dog a pat to indicate that he must now be still.

Hysterical barking such as during a thunderstorm, can be treated by reassurance, companionship, distraction, or if all else fails by tranquilizers from your veterinarian. Barking at a strange object can be quickly stopped by showing him that there is nothing to fear.

Barking from boredom or in order to attract attention is best treated by eliminating the cause. If you give your dog plenty of attention and exercise, you can insist on quiet behavior the rest of the time. Obedience training is of great indirect benefit due to the self-discipline it imposes and the mental and physical activity it provides.

Whining, barking, or howling when left alone should not be tolerated. It is easier to prevent in a puppy than it is to correct in an adult dog. However, even a lonely barker can be cured in an afternoon or evening if you arm yourself with patience and whatever acting talent you possess.

You must pretend to leave your dog alone, telling him to Guard the house, and that you will be back soon. As soon as your dog starts to bark or howl, you must burst furiously into your home, saying Bad Dog or No! A single experience may be enough to make it clear to your dog that his barking displeases you.

When your dog is duly impressed by your dissatisfaction, you should forgive him, settle him down, tell him to Guard the House and leave again. Be patient and hope for the best. If your dog has not barked within 5 or 10 minutes, you can be almost certain that he has learned his lesson. But if he resumes his barking, you must repeat the entire scenario, and repeat it as often as necessary.

As a final scene, stay away for a brief time, and when he hasnt barked, return, greet him fondly and praise him. Then reward him with a treat or a walk, whichever he prefers. The next day you can test him by making a point of leaving him alone for a short period of time. Chances are that he will pass the test.

In the future, if you take the trouble to give him plenty of exercise beforehand, and opportunity to relieve himself, a diverting to or bone, water and food, whenever you have to leave your dog at home alone for an evening, he will never howl or bark without some justifiable reason.

A simple trick to stop your dog from barking with joy when you come home in the middle of the night is to give him his ball or bone or favorite toy. He cannot hold something in his mouth and bark at the same time. He may gurgle with delight, but this will not disturb the neighbors.

Randy Jones and his partner Brent Jones have been in the pet industry for a long time. Recently they formed http://www.joncopets.com. On the site, customers can shop for the latest dog clothes, dog collars, dog supplies and more for their best friend.

Dog Training: To Punish Or Not To Punish

Punishment is a controversial subject in dog training, though it is widely used by both traditional and positive trainers.

The most common punishment is positive punishment. It consists in stopping an undesired behavior by adding an unpleasant thing or situation. Therefore, leash tugs are positive punishments.

On the other hand, negative punishment consists in stopping an undesired behavior by removing a pleasant thing or situation. Thus, you would be applying negative punishment if you remove a food treat or a toy from your dog's sight.

Positive punishment is widely used by traditional trainers and seldom used by positive trainers. Negative punishment is mostly used by positive trainers and seldom used by traditional trainers.

Typical positive punishers in dog training are: a pinch from the prong collar, an unpleasant and perhaps painful sensation when the choke chain closes, the "No" command, water squirts on the dog's face, loud sounds produced by objects thrown near the dog, electric shocks produced by electric collars and electric fences, etc.

Typical negative punishers in dog training are: ignoring your dog, a food treat removed from the scene, a toy removed from the scene, the end of a game, the end of a walk, stopping the walk when the dog pulls the leash, etc.

Although punishment is so widely used to train dogs, even in positive training, most trainers are not aware of its risks and limitations. Both positive and negative punishments could produce collateral adverse effects which include stress, anxiety and a reduction of learning abilities. Besides, when used too often, punishments could also lead to shyness and/or aggression. Of course, negative punishment tend to have less (or at least less intense) adverse effects.

Another disadvantage of punishment is that it has no long term effects. While you can use punishment to stop your dog from doing an unwanted behavior, this does not ensure that the behavior's frequency will be reduced. Punished behaviors tend to be maintained when the punishment is not applied frequently. That is the reason why prong, choke and electric collars are used even on dogs that have already being trained.

Despite the short term span of punishment, punished behaviors' frequency seems to be reduced in dogs that have been trained in such way. However, this usually is an erroneous interpretation because those behaviors don't appear when the punisher (maybe the trainer) is present. Then, after the punisher has been removed, the frequency of those behaviors tends to increase again.

It is very easy to see what I explained in the previous paragraph. Just look for a traditional trained dog which has not been trained by his owner. The dog will work perfectly when the trainer is present but stop working when the trainer is absent. Therefore, you can infer that the dog experiences some kind of anxiety when the trainer is present, because that man is somehow associated with punishment.

This does not mean that traditional trainers are cruel or violent. Of course there are stupid and cruel guys who call themselves trainers, but most traditional trainers can train dogs that obey happily and without fear. However, to achieve this level of training while using punishment and negative reinforcement, you must be very experienced. It is not easy to become a good traditional dog trainer.

A similar situation occurs when using negative punishment. For instance, you can stop your dog from jumping on you just by ignoring him when that behavior is displayed. However, it takes just one reinforcing episode (giving attention to your dog when he jumps on you) to take back the unwanted behavior. Even worst, it is very likely that the jumping behavior will be strengthened by that reinforcing episode, so you will need much more time to retrain your dog.

Ok, at this point it seems that this article is just an anti-punishment propaganda. Please believe me, it is not such thing. Punishment could be useful to train animals, which has been proven by scientific studies on experimental psychology. However, it could also have really big drawbacks.

So, if you are thinking to use punishment to train your dog, please don't rely only on reading about it. Call an expert and ask him/her to teach you the proper way to use punishments. And please don't believe the false statement that "choke chains, prong collars and electric collars are not punishing devices, but corrective ones". They are punishers. Therefore, if you are going to use those devices to train your dog, learn it from an expert.

On the other hand, you have a lot of alternatives to train your dog without punishment. There are several proven methods to stop your dog from doing unwanted behaviors without using punishment: training an incompatible behavior, putting the unwanted behavior on command, reinforcing every behavior except the undesired one, changing the motivation, etc.

Rodrigo Trigosso is a biologist and professional dog trainer. His website at http://www.dog-training-tutorial.com provides objective and reliable information on dog training and behavior.

Watch Satellite TV On Computer Why Restrict To the TV?

It is possible and practical to watch satellite TV on computer with a fine quality PC and internet connection nowadays. There are literally thousands of satellite TV channels available to anyone through the computer and all one needs is the right piece of software to achieve that. Since this is so, everyone really does not need to restrict watching of satellite TV only to the TV set.

What PC satellite TV software can do is amazing as technology once again break new barriers. With the proper TV software package, it allows your computer to receive thousands of worldwide channels so that you can watch satellite TV on computer instead of the TV. In other words, you no longer are restricted and confined to the channels that your local satellite TV service provider gives to you in your TV package. Every satellite TV program you watch on your computer is delivered directly through your internet connection. As such, the number of channels available perpetually grows all the time.

But you may be interested to know what kind of satellite TV programs one can watch on their PCs should they choose to watch satellite TV on computer using PC satellite TV software. Since the exposure is worldwide, a person can be watching movies, news, LIVE games, sports events, music videos, TV series, educational and other entertainment programs from satellite TV stations in different countries like Australia, US, UK, Canada, Hong Kong, France, etc. Kids would be busy watching interesting discovery channels and kids cartoons especially during the holidays.

There are however things you need to prepare concerning your PC requirements in order for you to watch satellite TV on computer. For a start, you should ensure that your internet connection runs at 56k minimum. Anything lower than this means that you would not get maximum enjoyment out of your satellite TV viewing. TV picture and sound quality would be compromised. So go for broadband connection if you can afford to as you can then watch satellite TV on computer and really have a pleasurable experience.

Besides being able to watch numerous programs, the one major benefit to any satellite TV viewer is the cost savings. Compared to traditional satellite TV packages, the only cost involved to watch satellite TV on computer is the cost of the software. It is a one-time affair and you need not fork out any monthly fees to continue using it, unlike using conventional satellite TV providers. Once you pay and download the software, you can watch satellite TV on computer for free as long as you wish. Also, even if you want to watch some special channels like LIVE soccer or F1 sports, you need not pay any additional fee. So really, cost savings is one big factor that is driving more people to use PC satellite TV to watch satellite TV on PC.

Here is a quick tip for you if you intend to watch satellite TV on computer. Perhaps you are thinking of making an investment in this PC satellite TV software, but before that, please check if you have an existing contract with your service provider. Make sure that the termination does not carry any penalty so that you can have a peace of mind. Read more about this PC satellite TV software, its functions, etc at my TV blog before you make the choice to watch satellite TV on computer.

Davion Wong is a successful webmaster, author and fan of TV shows. Discover how you can instantly watch satellite TV on PC, tuning into hundreds of LIVE world channels of news, movies, music and kids program at http://Watch-Satellite-TV-On-PC.blogspot.com.