Celebrate January 2023 by learning to train and care for your loyal furry friend

Dogs have been known as “man’s best friend” for a long. It traced 15,000 years back to the Bonn-Oberkassel dog, buried alongside two humans. This solid, lasting friendship is not built solely on training but on learning to have a good time with your Dog. Dogs love mental stimulation – Training allows them to learn to use their brain.

Lots of people adopt dogs and puppies during the holiday season. Often, this love fades away soon due to a lack of awareness of the Dog’s well-being and training. This makes January the most suitable time for trainers, dog owners, and canine experts to celebrate their love for their furry friends by sharing what they know. The Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) initiated this fantastic opportunity as the National Train Your Dog Month campaign in January 2010.

Build a relationship with your dog

When people get a dog, they have the best intentions. Things still go wrong as new pet parents often push themselves too hard to make things right for the Dog and themselves. Due to Inexperience, they often wrongly interpret the Dog’s behaviour – like aggression, fear, shyness, lashing out, and hyperactivity. Using isolation, yelling, shock collars, or other temporary fixes might turn things worse – the Dog might end up in a shelter or on the street. This is psychologically devastating for the Dog and the pet parent to recover.

Awareness of your Dog’s needs and behaviour is the first step for the pet parent or the canine professional to build a relationship. Training is the opportunity to create a bonding, make some memories and, most importantly, spend some happy time with your Dog.

Take some time to understand the Behaviour and Psychology of your pet from an expert.

 

Things to consider while caring for a Dog

A. Dog First Aid
Accidents and emergencies are unpredictable for dogs. Understanding Dog First Aid is essential to care for your best friend.

B. Diet and Nutrition
There are six essential nutrients for any dog – water, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins. These essential nutrients are required as part of the Dog’s regular diet and are involved in all the body’s vital functions. Without adequate nutrition, your Dog would be unable to maintain muscle tone, build and repair muscles, teeth, and bone, perform routine daily activities with ease or fight-off infection. Proteins provide a source of energy and help with muscle function and growth.

C. Sitting and Dog Walking
Your pet needs to burn excess energy, lose a few pounds, alleviate problem behaviours like chewing and barking due to boredom, give them potty breaks, help with loneliness as they get one-on-one attention, and develop social skills and relieves.

D. Pet CPR
Like humans (CPR), pet CPR is a life-saving technique used to resuscitate an animal. Learning how to perform pet CPR can help to keep the animals in your life healthy and prepare you to care for them during emergencies.

E. Natural Remedies For Health
When your Dog feels under the weather, your vet should be the first person you call. Minor symptoms may say a severe underlying medical condition, in which do-it-yourself remedies could be ineffective or cause more harm than good. But some home remedies can be beneficial if your Dog has a minor ailment, such as dry skin or a mild upset stomach.

F. Stop Dog Attacks
To reduce the number of injuries from dog attacks, we should educate adults and children about bite prevention, and dog owners should practise responsible dog ownership.

Understanding dog body language is crucial to help avoid being attacked by people of all ages. Know the signs that dogs give to state that they’re feeling anxious, afraid, threatened or aggressive, and be sure to respect the Dog’s feelings about interacting with or being touched by strangers.

G. Leash Training
Dogs develop analytical, strategic and social skills when training off the leash. Allowing them to explore, they become very aware of their surroundings. Learning through this technique can nurture an independent, alert and responsible canine.

H. Stop Dog Barking
Once you know why your Dog is barking, you can make lifestyle changes to prevent barking and teach alternative behaviours.

I. Feed Your Dog A Raw Diet
Many health benefits come with feeding dogs a raw food diet, like superior joint and bone health, strengthened immune system, improved skin and softer, shinier coat, better dental health, reduced stool volume and odour, enhanced reproductive health, and decrease body odour.

Plan to spend some good and fun time doing some dog training during this National Train Your Dog Month.

An opportunity to develop a skill for a side hustle or a new career path

1. Running A Dog Training Business
Transforming a dog into a friendly family member (as a result of your hard work) is rewarding. Professional growth – You can work alone and build deeper connections to your local community.

2. Become A Dog Trainer
If you love dogs and have a well-trained dog, you may have the talent and passion required to become a certified dog trainer.

3. Become A Dog Walker
You can offer this profitable service once you are confident about communicating with dogs and understanding their psychology. With a few tips and tricks on setting up a business, you can be up and running with dogs in no time.

However, the opportunities are limitless as long as you know how to have fun with Dogs while keeping their well-being a priority.