My 2 year old female chihuahua does these:

-Barks at people
-Bites us
-Charges and barks at us when we leave the room she is in
-Helps herself to OUR food
-Barks at the door
-Barks at the mailman
-Thinks she is the Alfa dog

How do I stop this bad behavior?
I've tried numerous times saying "NO!" but it doesn't work.

Forgive my candor but your dog behaves the way she does because she has what I call "Little Dog Syndrome". This is an obnoxious disorder caused when owners think a small dog's bad behavior – such as jumping on people or furniture – is "cute" and don't stop it. Every owner of a small dog should look at their dog and pretend it weighs 200 pounds. If that was done "Little Dog Syndrome" would be a thing of the past.

Firstly I recommend an obedience class with a PROFESSIONAL trainer.

You dog thinks she is the alpha dog because she most likely is. You stop this behavior by YOU becoming the alpha in your pack. To start, begin taking walks with the dog beside you or behind you. She should not be sniffing around, she should be walking forward with her head and tail both down. How much exercise is she getting? Little dogs often need MORE exercise than big dogs, not less.

Is your dog play biting to get your attention or is she latching on and breaking the skin? If she is play biting then all you do is yelp – loud, short and high pitched – cross your arms and turn away from her. If she continues to come after you walk away from her and SAY NOTHING. Teach her to SIT if she wants your attention. Make her sit, when she sits, pet and praise her. As soon as her butt comes off the floor stand straight up and make her sit again. She WILL learn.

If your dog is latching on and breaking the skin that's called aggression. If you can manage to usurp her place as alpha dog that may help. If not you WILL need to speak with a professional trainer and your vet.

Ditto with the charging you and barking when you leave the room. However, when you begin to leave the room and she behaves like that turn around and walk back in. You do NOT leave finally until she is CALM and being submissive.

When you dog barks at people and the mailman it's fear agression. She's going to bark to tell everyone "Look how tough I am! Back off!" and in the case of the mailman he does (he drops off the mail and leaves so your dog feels as if the barking scared him away). Time for a squirt bottle. When your dog barks squirt her in the back of the head with the squirt bottle. Don't say anything. It is VERY important to be consistent.

If your dog is helping herself to your food, stop letting her. She's a Chihuahua, not a Great Dane. There is NO reason why she should have access to your food, even if you're eating from a coffee table. If you're eating on the floor you need to stop letting her have access to your food. If she goes for your plate you stand up and walk towards her, she should back up. When she backs up you resume your seat. Do this repeatedly until she figures out she isn't going to get anything. When she is able to take your food she doesn't really have much reason to stop, does she?

Please consult a professional trainer as soon as possible. I also highly recommend to you the same books I recommend to the people adopting the dogs I foster in my house. Cesar's Way, by Cesar Millan and "The Loved Dog: The playful non-aggressive way to teach your dog good behavior" by Tamar Gellar. Both are very informative texts.

You need to take control of your house back. Your dog does not want to be the pack leader but you have forced her into it with your lack of leadership. "No" doesn't mean anything to a dog.

powered by Yahoo Answers

The supposed idea that an old dog cannot be taught new tricks is totally baseless. Whoever said that must have had no idea about dogs! Dogs are nothing but intelligent creatures and can very quickly learn new things provided he gets the opportunity. Do remember that when training, never hit, yell or curse or punish unnecessarily as it will only make them retreat. Treat your dog just like you would treat your child and surely he will listen, just like your child.

When training your dog, keep a single verbal expression, volume or tone. If you change your tone it will dis empower the dog. If you use a particular expression to call the dog, and then later switch to another expression, the dog will get confused as to what command is for which purpose.

Several tips that you should consider include rewarding the dog for good behavior with nice treats and also giving much praise and lots of patting to make sure that he does not rely just on treats for good obedience. It would be good to enroll your pet in an obedience course of some sort as this kind of a course will teach him some extra practice on interacting with people and other animals also.

When your dog is being trained, do not put in a cramped syllabus. Spread your training sessions over a period of time and slowly inculcate the principles in him. Dogs generally have a short attention span and hence tend to get bored quickly. Keeping training sessions short would be a great idea. Here are some of the basic and easy commands that can be taught to you dog.

The come command is the basic. Use some toy to make him come closer to you. Give a verbal command and as he comes closer shower some praises. Once he is near you, hold onto the collar for about thirty seconds and then release.

The next command would be sit. Press his backside down gently and say “sit”. By placing a treat above his head you can also force him to sit as dogs will tend to sit on their rear when forced to look up. Do praise and also reward.

??????The third would be down. It is to get the dog in a sitting position. Guide his legs such that they are straight down until he lies flat. During this process, repeat the words, “Down”. Keep him in that position for thirty seconds and then treat and praise.

Stay is an important command. Hold your hand out during this command and take a few steps reverse and say “stay”. If he moves say “No”. If he retains his position then praise him and also give him a treat. Do remember to create a release command in a similar manner so that he can move once the command is complete.

By maintaining persistency and patience you can soon train him on all these commands and much more. Praising and treating the dog is the key to stimulating him to do more. With this kind of an inspiration he can easily be trained to do many things, even somersaults perhaps!

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/teaching-your-dog-tricks-tips-to-train-your-dog-successfully-753409.html

A crucial and beneficial task to undertake with your dog is to train it properly. Training allows you to connect with your dog through communication. This connection is vital in directing your dog to follow your commands, as well as establishing a good lifelong relationship. Training is not the panacea for all behavior issues, but it’s a good foundational start.

Dogs are definitely social beings, but behave like wild animals when not provided the proper training. This means your dog will bite you, fight with other dogs, dig in the yard, bark too much, damage your property and dirty your home. These canine behavioral issues are actually normal dog activities, but the timing and the subject of focus is all wrong. To illustrate this, a dog must do its business outside, but does not wait and goes on the rug instead. Perhaps the dog does not just bark at a suspicious prowler, but barks the entire night instead. Or, the dog prefers to gnaw on your shoes instead of the toys you’ve provided. The critical message you must impart to your dog is that these behaviors need to be redirected to the proper time and place.

Training establishes the pecking order or “Alpha status” too. Your dog shows respect to you just through simple compliance for commands like “sit” and “come.” However, you and your dog should derive rewards and fun times from training. Proper training makes living together a pleasurable and rewarding experience. The well-trained canine actually can be given more freedom and is a much more confident pet as compared to a dog with no boundaries on behavior.

Your home is the venue where you should do the training. Don’t pick an area with a lot of distractions for your dog; it should be an area your dog is used to. Once you are confident that your dog has mastered a few compliance commands, you can then move on to different locations. Remember that you want people who visit to see your dog comply with all your commands. What’s the point if your dog sits on command in the backyard, but does not do so when visitors are at your home? The big test of dog training success is to see your dog respond to commands in public places.

Dog obedience training lessons should be short on time, but long on results. Scheduling long and meticulous dog training sessions will only become tedious and unproductive in the end. The best way to schedule dog training is to integrate it within day-to-day activities. Your dog training sessions should be structured so that both you and your pet derive benefit from it. Integrate dog training sessions during activities your dog loves, and your dog will associate those favorite activities with the training. From your dog’s perspective, it should see that everything is training and training is everything.

You will find that the most profound theme in that dog training should be rewarding to your dog for the appropriate responses. The speed at which the dog learns is directly associated with the frequency of rewards. This means that practice will involve rewarding good behaviors in quick succession. Never take your dog’s good behavior lightly and make sure that praise is given quickly. If a dog barks too much, it always gets attention, but we fail to notice our dog acting properly at times. It is human nature to focus on the bad behaviors and ignore the good. But with dogs, a system of proper actions and quick rewards are vital for the prevention of future problems.

dogs get exasperated too when all they hear is, “No, get down, bad dog!” The constant nagging also has a tendency to make a dog apathetic to your commands. If there is a consistent system of rewards for appropriate behavior, then when your dog behaves badly and gets scolded, it has a greater impact. Remember to not just scold your dog, but show what you desire from it and immediately reward the behavior when done right. For example, you can show your dog its own toys right after scolding it for chewing on some household item. You can get excited about the dog’s toys and give a reward when the dogs play with them.

The tone of your voice, if used properly, is all that is needed for correcting bad behavior. Stick to reprimands that are concise, short and quick, and avoid nagging. Do not scold your dog if you have not caught the wrong behavior right away, as it will have little meaning after some time has passed. Late reprimands do little good and can even worsen the wrong behavior in your dog. Inappropriate reprimanding can make your dog aggressive, timid, afraid of the raised hand, and apt to chew and bark excessively.

Jason Ryan
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/how-to-train-a-dog-effectively-139294.html

Some puppies are really submissive with my dog, he's around 11 months. They like to roll over on their backs and my dog likes to put his mouth on their heads or sometimes put his mouth on their ears. Is this him being aggressive? I try to stop it before it happens. If it is aggressive behavior.. is there any tips I can have about stopping the behavior?

No, he's being dominant, not aggressive. When he's snarling, growling, showing his teeth and his shackles go up, then he's feeling aggressive.

If he seems to be very dominant in nature (with ALL dogs), then just keep a close eye on him around other dominant dogs. That is when fights sometimes start, when neither dog will submit and they'll battle it out.

You'll know when to step in, if it gets nasty. If you don't know the other dog (ie. a stray), waterhose works best to break up a fight.

powered by Yahoo Answers

Is your prized garden now riddled with embarrassing holes? Has it become impossible—and expensive—to maintain your flowerbed? Is your yard starting to feel like an archeological dig site? If you answered yes to any of these questions, your dog digging behavior is already a problem. You need to learn how to put a stop to this once and for all.

To stop your dog digging behavior, you must first understand the reason behind this behavior. When you find out the root of his actions, you will be more effective in training him to stop it.

There are plenty of reasons for dog digging behavior. Some breeds, like terriers, are more prone to digging than others. For most dogs, however, it’s a fun exercise because it’s very stimulating, with all the smells, creatures, and treasures they may uncover. Bored and lonely dogs tend to dig for lack of anything to do, or out of separation anxiety.

Dogs are social beings. They also dig to escape, sometimes to look for human companionship, sometimes to be with other dogs. Dog digging behavior for escape can also mean that your dog wants to look for a mate. Dogs can also dig for shelter—if they are cold, they dig up a pit for warmth; if they are hot, they dig up the cool, moist earth to lie in.

Digging is also instinctive behavior left over from when dogs still lived in the wild. While they no longer hunt, sometimes dogs still feel the need to hide leftovers, like bones, for later consumption. Additionally, dog digging behavior is also a natural way for dogs to keep their nails trim.

Here are some tips for you to stop your dog digging behavior:

-Identify the circumstances that set off this behavior, and change it. If you find that he is digging to protect himself from the elements, for example, improve the shelter and other provisions, like water, you give him.

-Give him additional stimulus and activities to expend his pent-up energy to stop dog digging behavior. You can start with some nice doggie toys and longer daily walks. Take him to the dog park to mix with other dogs.

-Give him quality time. If your dog digging behavior is due to loneliness, all he needs is a little extra attention. Pay extra care to his grooming. If you have to be away for long periods of time, give him plenty of things to do.

-Barricade specific areas to keep your dog out. Build a wire mesh fence around flowerbeds, or cover prohibited areas with bricks or small rocks. In time, he will learn these areas are off-limits.
-Deter him from off-limit areas. One good trick is to sprinkle some ground red pepper on the part of your garden you want to protect. You can squirt him with water or turn on the sprinklers when you catch him digging where he’s not supposed to. Likewise, you can also use any loud noise, like banging a coffee can to stop your dog digging behavior. Just make sure to do this when you actually catch him in the act. Be consistent.

– If your dog must dig, especially if you have a digging breed, you can designate an area for him to do so. You can give him a corner of your yard for this purpose. Or, you can build him his own sandbox. Dig it up and bury some doggie treats for him to uncover. Praise him when he digs there.

-To stop dog digging behavior, you may want to try commercial products that are available in pet stores. There’s also another tactic you might want to try: when you fill in the holes, add some of his feces into the filling. You may find it extreme, maybe, but you’ll see it will help you stop your dog digging behavior.

If the above tips to stop dog digging behavior don’t work, do not lose hope, it only means you need more effective techniques to transform your dog’s behavior. Did you know that you can put an end to the stress and annoyance of your dog’s behavior problems by using techniques that will give you immediate results? Discover dog obedience training secrets to stop your dog’s behavior problems visit .