I Picked My 2…

Mar 26, 2010 // by Paul // No Comments

A few weeks ago I made a blog post about only being able to teach your dog two skills. We received a lot of great feedback from our readers with their input on what skills they would teach their dogs if they could only pick two commands. Now it’s my turn, if I could only pick two things to teach my dog, they would be heel and down; and here’s why.

Heel - Many people think heel is simply walking with their dogs, and it is, but it also can be so much more. Heel can and really should be taught not only when walking, but rather as a position relative to your body. This means that regardless of movement, starting position, distance or anything else, heel means to get into a certain position. Because of this extended definition, heel can be used when walking with your dog, but can also be used as a recall command as well!

Down - I chose down because this skill has a lot of control built into it. Not only does down mean put your belly on the ground, but it also means keep your belly on the ground until you are told to do something else, so down is also your “stay” command as well. So why chose down instead of sit? Remember, we have to enforce every command we give to our dogs, so unless you expect your dog to sleep in a sit and relax at home always in a sit, down seems like a better option to me.

In my opinion, there are no two other skills that give us more useful control of our dogs then these two commands. If you have another view on this subject, please respond with a comment, I would love to hear different perspectives from everyone!

So what’s the point of all this? Yes, obviously we teach more then just two commands to our clients and their dogs. The point is that obedience should be used as a functioning tool that allows us to control our dogs in a wide variety of situations. The more we build into our commands, the more our dogs will get out of them and the more control we will have over them. Increased freedom comes with increased control, and that is always a good thing!

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Kong Wobbler

Mar 22, 2010 // by Paul // 1 Comment

I recently had a chance to play with one of the newest products from the Kong Company, The Wobbler. The Kong Wobbler is an interactive dog toy that is a lot of fun, check out the video to see some dogs playing with The Wobbler.

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2010 Austin’s Fittest Dogs

Mar 11, 2010 // by Paul // No Comments

For the past two years, Austin Fit Magazine has held a contest to find Austin’s Fittest Dogs. All of the 18 dogs featured in the write up exemplify health and fitness and have an active and outdoor lifestyle; you know, all the things that dogs love! Just like last year’s winners, there are some Unleashed Unlimited clients’ dogs in the on the 2010 Austin’s Fittest Dogs winners list!

So what does it take to be one of Austin’s Fittest Dogs? Besides having an active lifestyle and a love for the outdoors, off-leash control is probably the most useful. We all know that dogs really can’t have fun on a leash, I mean when was the last time you saw a dog catch a Frisbee, do agility, or go swimming while on a leash? If you are looking for off leash dog training in Austin, contact Unleashed Unlimited, we can help get you and your dog off leash and having fun!

To see all of Austin’s Fittest Dogs, be sure to pick up the March 2010 issue of Austin Fit Magazine, and if you enjoyed this entry, don’t forget to subscribe to our dog training blog. You will be automatically notified as soon a new entry is made.

If You Could Only Pick 2…

Mar 7, 2010 // by Paul // 9 Comments

I’m sure we have all heard the term less is more. So staying with that theme, if you could only pick two skills to teach your dog (any two skills at all), what would you teach and why?

Feel free to leave your responses in the comment area of this post, and in our next post I will post and explain my answer and discuss some of the other submissions as well.

EDIT: the second part to this post can be found here.

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