Tips, Tools & Deals for National Train Your Dog Month

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National Train Your Dog Month Tips and Tools

Did you know that January is National Train Your Dog Month? To help celebrate, and give you some ideas if you are just getting started or want to brush up on your skills, I’ve put together a roundup of tips, tools and ideas to help!

Puppy Socialization and Training

Start early! According to Debbie McKnight, a PetSmart training expert, “Before 12 weeks is the best window for meeting new people, other dogs and taking in new experiences that will inform puppies’ future behavior and reactions.” Puppies that socialize with other puppies, dogs and humans develop into healthy, confident dogs. A dog that hasn’t been properly socialized may startle easily, bark at a certain type of person or clothing or react poorly to other new experiences in the future. This type of interaction is especially important during the winter months, when dogs spend a lot of time indoors.

training puppies and dogs

Puppy Playtime: In honor of January’s National Training Month, PetSmart is hosting Puppy Playtime each Sunday from 2 – 3 at all PetSmart locations. Pet parents are invited to bring their dogs (2 years and younger) to have leash-free play time in gated area of the store! It’s just $10 – no registration needed and no long-term requirements, pet parents are invited to just bring their pup and enjoy the fun!

puppy starter kit

Puppy Starter Kit: If you’ve recently adopted a puppy, or know someone who has, be sure to check out this Puppy Starter Kit. It’s only $19.99 and you receive almost $200 worth of products, coupons & services to help you and your new fur kid get started. In addition to answering common Puppy Parent issues like puppy nutrition, potty training & chewing, pet parents will find great savings on puppy essentials like food, grooming & care.  This kit includes vouchers for:

  • FREE Bag of Specialty Puppy food (up to $15)
  • FREE 1-Hour Puppy Orientation Seminar
  • FREE Puppy Bath, Brush & More
  • FREE Banfield Veterinary Consultation
  • FREE Doggie Day Camp Visits (2 sessions – new campers only)
  • Coupons for discounts on Microchipping, Gear, ID Tags + More

 Training Tips for Dogs of Any Age

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Four FREE Kindle Books About Puppy & Dog Training

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free dog training books

Did your family get a new dog or puppy recently or have you made a New Year’s resolution to work on some training you’ve been meaning to get around to? Take a sec and snag these FREE eBook downloads about puppies and dog training while they are available at no cost over at Amazon. You can read them on a Kindle or any tablet, PC, laptop, Smartphone or other web-enabled device using one of the free Kindle Reading Apps.

Remember that once you own the book, it’s added to your library and is yours to keep and read whenever you have time, but they don’t stay free for long so hurry on over and download them now! Always verify price still shows $0.00 BEFORE completing each transaction, since prices change quickly and without notice.

Free Kindle eBooks about Dog Training:

The Best Dog Tricks on the Planet: 106 Amazing Things Your Dog Can Do on Command

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best dog tricks book

Wouldn’t it be great if you could teach your dog to bring you the newspaper, get you a tissue when you sneeze, and even help sort the laundry? These are just a few of the fun and amazing tricks you and your dog can learn from the new book The Best Dog Tricks on the Planet: 106 Amazing Things Your Dog Can Do on Command by celebrity dog trainer Babette Haggerty.

sort laundry dog trick

Starting with basic Building Blocks, and then moving on to more advanced and original tricks, the book includes detailed photos and step-by-step instructions to teach you how to teach your dog to do some really amazing stuff including:

  • Bring Me the Ringing Phone
  • Wipe Your Feet
  • Turn the Lights On and Off
  • Open the Door
  • Balance an Egg on Your Nose
  • Strum a Guitar

Daisy and I have skipped ahead to Chapter 4 Circus Tricks and are going to surprise Woof Woof Papa with the Army Crawl trick for Christmas morning if we can learn it in time. Since he’s an Army veteran, I thought that would be so cute! (Hopefully he doesn’t decide that NOW is a good time to start catching up on reading my recent blog posts! LOL)

As the author points out, training your dog to do tricks isn’t just for the entertainment value or even just so that you can have a well-behaved dog. More importantly, it also creates a strong bond between you and helps your dog learn boundaries, makes them happier, more confident and relaxed. Don’t we ALL want that for our fur kids?

This book makes a great gift idea for any dog lover on your list, so you might want to snag a few extra copies to have on hand in addition to one for yourself. The book is so entertaining and easy to follow that it’s perfect for anyone from your Tweens to Grandma & Grandpa! It would also make a thoughtful Thank You gift for your dog’s favorite groomer, pet sitter, or other important pet person in their life.

dog trick book back cover

You can get it at Amazon in both Kindle and Paperback formats. I love the printed version for the coffee table, since it’s fun for people to flip through and try out when they visit, but I’m also thinking of downloading the Kindle version so that I can have the detailed training tips with me on my phone when Daisy & I are out at the park, too!

101 Amazing Things To Do With Your Dog + More FREE Kindle Books About Pets & Animals

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If you search carefully, you’ll find that Amazon frequently offers different Kindle books for free as a way to promote new titles and help readers build up their reading library. As often as we can, I like to put together a list of the top FREE Kindle Books about pets and animals to save you the hassle of hunting down the latest free offerings for dog and pet lovers. The great thing about the Free Kindle Books is that once you add them to your reading library, they are yours to keep and read anytime, even after they return to regular price. And,you can read Kindle Books on just about any SmartPhone, Tablet, PC or device…you don’t even need to own a Kindle!

6 free kindle pet books

If you do have a Kindle, you’re all set. If not, then just download the free Kindle Reading App for your iPad, Windows PC, Android phone or just about any other device. Remember that prices change quickly and frequently at Amazon, so be sure to verify that the price is still $0.00 before completing your transaction.

6 FREE Kindle Books About Pets and Animal Care

Chaser, The Dog Who Knows A Thousand Words #Chaser1000 Book Review

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If you’re anything like me and most pet parents, you probably think your fur kid is pretty doggone smart. We all know from personal experience that dogs are way smarter than the average person gives them credit for…but wait until you meet Chaser! Thanks to our sponsor, BlogPaws, I was able to get my paws on an advance review copy of the soon to be released book, Chaser — Unlocking The Genius Of The Dog Who Knows A Thousand Words by John W. Pilley.

chaser dog book

It’s possible you’ve already heard about Chaser the Border Collie in the news or on TV and YouTube. She’s famous for understanding more words than any other dog on record. In addition to common nouns like house, ball, and tree, she has memorized the names of more than 1,000 toys (Daisy is pretty envious of a dog with THAT many!) and can retrieve any of them on command.

Based on that learning, she and her owner John Pilley, have moved on even further, demonstrating her ability to understand sentences with multiple elements of grammar and to learn new behaviors by imitation. Her owner, the author of this new book, is a retired psychology professor from Wofford College in South Carolina and does an excellent job throughout the book of explaining much of the science and psychology behind such successful dog training, using fun and interesting stories involving both Chaser and his previous dog, the much beloved Yasha.

In addition to his academic knowledge, Pilley incorporates the stories and wisdom of farmers, shepherds and Border collie trainers, giving the reader great insight into how the best trainers use the power of instinct to foster a dog’s creative problem solving ability. It’s a cool way to think about dog training and draws the distinction between teaching a skill or trick versus “creative teaching”. I love the quote he shares about this from Arthur Allen who wrote Border Collies in America,  “Try to make it a fifty-fifty proposition of you trying to understand your dog while your dog is trying to understand you.”

In addition to really getting to know Chaser, the author, his wife Sally and the rest of their family, there’s also lots of storytelling in this book, which I loved.  A few of my favorites are the story of how Chaser got her name, how Chaser became a media sensation and “went viral” and “Chaser Goes To Washington”.

The book is both entertaining and informative, and though most of us won’t have the amount of time or patience Pilley did to spend working with Chaser, and not every dog is as smart or interested in learning as Chaser, any dog lover will find something in this book that helps them gain a greater understanding of, and appreciation for their own dog.

You can learn more and buy the book here. You can follow Chaser the Border Collie on Facebook and on Twitter.