Author: Irith Bloom, CPDT-KSA

As much as we love cuddling up with our dogs, people often ask me how to train dogs to stay off furniture. Teaching pups a specific cue that gives them permission to get on furniture helps ensure that your wet or muddy dog doesn’t ruin your upholstery or bother your guests. Below, I discuss some ways to help keep dogs off furniture, whether you are there or not. While I focus on “the couch,” the same rules can apply to other furniture, like a bed, a table or a chair.

Trick or Treat, Meet Irith! My name is Irith (pronounced “Ee-reet”). I’m a certified professional animal trainer based on the west side of Los Angeles. When I’m not helping clients or speaking at seminars, I spend my time with my husband and our wonderful, nearly 14-year-old English Shepherd, Franklin. Franklin is a rescue. When we first got him, he had some pretty troubling habits. One of them was barking at the doorbell. This behavior can make holidays like Halloween pretty uncomfortable. The first Halloween we had Franklin, I considered pretending nobody was home, to avoid people ringing the doorbell. However, as a professional who works with animals, I knew there were other options for how to train your dog not to bark. When I’m dealing with a nervous dog (like Franklin used to be), I like to start with one of a variety of calming remedies. There are a lot of options available, such as Sentry HC Good Behavior Pheromone Dog Calming Collar. A nervous dog may also become calmer with the use of calming supplements, such as VetriScience Composure Behavioral Health Bite-Sized Dog Chews, which can be given daily to reduce stress in dogs with anxiety. They’re also yummy, and have the Franklin seal of approval. Calming remedies can be very helpful in reducing a pet’s baseline levels of stress, but using them alone rarely resolves a serious behavior—and Franklin needed more than just Comfort Zone with Adaptil products to learn not to bark at the doorbell. Fortunately, I know how to calm a dog down. There is more than one option for training a dog to keep calm when the doorbell rings, but the training technique below is the one I recommend to most clients, since it is fairly straightforward, and can also be modified to work with cats, birds and other animals.

Clicker training and behavior chains are a hot topic in dog training nowadays. In “Teaching Your Dog to Perform Behavior Chains,” we learned a “behavior chain” is when an animal performs more than one behavior before earning positive reinforcement. For example, instead of my dog sitting on cue and then getting a treat, he would sit, lie down and spin to earn the treat. You can see this method also helps reduce the amount of food given during dog behavior training. There are two types of behavior chains: behavior chains with handler cues, which we focused on in the last article, and fixed behavior chains. We’ll focus on fixed behavior chains now.

Dog enclosures are great tools for providing comfort and safety for pups as well as for preventing problem behaviors, such as housetraining accidents and inappropriate chewing. Different types of dog enclosures, like a dog crate and a dog pen, can be used to safely confine canines. Both have benefits, but how do you know which is best for your four-legged friend? The first step is understanding the difference between these popular dog enclosures. Then you can choose the one that suits your home and your pooch’s needs.

It’s much easier to teach your dog to relax in a dog crate if he doesn’t have strong feelings about the dog crate itself. Starting over with a different dog crate is especially important if your pet’s association with his current dog crate is a negative one. Also, if your dog has outgrown his dog crate, he may not like going inside of it because it’s no longer comfortable. In this case, it’s time to upgrade. Frisco’s Heavy Duty dog crate comes with a divider that allows your dog to grow into the crate. Find out how to pick the best size dog crate for your pup.,Dog kennels and dog crates are wonderful and useful tools at home. You can use a dog crate for things like potty training, for creating the ultimate safe zone for your pet and, when strapped-down, for road trips with your canine companion. Dog crates or dog kennels also come in handy for emergency situations, like when a natural disaster strikes. Teaching your dog to be comfortable in a dog crate is well worth the time and effort. Some pups are uncomfortable in dog kennels because of past experiences or never having to settle quietly in a dog crate before. If your dog acts anxious or rambunctious in his dog crate, these dog training tips can help you teach him to be calm in his crate.