training

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		It's wonderful to have a dog, but if you want a happy dog which doesn't make a nuisance of itself, there is work to be done. A dog, no matter if a Chihuahua or an Irish Wolfhound, needs exercise. If you don't give it enough exercise, it will make up its own exercise program. This might be barking, chasing everything including its tail, chewing like crazy, etc. There you have your nuisance. Then a dog also needs to exercise its brain. Here again, if you don't keep it occupied, it will find its own jobs. This could range from training you to feed it on command, or to throw the ball when it wants you to, up to extremes like herding shadows or overprotecting the house and biting everyone who wants to enter it. Here you have your nuisance again.
		Walk your dog at least one hour per day.
		Train your dog.
There are so many different training methods, it is hard to know what's best. I found that using the Clicker to train tricks, TTEAM to change bad behavior and knowing some dog language to talk with Gina works best for the two of us. You have to find a method that works well for you and doesn't force your dog. Praise instead of shout! It's much more fun for both of you.


	With the Clicker method, I taught Gina to wait on cue. Now I can just call <aspetta> before she crosses a road. She waits till I say <avanti>, the cue for her to go on.
From this example you can see that a trained dog isn't only less of a nuisance, but is also easier to handle in public. It is also a greater joy to everyone, dog lover or not.
		After a while Gina did the <aspetta> and the <avanti> very reliably and I wasn't worried about crossing bigger roads without the leash anymore. But one day when she was supposed to wait until a car had passed, she saw a dog on the other side of the road and took off. We were very lucky the driver stopped on time and she didn't get run over.

Even when a dog knows something very well, it won't necessarily do it in every situation. Every dog has different things that are distracting for it; no dog will always pay 100% attention. When you teach a dog a new trick, it is best to have no distractions, since it will be easier for the dog to pay attention and to learn the wanted behavior. If it is something important you're teaching, some cue the dog should react to in every situation, you have to slowly introduce distractions. Slowly, that's important: you want the dog to still show the right behavior so you can praise it.

To find out how your dog reacts to distractions, go into an empty room first and say its name. Most dogs will look at their master (otherwise you have a lot of training in front of you). Now try out saying its name with different distractions. These could be lots of people, food on the floor, a cat in the same room, or whatever you think might be hard for it. How does your dog react in the different situations?
Once your dog looks at you when you say its name, you actually wouldn't need any other words. It is easily possible to communicate using only signs. But of course dogs like to hear us talking in a friendly voice, even though they don't know the exact meaning of our words.
While I was visiting a friend once, she wanted Gina to sit for a treat. Being used to talking to dogs with a hard voice, she commanded Gina to sit, but Gina just ignored her. I showed my friend the hand signal I use for sit and taught her to say <siediti> in a friendly voice. Gina sat really eagerly and was relieved she finally understood what my friend wanted of her.

Growling
I'm convinced you shouldn't punish dogs. So I still can show the dog its limits, I found that growling works very well. When a dog growls at another dog, it means something like <stop what you're doing immediately>. We can teach our dogs to accept our growling too.

When you feed your dog, put the food on the floor and bend over the bowl growling. (To growl I make a rolling r, you can choose something else, convenient to you.) Most dogs will accept your growling right away. If your dog still tries to get to its food, you can put your hand around the dog's muzzle and push it away. Soon it will politely look away and let you "eat" its food. Practice this a few times and then try instead of bending over the bowl to sit next to it. Does the dog still accept your growling?

So I don't feel foolish growling when there are people around, I taught Gina to accept the word <harco> as a growl. <Harco> seems very practical to me, since I can roll the r just as much as I want to emphasize the growl.
One last thing I find very important to say is: no dog is too old to learn. I've trained a nine year old dog which had never obeyed a command in its life. It is simply not true that an old dog can't learn new tricks. You just have to make it fun!

Training

Growling