- Train to your dog¡¦s strength ¡V As stated above every dog has its own unique personality, therefore we must identify characteristics of our pets in order to take advantage of them in our training sessions. If your pet is very lively, take advantage of that! During training sessions, be lively yourself! Match your dogs enthusiasm, when your happy, your pet will be happy and your pet will be very happy come training time. If your dog has a laid back shy personality, take this into account when training. Still be lively and upbeat as this will spark interest of your dog, however keep in mind that due to his/her personality, displaying comprehention may take longer due to shy nature of your dog. It is really important to make a shy laid back dog feel super great during training sessions as this can only improve your chances of continuing successful training.

- Incorperate training into your everyday routine ¡V It can be very beneficial to perform individual obedience exercises through out day. Simply by performing sit exercise while you brush him, or having dog sit while you attach his leash can help to imprint sitting position. Keep little things like this in mind as they can only aid you and your pet.

- Be patient ¡V Remember you are trying to teach your dog! Your dog is a non-english speaking individual, lacking house manners, behavioral skills, curticy, do I need to continue?? Take your time, play to your dog¡¦s strength, praise, respect, keep sessions short and compact, and have fun!

- Empithize with your dog ¡V The best example I can think of for this suggestion, is going to a foreign country and trying to comprehend what people are saying. Somebody will come up to you and start rambling on in a foreign tongue and you have no clue what they are saying. Your dog is in same predicament with you. When you start training your dog, he-she has no clue on earth what you are saying. How is he-she supposed to respond if he-she doesn¡¦t know what you want? As in above example, more time you spend in foreign country, more familiar you become with language. You can apply same principle with your dog. More training leads to more comprehention, leading to end result, an obedient dog.

- Reward good bahavior ¡V The best way to reinforce good behavior is to reward it. Others may disagree with this statement, but through my experience with my own dog and others around me, I have found that rewarding good behavior can only aid in maintaining that behavior. In my opinion, best way of rewarding good behavior is through offering toys or treats. Praise is also worthy but would you rather have an icecream cone, or a good handshakeƒº I personally love icecream and would pick that over a handshake anyday. Your dog is driven by his belly in most cases, and you can achieve astonishing success by baiting your dog with occasional russle of treat bag

5. Stay right there while kittens are eating -- After you have put out some canned food for kittens, stay there and don't move off. Let them eat with you next to them. This will help teach them to associate human beings with "good things."

6. Carefully start to pet kittens -- After feeding them a couple of times without trying to pet them, which will begin to teach them that they can trust you, put food out and let kittens start to eat. Then slowly reach down and pet them a little bit. Continue to sit there while they finish eating.

7. Carefully start to pick up kittens -- After you can successfully put out food and remain there while kittens eat and can pet them a little bit, try picking up a kitten. If you can, grasp kitten by scruff of neck. This is how mother cats carry their kittens, and when you do this, kitten will go limp. Hold kitten against your shoulder and talk softly to it, but don't say "Hi kitten" or anything starting with an "h" sound. To a kitten, this sounds like a cat hissing, and kitten will become frightened. Hold kitten for a minute or so and then, grasping it by scruff of neck, set it down. After you have done this several times, kitten will realize that no harms come to it from being picked up and handled.

Depending upon age of kittens and basic personality traits, whole process, from starting with canned kitty food on fork to being able to pet them and pick them up, could be accomplished in a few days or it might take a few weeks. Eventually, kittens will know that people mean good things, and when they see you coming, they will come running to meet you. It has been my experience that cats quickly recognize when a situation is to their advantage, and once kittens know you are a source of good things to eat and that you mean them no harm, they will want to be friends.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to send me an e-mail at — bigpines(at)ruralroute2.com (replace (at) with @)

If you would like to read an article about feeding and caring for orphaned kittens, go to "articles" section of my website at http://ruralroute2.com -- or if you would like to read more stories about cats and kittens from my book, "Give Me a Home Where Dairy Cows Roam" (free shipping (!) on copies ordered from author) -- visit http://ruralroute2.com and click on sample chapters.

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