Training your pet

What useful bits of advice can we offer you for training your pet? Well one of the key items you need to ensure you know is to make sure you have treats on hand regularly. You need to reward good behaviour and not just say "no" or "bad dog" for everything else. Dogs learn what is good by being rewarded and that is the best way to train your dog.

We wanted to train our dog as well as possible and as early as possible as we wanted them to fit around our lives, we wanted to make sure he was well trained in our house so that we could find a pet friendly cottage in Devon and take him there to share our holiday with us. This has worked amazingly well as after 3 weeks our dog was house trained and we had methods to reward them for good behaviour and for them to know what isnt acceptable.

One of the things we did not like them doing was biting, especially as puppies they use their teeth a lot and we combatted this by getting a small childs water pistol, and everytime they bit (remembering this is puppy biting and not vicious!) we sprayed them and after a few days we only had to be seen to get the spray and the dog would calm down! It was amazing and we have passed that useful tip onto many other people who have found their puppy enjoying playing games with their teeth!

Our dog is so good now that we do take them everywhere, we took a day trip from London to Stonehenge and they were as good as gold! Just remember, water, treats, lead and poo bags and you wont go wrong!

Where is best to walk my dog?

Where is the best place for you to walk your dog when at home? A lot of people will generally just walk their dog around their street, you should look to give your dog a nice walk of about 30 minutes at least really - but this can vary depending on the dogs age and general day time activity. Most people would love to walk their dog around a nice park but some dont have that near them so have to opt for walks along the street. I wonder how people in London with dogs must cope? Do they take their dog on a little London Sightseeing tour everytime they want to take them out?

One of the key things you need to remember, wherever you take your dog for a walk is bags to clear up your dogs mess. Too oftn people do not do this and leave it for others and it really gives the majority of good dog owners a bad name so please help out your fellow dog walkers by cleaningup after your dog - it makes life so much easier for everyone. Otherwise sooner or later you will see dogs not being allowed out anywhere!

I always think dogs will love being walked along the beach, they generally enjoy the water and sand and theres nothing I like more than seeing my dog running free through the water. There are quite a few pet friendly beaches in the UK but you just need to double check first that this is okay! You can usually check this online so dont be afraid to. All in all your dong loves going anywhere that may involve other people and dogs and new smells, try and spice up a walk for your dog by showing them new places and smells and with other dogs and people. They will love you for it.