Dog food, a book review and some ideas

I have two dogs already, One is an 11 year old Norwegian elkhound the other is a 1-0 year old miniature dachsund. I trained them both when we were all younger and I was in 4-H. We did everything; obedience, agility and conformation. It was A LOT of fun. I really enjoyed it and both dogs were very well behaved.

I had to move to Maryland for a year and leave my dogs with brother though and I got home about two years ago. When I got back my dogs wouldn't listen and my dachsund was completely un-house trained. I have been at a complete loss of what to do with them and honestly it's been stressful. The methods to train them that I used when I was a kid in 4-H have not worked. I know that if I get another dog in order for him to learn well and be socialized properly that my other dogs need to be well behaved. I was honsestly considering getting a new home for my dachsund.

The other day I went to the library and picked up a few books on dog training. I know that I missed some things when I was younger and could stand to learn a bit more before I take on another dog. Especially since I will be training the dog to do the things I'm planning on training it to do. The book I picked up is The Complete Idiot's Guide to Positive Dog Training. I read the entire thing in two days. I was concise, well written and kind of funny.

I also learned a ton of new things. I had been using traditional dog training methods with my dogs. You know:  lots of "no's" and making the dog physically do what you want him to do. The positive dog training method is a lot more gentle, doesn't involve prong collars or correction collars, and is based on research. This is what they use to train large marine animals.

I think that I am going to try this with my current dogs and try to get them up to speed again. I also am beginning to think that they need to be re-crate trained. I am going start working on that as soon as I can afford crates for them. I did some browsing on Amazon, if I can't find a used crate at Goodwill or something I will just buy a new one from  there. They are surprisingly inexpensive. I am also thinking that I will need to change my dogs' diet. They are on Pedigree right now. When I get my service dog I am going to want to feed him a higher quality diet, especially since that dog will be considerably larger than the two I have now. It wont be too much more expensive if I buy food in larger quantities than normal. In fact I think it would end up be less than a ten dollar difference if I buy a 50 lb. bag instead of a 20lb. bag.

Anyway, just some of the few million things I think about when I can't sleep.

Tchuss! (That's my favorite way in German to say "bye")