dumyatkennels

In this course, you will discover tips for
* Housebreaking your Whippet
* Training your Whippet & making it obedient
* Teaching the basic commands to your Whippet
* Taking care of the diet of your Whippet
* Stopping your Whippet from barking and biting
Your Whippet is a creature of habit. If it is taught where you want it to eliminate, and you control its food and water intake to regulate when it will eliminate, you will have a happy relationship relatively free of accidents.
The biggest mistake made by Whippet owners is inconsistency. It is important that you first choose the method of housebreaking appropriate for you and your pet and secondly stick with it. We know of many Whippet owners who are impatient or inconsistent when housebreaking their pets. The end result is a pet that is never fully housebroken.
So, remember the three P's - persistence, patience and praise, and you are guaranteed success.
Here are the 3 methods you can use to housetrain your Whippet:
I) The Paper Method - The paper method seems to work better with a puppy than with an adult Whippet, although it can be used on both.
To begin housetraining your pup with the paper method, first you must choose a location where your puppy will be staying until housetrained.
Make sure the room is puppy proofed and that elimination on the floor in this area will not cause permanent damage to your home.
A bathroom or small kitchen is usually a good place for this.
Once you have chosen an area, cover the entire floor with newspaper.
If you have a young puppy, it will eliminate much more often than when it is older. So, just be prepared for many messes in the beginning.
In the beginning, it is important to replace the paper as soon as possible after the elimination has occurred.
This helps your puppy establish the area as its own, and it will help you get a better idea of where it favours doing its business.
As your puppy eliminates throughout the day, it may go in several different areas of the room.
But, as it gets a little more used to its room, it will choose a certain area where it prefers to eliminate.
When its preferred area for elimination is established, begin removing the paper from the rest of the room, only covering the area it uses.
Make sure you leave its papered area large enough so that it does not miss the paper. If it misses the paper, the area is too small and you need to add more paper.
When it uses its papered area, praise it. The more your puppy associates a reward with its choice of the paper instead of the linoleum, the quicker your puppy will be trained.
After it has established that it will use the papered area instead of the floor, begin moving the paper
towards the area (presumably somewhere outside your house) where you want it to go when fully trained.
The paper should only be moved a little at a time towards this location. If moving the paper confuses your puppy, you may only be able to move about one inch per day, until the paper reaches its final destination.
Once your puppy understands that it is to eliminate only on the paper, and you have been able to move towards the area where it will eventually go outside, monitoring its habits will be much easier.
Once the paper is completely removed, it will go to that area automatically and sniff or turn circles,
letting you know it has to go out.

Crate Training
- Crate training can be used on both a puppy and an adult Whippet and is probably the most effective and efficient way to housetrain your pet.
No Whippet will want to eliminate in a place it considers to be its own and therefore, unless left in
its crate for too long, it will not eliminate in its crate.
Once every hour, place your Whippet on a leash and walk it in the area where you want it to go potty.
If it has not gone in five minutes, return it to its crate for another hour.
After another hour goes by, the dog that did not go last time will most likely go this time.
When it does go, be sure and praise it profusely and return it to its crate. The excitement in your voice when you are praising it will help it better understand that THIS is the place you want it to go.
Once that is established, it will do its best to make you happy by eliminating in its designated area.
Once you feel it understands where it is to go to potty, you may lessen its crate time, and begin opening up its area to more than just its crate.
Be sure and open up its area a little at a time so it clearly establishes the larger area as "its area",
increasing the desire to keep its area clean.
Eventually, you will be able to open up your entire home, but this is only after a lot of time has been spent training and proof that it understands.

Litter Pan Method –
This method will have the best chance of success with a young puppy but an older Whippet may be able to litter train with success as well.
Similar to paper training, litter box training begins in a confined area such as a bathroom or kitchen.
Although you may be able to use a traditional cat litter box for this purpose, pet supply stores do sell doggy litter boxes. They are shaped a little different and are a bit larger than the traditional kitty box. Also available are special litters and papers that should eventually be used in the box.
Like paper training, the beginning stages have paper lining the entire floor of the room. You continually change any soiled paper until the puppy chooses a place on the floor it likes to eliminate.
Once the puppy has eliminated in an area about the size of a litter pan for approximately two weeks, place a litter pan on the floor and paper inside the litter pan.
When it goes and does its business inside the litter box, make sure to praise it profusely. It has got to establish this is the correct behaviour before it will be comfortable with it.
Once it is used to the litter box with the paper, you may begin the change to doggy litter if desired. As time goes on, you may add additional litter until eventually the paper is gone and only litter remains.
If you choose this method, you must clean the litter box every time your Whippet eliminates. It will not go in a dirty box. Failure to consistently clean the litter box will result in your puppy reverting back to the floor.
Follow any of the above 3 methods consistently, and you should soon have a fully house-trained Whippet!
You will have the peace of mind of knowing that when you return home from work, the floor of your house, your carpets and your furniture will not be dirty or permanently ruined because your Whippet has gone to the bathroom in the most inappropriate of places.
Other members of your family will no longer complain to you that your Whippet has not been house-trained properly.
Plus, you will save dozens of hours of your time every week because you will no longer have to waste time trying to figure out on your own as to how you can potty train your Whippet

The key to success in training your Whippet is understanding the psychology of your pet - i.e. how its mind works, and then incorporating that with proven training techniques and a few training aids.
Remember, your Whippet is not a human and therefore does not think or react as a human would. Also, your
pet does not verbally communicate with humans and you should not think that it does.
It may recognize the word "out" and associate it with going outside, but that is only because it is a common
action that occurs consistently before it goes outside.
If you change the verbal word you use to communicate with your Whippet along the way, your pet will no
longer understand what you want. It is important that whatever word you choose to give a command, you stick
with that same word each and every time, without the least alteration.
Also, before you can even begin training your Whippet, your must establish that you are the "Master" and your
Whippet is the "Follower".
Remember, the Whippet has an inherent trait that makes it a social animal, needing a dominance subordination
hierarchy. You must establish that you are the leader of its pack before you will be successful with any type
of training. This is called "social reinforcement".
The following items will help you establish that leadership role in the life of your Whippet:
i) Do not compromise with your Whippet. For example, if you want it to perform a desired behaviour, don't
just give up and walk away when it does not perform.
Instead, use some type of reinforcement to show it that its behaviour was not correct, such as withholding the
treat or toy.
ii) You should always initiate interaction with your Whippet and terminate the interaction with your
Whippet rather than the other way round.
iii) Avoid tending to your pet's every desire. Rewards should only be given for desired behaviour, and should
never be given just like that.
iv) When you are spending time with your Whippet, pet, talk and touch it often. This will help establish the
trust needed to truly set you forth as the leader.

Obedience Training Styles
Just like housebreaking, when you are training your Whippet, the key thing is consistency. You need to
pick a training style that is suitable for you and your Whippet and stick with it.
The two most popular types of obedience training are leash and collar training and reward training.
We won't have the time to describe these techniques in detail in this email - so we will just give you a short overview of these techniques.
In the leash and collar type of training, the leash is used in the beginning as the tool to teach the correct behaviour, and then once the behaviour is learned, the leash is only used to correct unwanted behaviour.
A mistake often made by the novice owner with this type of training is they forget the leash is used only as a tool.
Often a novice owner will abuse the leash to nag at the Whippet.
This defeats the purpose of the leash. The leash must be used only to get the Whippet to obey.
It is used to establish the leadership role between master and pet, but to be successful in training; the Whippet must understand the command with or without the leash and you must be able to utilize any tool at hand to solicit the correct behaviour from your pet, not just a leash.
Reward training usually incorporates food rewards or a reward that is associated with getting food. The associated award could be the command "Good". Many owners now use a clicker as an associated reward.
A secret to making the reward trained Whippet reliable is working the pet around distractions in its environment and teaching proper socialization.
If you only train your Whippet in the house, it will not be used to extra stimuli. The well trained Whippet, then exposed to unfamiliar people, may not respond as desired. When reward training, it is important you train both inside and outside your home to make sure your Whippet is exposed to as much stimuli as possible.
Another important tool in communication between you and your Whippet is the tone of your voice when delivering
a command.
The command "Good" will have a more positive tone. The excitement in your voice will be picked up by the
Whippet and it will eventually associate it with the feelings of acceptance for that response to the previous command.
The word "No" will have a more forceful tone, usually associated with a negative response, such as a stern tug on the leash if leash training. The Whippet will eventually establish that tone as an indication for an undesired response to your command.
As you move on in your training, the tone will be as important to the Whippet as the command itself.
Also frequently overlooked by the novice owner is body language. Once you get to know your pet better, you
will understand its meaning behind specific body motions.
An owner who really understands his/her Whippet will see even the slightest head movement in certain situations and understand exactly what it means. This enables the owner to give a command prior to behaviour occurring.

Before we begin instructions for individual commands, it is important that you understand the pitfalls to avoid and tips for success when teaching the basic commands to your Whippet.

* Always use your pet's name when speaking to it. This will increase its attention to you when calling it or giving it a command.

* When you give a command, enforce it. Do not repeat the command over and over again. If it does not respond to the command, manipulate its body into the command position if appropriate. Never give a command if you do not intend to enforce it. You will lose credibility with your Whippet by doing this.

* Always reinforce desired behaviour. Reinforcement does not always have to be a treat. Your touch and voice can be enough reinforcement to help the Whippet understand it did what you desired.

* Never reinforce undesired behaviour. No matter how they tilt their head or make you feel bad, never reinforce the undesired behaviour. Remember, your Whippet is also learning how to manipulate you. If it does not perform the desired command, it is imperative that you ignore it, and then try again in a few minutes.
Eventually, it will respond to your command because of its born-in desire to please you.

* Never punish desirable behaviour. Many owners do not realize that when their Whippet performs the desired action, such as going to the bathroom outside, and then the owner immediately walks away, they are punishing their Whippet by ignoring them. Stay with your Whippet after the desired behaviour is performed. Make sure it understands that what it did was good and you are happy before leaving it.

* A trick for success is keeping your Whippet interested. Remember, a Whippet will only learn if it is having fun. Know when to quit when training. Trying to do too much too soon will mentally exhaust the Whippet and it will be much harder to train.

We'll now discuss 2 of the basic commands that you should teach your Whippet. However, because of space constraints, we won't have time to discuss all the basic commands that you should teach to your Whippet.

COME

teaching your Whippet to come is one of the most important commands it will ever learn.

It is also a command that will take a lot of time to successfully learn.

Begin by waiting until your Whippet is already approaching you, then when two to three feet away, use your pet's name along with the command "COME"("SCOUT COME"). Always use the name of your Whippet first before you use the command.

When the Whippet gets to you, praise it. You should repeat this exercise as often as you can for several months.

As your Whippet begins to associate "COME" with a good thing, you can gradually increase the distance.
If your Whippet does not come, then it has not yet made the association of the word to the action. Give it time, it will eventually understand.

The key to success with this command is for your Whippet to always associate the command "COME" with a good thing.

A common mistake made by novice handlers is they use a firm tone with the command causing the Whippet to associate fear with the command. If a Whippet fears you, its instinct will be to run away instead of coming near.

NEVER chase your Whippet when using the command "COME". This is a sure way to teach your Whippet that "COME" is a bad thing.
Once you believe your Whippet understands the command, begin to reinforce it.

Put a lead on your pet's collar and allow the Whippet to run around with the lead dragging behind. Gently pick up the lead, without the Whippet noticing and say "SCOUT COME". If your Whippet does not come, then gently pull the lead forcing it to come. Repeat this test often.

Another exercise to test the "COME" command is having a family member walk the Whippet, on a leash, away from you. Give the command "SCOUT COME" and see if the Whippet comes. Repeat the command if it does not come the first time. If it does not come the second time, give a third command, but this time have the family member walk the Whippet towards you until it reaches you.
Be sure and give the Whippet a lot of praise when it reaches you, even if the command was performed with assistance.

OFF

This command is used to tell your Whippet that it should not touch an item with its mouth or paws.

It can be taught by containing the Whippet in a controlled environment with only a few items that may distract it.

As soon as it reaches for one of the items, use the command "OFF", i.e. "SCOUT OFF". Praise it when it leaves the item alone.

Eventually you can begin to walk it around and use the command "OFF" in a larger area.

It will eventually understand that this means to leave the item alone when the command is used.

It is an especially nice command to utilize when your Whippet may be getting into a dangerous situation by touching something that could potentially hurt it.

There are lots of other important basic commands like HEEL, TAKE, DROP, SIT, DOWN, STAY, TOY, OUCH etc. that
have not been mentioned because of space constraints.

How to take care of your pet's diet.

How you begin feeding your Whippet will determine how she expects to be fed for the rest of her life. It is important to start off right with her feeding.

There are many commercial brands available that will fit the specific needs of your Whippet according to her age and physical characteristics.

A common misconception among Whippet owners believes that feeding their pet’s table scraps is good
practice.

Unfortunately, this is completely false. Table scraps, although sometimes hard to resist feeding her, can cause problems.

First of all, table scraps do not consist of the balanced diet your pet needs which can cause gastro-intestinal upset.

Many owners do not realize that feeding their pet table scraps can encourage obnoxious behaviours such as begging and barking for food.

Have you ever been at someone's home and watched their four footed friend beg at the table? Although you may think this is cute, remember, that Whippet begs like that every time those people sit down to eats. Yes, morning, noon and night, they see their Whippet either wobbling in a begging position or barking to get bites.

If you start your Whippet off on the right foot when eating, your Whippet will be healthier and not a nuisance during your dinnertime.

TYPES OF FEEDING

Scheduled feeding and free feeding are two types of feeding you may offer your Whippet. Both depend on your lifestyle and the personality and physical characteristics of your pet.

Scheduled feedings usually take place in the morning and evening and consist of measured amounts of food.

Free feeding is exactly as it sounds. You set a bowl full of food on the ground and the Whippet eats whenever hungry.

Dogs that are on scheduled feedings are sometimes more easily trained than those allowed to free feed. This is because food can be used as a reward, where if the Whippet is free fed, food may not be an adequate reward because the Whippet can have it anytime she likes.

If your Whippet eats excessively or is overweight, free feeding is probably not the best choice for your pet. Also, if you’re pet spends many hours alone during the day, free feeding is not a good choice. What goes in must come out and if your Whippet eats while you are away, she may need to eliminate prior to your return.

There are many brands of Whippet food available, and the most expensive brand is not necessarily the best. The bags or cans of food themselves will give you a guide on how much of that particular food you should feed your Whippet according to her weight.

You can adjust the recommended amount based on the amount of exercise your Whippet gets and the climate in which she lives. If your Whippet spends the majority of her time in hot weather, she will not need the caloric intake of a cold weather Whippet.

Also, you will find that your Whippet may have an allergy to corn based foods. It may develop sores and scabs on its skin from excessive scratching. Once the corn- based food is eliminated from its diet, the sores go away. This is one reason many vets recommend a lamb and rice formula for your Whippet.

Feeding Your Puppy - Puppies should be fed several regularly scheduled meals every day throughout the first three months of life. This will help prevent bloat. As your puppy gets older, you can reduce the feedings to two meals per day, morning and evening or offer free feeding as an alternative choice. Puppies require more calories and fat to grow.

Talk to your veterinarian about what type of food to feed your puppy through her first year of life. Many recommend specific brands and most recommend a food without a lot of additives.

Feeding Your Adult Whippet - A Whippet is considered an adult from about one year to six years of age. This time period should have a balanced diet of quality food, offered according to the weight of your Whippet, and rich in the vitamins and minerals needed to promote a healthy life.

Once again, consult with your veterinarian on the brand they would recommend for your particular breed of Whippet. The vet should also have a medical history established by this time so they will also be able to add additional insight based on potential allergies or weight problems your Whippet may exhibit.

Feeding Your Older Whippet
Older pets retain their ability to digest the essential nutrients from food well into old age. However, some older dogs do require an adjustment in their food intake dependent on their amount of physical exercise. An older Whippet is usually not as active and therefore requires a reduction in calories.

Special food, designed for the older Whippet, is generally a good idea. Most of these formulas contain moderate levels of high quality, highly digestible protein as well as modified levels of polyunsaturated fat and vitamins B and E for better digestibility and health of your older pet.

How to stop your Whippet from barking and biting.

If your Whippet is barking or howling when ignored, then it is most probably because it suffers from separation anxiety.

Separation anxiety usually initiates with fear and insecurities.

Training the Whippet to do some tricks will help it gain self-esteem.

If your Whippet is yapping at the neighbours through the fence and annoying them, then behaviour modification
is the key. You can teach your Whippet a reverse command to stop the barking, or utilize anti-bark collars as a deterrent.

To teach your Whippet a reverse command, it must first know the command "SPEAK". The SPEAK command is used to
teach the Whippet to bark, but only when you tell it to (i.e. bark on demand).

Once it has mastered the SPEAK command, think of another word to tell the Whippet to stop barking. Whatever word you choose it should be one word and preferably one syllable if possible.

This process of first teaching your Whippet to bark on demand may seem counter-intuitive when your objective is to make it stop barking unnecessarily, but we have found that it works brilliantly in reality.

Anti-bark collars come in two types - radio and herbal spray.

The radio collars deliver a mild shock when the Whippet starts to bark. The collar has prongs that must touch the front of the neck of your Whippet so the vibrations of the barking trigger the shock.

The herbal spray collars work the same way, only the vibrations trigger a mist of pungent citrus-scented fog into your pet's face. The mist startles the Whippet and interrupts the barking.

STOP BITING

If your Whippet has the habit of biting you or other members of your family, you can use some of the following techniques to stop it from doing so:

One good tool to utilize in teaching your Whippet not to bite is to not use toys and activities that encourage biting.

A perfect example of this is tug of war. Although a popular playtime activity for an owner and his/her Whippet, it encourages the Whippet to bite leading to unwanted behaviour problems.

Once your Whippet is trained and fully understands the "Off" command, you may tug-of-war with your pet. Until
then, it is best to put the rope away.

Another common mistake made by Whippet owners that encourages biting is rough housing. How many of us have
either seen, or participated ourselves, in growling at our Whippet and letting it grab our hands in its mouth during play. Then, when the Whippet bites too hard, we scold it and tell it "no bite". We are completely confusing our Whippet by doing this if it has not yet been trained to understand hard bites from soft bites.

If your Whippet has a great propensity to bite when playing, it is a good idea to keep your hands away from its face when playing or petting. This will discourage the biting by removing the item it is trying to bite.

Never reward mouthing, snapping or grabbing types of behaviour. An example would be playing with your Whippet even after it has grabbed a toy from your hand. In this instance, you should stop playing and ignore your Whippet. Continuing to play will enable it to think the grabbing behaviour was acceptable and it will continue in the future. This could result in it
later grabbing food or other items, unintentionally injuring someone or another animal.

Once your Whippet has established that mouthing orbiting is not the appropriate response in most instances, it is important you teach it when it IS an appropriate response.

Retrieving would be an example of a time that it is appropriate for your Whippet to mouth or bite. You can teach your Whippet to retrieve on command. This enables you to offer something different for your Whippet to mouth when biting by distracting it with an appropriate toy to bite.

Another approach to stop the unwanted biting behaviour is to simply stop interacting with the Whippet and ignore it for a period of time.

Piczo