Dogs and All about Them

If you buy a Poodle puppy you will find it like other intelligent and active youngsters, full of mischief. The great secret in training him is first to gain his affection. With firmness, kindness, and perseverance, you can then teach him almost anything. The most lively and excitable dogs are usually the easiest to train. It is advantageous to teach your dog when you give him his meal of biscuit, letting him have the food piece by piece as a reward when each trick is duly performed. Never attempt to teach him two new tricks at a time, and when instructing him in a new trick let him always go through his old ones first. Make it an invariable rule never to be beaten by him. If--as frequently is the case with your dogs--he declines to perform a trick, do not pass it over or allow him to substitute another he likes better; but, when you see he obstinately refuses, punish him by putting away the coveted food for an hour or two. If he once sees he can tire you out you will have no further authority over him, while if you are firm he will not hold out against you long. It is a bad plan to make a dog repeat too frequently a trick which he obviously dislikes, and insistence on your part may do great harm. The Poodle is exceptionally sensitive, and is far more efficiently taught when treated as a sensible being rather than as a mere quadrupedal automaton. He will learn twice as quickly if his master can make him understand the reason for performing a task. The whip is of little use when a lesson is to be taught, as the dog will probably associate his tasks with a thrashing and go through them in that unwilling, cowed, tail-between-legs fashion which too often betrays the unthinking hastiness of the master, and is the chief reason why the Poodle has sometimes been regarded as a spiritless coward.