If you are a pet owner in Illinois, Wheeling Animal Hospital offers three convenient locations in Chicago, Wheeling, and Arlington Heights. Each location offers equally compassionate and expertly advanced veterinary care. Whether your pet needs a wellness checkup or has a serious health concern, our facilities are equipped to help your furry friend. In addition to comprehensive healthcare, we also offer boarding, grooming, and help with training. Pet training is vital for a happy home for humans and animals alike.
Puppy Training
When it comes to training your new puppy, 8 to 12 weeks is considered the golden time to begin training. This is the time when pups start to understand praise, can learn to wear a collar, and make connections with verbal commands and actions. It's important to begin with house training. The most important aspect of your dog's happiness is for it to know it needs to head outside to do his business. More importantly, he needs to let you know. This won't happen overnight, so, the sooner you start, the better.
While working on potty training, you can also begin to work on basic commands like, "sit", "stay", and "come". Don't push too hard and offer treats. Remember that he is still a baby. Keep it positive and encouraging. As your pet learns and develops, you can add more commands and increase the time spent on training. Just remember to stay positive, loving, and bring a few treats.
Kitten Training
House training or litter training a kitten is often much easier than a puppy. This is because cats have a natural instinct to dig holes and bury their business. However, that's where the easy part of training ends with cats. Command and behavior training can be difficult for cats because, as all cat owners know, they are fiercely independent and don't always care what we think. While you probably won't get a cat to sit and roll over, you can combat negative behaviors through training.
Bad activities like scratching, nipping, and jumping on household objects can be stopped by distracting and redirecting your kittens' attention to more positive activities. Try playing with your cat or investing in a scratching post and cat condo for it to climb. Training is an important part of pet wellness. The most important part of the process with both puppies and kittens is consistency, patience, and treats.
Contact Higgins Animal Clinic
If you need advice or feel like a professional trainer may be useful, our staff is here to help. We are always excited to hear from clients or see them at our Chicago, Wheeling, or Arlington Heights offices. Call Wheeling Animal Hospital today at (847) 520-7387 or reach us through our website by using our online contact form.
