Welcome to Week Forty!

Gather your family, invite your friends and everyone get together to have some fun while training your dog. It's time for Pass the Pup! Pass The Pup gives your dog the opportunity to practice with many different people, doing many different exercises. It's great for socialization while it strengthens your dog's skills. Whether your dog is eight weeks or eight months old, your dog will benefit from playing this game. Follow this week's instructions in Kids & Pets, "Pass the Pup."

The dictionary defines aversive as:  tending to dissuade or repel; causing avoidance of a noxious or punishing stimulus; a reprimand, punishment, or agent, used in aversive conditioning. An aversive in dog training is using a tool or technique that your dog doesn't like or finds repelling in order to stop a behavior that you don't like. Let's look at the plus and minus of using aversive tools and techniques with your dog. Read more on this week's Understanding My Pet, "Using Aversives."

Dry, canned, raw, dehydrated, puppy, adult dog food comes in many varieties. New brands of dog foods are released every year, ingredients are updated, and the number of choices can make it bewildering to pick a food for your dog. We'd like to demystify some of the questions about picking a dog food. Read this week's Perfect Pet column, "Dog Food Guidelines" for more information.

The weather outside is frightful, yet hot, cold, rain, wind or snow, your dog still needs exercise. Check out these learning exercises and you can work out and sharpen your dog's skills at the same time! Read this week's Training for Success column, "Indoor Exercising."

We hope you enjoy your Week Forty issue of MyPetTrainer.com. The staff of the MyPetTrainer.com and LostMyPet.com community is here to support you!

Together in success,
The staff of MyPetTrainer.com