David Alderton - How Smart Is Your Dog?

Its a cute trick but it can also benefit your dog in the future. Persuading your pet to let you lift a paw helps with treatment like bandaging, if it cuts a pad.

= getting to grips with the basics of simple training

= real improvement as your dog masters new tasks

= ability and proficiency; your pet is a star pupil

Dogs are great! They help us in so many ways, and some remarkable findings are coming to light regarding the benefits of dog ownership from a scientific perspective. Dog owners tend to be healthier overall than the average population, with better recovery rates from heart attacks. Older people also worry less about being burgled or becoming the victim of crime if they have a dog living with them.

If you want to meet a new partner, it may well be that getting a dog turns out to be a better option than joining a dating agency! This is because strangers are up to four times more likely to start talking to someone walking a dog in a park than they are to strike up a conversation with a total stranger in the same place. So your dog may be just the matchmaker youre looking for!

Dogs are playing a key part in reading schemes, with children being more willing to read aloud to a dog than to their own peers.

Dogs come in all shapes and sizes, so there is bound to be one that appeals to you!

Dogs also play an important role in helping people who have disabilities or are ill. They are now used as assistance dogs in a growing number of areas, being best-known for aiding the visually-impaired as well as the deaf. Dogs now work with epileptics as they are able to warn of the likely onset of seizures, and they also help diabetic patients as they can sense a catastrophic fall-off in blood sugar levels which can lead to unconsciousness.

Whatever dog you have, it can be both smart and excellent company, so enjoy a relationship that will bring out the best in both of you!

Even if youve had bad day, being greeted by your pet dog will always cheer you up.

Amazing senses

The scenting ability of dogs, which is estimated to be about 10,000 times more sensitive than our own, means that they are now being trained to help detect various types of cancer without the need for invasive procedures. This entails them testing urine samples by smell for early indicators of prostate cancer. The initial results of these tests are very encouraging.

D ont rush into making any snap judgements about your pets brain power. You could end up getting a surprise, because when it comes to training your dog correctly, a lot actually depends on you. Dogs are generally eager to learn, but you need to teach them in a consistent way that they can easily understand.