Keeping your dog safe during the cold months
The Baby in the Bath Water
If you’ve been around me you know that I bristle at the use of the term “dominance” when explaining a dog’s behavior. Often I hear dog trainers say that dominance doesn’t exist. This isn’t exactly accurate. So why do so many trainers refuse to use the term? There is a theory in some circles of […]
When the Cue Just Won’t Work
It’s unfortunate, but sometimes we train a cue only to find that it later becomes useless. If you train enough, this may have happened to you. But why does it happen, and what can we do to fix it? In dog training sometimes we forget that the immediate consequence of a behavior is what causes […]
May I Pet Your Dog?
Interview with Dawn Sims: Dachshunds
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/elite-pet-podcast/id1468787290
But he already knows this!
Every dog trainer hears this. The frustrated exclamation of a client whose dog isn’t doing as they are told. About 95% of our clients assert a dog’s knowledge of a cue that he just won’t follow. They can be both correct and incorrect. The dog may not understand the cue. Or the dog may have […]
Cooperation Versus Coercion — Wilde About Dogs
I’d like you to imagine that you are a young, not-yet-verbal child who is entering a foster home. Naturally, you are a nervous about meeting your new foster parents, and wonder what life will be like. You don’t yet know what will be expected of you or how you will be treated. And since you’re […] […]
Enjoying a Relaxing Independence Day, or From the Dog’s Perspective: Surviving the Apocalypse
July 4th was always one of my favorite holidays growing up. Where we lived, it was legal to fire off fireworks, and my favorite were the Roman Candles. Independence Day always ended with the customary light show lasting late into the night. I do not remember ever thinking about the impact the holiday had on […]
A Wolf at Your Door?
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com There are a number of ideas about dogs that have originated in their genetic connection to wolves and our understanding of wolf packs. Most of these ideas are wrong. We’ve made great strides in the past two decades in our studies of our closest animal friends. Only relatively recently has research […]
Just a Spoonful of Cat Food
Pilling a dog doesn’t have to be a battle