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Helping fearful dogs

Freedom To Try

By |2012-11-01T15:12:11-04:00November 1st, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Dogs who come from puppy mills or who have lived on chains or confined with limited opportunity to interact with a varied environment, are lacking in many skills. I'm not sure if 'trying' is considered a skill or not, but it's not unusual for a dog who suffered deprivation in their early life, to 'give up' easily. When faced with a challenge, a partially closed ...

Force-Free Trainers! Just Keep Talking!

By |2012-10-30T12:29:23-04:00October 30th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

There are plenty of professionals who are routinely frustrated by the beliefs held by their clients or potential clients. Researchers studying climate change are likely among them. Humans are complicated creatures. On one hand we seem to be capable of stunning thoughts. Whether in the arts or sciences, we can come up with remarkable ideas. On the other hand, we are also bound by a ...

It’s My Party, No Need To Bring Your Own Kool-Aid

By |2012-10-28T17:05:25-04:00October 28th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , |

A year or two back I posted a blog about Cesar Millan and discovered that there is a group of Dog Whisperer Ambassadors. They are either a fan club or a social media marketing arm of somebody invested in Mr. Millan's success. They sniff out comments and articles criticizing him and go to work explaining why those who have not jumped on the whispering bandwagon ...

The Beautiful Flow of Experimentation

By |2012-10-26T11:57:16-04:00October 26th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , |

When we are living with any dog, but especially a fearful dog, we need to be prepared, at any moment, to reinforce behaviors we like. This is what behavior modification is all about. If you sat two children down, one with a pile of marbles, the other with a bucket of tennis balls and gave each the task to put these objects into a milk ...

Do You Have Any Business Punishing a Dog?

By |2012-10-24T12:05:53-04:00October 24th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

How would you justify going to a surgeon who claimed to be really good at cutting out tumors but had flunked out of classes on physiology and biology? Maybe some of their patients survived the surgery and went on to live full lives without a tumor, but what about the others? What about that nerve bundle that the surgeon nicked because they didn't realize how ...

Are We Their Best Friends?

By |2012-10-19T16:50:09-04:00October 19th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs, Puppy mills|

I was asked by a newspaper to write a review for the film One Nation Under Dog which will be showing at a local film festival. Here it is. One Nation Under Dog is a documentary divided into three segments exploring the complicated and often eccentric relationships people have with dogs. Though some of the scenes are not appropriate for young children, whether you are ...

Think Like A Human

By |2012-10-17T11:49:03-04:00October 17th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Pet owners are often encouraged to think like a dog when faced with behavior challenges. I can’t help but feel a twinge of discomfort when I hear it. Attempts to think like a dog are often accompanied by fables of why a dog is behaving as they are. They’re jealous or angry, we need to be their leader, or treat them as a mother dog ...

Train em, Don’t restrain em

By |2012-10-10T09:11:11-04:00October 10th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

Last night when I should have been doing other things or at least heading off to bed I was looking at Facebook. A friend had posted a plea for information about how to get ointment into the eye of her resistant little dog. Almost all of the suggestions included using some form of restraint, including wrapping him in a towel, which would create the level ...

Stockholm Syndrome?

By |2012-10-02T10:28:32-04:00October 2nd, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

I was reading a post in The Crossover Trainer Blog and was struck by the implications of this comment made about her observation of Cesar Millan at his 'Dog Psychology Center'. "........He walked in with me and one could definitely sense he had an effect on the dogs. I concede he does have “something” about him that effects the dogs. " Not sure why there is an implied ...

Failure Must Always Be An Option

By |2012-09-24T10:46:52-04:00September 24th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|

"Deb-ra, it's 10:00, get to bed!" I'd been in the basement for hours learning how to use the pogo stick my parents had given me that day for my birthday. Throughout my childhood there were many skills I practiced for hours or days. There was the set of stilts my father made for me after we'd seen a kid walking downtown on a pair and ...

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