Helping fearful dogs

Words are pretty cool things. You can be driving along with a friend and shout out 'PIZZA!' and barring the fact that you might be prone to random, nonsensical outbursts, your friend will understand, "I'm hungry. I'd like to eat pizza. You willing to stop and eat pizza with me? Pull into that pizzeria please." Not bad for a single word. I may not like ...

I often feel an affinity toward 'dog' people. No offense to you 'cat' people, it's definitely not because we're any smarter. In the never ending debate over whether or not it is efficacious or humane to use training techniques or devices that hurt or intimate a dog to get behaviors we want, we seem to prove that over and over again. There are the reasons, ...

I'm actually an open-minded trainer and dog owner who has looked at and considered the merits of a variety of different training techniques. If a handling or training technique works I am curious to see why it does, or to assess whether what we are seeing in regard to the dog's behavior is actually success. A shut-down dog may have stopped doing something  inappropriate, but ...

I board dogs in my home. When people call for information about my services I will ask them to tell me about their dog. It is not uncommon for me to hear, "He's not an alpha dog," or, "She's not a dominant dog." For years I have lived with 3-4 dogs of my own. Used to be I tried to figure out which of my ...

There was an anti-drug ad on TV that portrayed a sleazy dealer talking to a group of teenagers while the narrator intoned, "If you don't talk to your kids about drugs, someone else will." I was reminded of this ad after hearing about training advice someone had received to help them with their dog who was prone to barking and biting. Granted the advice was ...

Recently I paid a visit to a couple hoping to rehome a dog who from their description sounded as if she behaved aggressively due to fear. After a failed attempt to euthanize the dog (they couldn't go through with it) they consulted with two other trainer/behaviorists. The couple lived nearby and I knew that a dog with a history of biting to get ...

I wanted to share the following video of Sunny's reaction to a novel object in his environment. Many dogs can be surprised by and wary of anything new in their world. How quickly they recover from the surprise and either ignore or investigate the object can give you a clue into how challenged a dog might be in regard to developing the skills and confidence ...

I had a lovely few days visiting with family in Florida. Our seaside accommodations were fabulous and the strip of white sand beach stretching for several miles was soothing to look at. From our balcony we could look down and see pods of dolphins fishing off shore. In the morning I joined the walkers along the tideline. As the sunbathers filtered onto the beach I ...

I'm not one of those people who easily interacts physically with people I don't know well (in case you were wondering). Despite years of living in California, I still resist hugging people I barely know and because of the germ theory, prefer not to shake hands. I can do both of those things without distress, I'd just rather not. Years ago I was on a ...

I have a sense of humor, really I do. I think those pictures of puppies in hotdog buns, chewing on shoe laces and snoozing belly up are cute, I do, really. But amidst the funny and cute are images which make me cringe. This is the latest one, sandwiched amidst the funny and cute- Cute? Not so much. Funny? How so? Is watching a puppy ...