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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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Sunny & The Kid

By |2012-08-28T09:06:07-04:00August 28th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , |

Sunny is my dog with the most fear based behavior challenges. For short I call him my 'fearful' dog. It's not an accurate description of him, because he is so much more than just fearful, in good ways and bad, but when managing him around people, it's the easiest label to slap on him. It's either that or, 'he's not right in the head', which ...

A Rose By Any Other Name?

By |2012-08-26T10:05:14-04:00August 26th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

Is this a dominance hierarchy or bunk bed? They say a rose by any other name is still a rose, unless if you're naming it 'tulip' I won't know what you are describing. We may both understand that you are talking about a flower, but if you are ordering a dozen roses and ask for tulips you'll be in for a big surprise ...

Breed Specific Legislation & Alpha Dog Myths

By |2012-07-30T10:42:34-04:00July 30th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

As smart as we humans consider ourselves to be, we can be remarkably short-sighted or inconsiderate of the effects of our beliefs or actions. Antibiotics have saved countless lives and I consider myself among the lucky in history to have lived in an age during which we have access to them. But we have also learned that unless we use them judiciously, the fall out ...

Small, White Dogs

By |2012-07-20T09:10:59-04:00July 20th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , |

image: commons.wikimedia.org At the vet with Finn, who was having his second chemotherapy treatment for lymphoma, I chatted with one of the techs, who was also a dog walker. She mentioned a client's German Shepherd, I said how I always wanted one, but so many seem to have behavioral problems. Her reply was that for her the worst were small, white dogs, because ...

Put A Muzzle On It

By |2012-05-24T10:55:42-04:00May 24th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , |

In the contest of who dislikes the thought of putting a muzzle on my dog, I'd come in a close second to the dog who has to wear it. That is unless I think about the alternatives to not wearing one. A muzzle is not an excuse to put a dog into situations in which they're inclined to bite a person or another dog, but ...

The Belly Button Rule

By |2012-04-29T11:08:07-04:00April 29th, 2012|Categories: Alternative treatments for fearful dogs, Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , |

When I was a young child and our family visited a body of water to swim in my parents instituted the the belly button rule. The older, more proficient swimmers could swim out to rafts in the middle of the lake or play in the waves, but the little kids could go no deeper than their belly buttons. If we lost our footing ...

Grab Em By the Dopamine Not the Neck

By |2012-04-25T21:11:00-04:00April 25th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , |

I realize it's a simplistic way of looking at a brain's reward system, and that's because of my limitations, not yours dear readers. But if we can sneak our way into our dog's brain's reward system we can grab a hold as tenacious as any baseball fan's in the stands who manages to snatch a foul ball. It's glaringly obvious that brains have people and ...

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