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Competing Motivators

By |2013-01-29T09:43:30-05:00January 29th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

Motivation. Everyone talks about it. Did you make a New Year's resolution to go to the gym? There are blogs devoted to helping you stay motivated enough to actually do it. Sometimes getting out of bed in the morning requires a level of motivation we may question whether we have or not. Some motivators are very powerful, while others lag behind, yet even if that ...

The 7 Habits of Successful Fearful Dogs

By |2013-01-19T10:42:13-05:00January 19th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

"Not sure why you want me to do this, but ok, whatever." On my book shelf is a CD by Wayne Dwyer on the power of intention. It’s an inspirational presentation. But as powerful as intentions are, given the right set of circumstances, habits will win out. Recently I moved the app icons on my iPod around. I deleted a few and moved ...

Creating Harmony

By |2013-01-14T10:21:24-05:00January 14th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

When I was a kid I had piano lessons. It was obvious I was no prodigy, and my enthusiasm at the keyboard was in seeing how fast I could play Love Story, but I don't think the lessons were a complete waste of time and money, even though I convinced my parents that they were. Before I succeeded in ending the lessons I had a ...

Conditioned Reinforcers

By |2012-12-22T11:53:05-05:00December 22nd, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

There are some things I take for granted, things that have become part of the fabric of my life with dogs, that I forget that at one time they were new ideas to me. Creating conditioned reinforcers to use in a variety of ways with my dogs is one of them. Here's a quick primer on what conditioned reinforcers are, how you create them and ...

Take Me To Your Provider Of Consequences

By |2012-11-20T08:55:29-05:00November 20th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Language is important. The words we use to convey ideas matter. Times change and language changes with it. It is helpful to know that when someone is describing something as fat, they mean it's phat. There's nothing wrong with being gay and happy, or gay and homosexual, but using the word gay as an insult, as in that's so gay, should be discouraged, even if ...

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 ...

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 ...

Nibbles Makes A Friend

By |2012-08-17T13:39:22-04:00August 17th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , |

It's been awhile since I've given any updates on Nibbles, so here's a quickie. Nibs is doing great! He's still not 100% comfortable with people, and he likes to bark at them too much, but we continue to work on it, and he continues to improve. This week the dogs made a new friend, a neighbor boy had started barking at the dogs, causing them ...

No sleight of hand

By |2012-02-13T12:07:35-05:00February 13th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

There is no magic to what we do to help fearful dogs, however you define magic. It's time, energy, and effort all resting on a nice bed of patience. In order to survive every species has to have reason to crawl out of bed every morning, or evening if they're nocturnal. If they can't it's an indication something is wrong, seriously wrong. If we have ...

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