How often do you apologize for your dog's behavior? I am surprised at how often people, pet owners and trainers alike will beg forgiveness for their dog's behavior. We apologize for our dogs when they bark, greet someone enthusiastically or stare at someone's steak and cheese sandwich with unrelenting intensity. I am not taking a stand for allowing rude behaviors in dogs when they are ...
In dog training the way you get the behavior you want, really want, is by constantly raising the criteria. This means that you stop rewarding the behavior that is 'almost' what you want and ask for more or better from the dog. When you get it, you reward it. If you want your dog to 'down' you don't settle for one of those lowered, but ...
A question was posed on a dog training forum about how we, as dog trainers, could teach the general public to be more critically minded when it came to choosing trainers. My immediate response was tinged with disbelief, how do dog trainers teach people critical thinking skills? Why should that be what we are spending our efforts on? Face it, most people come to us ...
Over the years I have instructed people in a variety of skills. I was a life guard and swim instructor and have taught white water canoeing and how to roll a whitewater kayak. I've introduced people to the joys of cross-country skiing and rock climbing. Several of my young relatives learned to drive a stick shift in my vehicles. The instruction for each of these ...
One of the striking things for me at the recent BlogPaws conference was not only the number of people willing to go out on limbs for animals (or swing from dangling fabric), but how young many of them were. When the pre-teen took the stage and shared her dream of helping animals I wanted to hug her mother. After passing the half century mark I ...
This spring I made plans to meet friends from junior high school who I had not seen for years. I went through collections of old photographs to look for images of our youthful faces back in the seventies to help us reminisce. I found a number of poorly composed, out of focus, faded pictures that only the people featured in them could enjoy and appreciate. ...
If you are living with a fearful dog who has inappropriate responses to the things it's afraid of, cowering, lunging, barking, growling, fleeing, etc., it is important to understand something about how animals (including humans) behave when stressed. When your dog is afraid, it is experiencing stress. When an animal is stressed and needs to respond it is more likely to perform whatever behavior it ...
Imagine you have to study for a big exam or are trying to learn to use a new computer program or figure out your taxes. Do you pack up your supplies and go sit in the middle of a busy city intersection? Or perhaps more realistically do you invite the neighbor kids over to play video games in your living room while you replay in ...
I never gave much thought to the risks of using corrections when training dogs until Sunny, my fearful dog came into my life. Even the casual 'uh uh' that I would use when one of my other dogs' noses was getting precariously close to the cheese on the coffee table, would have sent him cowering off. I had to find ways not only to get ...
Fearfuldogs: Tell me about your dog Lilly. Roxanne: Lilly is a nearly 5-year-old smooth coat border collie, adopted at 6 months old from a progressive humane society in Boulder, CO. She came in as a transfer. So, she lived in two shelters and a foster home before we adopted her. She passed all temperament testing with better-than-average scores even though she did show some shyness/fear. ...
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