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The Concept Dog Trainers Need to Know

By |2022-03-13T23:49:24-04:00July 19th, 2020|Categories: Aggression/Aggressive, Dog training, Helping fearful dogs, Training|Tags: , , , , , , , |

In May in Vermont I am presenting two seminars. Understanding fear-based behavior in dogs, is one I am most often invited to present at different venues. It hasn't changed much over the years and that should be attributed to the fact that nothing new about behavior, since I first created the presentation, has changed. The new information we have about brains and neuroscience does not ...

The Changing Role & Responsibility of Rescues & Shelters

By |2022-01-23T12:41:40-05:00March 29th, 2019|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs, Shelters and Rescues|Tags: , , , , , |

There may have been a time when schools only needed to be charged with teaching students reading, writing and arithmetic. But as society changes schools become responsible for instruction that either used to be provided at home, or represents a new field of study. When I was in high school we had a choice of taking home economics or shop. In previous years the option ...

Stillness-The Choreography of Training Fearful Dogs

By |2022-02-23T12:40:33-05:00March 4th, 2019|Categories: Helping fearful dogs, Training|Tags: , , , , , , , |

When a professional athlete is about to perform a challenging move, an ice skater preparing for a triple jump, a tennis player about to return a volley, a swimmer turning off the wall, a race car driver taking a curve at high speed, each move has been rehearsed and practiced over and over again. Extra effort that doesn't improve speed or accuracy has been pared ...

The Sound Of Startling

By |2022-01-17T22:21:51-05:00February 26th, 2019|Categories: Dog training|Tags: , , , , |

Sound is often the first indication that there might be something in the environment we need to pay attention to. A rustling in the grass or the snapping of branches may indicate a predator sneaking up on us, or maybe it's something we can pursue as lunch. Either way, sound zips into brains and gets a reaction. The reaction is often a startle, a little ...

Between A Rock & A Hard Place

By |2018-05-04T07:50:35-04:00May 4th, 2018|Categories: Dog training, Fostering Dogs, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , |

Sometimes we have to do something because it needs to be done. If we grab someone about to fall off a cliff we can worry about having to apologize later for having touched them without their permission. But we need to be careful not to use the excuse that needing to get something done absolves us from understanding what it is we are doing. If ever ...

Clean-up On Aisle Dog

By |2018-01-30T08:57:28-05:00January 30th, 2018|Categories: Alternative treatments for fearful dogs, Dog training, Fostering Dogs, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

Photo courtesy of Olathe Animal Hospital If you happen to be privy to the chatter that goes on between dog trainers, what I am going to say will not be new to you. Daily, dog trainers are contacted to help an owner with a dog, a normal, healthy, fully functioning dog, whose behavior has become untenable or even dangerous. Sometimes we're contacted within ...

High Risk Activities

By |2019-02-20T11:09:31-05:00March 2nd, 2017|Categories: Dog training, Fostering Dogs, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

"I'd rather not." "So?" One of the primary goals I have for this blog, the seminars and webinars, and consults I do for folks living or working with fearful dogs is to help them understand how to think about fear based behaviors. When I am contracted to help someone train their dog I can directly and specifically tell them what to do. But that's just ...

Be the Voice for the Vulnerable

By |2017-02-14T10:26:20-05:00February 14th, 2017|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , |

My first career as a younger adult was in the outdoor recreation industry. It was fun and there was a certain caché to being paid, as minimal as it may have been, to do something others paid to do. Though there was no obligation to do so, many of us felt the need to advocate for the wild places, the rivers, mountains, deserts and oceans ...

The Real Reason You Should Never Hit Your Dog

By |2016-10-17T17:10:17-04:00October 17th, 2016|Categories: Dog training, Fostering Dogs, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , |

What is that hand going to do to me? Hitting a dog is a bad idea. Even one of those "Oh it didn't hurt them," swats is a bad idea. And here's why. Dogs notice what things predict. If a hand has ever predicted getting grabbed, scruffed, swatted or worse, the dog learns that sometimes hands do unpleasant things to them. Puppies will ...

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