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Fixing What Ails You

By |2013-08-09T07:59:59-04:00August 9th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

It seems that many of us go through our lives trying to make something better or fix something that we hold responsible for our troubles. Years ago I was traveling with a couple of friends. One an ex-housemate who I enjoyed and laughed with, the other, his girlfriend was a friend only the most superficial of ways. We worked at the same place and we ...

Missing Ingredients

By |2013-06-13T09:04:50-04:00June 13th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

It stands to reason that if we have not ever lived with a seriously scared dog that we would not have developed the skills to work effectively with them. Even if we've assisted other people living with a dog like this, there's nothing quite like 24/7 to put our feet to the fire. I regularly speak with people embarked on the bumpy journey to change ...

My I Have Your Attention Please

By |2013-06-11T09:52:15-04:00June 11th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

Stop in for a visit to any one of the thousands of forums or groups devoted to dog training and behavior and you're likely to bump into a discussion about whether or not it's acceptable to punish dogs during training. There will be both reasonable and unreasonable comments from either side of the table. Punishment is a very effective consequence to apply in order to ...

Too Sensitive?

By |2013-05-02T17:48:19-04:00May 2nd, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , |

It wouldn’t be the first time someone has used my discomfort with something they said or did, to turn the tables and make it my problem, but it was happening and for some reason I couldn’t let it go. One of the skills we all need to practice in this day and age of instant communication is to push ourselves away from the keyboard. Just ...

Over Equipped

By |2013-04-28T09:13:07-04:00April 28th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , |

I should start this post with a disclaimer that I am not advocating against the use of the pieces equipment I am going to mention, rather that we should take a good long look at how and why we are using them. Routinely a post will make the rounds of the social media circuit about a dog who while playing with a dog, ended up ...

Old News

By |2013-04-24T10:16:28-04:00April 24th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

After years of flipping through the magazines strategically placed at the check-out in grocery stores, it was impossible not to notice that generations of young women are being schooled on how to apply mascara, bake a no-fail chocolate cake, and on what turns men off, assuming any of this matters to them. The faces on the covers have changed, but the information hasn't since any ...

Fearful Dog Fails

By |2013-04-13T09:47:49-04:00April 13th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

Sunny gets to decide where he feels most comfortable around people. One of the reasons I go on like a broken record about the importance of using reward based training methods that have been designed based on the evidence available garnered through the study of animal behavior and research is because working with fearful dogs can be so darn challenging. So challenging that ...

There Are No Secrets To Dog Training

By |2013-04-08T12:55:44-04:00April 8th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

There are no secrets to dog training, or weight loss, despite the endless amount of spam trying to sell both. Good dog trainers who understand how to train dogs are like bad poker players grinning like fools and showing their hand with all the aces to the people sitting beside them. We want people to know how to change their dog's behavior and can't keep ...

Support Systems

By |2013-03-30T09:34:19-04:00March 30th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

There is so much progress that needs to be made in regard to how people "think" about animal behavior and training that it can seem overwhelming. But seven years ago I had to seek out and search for information regarding the most humane and effective ways to help dogs with fear based behavior challenges, whereas today it streams on my Facebook page and twitter account. ...

Save Your Breath

By |2013-03-29T16:33:58-04:00March 29th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

Every now and then a Cesar Millan fan will find my blog and do their darndest to convince me of the error of my ways and assessment of his. I have to give them credit for their efforts. They are right to accuse me of moderating many of their comments. I didn't always but I decided that he has gotten enough airtime without my blog ...

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