One of my colleagues and I are having a conversation about the state of affairs in the world of animal training- specifically, we are talking about dogs. We both have reached the conclusion that hearing about misconstruction, inhumane methods of training in the name of helping animals wears really heavy on us. We agree to…
Unless the dog is dead, he/she will respond to its environment. Case in point; Deuce who is an avid Frisbee player suddenly stopped chasing after the Frisbee. I tried several things to encourage him to go after it, but he wouldn’t. He actually just stood in place looking at me as if he had never…
A while back I had a client’s dog staying with us for board & train. As I was attempting to play with Deuce and Rio and our friendly visitor, I realized that the lab is running hard after the “sacred” orange ball. Deuce and Rio are also running and now I am worried that the…
I am at home waiting for a home delivery. The home delivery people had called ahead of time as requested and now both dogs are in my office in their crates. I hear a knock on the front door and in unison with my “come in” I hear Rio barking. Ah, she probably wonders: who…
I hear the trainer telling attendees about his concept of “Horsenality” on a recent TV program that I am watching. He is referring to “Horsenality” as in the horse having a personality. I get it. Anyone that has spent time with an animal can attest to the fact that they are indeed individuals. However, what…
Our dogs do not shake our hand or hug us when they want to say hi. Instead, they jump on us because they want to access our faces and mouths. This goes way back to their wolf past. Wolves regurgitate food to give to their pups so pups learn to lick their parent’s mouth to…
I was called to a case where a large dog weighing 50lbs had killed a smaller dog weighing only 10 lbs. The details of what happened were somewhat sketchy since my client was not there to witness the event. As best I could, I gathered information from third parties to try and understand what happened….
The dogs and I are playing our usual soccer game in the morning. I see Rio turn towards Deuce, as they both are trying to get to the orange ball, and she playfully grabs his tail in her mouth and gives it a tug. Deuce’s focus is on the ball and potentially landing so he’s…
Rio and Deuce have finished eating dinner and as we do every night, I proceed to the laundry room just after having said out loud: “Does anyone here want a bone?” Immediately I hear hurried paw steps towards the laundry room in anticipation of “dessert”. I have been trained well by these two and I…
I am reading a trade journal where I am learning about Brambell’s Five Freedoms, a program that originated in Great Britain to assess the welfare of livestock raised in factory farms. Later, the British government established the Farm Animal Welfare Council to define the “freedoms”. The freedoms addressed are: Wow! Imagine if we actually treated…