I am so excited to share with you a new book: Roja! The Crazy and Fun Adventures of a Smart Little Dog with Magical Powers and the Family who Adopted Her (ages 8-12); a project that has been in the works for some time written in collaboration with Marcos Ortiz Cué and illustrated by Macarena…
Category: How Dogs Learn
Private Training for Snake Avoidance – Using Reward Based Methods
Offer Begins: May 10th 2016 ends June 15th 2016 If you train your dog often by following science based and well designed training protocols your dog clearly stands a much higher chance of moving away from a snake if he ever encounters one. Via private training we will teach your dog how not to approach…
Size Matters!
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 happen….
Should dogs meet on leash?
There are many examples that illustrate how our nature is so different from our dogs. Both species are highly social beings, but how we go about being social really differs. I realize in talking to clients that they think it is a good idea to have their dog meet others on leash because they want…
Playing & Training for Reliability in Predatory Behaviors, part 2
As a continuation to last week’s post, here are some specific ways by which you cannot only give your dog a “legal” outlet for predatory behaviors and up your chances that you will be able to stop your dog from chasing after wildlife, cars, etc. As I stated last week, predatory behaviors, which in plain…
Can We STOP Our Dogs From Chasing?
As we all know, canines are predators. As such they all come hard-wired for chasing after their food. Even our domesticated pampered dogs come hard-wired for hot pursuit even when a warm dinner awaits them – day in and day out. How close to the surface are these hard-wired behaviors varies from dog to dog….
Generalization and Discrimination – Two Important Concepts
These two concepts really shed some light as to how dogs learn. They are important for us to understand because it will help us feel less frustrated when things with our dog are not going our way and to maximize learning. Dogs do not generalize: Here is an example of what generalization means: If I…
It’s a Revolution!
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…
Making Sense of the World
Dogs notoriously make sense of their environment by predominantly using their sense of smell and sight. Their top priority always being the one of safety – of being safe. Their world is basically divided into two categories: safe and unsafe. After the dog has decided that a certain thing, person, etc. is safe, their next…
Training For Success
This is the second installment of the Frisbee saga with Deuce and Rio. As I mentioned in the previous post, I was quite frustrated with the fact that they had no interest in going after the thrown less-than-perfect Frisbee and my frustration with this. The changes that I introduced in our following Frisbee sessions are…