I am having dinner while both dogs are chewing on their nightly chewy. Rio is sort of waiting for Deuce to finish his so that she can go explore to see if there is anything left that she can have. I notice this from the corner of my eye as Deuce comes into the kitchen…
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…
How does your dog tell you that he wants to go out or come in when let outside? Does she scratch at the door? If so, here is how you can teach your dog to stop scratching at the door or even barking, and instead politely lie down to have the door open. First, you…
I don’t know about you, but I really do not like to walk dogs that pull on leash. I find that when this happens the walk just lost its relaxing quality. Perhaps other people do not feel the same about their dogs walking on a loose leash. Dogs pulling on a leash is so ubiquitous…
One of the things on some dog owner’s list is to crate train their dogs. Most of my client’s dogs are either crate trained or are in the process of being so. Besides the added benefit of helping a puppy with house training, crate training an adult dog comes with a lot of perks for…
Even in the world of training, concepts are thrown around with the implication that everyone else knows and agrees with the definition of said concept. When it comes to training, and setting behavior goals, it is so much more valuable to be as specific about what we can observe in our dogs instead of labeling…
Few of us have the forethought of getting ready in the event of a natural disaster. Here in the Santa Fe area, our biggest concern are fires. With summer days here and temperatures on the rise, the risk of a forest fire also increases. Yet, how many of us have a plan in place for…
I am reading an intake questionnaire from a new client and my internal alarm goes off. Reading a potential client’s intake form is very helpful in learning about what the present situation is like, as well as learning what the client’s goals and expectations of training are, and what their future life with their dog…
A dog barking is one of the most (normal) dog behaviors for most people. Part of it is because of how stressful noise is in general and in part frankly because we fail to understand what barking is all about. Barking is not simply just noise coming from our dogs or embedded with one significance….
This is a continuation of last week’s post on the same household dog fights. As I mentioned in that post, having to manage and live with dogs that are injuring one another is not a picnic. It can be very stressful for the dogs as well as the people. Also, depending on the severity…