I am having a phone conversation and this is the question that is being posed to me. Well, I said: “I am bias to rescuing dogs versus getting a dog from a breeder.” In my mind, the only exception to my bias is when for whatever reason a person is really keen on a particular…
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…
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…
We are at the vet’s office having Rio’s bandage changed when an acquaintance walks through the doors with her dog. Her dog appears somewhat shaken-up and has a bloody injury close to his eye. “What happened?” I inquired. They tell me that this is the fifth time their dog has been attacked by their other…
I have been working with a small dog and his “parents” to help this little one be more comfortable with people approaching or picking him up. He is also concerned about riding in the car. He will shake like a leaf on a regular basis especially when someone walks in his direction, and will shake…
Resource guarding of anything that a dog considers valuable is normal dog behavior. It goes back to- you guess it, evolution. Dogs are opportunistic feeders and scavengers. In other words, in the wild, dogs do not know when their next meal will appear so they eat when food becomes available. In addition, they are scavengers…
When it comes to any behavior including dog bites, looking at the context surrounding the episode will give us some very much-needed information. What I am saying is that not all bites are the same. Even sometimes people cannot even agree on what they call a bite. This is the typical example of a herding…
A while back I was working with a couple and their very aggressive dog. His displays of fear and aggression which constitutes barking, growling, and lunging are quite sobering, and I really take them seriously. De-escalating the situation is part of what I need to do as well as making sure I don’t get bitten….
I am stretching on my yoga mat, and when I do, I really have to work hard at not interacting with my dogs. Perhaps it’s that they can access me in a different manner as I am now more at their eye level or it might be that I am doing downward dog and they…
Previously I wrote about ways by which we could ascertain if a behavior modification plan is actually working in changing the targeted behavior. Today, I’d like to expand on another reliable way of knowing whether success has been reached or even if we are on the right track. I recently met with a couple that…