I can’t speak for any other trainer’s approach in helping their clients and the client’s dogs. However, for most of the behavior modification work that I do – and most of what I do is behavior modification – my approach is a multiple prong approach. Yes, of course, on occasion the situation is quite simple…
Category: Aggression
Will My Dog Ever Be Able To Do That?
Most of the work I do for clients is to teach their dogs the skills to better cope with difficult situations. The goal of the training, of course, is to reduce displays of fear and aggression because the dog has been able to learn other behaviors that are more social and acceptable. It is important…
Why Questions Are Silly Questions – Mostly
At some point or another we all want to know why our dog is doing this or that behavior. Perhaps we are just curious and want to know. However, most of the time we want to know because we would rather our dog stop doing the behavior in question. Under these circumstances the “why” question…
I Need a Guarantee
Today I got a voicemail message from a potential client that told me I needed to respond ASAP. When I get on the phone I realize that indeed this is kind of an emergency. Apparently this dog has been living with little to no supervision since she was a young dog. The dog is now 4 years old. Her…
You Can’t Hurry Love
I am having a conversation with John who works in the solar industry. We are discussing the fact of how safety protocols – which are abounding in his profession – are sometimes in conflict with what the client wants: less downtime and more production. As he is sharing with me this everlasting conflict, I begin…
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….
Living In Harmony
I am meeting with first-time clients regarding inter-dog aggression in the home. This is one of those instances where I brace myself for potentially delivering news that the owners most likely do not want to hear. As I read through their questionnaire, I realized that their situation is not an easy one and that a…
Resource Guarding Between Dogs
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…
Other Measures of Success
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…
Arousal
Have you ever seen a dog with “raised-hackles”? I bet you have. The technical term is piloerection and it means just that – the hair standing up. What you probably don’t know is that piloerection is NOT aggression, as many folks believe. It is actually arousal. The best way for me to describe arousal is…