We constantly want our dogs to do stuff for us. And that is not really a problem. One could argue that any relationship is to a greater extent built on what the individuals in the relationship do for one another. While, of course, our relationship with our dog(s) is precious, I am not saying that…
Category: Basic Obedience
Getting More Out Of Your Walks with Your Pup
This past weekend as part of the Dog T.I.P. program at the Stray Hearts Animal Shelter in Taos, NM the conversation gravitated towards the benefit (or lack thereof) of walking shelter dogs and even dogs that are already living in a home. Erica and I discussed the benefits of walks as well as dispelling some common…
INBOX
I don’t know about you, but I so much hate spam in my inbox. I dread it so much that I spend minutes every day either reporting it as “spam” or unsubscribing from all those lists that I probably did not sign up for in the first place! As I was deleting unwanted emails a…
What and When Questions Are Smart Questions When It Comes to Training
A few weeks back I wrote about the “why” questions: People love “why” questions. Perhaps because we are curious, because we think “why” questions help us understand our own dog better (which sometimes they do, of course!) but most of the time it’s because we’d much rather our dog not do something and we think…
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…
Managing Greetings at the Front Door
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…
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…
Setting Boundaries
I have often read and even used the phrase myself of “setting boundaries” for dogs. But what exactly do we mean by this? And why (and if) should we set boundaries? The dictionary defines boundary as: a line that marks the limits of an area; a dividing lines. A boundary wall. A limit of a…