I am about to make some popcorn – one of my favorite snacks – as John is out walking with the dogs. I pause to think of what to put on the popcorn. Not so much because I am undecided about what I want, but because I normally share the bag of popcorn with Deuce…
Category: Enrichment
Traveling With Pets – Some General Guidelines
Whenever vacations are in the horizon, the question about bringing our pets along or not come up. There are times, of course, where the vacation or the trip might not be conducive to bringing our pets in tow, but what about those vacations that we get to plan ourselves? The biggest mistake I think people…
Inspiration
It is Friday afternoon and I am wrapping one more work-week. I turn my attention to my own two dogs. What can I teach them next? My inspiration in working with my own dogs might vary slightly to what I do day in and out with client’s dogs. It is true that on occasion I…
Can your dog learn from Halloween?
We all know how most kiddos feel about Halloween and the same would go for a large number of adults. All that mystery, sugar and walks to haunted destinations under crisp conditions can send chills down someone’s spine. But what about our dogs? Do they care about Halloween? I guess we will never know unless……
What our dogs can offer us
I love to take time in the morning to hang out with my dogs. In fact, anytime when I get to just watch them is precious for me. Many times I try to watch inconspicuously wishing that I could fly or hover unnoticed by them as I take away every secret of their “doginess”. This…
The Wolves of Yellowstone
“It seems ironic that just as we’ve started to get a better handle on the complex factors driving the relationships of a given habitat… those systems themselves are increasingly at risk of unraveling. In that sense, maybe the gift of the WOLF (my emphasis) to Yellowstone, and to the world, isn’t simply its beauty…Its gift…
Give them what they want
I am taking one of our usual hikes with Deuce and Rio with a friend who is visiting from out of town. It is normally John who takes this walk with them, but it is my turn to walk them with him being away. We exit our property and before I have time to think…
Behavior Chains
Deuce is almost flying as he’s catching the Frisbee that I throw for him while Rio takes the ‘Hound’ approach. She is strolling around the area where we are just sniffing the ground in high hopes of finding a forgotten treat from a past session. I decide to ignore her and just concentrate on Deuce…
The Power of the Crate
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…
Three Games in a Row
I am exercising the dogs this morning and I notice that Rio is sort of inspecting the whippet (toy)instead of playing. We had to change toys because the last one basically tore away from the whippet. Now instead of playing by chasing the toy she is smelling and looking at it – perhaps making sure…