There is a lot of confusion about the definition of punishment as the term has a different connotation in everyday parlance and the behavioral sciences. The behavioral sciences define punishment as the presentation of an aversive. An aversive, just to refresh some folks’ memory, is the presentation of anything an animal wants to avoid. As…
Unless the dog is dead, he/she will respond to its environment. Case in point; Deuce who is an avid Frisbee player suddenly stopped chasing after the Frisbee. I tried several things to encourage him to go after it, but he wouldn’t. He actually just stood in place looking at me as if he had never…
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…
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 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…
At times things can go very wrong. Sometimes, if we are paying attention we might not be caught by surprise but in other instances not only can things go wrong but they can do so very, very fast and as a result find us unprepared. At times things can go very wrong. Sometimes, if we…
Recently I was talking to the participants of my Agility class about the benefits of engaging their dogs in novel experiences as a way to build up their confidence. But what exactly does that mean? So here is how I think of building confidence in our dogs. The goal of any confidence boosting exercise is…
While taking a break from playing with the whippet, I spot Rio peeing on one of her toys. The coffee cup that I am holding in my other hand prevents me from reaching towards it in an effort to stop her from continuing peeing on it because at some point during the game I am…
The following advice is for people whose dogs tend to get over excited when someone comes to their home because they love interacting with people and not because they are concerned about who is in their home or dogs that are apprehensive about interacting with a “stranger”. From my perspective there are a few options…
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…