The Joys of ‘Fun’ Teaching
You know how you feel when you are under pressure and kind of feel tested? Trying to learn from teaching when on the spot isn’t easy. Most of the time…
Managing Your Puppy Helps You Both
Providing your puppy with clear boundaries leads to great outcomes for you and them! Sometimes I am highly amused by the way people describe the behavior of their puppy. It…
Teaching and Eliciting Voluntary Compliance for Grooming and Medical Procedures
I can’t touch her ears! She hates the brush! He shakes on the way to the groomer. Isn’t it an oxymoron that on one hand we “spoil” our beloved dogs…
Teaching Duration Skills for Dogs
The way dogs learn to understand our verbal utterances is by associating a physical behavior with a specific sound combination the human emits. For example dogs can learn quickly that when their butt hits…
Puppies: Behavior vs “Obedience”
So, here you are and you have a growing, teething puppy and you are confronted with a mountain of natural but undesirable behaviors. From jumping up and nipping and shredding…
Relaxation protocols
As I am gaining more experience teaching dogs to be comfortable in the overly stimulating urban environment I am finding that rewarding settling on a blanket or bed of their…
Canine manners
I would like to convince people that saying “no” or making other weird sounds that are supposedly serving as general inhibitors is futile. I don’t want Fifi to bark and jump…
overheard
So, I am in the elevator of my building and a woman who has recently adopted a dog enters with that pup along with a few other people. “SIT” she…
Puppy Training
I was going to write something about housetraining but I changed my mind. I think it is much more important to write something about another aspect of raising a puppy.…
Isis has a new brother
Bear is just learning his basic skills, Isis of course knows many tricks. She is very happy when she can take part in Bear’s lesson. Look at that smile! Bear…