Who Is Training Whom?

Just for fun, kind of/sort of, do you live with a skilled human trainer? I remember once hearing Susan Garrett say that anytime two animals are living together, one is always training the other.

Watch What You Are Reinforcing

I have some questions for you. Does your dog bring a toy back to you only to play keep-a-way as it gets within reaching distance? Does your dog back up from you when you reach down to snap a leash on its collar?

Training Should Be The Highlight Of Your Pet’s Day

This past weekend, I spent a phenomenal two days learning from world renowned and respected dog trainer, Denise Fenzi. Denise is an incredible handler and teacher who uses a deep understanding of dogs, clarity and fun in building strong and reliable behaviors. “Training,” she reminded us at the outset, “should be the highlight of your […]

Three Steps To Solve Dog Counter Surfing

I think my parents are among the only dog companions who actually find joy in watching our Sam stand with his two front paws on the kitchen counter in search of dinner leftovers. For others, this behavior known as counter surfing is generally not welcome.

A Reminder About Behavior

I’m sharing one of my periodic reminders…whether you call it training or not, your pet is constantly taking in feedback from its environment (including you). Behaviors that “work” to get your pet something “it” values, will be repeated. It is that simple and that complex. If your pet continues to do something you do not […]

Dog Resource Guarding – Should You Approach?

GREEN LIGHT…YELLOW LIGHT…RED LIGHT What should you do?

Are You Puppy Police?

When the subject comes up of scolding a puppy (or dog) for getting into something humans think it shouldn’t, chewing up something of value to humans, or going potty in the house, I want to remind you of this comparison I like to use.

Lessons Learned For Dog Training Success

(Note that this was actually written several years ago for something. I just found a copy of it.) I was thinking about this the other day when I was working on teaching our family dog, Sam, a new behavior. I was working on teaching him the leg weave (where he runs around a leg when […]

Transferring Cues in Dog Training

There are times when you would like to teach a new cue for a particular behavior. Maybe you want to add a verbal cue to a hand signal or vice versa. Transferring cues in dog training really is not that difficult to do. I’ll explain below. First, I want to remind you about some cue basics.

Six Books For Kids On Dogs

  If you have a child and a dog, these books are colorful, well written and packed with important lessons on being a dog super hero.