Prevent Resource Guarding In Your Dog

The other day I made the mistake of placing my iPhone ear buds too close to the edge of my dining room table, and when Dawson was looking for something fun to play with, they looked like a pretty good option from his perspective. I did not happen to agree with him. In that split […]

When Changing Environments, Change The Lesson

Cindy and Kya have been doing fabulously with their training – Cindy in strengthening her teaching mechanics, and Kya in learning to sit and down/stay, come when called, leave things on cue, walk on a loose leash, and other behaviors. Kya has shown her new skills in a variety of settings; however, the other day […]

Using Marker Training To Empower A Shy Dog

It is a beautiful thing when you observe a shy dog go from showing avoidance or submissive behaviors when asked to do something, to showing lots of eye contact and doing behaviors quickly with ears perked up and an upright tail wagging. I got to see that this week and it made my day both […]

Using Capturing To Teach Behaviors

There are times when I am standing at my kitchen sink that Dawson, my maltipoo puppy, stops his play to come beside me and lay down with completely relaxed body muscles. I keep some treats in my cabinet for just those moments, for, when he does, I say ‘good’ in a slow and drawn out […]

Core Exercise For Dogs

I am a pretty consistent exerciser, working out about 5 to 6 times a week. There is such an emphasis with people to strengthen our core – the muscles of our abs, spine and supporting limbs. That strength decreases lower back pain and stress on the rest of our body, and helps us to have […]

From Fighting To Snuggling

Gayle and Joe called me to help with their soft coated wheaten terrier adolescent, Pyper, because she would not do what they asked including, and most annoyingly, that she absolutely would not come to them to come inside from the outdoors. They also were not able to walk Pyper as she would pull them on […]

Does Your Training Make Your Pet Happy?

How do you do that?

Teach Your Pet How Your Pet Will Learn

Ignacio Estrada once said, “if children can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.”

Helping Olivia With Positive Reinforcement

Empowerment. I talk about that word often as it relates to dog training (and have written about it too), especially for dogs who dealing with issues of fear, stress and anxiety; and I got to thinking about it the last few weeks.

Fearful Dogs And Crowded Places

I have seen it happen so often…very well intentioned people walking their dog through a crowded event thinking they are helping their favorite pet overcome fears by getting Fido used to being around lots of humans and other stimulus.