Training

Training a deaf dog requires patience and consistency, just as training a dog who can hear does. While replacing the verbal “sit” with a...

All dog training techniques fit somewhere on a long continuum, from seriously harsh and abusive punishment-based methods at one extreme, to pure positive reinforcement at the other. Neither extreme is likely to be very practical or effective, nor will you find many trainers who recommend using only methods from one end or the other. Most trainers use a combination of techniques that place them somewhere between the two ends of the continuum. Which side of center they are on defines them as primarily compulsion-based trainers or primarily positive ones.

Sometimes we need to take things away from our dog and that’s when the trade trick becomes vital. Here’s how to teach your dog to trade.

We have Edward Thorndike (1874 - 1949) to thank for teaching us about The Law of Effect. While studying behaviorism, he observed and described The Law of Effect, which states that behaviors change as a result of the consequences to actions. Boundless.com has a nice succinct explanation of The Law of Effect:

It's frustrating at best, dangerous at worst, when you can't get your dog to come to you. Indoors, he may be suspicious that you're going to do something aversive, such as treat his ear infection, or put him in his crate. Outdoors, he may also have an aversive association with coming to you, or he may just be having entirely too much fun. Whatever the cause, here are five tips for handling the crisis:

Many years ago, when I was a Customer Care Supervisor at the Marin Humane Society, in Novato, California, we received a frantic phone call from a woman who had glanced over her fence and noticed her neighbor’s adolescent Dalmatian tangled up in her tie-out rope so badly that she couldn’t move. Rushing to the address, the Society’s humane officer did, indeed, find the tangled dog, but there was something suspicious about the scene. The rope was coiled and knotted so neatly around the dog’s legs that it left no room for doubt in the officer’s mind.

A solid stay is one of the basic commands for dog training. Here’s how to teach a dog to sit and stay.

It's important to know what your cues are for your dog. Yes, I bet you think you know, but in reality your dog may think your cues are very different than what you think they are.

If the symptoms your dog exhibits are straining to urinate, frequent, small accidents or repeated, small puddles when going outdoors, a likely cause is a lower urinary tract issue such as a bladder infection, bladder stones, or cystitis (bladder inflammation). Diagnostics will include a urine sample, urine culture, and possibly xrays of the bladder. Some breeds such as Schnauzers are more prone to certain lower urinary tract issues like bladder stones.

Passing by all manner of things in the real world - and being passed by them - is an important canine good manners skill. Unfortunately, it seems to be one that is absent in many dogs’ behavior repertoires. Some training classes don’t address this behavior challenge at all. Others do, but owners don’t always take time to generalize the behavior outside the training center. Their dogs, in the real world, still bounce over to greet any and all comers on the street, or on the opposite end of the continuum, shy away from people and things that frighten them. My “Downtown Hound” class graduated in early September with a celebration at Nutter’s Ice Cream in nearby Sharpsburg. It was a 90 degree-plus day with high humidity, and the ice cream parlor was a popular spot in this small Maryland community. I watched with pride as the four dogs lay quietly at their humans’ feet, happily downing the occasional offered dog treat while their owners licked ice cream cones. More importantly, they rested quietly as people walked by with strollers and dogs, kids on skateboards flew past noisily, and motorcycles, trucks, and cars rumbled by a few feet away on busy Main Street.

or threatening his general well-being if he made the wrong move. It wasn't fear of punishment – or fear of me – or some sort of amorphous "respect" that he had for me

and took four-month-old Gideon home in August 2002.

Seeking an outlet for Gideon's energy