Training

Free dog training apps are convenient, budget-friendly, and address behavioral issues and training. They can even help you teach your dog tricks. However, with so many apps available, it can be challenging to determine which ones use only positive reinforcement to train dogs. Be careful out there! Sadly, many dog trainers still use negative reinforcement and balanced training, both of which we do not recommend.

How you train a dog to use a peed pad changes when you are training a mature dog

Food treats are an easy and effective reward for a dog when training. But food rewards are only one way to build strong behavior. There may be times when you do not want to or cannot use food, and there may be times when the best reinforcement is something other than a hot dog! Here are five great ways to reward your dog when you don't want to reach for the treat pouch.

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.

Recently, I switched the group class format at my Peaceable Paws Training Center to Levels." Instead of a progressive curriculum with new exercises introduced each week

Why should training be fun for the dog? Briefest possible answer? “It’s the law.” How animals learn is the most-studied phenomenon in the history of psychology and is up there with gravity in terms of its lawfulness. One of the big ticket principles is that anything one tries to teach a new learner (such as a beginner dog) will get stronger in direct proportion to how many times it is rewarded. And (of perhaps even greater interest) every time the new learner does the behavior and is not rewarded (as in, say, “drilling” the same behavior over and over again) the behavior gets weaker. (Not just “doesn’t get stronger” – gets weaker.) In other words, it’s better to do nothing at all than to drill without rewards.

In dog training, we most frequently hear the term “poisoned” attached to the word “cue,” meaning a cue for a particular behavior has taken...

Chewbacca is, in most ways, a normal, happy, seven-year-old Golden Retriever. He loves to play with the other dogs. Like most Goldens, he enjoys a good game of fetch. He joyfully embarks on daily off leash romps with his guardian, Jenny Alt, and her three other dogs. Chewbacca has one trait that makes him just a little different, however. He cannot see. With a few accommodations in training and management, blind dogs can enjoy happy, normal lives.

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

You may have acquired your dog with the intent of competing in agility, doing therapy-dog work, or having fun with musical freestyle (dancing with...

reward her

Play is a widespread feature of social animals. Humans play. Dogs play. Maybe our shared need for and love of play is part of...