The Problem With, “May I Pet Your Dog?”
It used to be that if folks wanted to pet your dog, they just reached out and did it. Happily, in today’s more well-informed...
Verbal Cues: The Better Alternative to Dog Commands
It is well known in the dog world that our canine companions are primarily body language communicators, i.e., visual learners. This makes sense; they...
Best Tools for Daily Dog Training
When it comes to training our canine companions, there are a few important items — beyond essentials like a collar and leash — that you’ll want to have on hand to set you and your dog up for success.
Rules for Playing Tug
A couple of decades ago, when positive reinforcement-based training was in its infancy, we were quite sensitive to criticism from the dog training community about this new permissive" style of dog training. When we began encouraging people to play tug with their dogs
How to Play Tug-of-War With Your Dog
Some trainers say you shouldn’t play tug with your dog. Not me! Those of you who enjoy this energy-eating aerobic activity with your dog will be pleased to know that I personally think it’s a fine game to play, as long as you’re using appropriate tug toys and playing with rules.
How to Teach Your Dog to Play “Nose Games”
If competition isn’t your thing, you can do a simpler activity at home with your dog that we call Nose Games. You can do...
Beware of the Poisoned Dog Cue
A cue becomes “poisoned” when the dog’s association with the cue is ambiguous – it’s sometimes associated with positive reinforcement, and sometimes associated with punishment. When the association is ambiguous, the dog becomes confused and doesn’t know what to expect. Poisoning your “Come!” cue is the best way to ensure that she’ll stop and weigh her choices, then take off after the bounding deer, rather than come galloping to you when you call.
Sleeping With Your New Puppy
I can’t tell you how many times I have heard this confession from an adopter of one of my foster puppies: “I know it’s wrong,...
Train Your Dog to “Check In”
with all sorts of distractions. The "check in" contributes to his staying in touch with you
Remedial House Training for Dogs
Meet Mollie
How to Train Hearing Impaired Dogs Using Hand Signals and Simple Gestures
I was recently contacted by a friend about a darling Border Collie puppy whose photo she found on Petfinder.com – and who was deaf. This friend is crazy about Border Collies, and also knows that I have a deaf Chinese Crested. Thus, she thought of me when she saw this puppy. The person who was fostering the pup was unable to keep her much longer, and did not want to send her to the local shelter as that would almost certainly result in the puppy’s euthanasia. Why? Because that shelter considers all deaf dogs as “unadoptable.”
Teaching Trade
It's important to be able to ask your dog to give something to you, especially something he is not supposed to have. If you take away only those things that are forbidden to him, he will learn to play the keep-away game, or worse, he may learn to resource-guard. If your dog already guards resources, you may need to do some behavior modification before it is safe to play the trade" game with him. Ask a professional for help with this if you don't think it's safe."