Training Tips
There are many reasons to play games with your dog. It will strengthen your relationship. It will keep the dog from getting bored, which will keep him from things you don’t want him doing, and make him healthier. Many of the games described here will actually help train your dog. It’s important that you can […]
What is Clicker Training? In a nutshell, it is using a marker signal to indicate when the animal has achieved your training goal, telling them that they accomplished the task and will be rewarded with a significant reward. For more information on what it is, please see some excellent articles here. The clicker is a […]
Halloween can indeed be a frightening experience for dogs, especially for puppies who have never experienced this event, and for shy dogs who are easily frightened. Think about it: Strange people in weird shapes keep ringing the doorbell, and they smell so sweet! And are you thinking that Fido would look really great dressed up in […]
Whether you attach a leash to your dog’s collar or to a harness is pretty much a personal decision, but you should be aware that using a collar with a dog who has not learned to walk on a slack leash (at a human’s pace) could be at risk to some damage from the pressure […]
Dangers and Safety Considerations Change in Routines With new activities and maybe new people in your house, don’t make assumptions about how your dog will behave. One of my students told me that her Golden Retriever pup, who’d never “counter surfed” before, stole an item off the counter while she was doing extra cooking. The item […]
So you have this adorable but very active puppy, and a house full of things that you don’t want the pup to destroy. How do you reconcile the two? Here’s the simple recipe: Give the puppy ample opportunity to get it right, and reward him if he does. Limit the opportunity to get it wrong, […]
Housetraining is the process of teaching a puppy where to go to the bathroom. Puppies have a natural instinct to not soil their bed or den, and one of the things you will be teaching your pup is to consider your entire house to be a “den”. At the same time, puppies are developing their […]
Look around Look around your house and yard – if you’re not sure if your dog got out of your property, double-check – they might just be hiding some place, like under a bed, behind a couch, etc. This might be especially true if they’re hiding from something that scared them, like fireworks, thunder, smoke […]