Recently Ohio has updated it’s dangerous dog law and now communities are making decisions on how to adjust their dog laws. A local newspaper article has made a few statements that I’m not so sure about. One of them is about microchips. The local laws previously required pit bulls to be Read more…
Colleen Pelar’s other book, Living with Kids and Dogs without Loosing Your Mind is something I recommend to almost every family I see that has kids. This new Puppy Training for Kids book will now also be recommended in the households with elementary and middle school kids. It’s a Read more…
This isn’t really a book to sit and read. There are a few short chapters on rally, but it’s mostly filled with course maps. The author, Charles Kramer is well known as being the person who made rally into a ‘real’ event. Rally (or “rally-o” or “rally obedience” etc) Read more…
Denise often referenced how important warm up time is before taking a dog into a competition ring. The type of warm up needed to get the dog mentally engaged needs to be appropriate for the dog, the handler, and the type of activity. Here are some of the notes I Read more…
I enjoy watching Mary Ray perform. I’ve been watching her performances at Crufts for as long as video has readily been available online. To get such consistent and reliable performances from not just one dog, but sometimes up to four at a time (skip ahead to 2:00 on that one to get to the multiple Read more…
It can be hard to set goals unless you can see the small pieces and the big picture of what you are working on. Sometimes I am working with people who do not realize their goals are not realistic. Sometimes this is due to handler skill, sometimes it’s about dog’s Read more…
Last weekend Denise Fenzi was in Ohio to present two days on “Drives and Motivation for All Sports” and one day of “Problem Solving.” I especially enjoyed all the obedience enthusiasts and all of the golden retrievers present! Denise is a great presenter, many of the attendees had attended multiple Read more…
Griffin has been on limited activity after being diagnosed with an iliopsoas injury in early June. He had seemed off for a few weeks before that and a trip to his regular veterinarian was unproductive. We saw a vet who specializes in physical rehabilitation and is a Certified Read more…
In the last post I mentioned that I would be helping with a talk about foundation skills. Here are the five skills I grouped: Reinforcement: Knowing how to evaluate, how to deliver, and what exactly is a reinforcer can make all the difference for a trainer. This is what I Read more…
I’ll be helping with a one hour ‘foundation training skills’ talk at an event next year. But what is a foundation skill? My friend dictionary.com defines foundation as “the basis or groundwork of anything.” The challenge is that different trainers have completely different foundation skills. Some want the dog to look at the handler, heel, Read more…