It’s really easy to remember all the horrible stuff your dog has done. Those events can make you sad, angry, frustrated, or even laugh about it now. At family or friend gatherings people love to tell the “my dog did something worse” stories. We don’t tell as many “my dog Read more…
I see a lot of dogs. People typically want the best for their dogs, but they’re not always in a position to know what “best” may be. They aren’t the professionals in the situation and their perspective is very different than that of someone in an ‘expert’ role. At the Read more…
Back in the fall we signed up for the first online dog training class I’ve ever taken. The class was taught by Fanny Gott and lasted about four months. It was the best training class I’ve ever taken. Advantages of online classes: You are able to show the instructor your Read more…
There are a lot of books about success (and not) and looking at why certain individuals or groups of people are successful (or not). I’ve been reading a lot of these over the last few months. A few observations: (Other than that reading many books on the same Read more…
For those in training classes, there are two people responsible for making sure there’s progress. The instructor and the student. For those who are working on their own… there’s just one person to monitor progress! It’s important to be objectively monitoring any training process so that we can evaluate improvement. Read more…
I hear these a lot, especially from experienced dog owners and it’s common internet-advice. There’s some truth to the statements, but there is enough danger that it is important to be cautious. There are exceptions to every rule. Never let a barking puppy out of his crate!The piece of truth: Read more…
Management is under appreciated. And it’s a hard concept. For all problem-solving situations we discuss management, whether it’s something more serious like separation anxiety/distress or reactive/aggressive behaviors or less-serious-but-still-annoying things like jumping on visitors and pulling on leash. Management is not the same as training. Training will resolve or minimize the Read more…
Because I’m working with multiple dogs for multiple activities and I have to keep tracking of training for students, 4-H’ers, and shelter dogs…. I can’t “just remember” everything. Every few months I change my record keeping system to make it more efficient and more useful. For about 24 months Read more…
Shaping is the same type of process, regardless of species or individual. But it can look very different depending on the type of learner, the learner’s history, the skill of the trainer and the relationship with the trainer. On Tuesday I did two training sessions, each about two minutes long. Read more…
One of the things that many dog teams will say, especially those working on competition training or behavior modification, is “I just think he would do so much better if you were training him.” And the thing is, most dogs would do better with a trainer handling them. It’s not Read more…