We helped to host an APDT/WCRL rally trial last weekend. It was a great experience and even though we were new to hosting a trial and most of our workers had never been to a rally trial before. It was actually much easier than I thought it would be! I Read more…
Blaze is now 12 and not too different from before. He’s a little slower, but still faster than me. He’s starting to loose his hearing and sometimes needs help getting into the car. But I still have to manage his life to keep him safe. People who have puppies or Read more…
This comes up regularly in class. Ultimately, many people decide to just let their pets up. If the concern was hair, they get washable covers. If the concern was injury for a small or older dog jumping on and off, they get those little stairs or put a nice Read more…
I’m never sure how to feel when I find books like this at the used book store. I’m happy that I now have the book! But how did the book get there? Did the previous owner resolve his or her challenges with a reactive dog? Or did that person seek Read more…
This is one of the strangest books I’ve ever read, it was completely different than I expected! The topic is relevant to all dog professionals and should be important to all dog owners, but especially owners of anxious and/or reactive dogs. It’s incredibly important to know about stress! The book Read more…
Take a look at yesterday’s post about the training steps I use for teaching this exercise. When working on a lesson plan/training plan, my goal was to have it be as much positive reinforcement as possible and minimize the use of negative punishment. The natural tendency for most people is Read more…
In class tonight we discussed what to do when other family members don’t cooperate with the training plan. The problem: Mom brings the dog to class. She knows some of his naughty behaviors at home are just ways to get attention…like grabbing things and running around. The other family Read more…
Griffin and I finally made it to an agility trial. We went to a CPE trial on Saturday and entered 3 classes. I had some specific goals for the event: Try a start line stay. It can be hard for dogs to stay at the beginning of the course, but it’s Read more…
Fluency is an important aspect of learning a skill. The really casual way of defining fluency would be to say that you “know how to do [the skill]”. Consider a kid who just tied his shoe for the first time with a lot of guidance and prompting. And think about Read more…
I’ve been reading a lot of books on exercise and nutrition. More on that as I continue to read and learn and think about how to apply the information (or not) for my three very, very different dogs. It’s a challenge. Griffin and I have been learning lots of things Read more…