“Find It’ For Life Skills
Most dogs love to use their noses to sniff for things including, and especially, food. Teaching a dog to snuffle and sniff for treats and putting it on cue can be one of the most simple and useful things you can teach the dog in your life. I call this behavior “find it”, but you could […]
Walking Life Lessons
A few moons ago, when I brought Lucy, my first dog as an adult, home, I promptly enrolled her in all of the local dog club at the time’s obedience classes. In those classes I learned many things to do to insure that Lucy would not try to take over the household. One of those […]
It’s Not Magic: You Have to Train for That
“But he knows sit!” In the beginning training can happen amazingly quickly which may look like magic, but it is not, and it is only half the story. Teaching new behaviors at home when not much else is going on is easy; teaching the dogs in our lives to respond to cues and perform those […]
Walk This Way
Do harnesses make dogs pull? Do harnesses stop dogs from pulling? Do I need a special collar to teach my dog how to walk nicely on a leash? No, no, and no! You do not need a collar at all to teach your dog the skills they need to walk at, or near, your side. […]
Forget About Obedience
I was walking with Castor the other day when he saw a couple of people, and he immediately turned away from them to run over and hop up on a raised manhole cover and watch them go by. I have been teaching Castor a few skills that we can use when we see new people and […]
Get Curious and Get Creative
I bet the dogs in your life sometimes do some things that you would rather they didn’t. Maybe you have lived with a dog who chewed the furniture, dug up the yard, barked more than you liked, jumped on you or your guests, nipped at people’s heels, the list goes on and on right? It’s […]
Meet the Need (Safely!) First
I bet the dogs in your life sometimes do some things that you would rather they didn’t. Maybe you have lived with a dog who chewed the furniture, dug up the yard, barked more than you liked, jumped on you or your guests, nipped at people’s heels, the list goes on and on right? It’s […]
How To Train Without Training
My house has been an eventful place over the last couple of months! I took in my first ever foster dog, Cross, an eight month old lab mix, for almost two weeks, and after he left, not even a week later I adopted Castor, an itty bitty pitty puppy, who has been here about a […]
Why Doesn’t He Come When I Call?
I’m sure we can all think of a time when our phone started ringing and we decided not to answer it. There are a variety of reasons to not answer a call. You might be in the middle of something requiring all your attention, maybe you are out with friends and having a great time, […]
Digging Problem? Why and What Would You Like To See Instead?
But What Do You Want Your Dog To Do? Last week I posted on social media asking people to share some problems they were having with their dogs. One problem mentioned was digging. If your dog is doing something you don’t like, including digging up your backyard, before you start working on the problem, think […]