Empathy for Human Learners
As I develop as a teacher I’ve been revisiting some of my experiences as learner, empathically engaging with my human clients who might be struggling with new skills.
Being a good learner is something I last thought about seriously when I was a student (a long time ago!). I trained as a ...
One of the Most Important Things to Teach Your New Puppy
By now, your new puppy is adjusting well to his new family. You probably already have started him in a good, positive puppy training class. After all, you have heard time and time again, that you should be socializing your puppy.
Puppy socialization is a process in which you gradually ...
A Revelation about Resolutions
Over the years, I’ve made many New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, get organized, read more, and hundreds of other goals that became part of my never ending “To Do” list. But this year, I had a revelation and decided to do something different and so I made my resolution to find more ways of ...
Does Size Matter?
A dog's size influences his or her behavior. We sort of know this don't we.
What about people? Our stereotype of a hyper and talkative person who is constantly on the move would be a small person, and a slow-talking, slow moving thinker someone much larger.
This has always been my own ...
There’s Nothing Simple about Dog Play
Dogs’ play behavior has, over time, been attributed to a variety of factors. It provides puppies practice for adult behaviors. Play with humans is about "dominance." Play with other dogs is about "dominance" or "status." It’s a replacement behavior for hunting and killing prey. It’s a way to ...
Loving the Vacuum Cleaner
Here’s a little video I made of my dogs’ response to the vacuum cleaner. Hurray for classical conditioning! As soon as any dog comes into my home, I start pairing any potentially scary sounds of human life with great stuff. Two of my dogs weren’t scared of the vacuum in the first place, and ...
Treats or Bingos?
Traditionally, tidbits given to dogs outside their regular meals are labeled 'treats'. Pet shops sell 'treats' and we traditionally refer to any food the dog gets by hand for doing nothing as a 'treat'.
I feel this 'treat' word can sometimes get in the way of converting people who have 'had ...
Cats in a Dog’s World
Cats communicate in a variety of ways. Those of us who are most familiar with canines can often have difficulty differentiating the signals that cats send in attempts to communicate their intent. While many of us prefer to work with dogs, it is often the case that the canines with whom we ...