Why It’s Important to Teach Your Dog to Love Wearing a Muzzle
By Maureen Backman, MS, CTC, PCT-A of The Muzzle Up Project
How wonderful would it be if dogs were conditioned to love wearing their muzzles early on so that if they needed to wear one later in life, it would not be an aversive event for them?
The following scenarios illustrate why muzzle ...
Are You Ready for Your New Puppy? For How Many Years?
Puppies are just too cute, it is almost beyond words! However these cute puppies grow up very quickly and become ‘real’ dogs. The puppy stage only lasts for a few months and the honeymoon phase is often over after a couple of weeks of sleepless nights and urine stains on the carpet. So make ...
Introducing a Puppy and an Adult Dog: Take it Slow
Remember “Lessons for My Puppy,” my collaboration with Marge Rogers? She made some videos that I loved so much that I wrote blog posts to go with them.
Marge is still out there working with dogs and making great videos, and I’m featuring another one today. Although there is a lesson for a ...
Training is Simple as A-B-C
Animal training can serve useful purposes, be great fun and strengthen the human-animal bond. It can also frustrate folks, especially if they have not formally studied learning theory. Welcome to Learning Theory 101.
Training is as simple as A-B-C. The “A” stands for antecedent and that is ...
Competition in the Dog Training World: Is It Necessary?
By Joanne Ometz
I am a graduate of Turid Rugaas’ first US offering of her dog behavior counselor/trainer certification course. Most people in the US know Rugaas for her book, On Talking Terms with Dogs, and the study of canine body language is a big part of what I learned. But what is not ...
Changing Perspectives
I don’t know if it’s the same in the UK and the US but, here in Australia, I hear frequent laments from force-free trainers about the difficulty of competing with hard sell trainers of some of the more, shall we say, "traditional" methods. Often these laments relate to difficulties in ...
Dogs Back Then…..and Now
I don't remember, here in England back in about 1954 (I was 10), ever seeing a dog on lead. I don't actually remember seeing many dogs at all.
My brother, my friends and I would also be free to walk or cycle around the roads near home or go and play in the woods.
My first memory of a dog was ...
A Puppy Owner’s Short Guide to Chewing
Chewing is natural, it helps to clean teeth and relieve stress. Puppies need to chew, but they also need to learn what to chew.
Safe chew toys: Kongs, chew toys designed for dogs
Not safe chew toys: Furniture, small children’s toys, cables
Safe chew toys can be made more interesting by ...