“…what do you think if we just put one of them shock collars on him so he knows to come back when he gets away?” There are so many tools available to us dog trainers/owners/lovers. Above is a typical thought, born out the best interest of the dog, but is… Continue reading
Raider’s path to my family is definitely not as tough as a lot of other dog’s lives, but it is more difficult than it needed to be. His only 8 month journey in life so far could have been easier if people would’ve done just a little more, whether physically… Continue reading
How excited do you get when you say “today is payday”?! A common question of new clients is “when do you think we’ll be able to stop (feeding as) reinforcement?”. It’s understandable, I mean we don’t want to have to give a treat every time we ask something of our… Continue reading
When we got Willie years ago, I didn’t know much about dogs. We just wanted one. We didn’t really want much from him. He was to be our well-behaved buddy inside, & go on good walks with us. Well, life changes. We adapt, luckily dog’s are good at that too,… Continue reading
Harnesses are everywhere! What a bunch of junk. Don’t rely strictly on your equipment some company tells you their product will “fix your walk”. Before becoming a trainer, I could never figure out why Willie (my golden/husky/lab) wouldn’t stop pulling on our walks! Harness after different harness I tried. “Why… Continue reading
Maintenance, Maintenance, Maintenance … sounds boring , right? But, oh, so important! A fellow shelter employee was asking for advice the other day. She has three dogs (used to be four), one of them has resource guarding and “dominance/alpha” issues. She did a lot of work to resolve the resource… Continue reading
We are supposed to be the intelligent species. The people who say this obviously don’t see what I see. I’ve talked to other balanced trainers who get a lot of business from “purely positive” failures. PP is very idealistic, not very practical. You can’t just ignore all bad behaviors, sometimes… Continue reading
I’ve held a leadership role for over 20, of my 30 working, years. In dog training it’s imperative to praise each and every time (when they’re learning), but with people I rarely did. I just felt you were supposed to do what you were supposed to do, and do it… Continue reading
All animals are motivated by something; different situations might need a different motivator for the same result from that animal; you might need a different motivator to get results for different behaviors in the same setting. A good leader will try to find the motivator for each individual animal in… Continue reading
A lot of what I write is to help others learn/see another perspective, refresh an idea they already knew. But also in trying to help others, it makes me think about what I do so I can better myself as well. This one is definitely one of those … Dogs… Continue reading
