The magazine for force-free pet professionals

No results found.

Visit our pet owner publication!

Filter by Categories
Animal Behavior
No results found.

Latest Behavior Articles

Dog Training in “3D”: Harnessing the Concepts of Distance, Duration and Distractions

Dog Training in “3D”: Harnessing the Concepts of Distance, Duration and Distractions

By Joan Hunter Mayer of PPG corporate partner Transpaw Gear® At TransPaw Gear, we want people to have adventures with dogs that are safe and fun. One way to help ensure that happens is by teaching dogs a few key skills. Concepts that apply to teaching and refining many different behaviors ...
Dudley the Wonder Fish

Dudley the Wonder Fish

By Sharon Empson It has been a little over a year since I trained Dudley as part of my Karen Pryor Academy Certification as a Pet Trainer. Not wanting to add more furry pets to our home, I chose a fish as my “other species.” I bought Dudley at a pet shop when he was about a little over an ...

More Articles

It is Unwise to Say, “Just Ignore the Problem Behavior!”

By Niki Tudge Last week, while perusing my Facebook news feed while I drank my morning coffee, I came across a link to a blog advocating for force-free dog training methods.  This short blog had a video link which was showing a dog trainer ...

Do Helicopter Moms Impede Pups’ Success?

Talk about a tough graduate research assignment: Watching puppy videos. Where can I sign up? Seriously … it’s been done. A research team watched hundreds of hours of video of puppies interacting with their moms. The goal was to evaluate how ...

“Naughty” Dog Or Normal Dog?

I've lost count as to how many times I've heard that Fido is 'really naughty,' 'he's doing it deliberately,' 'he's trying to spite me,' or, if an owner has more than one dog, 'they're trying to gang up on me!' But are these labels in any way ...

Having a Bit More Fun with Our Dogs

When I got my first dog as a child no one in the family knew much about dogs, puppy preschool classes were unheard of and the average dog just somehow became part of the family. My father mainly got the dog because I probably pestered him for ...

Does Breed Specific Legislation Work?

Recently a dog incident occurred in the tiny northern village of Plain, Wisconsin. As reported by TV news in the southern part of the state, a lady was walking her dog when three Pit Bulls escaped their home and rushed up to her. The lady ...

A Good Start in Life

By Francine Miller Thankfully, more people are now aware that puppies need early socialization to have the best shot at being behaviorally healthy, but there are still many that are sketchy on the details of the process. Very few people are ...

The Problem with Punishment

Fortunately today, thanks to force free advocating organizations like Pet Professional Guild, there is much more awareness of the detrimental effects of punishment.  Sadly though, in some quarters it still prevails and is even advocated by ...

Change Is Difficult – We Are Humans After All

As trainers we sometimes talk about owner compliance, or maybe more accurately - in some cases at least - the apparent lack of it. Part of our job as dog trainers is to find ways to motivate our clients to make changes to the lives of their ...