The magazine for force-free pet professionals

No results found.

Visit our pet owner publication!

Bridging the Communication Gap

By Angelica Steinker This article was originally published on page 52-53 in the January 2015 edition of BARKS from the Guild, a bi-monthly magazine published by the Pet Professional Guild. Cognizant Behavior Consulting (CBC) is an approach to behavior consulting that provides consultants ...

The Dignity of Being an Individual

By Pamela S. Hogle It’s hardly a new idea: Treat dogs as individuals. In 1963, Clarence Pfaffenberger wrote a book called The New Knowledge of Dog Behavior. A line in that book eloquently states what I see as the ideal approach to educating dogs. Pfaffenberger writes that the first time a ...

Pet Professional Guild – A Message From Niki Tudge

BARKS January 2015 Presidents Message Fetch your copy here Dear Fellow Force-Free Advocates, Another year has gone by and I ponder whether to review all of the great things we have achieved together over the past year or to focus on what we are planning for 2015. Since I am writing this in ...

How Does Matching Law Affect How We Train Our Obedience Skills?

written by Niki Tudge Much of what we do in everyday life is all about choices. At any given moment we can work or we can do something more pleasurable, let’s say take our dogs for a walk.  I can choose to do some work or train my dogs. I could then go to the beach or go to the store. I could ...

We Can Argue over TV. Our Dogs Have to Put Up with It

To take this photograph I have been searching for a football match on TV - a first! Most of my PPG blogs arise from the stories of dogs I have been working with that have got me thinking. Many of the people I visit have their TVs on all the time, whether or not they are watching anything. ...

False Bravado: Reframing the Old Dog Training Myths

By Karen Deeds, CDBC If you work with dog owners or cruise the dog behavior groups on Facebook you will often see dogs that are labeled ‘dominant’.  I hear this most often in client homes where they have multiple dogs and have categorized one as the dominant or “alpha” dog because of his or ...

A Puppy in Winter

By Bob McMillan It’s true, I did not time this very well. It was Indian Summer when I got my Irish wolfhound puppy, Oona. We frolicked in the yard among the butterflies and roses. This month, Old Man Winter’s hung a big “kick me” sign on my Tennessee county. The Arctic chill let up just ...

My Dog Said “Sorry” To My Cat. I Think.

My dog Huckleberry and my kitten Cato play rough-and-tumble games all day. Huckleberry chases Cato, Cato pounces on her neck, Huckleberry fake-bites his leg, he jumps on her belly and fake-gnaws her ear. They're friends. Not "friends" like the dog and cat who sleep together in the dog's bed ...