Using Annoying or Scary Sounds for Dog Training
Let’s pretend you saw an ad for a new dog training product. It read something like this:
Introducing the Noise-Aided Obedience Device (NOD)! Never have trouble with your dog again. When you jerk or flap the lead attached to your dog’s collar or harness to punish him or to force him into the ...
Professional Training and Pet Sitting
As a professional dog trainer and behavior consultant I developed a working relationship with hundreds of families over the years, and many pet owners have asked for my recommendation when they needed a pet sitter or dog walker.
This often arose when there was a planned vacation, a wedding or ...
Front Door Freakout
If you come to my house, brace yourself.
You walk up the stairs, ring the doorbell. Suddenly...the shrieking of a hundred banshees? Maybe an exorcism in progress? Or fiery-eyed, froth-mawed Cerberus guarding the gates of Hades?
Nope. It’s my people-loving hound Huckleberry going freakshow ...
Pain Underlying
By Dr. Lynn Bahr
Most people who work professionally with cats know what stoic creatures they are and how well they can hide their pain. There are many different theories as to why this is. Until relatively recently, it was thought cats did not experience pain at all, based purely on the ...
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 punishing a dog for a problematic behavior. In ...
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 the way moms treated their very young puppies ...
“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 helpful? Let's consider this for a moment.
Ask ...
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 too long. He was a Dalmatian called Lord, he was ...