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Sniff for Calm and So Much More!
Congratulations to Kris Whipple! This post won first prize in the 2022 Canine Scent Writing Competition.
Of all the canine behaviors that I teach, calm is the most valuable. Calm dogs are less likely to bark, jump, mouth, lunge, pull or engage in other challenging behaviors that come with ...
Knowledge for Life
Don Hanson reviews Puppy Socialization: What It Is and How to Do It by Marge Rogers and Eileen Anderson
Reinforcing Foraging
Sheila S. Blanchette sets out the steps she used to train Cricket, the lone quail, to step on the scale for weighing, and how she later applied the same protocol for training chickens and roosters
Latest Articles
“No-Kill” Shelters Are Not Enough
An article I read recently in the New York Times (online) talked about a downside of a heavy emphasis on no-kill policies at shelters: By focusing on getting dogs and cats into new homes, the shelters might be neglecting the reasons many of those animals are in the shelter in the first ...
How to Make Your Training Work!
All dogs can learn amazing things. Sometimes it's us (maybe more than sometimes!) who don't allow our dogs to fulfill their full potential, for whatever reason - time, other commitments, know-how etc. I want to look at a few things here that can help you make your training work better, just ...
Pet Professional Guild announces junior membership and accreditation program
New levels aim to ensure next generation of pet professionals is educated in force-free, ethical, scientifically sound training methods; first 20 to register sign up for free
NEWS RELEASE - WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. - Aug. 22, 2018: The Pet Professional Guild (PPG) has launched a junior ...
Distinguishing Night from Day
By Debbie Bauer
Some people living with blind/deaf dogs report that their dogs have trouble staying asleep all night. Often their dogs will wake them during the night and can't seem to settle back down to sleep.
If your blind/deaf dog is unable to distinguish between light and dark, it ...
Reading List for Dog Owners
When I got my first dog in 1983 I knew nothing about living with dogs, so naturally I got a puppy. Needless to say I knew even less about raising a puppy. Samantha relied upon me to teach her, and I relied upon the only source available at the time: a book.
If there were local dog ...
Human vs. Canine Behavior: A Brief Comparison
By Joanne Ometz
“The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.” - Mark Twain
This quote has become ubiquitous. It is on coffee mugs, bumper stickers, and T-shirts. But why do so many people feel this way about members of our own species? And why do we attribute such high standards ...
BARKS Podcast with David Shade – August 1, 2018
Guest: David Shade of At Attention Dog Training; United States military veteran.
Topics: Shade's articles in BARKS, The Best I Can Be and Lulu's Lottery: Life Lessons from a Boxer, that detail his journey, which started out using aversive methods, to becoming the force-free trainer he is ...
Ask Your Dog Questions – Overshadowing 2
By Yvette Van Veen
How to ask your dog questions…overshadowing part two.
My last blog introduced the concept of overshadowing by offering a simple example to illustrate the point. For an explanation of the concept, you can read that blog here. But that basic understanding doesn’t go far ...
Get A Successful Start—Today and Every Day
By Veronica Boutelle
As small business owners we live with never-ending to-do lists and a constant frustration that there aren’t more hours in the day. While we can’t do anything about that last complaint, it turns out that how we use the first hour of each day can significantly improve the ...