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Exotic Animals and Shelter Awareness
By Lara Joseph
As animal trainers and behavior consultants, our work can appear very appealing to pet owners and those who work with and take care of animals. What we demonstrate in our training is a very important tool we can use to educate the public about how our work is ...
Empowerment for a Better Quality of Life
By Miki Saito
When looking after a blind dog, it is vital to know his abilities as well as his challenges so we do not limit his world any more than necessary.
Blind dogs still need to ...
BARKS Podcast with Ken MacLeod of My Positive Pup: June 4, 2021
Ken MacLeod of My Positive Pup chats about the incredible results he got with his reactive puppy Scooter via positive reinforcement training and how they inspired him teach others.
Listen to ...
Latest Articles
Training ‘Thoughtfully’
Many of you will know that I think all training should be fun but science-based. I teach all behaviors as ‘tricks’ because I believe that, in doing so, we set up both trainer and learner for success. Whether teaching a ‘stay’, a ‘recall’, a ‘spin’ or a fun routine, teaching behaviors as ...
What New Pet Owners May Not Know
I recently came across an article in which the author spoke about why people give up exotic birds…and it got me thinking.
According to the ASPCA, approximately 7.6 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, approximately 3.9 million are dogs and 3.4 ...
Happy New Year! Happy New Life!
First impressions are often lasting ones and so it was with my first behavior case involving a two-year old Australian Shepherd named Ranger. He was in the custody of a breed rescue and was deemed beyond hope. Ranger was destined for euthanasia due to behavior problems that were imposed upon ...
Empathy for Human Learners
As I develop as a teacher I’ve been revisiting some of my experiences as learner, empathically engaging with my human clients who might be struggling with new skills.
Being a good learner is something I last thought about seriously when I was a student (a long time ago!). I trained as a ...
One of the Most Important Things to Teach Your New Puppy
By now, your new puppy is adjusting well to his new family. You probably already have started him in a good, positive puppy training class. After all, you have heard time and time again, that you should be socializing your puppy.
Puppy socialization is a process in which you gradually ...
A Revelation about Resolutions
Over the years, I’ve made many New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, get organized, read more, and hundreds of other goals that became part of my never ending “To Do” list. But this year, I had a revelation and decided to do something different and so I made my resolution to find more ways of ...
Does Size Matter?
A dog's size influences his or her behavior. We sort of know this don't we.
What about people? Our stereotype of a hyper and talkative person who is constantly on the move would be a small person, and a slow-talking, slow moving thinker someone much larger.
This has always been my own ...
There’s Nothing Simple about Dog Play
Dogs’ play behavior has, over time, been attributed to a variety of factors. It provides puppies practice for adult behaviors. Play with humans is about "dominance." Play with other dogs is about "dominance" or "status." It’s a replacement behavior for hunting and killing prey. It’s a way to ...
Loving the Vacuum Cleaner
Here’s a little video I made of my dogs’ response to the vacuum cleaner. Hurray for classical conditioning! As soon as any dog comes into my home, I start pairing any potentially scary sounds of human life with great stuff. Two of my dogs weren’t scared of the vacuum in the first place, and ...