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Latest Training Articles
It’s a Dog’s Life
By Cecelia Sumner
Not surprisingly, I love living with dogs. I embrace their essential dogginess. Barking, jumping, digging, hunting, these are all normal canine behaviors. I recognize I need to provide an outlet for these behaviors to keep my dogs happy and stress-free.
Many pet owners ...
Setting the Right Criteria
By K. Holden Svirsky
Guppy, a young male “pit bull” and German shepherd dog mix, didn’t know how to sit. Or, more accurately, he didn’t know how to sit on cue. To be considered adoptable by the suburban families that frequented the shelter, this was a pretty important behavior. Guppy was ...
More Articles
Is Planet Earth Flat?
Well the simple answer to that is NO! Of course we know that. If anybody asked you that question nowadays you’d probably be very amused.
Why do I ask this on a dog training blog I hear you say? Well, I have been asked this question so much ...
Keeping Your Social Butterfly Social
When my wife I adopted Buddha he was a two-year old Labrador with no training and serious case of separation anxiety, thanks to a puppyhood that was disrupted by misfortune beyond his control. His foster family had just begun working on his SA ...
Accidental Punishment
I charged straight into a positive punishment scenario by accident recently.
I’ve been somewhat in the training doldrums lately, probably because I am putting so much energy into finishing my book. I have several training activities that I ...
The Importance of Socialization for the Young Animal
Humans take years to learn socialization skills. In the process of growing from infant to adulthood, the human takes more than 20 years for his or her brain to fully develop. Yet during this time there is much socialization that is taking ...
How Safe Is It for Your Dog to Jump off Furniture?
As a dog Mom and professional dog trainer, dog safety is always on my mind. It seems every year, I start to question things I've done in the past, as to whether or not it is safe. My current dog, Dexter, is a small breed dog. Ok, so he's double ...
A Freddie Moment
Freddie passed away on October 4, 2014. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of him and all that he meant to me in his brief life. He changed my world significantly since our first meeting at the adoption fair, and without him, I never would ...
Sink or Swim: Eight Ways You Might Be Flooding Your Dog
Thank you to Marge Rogers, Debbie Jacobs, and Randi Rossman for discussions regarding this post. The point of view expressed and any mistakes are solely my own.
The journey of becoming a positive reinforcement-based trainer sometimes seems ...
Dog Training: It’s Not Just Semantics
Stop press! Have you heard? You don’t need to be a military commander to train a dog! You don't need to yell or shout. You don’t need to use threats or physical punishment. You don’t need to know a single command. You don’t need to be the ...