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Growing Pains in Dog Training

I suspect that all industries experience growing pains. It may be that they are a constant in any kind of industry, change for the better always being a shining light on the horizon we should be striving for. Thirteen years ago when I first began my search for information to help my extremely fearful dog Sunny, it wasn’t unusual for there to be responses to my queries that included something…

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The 3 Steps To Helping Fearful Dogs

It has been over a decade since my fearful dog Sunny came to live with us from a rescue camp set up to help care for the animals impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I met him at Camp Katrina where I went to volunteer several weeks after the hurricanes hit. As much as I thought I knew about dogs and dog behavior, training and how dogs learn, I soon came to understand it was a drop in the…

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#aggression #aggressive dogs #anxious dogs #dogs #positive reinforcement #reactive dogs #scared dogs #shy dogs #training

Between A Rock & A Hard Place

Sometimes we have to do something because it needs to be done. If we grab someone about to fall off a cliff we can worry about having to apologize later for having touched them without their permission. But we need to be careful not to use the excuse that needing to get something done absolves us from understanding what it is we are doing.

If ever there was a group of professionals who could use…

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Clean-up On Aisle Dog

Photo courtesy of Olathe Animal Hospital

If you happen to be privy to the chatter that goes on between dog trainers, what I am going to say will not be new to you. Daily, dog trainers are contacted to help an owner with a dog, a normal, healthy, fully functioning dog, whose behavior has become untenable or even dangerous. Sometimes we’re contacted within a few days or weeks after the problem…

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#aggressive dogs #anxious dogs #dog training #dogs #fearful dogs #reactive dogs #scared dogs #shy dogs #training

Do Something

I call them “chiselers.” Not the swindler kind, but the kind with chisels who show up and whittle away at your resolve, confidence, and enthusiasm. I can be one and cringe when I observe it in myself. We can be quick to point out the flaws in an idea or plan, or why it won’t work or shouldn’t be done. The internet even coined a term for a form of it, “concern troll.” It’s not that there is no…

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The Bad News About Fearful Dogs

I am contacted regularly by people who have found themselves living with a fearful dog and looking for help. They are to a person, kind, compassionate, caring folks looking for answers. And I have them. But I routinely have to tell people things they do not want to hear.

When I mention that veterinarians and vet behaviorists can prescribe medications to help dogs who are anxious, something I do…

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#aggressive #anxious #dog bites #dogs #fearful #reactive #shy #training

High Risk Activities

“I’d rather not.” “So?”

One of the primary goals I have for this blog, the seminars and webinars, and consults I do for folks living or working with fearful dogs is to help them understand how to think about fear based behaviors. When I am contracted to help someone train their dog I can directly and specifically tell them what to do. But that’s just a drop in the bucket when it comes to the…

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#aggression #animal rescue #dog behavior #dog bites #dog training #dogs #fear #reactivity #scared #stress #training

Be the Voice for the Vulnerable

My first career as a younger adult was in the outdoor recreation industry. It was fun and there was a certain caché to being paid, as minimal as it may have been, to do something others paid to do. Though there was no obligation to do so, many of us felt the need to advocate for the wild places, the rivers, mountains, deserts and oceans we floated, climbed, skied, sailed, worked and played in and…

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#animal advocacy #animal training #dog training #environmental protection #EPA

Fake Dog News

Dog trainers are no strangers to fake news and the wealth of misinformation and mythology available to us via the variety of sources for information. It’s been years since we mourned our loss of respect for National Geographic with its enabling of Cesar Millan and his dangerous dog whispering. Regardless and despite the warnings from veterinary behaviorists and other professionals in the field of…

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The Real Reason You Should Never Hit Your Dog Hitting a dog is a bad idea. Even one of those "Oh it didn't hurt them," swats is a bad idea.

#alpha #dog training #dogs #dominance #how to correct a dog #punishment #training

It's Time!

It’s Time!

I’ve been away from this blog, not because I didn’t have things to share, I took a break because I feared I was becoming a grump. Every day the dog community, retailers, trainers and other professionals put out information and products that at best are just a waste of our time and money, and at worst contributors to the failure of an owner to find a solution to the problems impacting their…

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Things Professional Trainers Never Say

Don’t expect to hear any of these comments from a professional animal trainer.

“I don’t feed the dolphins fish when they jump through the hoop, they should do it because they respect me.”

“We never use food to train our lions to stand for injections, that would only make them think they’ll get food every time they did it for us.”

“The seals at our facility do what we train them to do because they…

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#animal behavior #dog training #positive reinforcement #rehabilitating dogs #rescue dogs #training dogs

In Defense of Education

The dog training industry may be among the few professions in which people with a lack of understanding and limited or no education are glorified, even given their own TV shows, while those who have chosen to become educated are held up for ridicule. Heaven forbid you know a few big words and have the temerity (temerity: excessive confidence or boldness; audacity) to use them. Chefs probably have…

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People Can Be Amazing! Somehow last week, while walking between the kitchen and living room I managed to misplace my wallet.

#animal welfare #dog training scared timid shy fearful rehabilitation counter conditioning desensitization #people suck #positive reinforcement #rescue dogs #training dogs

Is Your Dog Trainer A Professional?

For the majority of my adult working life I was involved in the travel and outdoor recreation industry. Early in my career I was introduced to the reality of legal liability. I make no claims about my depth of understanding of negligence vs. gross negligence or how they would be argued in a court of law, I do understand that providers of goods or services have a responsibility to behave in ways…

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#aggressive dogs #animal shelters #anxious dogs #dog training scared timid shy fearful rehabilitation counter conditioning desensitization #positive reinforcement #rehabilitating dogs #shelter dogs #socialization #training dogs

Dog Trainers Do Agree

Don’t get sucked in by the supposed “truism” that dog trainers can’t agree on how dogs should be trained. The educated among us agree on the fundamentals. Check out “Don’t Be The Third Trainer.”

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#dog trainers #dog training #dogs #training

Dog Trainers, Thanksgiving and Tomatoes

I grew up in the northeast of the United States, in an urban area with neither parents nor neighbors who gardened. The majority of the fruits and vegetables I ate were store bought, with the summer time exception of sweet corn, a staple delight of childhood, food you were suppose to eat with your hands and that usually tasted a lot like butter and salt.

I’m not that much of a history buff, but I…

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#aggression #alpha #animal behavior #anxious dogs #dog behavior

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