Use Your Neighborhood Park!
People often walk or jog through their local park but rarely do they take advantage of the man-made obstacles provided. Kids playgrounds or picnic tables are great tools to expand your dog’s mental and physical challenges during a walk. Including obstacles during a walk will help drain excess energy much more quickly than simply walking…
Successful Training in Distractions
When dog training, just like learning a new language or skill, you want to start easy and then gradually work up to harder exercises. Training your dog should be a progressive program that increases in difficulty depending on how the dog performs. People often overestimate the capabilities of a dog and make challenges too hard…
Tug of War is Bad, Right?
Pretty much every dog owner has heard this statement, “playing tug of war with your dog will make him/her aggressive!” While I am not quite sure where this came from or who made it up, I do know that this is absolutely not true! In fact, you can use your dog’s drive to play and…
Creating a Home with Harmony Between Cat and Dog
This year I adopted a cat named, Minnie Mouse. I have been building her confidence over the past few months. I reckon that she was a stray or grew up in a home where no one paid any attention to her. She was very shy and has learned to trust me. She now loves to…
The Power of Ignoring
Some behaviors are cute and some behaviors can be quite annoying. Some of the most common issues trainers see are nuisance behaviors such as jumping, barking, scratching, and nipping. Because of this, I thought I’d address a way to change that behavior to a more polite behavior. One piece of advice I’d love to give all…
The Conflict
There is a big controversy going on right now in the dog training community about a certain article that came out saying that “Purely Positive” trainers don’t know what they are doing and that they are killing dogs because of it. Thankfully, an intelligent positive dog trainer created an article with scientific proof that positive…
What is a Threshold?
The word threshold is very often used in dog training. When working with stimuli that excites a dog for any reason, trainers often look at the threshold of the dog. However, very few people truly understand what it means to be under threshold, at threshold, or over threshold. Even many dog trainers don’t quite understand…
Don’t be a Victim, Take Charge
Today I am choosing to share a story about a couple who abused their dogs for almost two years because a “dog trainer” told them that was how dog training was done. This is one of the most extreme cases I have ever heard of and I thought I needed to share. I know most traditional trainers…