Dog Training

One of my blog buds has asked about Separation Anxiety, so I thought I’d share some info on what has helped two of my dogs who had Separation Anxiety.

First, let me state, I am neither a professional trainer, behaviorist, nor vet. Anything shared here should be run by your own team of professionals. It’s also just plain helpful to include their support and knowledge in your program.

Depending on the severity of the Separation Anxiety (SA), there are several … Read More

There are lots of trainers out there. Some certified, some not. Some positive, some traditional. Some good, and some bad. So how do you go about finding a good one that meshes with your values on dog rearing and training protocols?

If you’ve been a regular reader of this blog, you know that I favor relationship-based training. And you also know that I don’t think very much of Cesar Millan’s, or Jon Katz’s approaches to training. Just stating my … Read More

Crufts is the largest dog show in the world. It’s held in March every year. And while it has all the usual judging of Best of Breed, etc., I love watching the agility and freestyle parts of the program. Talk about a working and playing partnership with your dog…!

Here are this year’s winners, Richard and Pogo, of the HTM (heelwork to music) Freestyle.

And Mary Ray is one of my favorite performers. Simply amazing.

In my earlier post on Operant Conditioning: Part 1, I explained how it can be used with great success at motivating 2-leggeds and 4-leggeds. I shared the example of how, at Cait’s suggestion, I used +R (Positive Reinforcement) along with -P (Negative Punishment) to help motivate her to change an undesired behavior (chewing with mouth open) to a desired behavior (chewing with mouth closed). You can read about how we did that here.

In this post, I’d like to … Read More

Having lived with and loved a rescue dog who came to me with aggression problems, and having been around the block with various training philosophies to find one that worked,  I’m happy to see that progress is being made in the understanding of what actually helps and what hurts.  While I know there are many Cesar Milan fans out there, research is beginning to discover what many good trainers have known for a long time — traditional punitive training can … Read More