With the pet care expenditures topping over 52 billion dollars in 2012, it’s no surprise that we tend to pamper, dare I say spoil, our pets from time to time. With sparkly, studded collars, designer sweaters and even nail polish available to purchase for our pooches, some things may be a smidge on the unnecessary side. One might even say the same thing about dog beds, too. After all, since when did dogs upgrade themselves from sleeping on the concrete pad outside under the back stairs to needing a “Luxury Suede Pillow top Pet Bed” of their very own? Admittedly, there’s probably a happy medium in there somewhere. Nevertheless, I am a huge proponent that every dog needs a dedicated “spot” or perch in the home. There are at least three reasons that a dog could benefit from a spot – aka a bed, mat or climb of their very own. … Read More
Dog Rehabilitation & Physical Therapy… Two Things We Never Asked For In Life
It’s been a little over a year since I received shoulder surgery to repair my loose right shoulder. There’s nothing as perplexing as reaching for something out of your book bag in the back seat of the car and dislocating a shoulder. This experience of dislocation happened several times. All unexpected and all while doing normal everyday activities. I didn’t anticipate it… it just happened out of the blue. And each time it happened, my shoulder got more and more loose, and the likelihood of experiencing another dislocation got greater and greater over time How does this all relate to dog training? Whereas there’s no physical surgery that can magically repair our dog’s worst behaviors, such as aggression or separation anxiety, “rehabilitation time,” or the time it takes to modify behaviors can be long and slow. Say, for example, that you have a dog that is reactive to other dogs. … Read More
Old Dog, New Tricks?
Who ever said that an old dog can’t learn new tricks? It turns out that an English author by the name of Ebenezer Cobham Brewer was the first to reference the saying “Old dogs will not learn new tricks” in his 1894 publication Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, a compilation of popular idioms and proverbs of the time. Leave it to someone named Ebenezer to dwell on the negative, yes? Well, it turns out that this old folklore was referring to human behavior and had nothing to do with the canine species at all. And as you might guess, of course, both humans and dogs alike can definitely learn new behaviors. It’s certainly true that a puppy between 8 weeks and 16 weeks, in what is known as the socialization period, can soak up new behavioral information (both good and bad) like a sponge. Unless there are physical or … Read More
Giving Up on Perfect
There was a time early on in my dog training career when I wanted to be perfect. And I wanted a perfect dog, too. At the time, I was volunteering at a service dog organization, and was obsessed in my interactions with service dogs who were bred and born to be working dogs. They started training at 8 weeks old, were trained every single day, attended class once a week for 18 months with their puppy raisers and then had another 6 months of dedicated training by advanced trainers. Whew! That’s a lot of training… And these amazing dogs, seemingly, were perfect. They never barked in public, they never bothered anyone, and no noise, distraction, crowded mall or cramped space seemed to phase them ever. (Of course, as you might wonder, they did have the opportunity just to run and play and “be dogs” when they weren’t working, too.) But … Read More
I’ll Break the First Rule of Clicker Training…
…By dwelling on the negative, and pointing out what clicker training is not. Clicker trainers tend to focus not only on positive training with animals, but also on positive-oriented language in their dealings with clients, friends, family and peers. Rarely will you hear the word “no” or any of its derivatives in training or even everyday conversation. We’d much rather take a negatively-skewed comment and turn it into an opportunity to highlight the positive, and then strive for improvement. So I’ll summarize all the negativity very quickly… In clicker training: A click is not intended to serve as a punishment in of itself. A click is not intended as a warning that punishment is coming. A click is not intended to serve as a cue to a behavior. Recently, I’ve been thrilled to hear about other practical applications for clicker training, until I heard about how it was actually being … Read More
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