Dog Rehabilitation & Physical Therapy… Two Things We Never Asked For In Life

SarahAnxiety Issues, Dog Training6 Comments

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

Positive Interruptor… or Just Good Spin?

SarahDog Training6 Comments

When I first learned about clicker-training, I must say that I had to question if clicker and positive trainers were agreeing with some of the same concepts as traditional and balanced trainers, just using more “politically correct” verbiage to make the point. Concepts like Direction vs. Discipline, No Reward Marker vs. Correction and Treat Placement vs. Luring left me wondering why we bothered to split so many terminological hairs. Having a career in marketing and sales, of course I am one to recognize and relish in some impressive spin when I hear it. Before I’m quickly run out of the positive dog training community, please let me attempt to explain myself… Having learned of – and unfortunately utilized – corrective methods in the past, it was going to take some solid proof before someone convinced me that you do not need positive punishment, or adding an aversive like a collar … Read More