Published on Petsway.com – Wednesday, April 20, 2016 Did spring break and Easter sneak up on you? How about tax day?… Well, guess what? Summer is just around the corner, so consider yourself duly warned. That means time to start that swimsuit diet, planning those summer BBQs and finding plenty of activities for the kids to keep them busy. With all the craziness of planning for the human family members of the home, don’t forget to prep your dog for those classic summer activities, too! Summer is all about family-time, and your dog definitely qualifies as family. You want his summer to be as fun and stress-free as possible, too, don’t you? So here are some things to think about as you’re planning for summer fun with your dog: Vacation – Does your dog get to travel with you on your road trip? Awesome, unless your dog refuses to get … Read More
To Click or Not to Click?
If you have ever looked into group classes or dog training, you may have come across the term “clicker training,” without really knowing much about it. Clicker training is a small, handheld tool that is used by many positive trainers to mark a dog’s correct behavior at the exact moment that it happens, and then follow it up with a reward or reinforcement, like a small treat. Clicker training can be an extraordinary method for teaching your dog (or other pets for that matter) both obedience exercises, as well as amazing tricks. I have to admit that I was quite dismissive of clicker training for a time, but only because I didn’t understand the proper technique and learning principles. Some of the most basic concepts of clicker training are: Being rewarded for a behavior causes an increase in that behavior. A lack of a reward, or removal of a reward, … 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
Ten Old Dog-Isms
Oh, the joys and frustrations of living with a senior dog….Nine and a half year old Shepherd/Lab mix, Ozzy, doesn’t usually say much, unless another dog or (heaven forbid) a cat should happen to trot past the front of the house. But if he could talk, I think these Ozz-isms would be pretty close to what my old guy is thinking: 10 Old Dog-isms: Bedtime is at 8:30pm strict. Unless you’re watching a reality singing competition on TV, then it’s definitely earlier, in the spare bedroom, and with my head under the bed. They say that most dogs sleep about 17 hours on average per day… but I’m an overachiever. Unless you’re planning on feeding me sometime soon or scratching my butt for a while, I reserve a 20-second time limit on standing. I’m not slow to respond, I just build in a 6-second delay to give you time … Read More