A light bulb moment occurred for me in regard to my fearful dog Sunny when I understood that he was limited in his abilities by his brain. It wasn't that he was choosing not to come to me, or that he refused to move out of the corner, as conscious choices, it was that given the development of his brain, these behaviors were how he [...]
Years ago when I studied martial arts I was being instructed by a black belt in the class. I was trying to learn how to grab someone by the wrist and flip them over my shoulder. The instructor would grab me by the wrist, turn her body, put my forearm on her shoulder, bend over and whoosh! my body followed and I landed with a [...]
I have to admit that after living with this dog for over 4 years, I'm not very good at assessing the causes affecting his progress. I came to the conclusion that I'd have to have the training and the inclination of a field biologist who noted details, keeping track of behaviors, when they occurred, where they occurred, how long they occurred, etc., to be able [...]
It's probably just me, maybe it's cabin fever or hormonal, but I've been particularly bothered lately by all the bad press that dog owners have been getting in blogs and tweets that I follow. Sure there are bad owners out there, negligent and even criminal ones, who should never be allowed control of a dog again. There are owners who are naive, or who display [...]
I was helping out with a reactive dog class and a woman enrolled with a Great Dane she had recently adopted. She had been turned away from another class because she was using a shock collar on the dog. In effect she had been sent off to find a trainer who uses shock collars to train dogs. Fortunately she found the reactive dog class, run [...]
I heard a well known trainer say that the hardest thing for many owners to do is to stop putting their dogs into situations where they react inappropriately. Her recommendation that they find alternatives to the ways they are currently managing their pets routinely goes unheeded. In some cases a certain level of management may always be required to keep our dogs and others around [...]
The process of working with fearful dogs could be simplified and broken down into two steps; management and skills development. Management: Handlers need to come up with plans for managing a fearful dog so as to eliminate or minimize their opportunities for responding in fearful ways. This can often be challenging and many owners find it inconvenient to do. Walking a dog that is afraid [...]
Years ago a friend decided he was ready to adopt a dog. As a young man he had traveled cross country with his beloved chihuahua and he was hoping to find a small dog to add to his and his children's lives. Small dogs were not easy to find at nearby shelters so he looked online and found what seemed to be a good match, [...]