Dog training

Tell Me A Story

By |2013-03-26T15:28:56-04:00March 26th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|

People like stories. We like bedtime stories, scary stories told around a campfire, stories in books, on television, in movie theaters, and on blogs. Every culture has its stories. Every religious holiday we celebrate is based on a story. What we don't like are stories that we're told that we are led to believe are true, but aren't. It was certainly a believable story when ...

Bite Me!

By |2013-03-18T10:11:55-04:00March 18th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

I recently had the unfortunate, albeit educational experience of being on a radio show with three other dog trainers. When asked if we'd ever been bitten I recounted the story of being bitten when I was a kid, another trainer spoke of his experience with sharp puppy teeth and his nose, but it was the last trainer whose response was most disturbing. This self-proclaimed dog ...

Relationship Capital

By |2013-03-16T20:10:50-04:00March 16th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

When I was in my 20’s I worked as a guide on the Wanganui River in NZ. One day during a hike, one of the participants on the trip, a woman in her 60’s commented to me that she thought I “weighed too much for a girl my age” and went on to give me dietary advice which consisted primarily of switching from butter to ...

In The Zone

By |2013-03-11T12:46:12-04:00March 11th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , |

Have you ever exited the highway and entered a curve that changes the direction you were heading? A well designed curve requires very little steering. Once you adjust for it there are no sharp changes that require you to make abrupt movements of the steering wheel, you hold your position and wind along with the curve. In the industry of outdoor recreation improvements are always ...

Attach Away!

By |2013-02-28T10:11:10-05:00February 28th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , |

There is no shortage of things said or believed about dogs to make me, and others, cringe. Though I can understand "why" people believe the things they do, it doesn't change the fact that I wish they didn't. I understand why people would think the earth was flat, the sun revolved around us and because dogs are closely related to wolves they live in packs ...

Feeling is Believing

By |2013-02-24T15:13:22-05:00February 24th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

During our daily woods walk I spied a piece of birch bark rolled up and lying on the snow. Nibbles also saw it and tentatively stretched his nose toward it for a sniff. I felt myself experience a small hit of adrenalin that often accompanies events that scare or startle me. Other than it being the same size and dimensions of a belly-up grey squirrel, and ...

We may love them, but we sure don’t respect them

By |2013-02-07T09:28:12-05:00February 7th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , |

It would seem that it is too much to expect that people who decide to make a living from "working" with dogs, actually spent some time learning about them. There are plenty of jobs out there that don't require any education for someone to excel at them. If you want your lawn mowed and raked hiring a neighborhood kid with the tools is probably not ...

Snooper Sleuth

By |2013-02-02T09:13:12-05:00February 2nd, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , |

Anyone who has lived with and cared about a dog has experienced moments when they are looking at a dog and wondering what the heck is going on. A trainer friend shared a story with me about a client's dog who had started barking, at seemingly random times, at the refrigerator. We had been griping about the reasons some vets or trainers come up with ...

Competing Motivators

By |2013-01-29T09:43:30-05:00January 29th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

Motivation. Everyone talks about it. Did you make a New Year's resolution to go to the gym? There are blogs devoted to helping you stay motivated enough to actually do it. Sometimes getting out of bed in the morning requires a level of motivation we may question whether we have or not. Some motivators are very powerful, while others lag behind, yet even if that ...

The Competitive Edge

By |2013-01-27T13:44:52-05:00January 27th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|

In last season's edition of The Master Skier Annual Cross Country Ski Journal, I came across this information in an article by Dan Heil (Competitive Edge p. 55). "The ability to physically perform and respond to stress (i.e., adapt and recover) can best be described as a moving target for the master athlete." I dare say it's true for any athlete, not just the aging ...

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