Helping fearful dogs

Despite thousands of years of coexistence humans are, for the most part, surprisingly inept at understanding their dogs' language, a language which is largely physical. Dogs, for the most part, are whizzes at knowing when they need to wag and suck up, or turn tail and get the heck out of dodge when it comes to interacting with people. Problems arise when the cultures clash ...

During a recent trip to Puerto Rico with a group of students I was asked if I would take home a small, black, stray dog, named Tooie. Tooie had been found wandering on Highway 200 (hence the name) on the island of Vieques. At approximately 4 months of age and weighing 16lbs Tooie is a classic 'sato'. My initial hesitation to bring back ...

William James, a 19th century psychologist described his anxiety in this way: "A horrible dread at the pit of my stomach....a sense of the insecurity of life." We cannot know for sure if dogs experience dread but anyone walking into a vet clinic with a dog who would rather not be there has surely seen what could be described as a dog anticipating ...

When it comes to talking about dog training there is no shortage of debate regarding which methods 'work' best. Some people suggest that they all 'work' and that we should either take advantage of them all or at least stop arguing about them. I am referring to reward based training vs. what is being called 'traditional' training which incorporates punishment (positive punishment for ...

Recently I ruffled some feathers on an online forum. It was not my intention and I usually try to stay out of most of the networking site forums because they are often too upsetting, but something moved me and I posted a comment. The original posting was about a 15 year old girl who had started a rescue group. It was an upbeat, 'isn't this ...

Back when I was in university I attended a class on Carlos Castaneda's books, The Teachings of Don Juan series. Ah, those were the days. For the uninitiated, the books, written as a recounting of Carlos' experience with the shaman Don Juan, are full of magical experiences and lessons for living what some might call, an enlightened life. They were, and still are by many, ...

I have found myself being taken to task, chastised and berated for putting information on my Fearfuldogs.com website that says that not all dogs can completely become desensitized and counter conditioned to the things that scare them. Some who label themselves trainers, and others who will not identify themselves at all, have claimed that this is a disservice to people with fearful dogs, that it ...

I have been struggling this week with a website a friend shared with me. On the site a 'trainer', who seems to boast no qualification other than maybe owning the boxed set of TV's The Dog Whisperer DVDs, proudly describes and documents with chilling videos, how a 'dominant' dog was put in his place. The dog, a breed which is known for its wariness and ...

It's hard not to do, and invariably we do it. We are working with our dog and getting good responses and rather than quit while we're ahead we push, one more time. When trying to work on a behavior modification protocol with a fearful dog (whether they are prone to fleeing or fighting), we give them another opportunity to behave inappropriately, i.e., to fail. Even ...

Before there was the GPS unit there was the map and compass. It was imperative that anyone traveling into the backcountry, especially going off marked trails, understood how to use them. Despite common knowledge, compasses do not always point north, in fact they never do. They point to magnetic north which is different from 'true north'. Maps indicate which way is 'true north'. In order ...