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The Recipe for Red Zone Dogs

By |2012-11-15T09:58:15-05:00November 15th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , |

The term 'red zone' dog has come into vogue to describe aggressive dogs. There is the connotation that these dogs are different in some fundamental way from other dogs. The term is often used to justify the use of severe punishment in order to train them. It's as though, unlike every other dog on the planet, they are only able to learn if punishment is ...

Force-Free Trainers! Just Keep Talking!

By |2012-10-30T12:29:23-04:00October 30th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

There are plenty of professionals who are routinely frustrated by the beliefs held by their clients or potential clients. Researchers studying climate change are likely among them. Humans are complicated creatures. On one hand we seem to be capable of stunning thoughts. Whether in the arts or sciences, we can come up with remarkable ideas. On the other hand, we are also bound by a ...

Do You Have Any Business Punishing a Dog?

By |2012-10-24T12:05:53-04:00October 24th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

How would you justify going to a surgeon who claimed to be really good at cutting out tumors but had flunked out of classes on physiology and biology? Maybe some of their patients survived the surgery and went on to live full lives without a tumor, but what about the others? What about that nerve bundle that the surgeon nicked because they didn't realize how ...

Think Like A Human

By |2012-10-17T11:49:03-04:00October 17th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Pet owners are often encouraged to think like a dog when faced with behavior challenges. I can’t help but feel a twinge of discomfort when I hear it. Attempts to think like a dog are often accompanied by fables of why a dog is behaving as they are. They’re jealous or angry, we need to be their leader, or treat them as a mother dog ...

Stockholm Syndrome?

By |2012-10-02T10:28:32-04:00October 2nd, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

I was reading a post in The Crossover Trainer Blog and was struck by the implications of this comment made about her observation of Cesar Millan at his 'Dog Psychology Center'. "........He walked in with me and one could definitely sense he had an effect on the dogs. I concede he does have “something” about him that effects the dogs. " Not sure why there is an implied ...

Of Wolves and Women

By |2012-08-07T18:53:20-04:00August 7th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , |

Back in the early 1980's I was intent on finding ways to get university credits without actually sitting in a classroom. I discovered study programs which were taught 'in the field' and awarded credits toward graduation. I spent months hiking in the Sierra Nevada in California, weeks canoeing rivers in Montana and sweating in Death Valley. My biggest regret to date is that I didn't ...

Breed Specific Legislation & Alpha Dog Myths

By |2012-07-30T10:42:34-04:00July 30th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

As smart as we humans consider ourselves to be, we can be remarkably short-sighted or inconsiderate of the effects of our beliefs or actions. Antibiotics have saved countless lives and I consider myself among the lucky in history to have lived in an age during which we have access to them. But we have also learned that unless we use them judiciously, the fall out ...

How To Help A Fearful Dog? Stop Scaring Them!

By |2009-03-19T14:18:37-04:00March 19th, 2009|Categories: Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

In a blog about fearful dogs you wouldn't think that I'd pay so much attention to this whole dominance virus that has infected the health of our relationships with our dogs, but it's major. I run an in-home boarding business for dogs. It's a nice set-up for the dogs and the owners that use my services are conscientious pet owners. It's not a scene that ...

The Gift of the Growl

By |2009-03-13T16:48:10-04:00March 13th, 2009|Categories: Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , |

I make no pretenses about it, I am obsessed with my fearful dog Sunny. Not only do I think about him, I am always looking for ways to help him, and other scared dogs. Leafing through an old issue of Newsweek I read a quote attributed to Tibet's Karmapa Lama and of course, thought of scared dogs.  "For any living being, when you feel the ...

Energy Wise

By |2009-03-06T20:31:04-05:00March 6th, 2009|Categories: Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

While I agree that our own energy has an affect on our dogs, I do find the focus on an owner's energy to be at times confusing or just plain useless when it comes to training dogs. In Cesar's Way owners are encouraged to imitate people like Cleopatra, John Wayne and Oprah. Huh? Now while some people out there might think they know what Millan ...

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