animal welfare

The Tragedy of Dog Training

By |2014-10-14T10:20:21-04:00October 14th, 2014|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

It is not difficult to make a name for one's self in this industry, and I say that speaking from experience. Come up with an idea or rehash an old one, package it well and people will buy it. It's not always a bad thing. I like to think that my focus on the sciences of learning and animal behavior for coming up with solutions ...

How Bad Is It?

By |2014-09-17T11:12:24-04:00September 17th, 2014|Categories: Dog training, Fostering Dogs, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , |

For those who choose to follow what is called the "humane hierarchy" when training animals (guidelines created by far better minds and more experienced minds than my own) there remains confusion among the ranks. In the hierarchy created by Dr. Susan Friedman, some note that because both negative reinforcement and negative punishment are presented on the same level they must therefore both be of equal ...

Random Acts of Cruelty

By |2014-07-27T08:43:07-04:00July 27th, 2014|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

In the same way that fast food has provided us with the opportunity to over consume sugars, fats and chemical additives that may be contributing to, if not outright causing, many of the diseases prevalent in the western world, the "balanced" field of dog training has provided us with the opportunities and excuses to be cruel to our dogs, the implications of which are ignored ...

Grow Up

By |2014-07-17T17:36:54-04:00July 17th, 2014|Categories: Dog training, Fostering Dogs, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

At some point early in the life of a human we develop intellectually and emotionally enough to realize that it's not always just about us. Hopefully when this happens we've had plenty of time to learn to feel safe and loved. It's not an easy step to take, but a step that most of us not only take, but run with. We go on to become teachers, ...

Better Than Average

By |2014-07-02T09:36:18-04:00July 2nd, 2014|Categories: Dog training, Fostering Dogs, Helping fearful dogs, Medications for fearful dogs, Puppy mills|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

In my world the reality is that those of us living with a dog with fear-based behavior challenges must be better than average pet owners. I say this meaning no offense to average pet owners. Anyone who chooses to live with an animal is ahead of the curve in my book. Most however do not add a dog to their lives in order to have ...

You’ve Got The Ball: Dogs in the 21st Century

By |2014-04-07T10:00:45-04:00April 7th, 2014|Categories: Dog training, Fostering Dogs, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , |

I suspect that those of us who work with dogs in any capacity, love them, respect them and want them to have the best lives possible. Yet I can't help but be surprised and disappointed when I hear and read information about dogs being shared that does more harm than good, or opportunities to educate the pet owning population are missed. Research on the social ...

Dog Displaying Fear or Aggression? Don’t Make Them Repeat Themselves

By |2014-03-31T10:25:55-04:00March 31st, 2014|Categories: Dog training, Fostering Dogs, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

Go on Sunny, there's fun ahead. When a dog performs a fearful or aggressive behavior it's as though they are saying, "I don't have the skills to behave in any other way in this situation." Why would you want to make them repeat themselves? If you were to drop a kid into a pool that was just deep enough they didn't feel completely safe ...

The “Somebody Told Me” Effect

By |2014-03-28T13:21:43-04:00March 28th, 2014|Categories: Dog training, Fostering Dogs, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

One of my goals for this blog, my Facebook pages, group, and tweets, is to try to stave off the inclination pet owners and many dog trainers have to jump on any bandwagon that comes along in regard to training dogs, or to keep throwing different sh*t against the wall and hoping something sticks. There is no shortage of advice, methods, equipment and supplements out ...

Ducks Don’t Need Quacks Either

By |2014-02-14T09:00:36-05:00February 14th, 2014|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

There is a science to behavior change in animals. That most pet owners are unaware of that is not surprising. That there are dog trainers out there who are unaware of it is disastrous. I know just enough about my car and computer to turn them on and use them, when all is going according to plan. When problems arise, even if my cursing and ...

You Have Options

By |2013-10-30T09:20:36-04:00October 30th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Fostering Dogs, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

I try to be careful when I start feeling like the fellow in the cartoon tapping away at a keyboard late into the night because, "Someone said something wrong on the internet." I try to be tolerant knowing full well that I've written stuff or have videos that someone, for one reason or another could find fault with. Maybe you can guess where this is ...

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