I often say to owners who come to me for help that they are part of a club no one wants to be a member of, the challenging dog club. But they are not alone. In social media, with its easily shared and amplified gifs and memes the message is, it's your dog and your problem. Your dog isn't behaving the right way so you ...
Another year and more to look forward to and feel hopeful about. I want to give a shout out to my friend Sara Matters. Sara finished coursework for a certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis from Florida Institute of Technology. Along with being an animal trainer, Sara has created Lemon's Hope Sanctuary. Lemon's Hope provides a home for domestic animals, and way station for training and ...
In May in Vermont I am presenting two seminars. Understanding fear-based behavior in dogs, is one I am most often invited to present at different venues. It hasn't changed much over the years and that should be attributed to the fact that nothing new about behavior, since I first created the presentation, has changed. The new information we have about brains and neuroscience does not ...
There may have been a time when schools only needed to be charged with teaching students reading, writing and arithmetic. But as society changes schools become responsible for instruction that either used to be provided at home, or represents a new field of study. When I was in high school we had a choice of taking home economics or shop. In previous years the option ...
When a professional athlete is about to perform a challenging move, an ice skater preparing for a triple jump, a tennis player about to return a volley, a swimmer turning off the wall, a race car driver taking a curve at high speed, each move has been rehearsed and practiced over and over again. Extra effort that doesn't improve speed or accuracy has been pared ...
Sound is often the first indication that there might be something in the environment we need to pay attention to. A rustling in the grass or the snapping of branches may indicate a predator sneaking up on us, or maybe it's something we can pursue as lunch. Either way, sound zips into brains and gets a reaction. The reaction is often a startle, a little ...
This is a video from 2014. I was testing the waters for producing podcasts. The audio gets cut off a bit in the beginning, but I think you'll get the gist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=_ayBeeFjoZw&feature=emb_logo
Sometimes we have to do something because it needs to be done. If we grab someone about to fall off a cliff we can worry about having to apologize later for having touched them without their permission. But we need to be careful not to use the excuse that needing to get something done absolves us from understanding what it is we are doing. If ever ...
Photo courtesy of Olathe Animal Hospital If you happen to be privy to the chatter that goes on between dog trainers, what I am going to say will not be new to you. Daily, dog trainers are contacted to help an owner with a dog, a normal, healthy, fully functioning dog, whose behavior has become untenable or even dangerous. Sometimes we're contacted within ...
"I'd rather not." "So?" One of the primary goals I have for this blog, the seminars and webinars, and consults I do for folks living or working with fearful dogs is to help them understand how to think about fear based behaviors. When I am contracted to help someone train their dog I can directly and specifically tell them what to do. But that's just ...
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