positive reinforcement

Put That Finger Away

By |2024-01-21T09:54:47-05:00January 21st, 2024|Categories: Training|Tags: , , , , , |

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 ...

Training & Educational Opportunities 2023

By |2023-01-07T08:02:03-05:00January 5th, 2023|Categories: Training|Tags: , , , |

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 ...

Don’t Shame The Kindness Out Of Them

By |2022-03-17T14:29:04-04:00March 31st, 2022|Categories: Aversive Training, Problem Behavior, Training|Tags: , |

I should start by saying that my parents were kind people. They modeled being helpful and supportive of people who might struggle in the world because they were different from the other people in their family or community. They gave me a puppy for my birthday when I was 16, which makes them just about the best of anyone on the planet. But even with ...

The Concept Dog Trainers Need to Know

By |2022-03-13T23:49:24-04:00July 19th, 2020|Categories: Aggression/Aggressive, Dog training, Helping fearful dogs, Training|Tags: , , , , , , , |

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 ...

The 3 Steps To Helping Fearful Dogs

By |2018-05-15T13:10:06-04:00May 15th, 2018|Categories: Dog training, Fostering Dogs, Helping fearful dogs, Medications for fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

It has been over a decade since my fearful dog Sunny came to live with us from a rescue camp set up to help care for the animals impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I met him at Camp Katrina where I went to volunteer several weeks after the hurricanes hit. As much as I thought I knew about dogs and dog behavior, training and ...

Things Professional Trainers Never Say

By |2022-02-23T12:51:33-05:00June 15th, 2016|Categories: Dog training, Medications for fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , |

Don't expect to hear any of these comments from a professional animal trainer. "I don’t feed the dolphins fish when they jump through the hoop, they should do it because they respect me." "We never use food to train our lions to stand for injections, that would only make them think they’ll get food every time they did it for us." "The seals at our facility ...

People Can Be Amazing!

By |2016-03-28T11:53:43-04:00March 28th, 2016|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , |

Somehow last week, while walking between the kitchen and living room I managed to misplace my wallet. After spending hours looking, clearly not everyplace, I gave up and cancelled the credit cars and headed off this morning to the Department of Motor Vehicles for a new license. It was during this early morning drive that I passed a couple walking a young cattle dog. As ...

Is Your Dog Trainer A Professional?

By |2016-02-07T15:56:25-05:00February 7th, 2016|Categories: Dog training, Fostering Dogs, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

For the majority of my adult working life I was involved in the travel and outdoor recreation industry. Early in my career I was introduced to the reality of legal liability. I make no claims about my depth of understanding of negligence vs. gross negligence or how they would be argued in a court of law, I do understand that providers of goods or services have ...

Training Fearful Dogs: Why You Shouldn't Make Them Do It

By |2015-01-07T09:30:11-05:00January 7th, 2015|Categories: Dog training, Fostering Dogs, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

In the Fearful Dog Group that I started on Facebook I have established guidelines regarding the methods, techniques or ideologies that are appropriate for sharing with group members. A common, and often hotly debated piece of advice is to encourage people to be better leaders. Though seemingly a benign suggestion it is ambiguous enough for both the giver and the receiver of the advice to ...

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 ...

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