shy dogs

Good Enough?

By |2013-06-05T21:47:30-04:00June 5th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Childhood milestones in my life could be measured by learning how to swim. There are grainy, black and white home movies showing me leaping up, wiping the hair out of my eyes after demonstrating the newly gained skill of putting my face in the water at our lakeside cottage. I remember learning the "deadman's float" and pretending to swim in the shallow water, my hands ...

Why Wait?

By |2013-05-08T10:29:57-04:00May 8th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , |

I stood in front of the copy machine, not so silently cursing the manufacturer, the store where I purchased it, and the salesman who recommended it. The darn thing wasn't working. I pressed the number of copies button, hit the start button and nothing. It didn't work and if that wasn't bad enough, after setting it up I was going to have to pack it ...

Old News

By |2013-04-24T10:16:28-04:00April 24th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

After years of flipping through the magazines strategically placed at the check-out in grocery stores, it was impossible not to notice that generations of young women are being schooled on how to apply mascara, bake a no-fail chocolate cake, and on what turns men off, assuming any of this matters to them. The faces on the covers have changed, but the information hasn't since any ...

Fearful Dog Fails

By |2013-04-13T09:47:49-04:00April 13th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

Sunny gets to decide where he feels most comfortable around people. One of the reasons I go on like a broken record about the importance of using reward based training methods that have been designed based on the evidence available garnered through the study of animal behavior and research is because working with fearful dogs can be so darn challenging. So challenging that ...

Support Systems

By |2013-03-30T09:34:19-04:00March 30th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

There is so much progress that needs to be made in regard to how people "think" about animal behavior and training that it can seem overwhelming. But seven years ago I had to seek out and search for information regarding the most humane and effective ways to help dogs with fear based behavior challenges, whereas today it streams on my Facebook page and twitter account. ...

Relationship Capital

By |2013-03-16T20:10:50-04:00March 16th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

When I was in my 20’s I worked as a guide on the Wanganui River in NZ. One day during a hike, one of the participants on the trip, a woman in her 60’s commented to me that she thought I “weighed too much for a girl my age” and went on to give me dietary advice which consisted primarily of switching from butter to ...

We may love them, but we sure don’t respect them

By |2013-02-07T09:28:12-05:00February 7th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , |

It would seem that it is too much to expect that people who decide to make a living from "working" with dogs, actually spent some time learning about them. There are plenty of jobs out there that don't require any education for someone to excel at them. If you want your lawn mowed and raked hiring a neighborhood kid with the tools is probably not ...

The 7 Habits of Successful Fearful Dogs

By |2013-01-19T10:42:13-05:00January 19th, 2013|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

"Not sure why you want me to do this, but ok, whatever." On my book shelf is a CD by Wayne Dwyer on the power of intention. It’s an inspirational presentation. But as powerful as intentions are, given the right set of circumstances, habits will win out. Recently I moved the app icons on my iPod around. I deleted a few and moved ...

Conditioned Reinforcers

By |2012-12-22T11:53:05-05:00December 22nd, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

There are some things I take for granted, things that have become part of the fabric of my life with dogs, that I forget that at one time they were new ideas to me. Creating conditioned reinforcers to use in a variety of ways with my dogs is one of them. Here's a quick primer on what conditioned reinforcers are, how you create them and ...

Project Home Life

By |2012-11-24T12:25:15-05:00November 24th, 2012|Categories: Dog training, Helping fearful dogs|Tags: , , , , , , , |

Photo by DVGRR I love this. Flat out love it. At the Delaware Valley Golden Retriever Rescue in Pennsylvania adult survivors of puppy mills are provided with skills to make the transition to being pets. Not only does DVGRR accept mill survivors they actively seek them out and make relinquishing these dogs easy. Their no questions asked acceptance policy means that more dogs will ...

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