Quick Tip: The Gift of Gab – Maximize the Effectiveness of Your Training by Talking to your Dog!

Your voice is one of the most useful tools you have in dog training. Sadly, it's also one of the most underutilized. Many dog owners don't understand how much they can communicate by using their

Dominance and Dogs: Who is the Boss?

Dogs often act as connectors in society. Upon sharing your life with a dog, you may find yourself talking to more people when you’re out and about at the dog park, cafes, etc, or you may even...

Dog Owner Education: Factual Learning Online; Hands-On Practice in Training Class

Many years ago, one of my Japanese students conducted a survey of off-leash puppy classes in the SF Bay Area. A basic index that she scored was the percentage of time that puppies were off-leash,...

Enjoy The Ride

I recently did some foundation puppy raising and training with a lovely little dog I’ll call Bob. (His name has been changed to protect the pup and his people’s privacy.) It’s joyful and...

All Puppies Deserve a FIRST Chance — an EDUCATION!

Owners and their new puppies are still getting the short end of the stick. Dog problems are invariably blamed on “irresponsible dog owners” BUT they are simply at a loss for what to do, and, no...

Quick Tip: Just Stuff It - How to Use Food Stuffed Chew Toys to Solve Home Alone Problems

The easiest and most effective tool in dog training is hands-down, the humble hollow chew toy filled with food. It's so powerful because it trains your dog tirelessly, for hours, without any
Ian Dunbar

Dominance and Dogs: Who is the Boss?

Kelly Gorman Dunbar  |  Wed, 09/18/2019 - 12:17

Dogs often act as connectors in society. Upon sharing your life with a dog, you may find yourself talking to more people when you’re out and about at the dog park, cafes, etc, or you may even discover that your dog has helped you make new friends. This is one of the awesome benefits of life with dog. On the other hand, you’ll also be constantly flooded with advice on dog behavior and training from nearly everybody and anybody. This can be annoying at best and downright confusing, too. 

 

I am not quite sure why dog lovers feel the need to share their armchair wisdom with the world,...

 

Puppies and Shelter Dogs: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Kelly Gorman Dunbar  |  Fri, 08/23/2019 - 18:34

I am a dog trainer and I lead a double life. Of sorts. Behaviorally speaking. I am the Director of SIRIUS Puppy Training, a San Francisco Bay Area puppy training school. Our mission is to teach new puppy owners how to best communicate with and manage their brand new puppy in order to prevent common and predictable behavior problems from becoming lifelong annoying or even dangerous habits. Let me rephrase that… In puppy school we don’t actually address behavior problems so much as we address normal puppy behaviors that people perceive as problems. We teach owners how to get their pup to do...

 

Enjoy The Ride

Kelly Gorman Dunbar  |  Thu, 08/15/2019 - 16:35

I recently did some foundation puppy raising and training with a lovely little dog I’ll call Bob. (His name has been changed to protect the pup and his people’s privacy.) It’s joyful and gratifying work. I truly love raising puppies, they are so malleable and unencumbered with previous, often competing habits and ideas. Starting a young pup off on the right paw is by far the most efficient way to produce a trained, well mannered adult dog. Even better, puppies are never too young to start learning! Certainly not by the time they arrive in their new home sometime between 7 and 12 weeks of age....

 

All Puppies Deserve a FIRST Chance — an EDUCATION!

Dr. Ian Dunbar  |  Fri, 08/02/2019 - 13:04

Owners and their new puppies are still getting the short end of the stick. Dog problems are invariably blamed on “irresponsible dog owners” BUT they are simply at a loss for what to do, and, no one is telling them. Consequently, their puppies develop predictable and preventable, relationship-destroying, behavior, temperament and training problems and sadly, many are surrendered to shelters in search of a “second chance”.

DunbarAcademy.com has recently embarked on a new program to educate new puppy owners, so that all puppies get a first chance — an education that they so rightly deserve and so...

 
Tags:  puppy training

Quick Tip: The Keys to the Kingdom – How to Use Life Rewards to Motivate Your Dog

James Lu Dunbar  |  Fri, 08/02/2019 - 13:03

Teaching your dog what you want them to do is just the first step in training. The second step is motivating your dog to WANT to do what you want them to do, and this actually represents the vast majority of the time and energy that it takes to train a dog, 

The key to motivation is harnessing the activities that your dog enjoys, and using them as rewards in training. As your dog's owner, you have control over their access to most of their favorite activities, and if you manage that access carefully you can teach your dog that the best way for them to do the things they want to do is by

 

Dog Owner Education: Factual Learning Online; Hands-On Practice in Training Class

Dr. Ian Dunbar  |  Fri, 07/26/2019 - 11:04

Many years ago, one of my Japanese students conducted a survey of off-leash puppy classes in the SF Bay Area. A basic index that she scored was the percentage of time that puppies were off-leash, being trained by their owners, interacting (socializing) with other people, or playing with other puppies as opposed to the percentage of time that puppies were on-leash, while owners sat in chairs listening and watching the instructor lecture, or demonstrate. The results were quite shocking. In all of the classes surveyed, puppies spent 50–75% of the time on-leash! Neither an efficient nor an...

 

Quick Tip: The Gift of Gab – Maximize the Effectiveness of Your Training by Talking to your Dog!

James Lu Dunbar  |  Wed, 07/24/2019 - 12:43

Your voice is one of the most useful tools you have in dog training. Sadly, it's also one of the most underutilized. Many dog owners don't understand how much they can communicate by using their voice, and as a result, they fail to give their dogs the feedback they need to learn how to behave. 

Of course, your voice is most powerful when you use words that your dog understands, but even when you use words they don't understand your dog will appreciate the tone and intensity and that can communicate quite a lot!

Watch the video below to learn more:

 

Education Used to Be Expensive; Now, it’s Affordable for All — Anytime, Anywhere

Dr. Ian Dunbar  |  Mon, 07/22/2019 - 15:10

Back in the day, when we used to buy books and DVDs and travel to dog training seminars, workshops and conferences, furthering our education could be pricey. A three-day seminar or five-day conference could easily end up costing $300-$2000, or more. Once you factor in seminar registration, travel, accommodation, shopping and hotel-food costs and time away from family and work, education was expensive, time-consuming, often inconvenient and not that effective — How much information from a one-day seminar was actually retained?

Nowadays, online education is either open-source or very affordable...

 
Tags:  education

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Dr. Ian Dunbar  |  Wed, 06/12/2019 - 13:24

Why so much learning theory doesn’t work too well in practice.

An applied learning theory is essential for teaching/training all animals, people included 

These days we are being increasingly advised that dog training should be based on peer-reviewed, published studies. I feel this is a bit silly because there are so few research studies on dog training. In fact, there are next to none. Certainly, there are wonderful studies on the behavior of wild canids, on feral or free-roaming domestic dogs and there are some really interesting studies on cognition in companion dogs but … there...

 

Quick Tip: Handcrafted – How to make the best use of your HANDS during training

James Lu Dunbar  |  Sun, 04/07/2019 - 12:37

You have to know how to use your hands correctly if you want to be a good dog trainer. Excellent dog handlers know how to use their hands to energize, calm, lure and reward.

On the other hand, when owners don't know what they're doing, they can accidentally train their dog to become afraid of human hands, which can lead to anxiety and aggression problems.

And of course, the best thing about your hands is that they are one of just a few tools that you always have with you!

To learn more, watch this video:

 

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