Kelly Gorman Dunbar

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Kelly Gorman Dunbar is a cofounder and the executive editor of dogstardaily.com and a contributing editor at dogtime.com and Animal Cafe.

She is the Founder and President of Open Paw, a non-profit organization devoted to addressing the unwanted animal problem in a whole new way, arming communities worldwide with valuable user and animal friendly training and behavior information with the goal of keeping cats and dogs out of shelters by keeping them in their original homes. Kelly lectures internationally on the principles of Open Paw and consults for animal shelters regarding layout, and staff-and-animal training protocols and procedures.

She is a Director of the Center for Applied Animal Behavior, a multi-faceted business that focuses on teaching people how to train their dogs to be the best canine citizens possible via fun and efficient training techniques involving games and environmental enrichment as rewards for desired behavior. She is a Director for the K9 Games Corporation, a venture dedicated to bringing fun and games to the process of dog training in order to make it easy, entertaining, and accessible for all people, including children.

Kelly recruits and trains the instructors for Dr. Ian Dunbar's SIRIUS Puppy & Dog Training company based in Berkeley, CA. She is the creator of the SIRIUS Sniffers scent-dection curriculum and is also in the process of bringing the French sport of cavage to the United States. Kelly has titled her French Bulldog Hugo-Louis via National Association of Canine Scent Work and enjoys competing in both NACSW nose work and AKC rally trials with her dogs.


Blog posts by Kelly Gorman Dunbar

Teach Tug to Resolve Reactivity - Part 1

FOR A LIMITED TIME Watch the all-new Dunbar Academy Dog-Dog Reactivity webinar for FREE, where Dr. Ian Dunbar explains how to resolve dog-dog reactivity and why teaching your dog to play Tug is one of the most effective things you can do.

 
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Make Muzzle Wearing Fun!

Muzzles are useful tools in dog training and husbandry. Some people think they look scary and make a dog look mean. Many dogs don't enjoy wearing a muzzle because the only time they've ever had to wear one was when they're feeling stressed out, such as a the vet when injured or some other kind of emergeny or unpleasant situation. Teach your dog to enjoy wearing a muzzle, just in case, before you ever need one. Laz loves his muzzle because it means we are going to either train for his favorite sport, or play ball! 

 
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When Can I Stop Rewarding My Dog?

“When I can I stop rewarding my dog for doing the correct behavior?” 

This is one of the top three questions I get from my students. Really, what these people are asking is either, “When can I stop training my dog?” or, “When can I start punishing my dog?” 

For some reason, people take offense when they think their dog is doing the “right” thing for a tangible reward, such as a paycheck, rather than for the intrinsic reward of obeying the master! 

 
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Flirt Pole Fun!

One of my top tips for students to improve their dog’s training performance is to play interactive games. Play will enhance your relationship with your dog and the stronger your relationship, the better your training will go. 

 

 
training goals require maps

Training Goals

In my last post I wrote about the training process and how it is so important to break every task you’d like a dog to learn into tiny segments in order to orchestrate many frequent, measurable, successful moments to build upon and link together to create an easily navigable staircase to your destination. 

With that in mind, today I’m thinking about goals. You won’t get anywhere if you don’t know both where you are today and where you’re headed. One must have a clear starting and end point in mind to properly draw up a functional map. 

 
Tags:  dog training
Belgian Tervuren Mars With Orange

Starting Over In Dog Training

It has been so long since I’ve written anything here at The Dog Star Daily Blog that it feels like I’m starting over. Recently, I’ve started training my young dog, Laz and my new pup, Mars for a dog sport that I haven’t attempted in over ten years. So it kind of feels as though I’m starting over in dog training, too. Here’s to new beginnings! 

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Give Your Dog The Gift of Sniff with Nosework!

It’s no secret what a dog’s nose knows. While we humans have only around 5 million scent receptors, dogs’ olfactory receptors number in the hundreds of millions! Dogs use their noses as a primary source of navigation and information gathering. They use scent-marking a source of communication. Dogs take in scent the way most people take in visual and auditory information.

 

Yet in our human-centric world, dogs are constantly thwarted or punished for gathering info/exploring/expressing themselves via sniffing and marking.

 

 
A boy and his dog.

Fatal Dog Attacks And BSL

There has been a fatal dog attack on a young girl in the UK this week. My heart goes out to the friends and family of Jade Anderson. My heart breaks for their loss. There are no words of comfort I can offer to make things better in this time of tragedy. However, there is much to say regarding the incident. This incident was not unavoidable.

Puppy biting or mouthing.

Puppy Class And Biting, Mouthing Puppies

What is the number one reason for puppy class? To continue to work on puppies’ acquired bite inhibition. Put differently, to teach people how to give appropriate feedback to their mouthy young pup with needle-sharp teeth.

 

Dove is an Open Paw shelter dog available for adoption from the Alachua County Animal Shelter

Open Paw: Turning Animals Shelters Into Dog and Cat Universities

Hello everyone! It’s been ages since I blogged here at Dog Star Daily and that is a shame. I’ve been very busy with the redesign of the site, revamping puppy training protocols for SIRIUS®, traveling teaching fun scent work games for pet dogs, and with the encouraging boom of Open Paw® shelter training workshops. Regardless, my apologies for staying away for so long!

 

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