The Dog Blog

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

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, 

 

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, 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.

 

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 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

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?

 
Tags:  education

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

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 

 

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

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:

 

Quick Tip: Superfood – What You Should and Should not be Feeding Your Dog

For many dogs, the most important aspect about the food you feed your dog is whether or not you use it in training. If your dog has behavior problems, you can, and should, use their regular food to help solve those problems.

That's why it's well worth considering a dry kibble that will be convenient to use in training. For many people, if it's not convenient, it's not going to happen, and when you fail to use food in training you really handicap yourself. 

To learn more, watch this video:

 

Quick Tip: Ditch the Dish – The First Step to Resolving Your Dog's Behavior Problems

When it comes to dog training and behavior problems, the number of different solutions are as great and varied as the number of different problems.

But whatever your problem is, there's a good chance that the first step you're going to want to take is getting rid of your dog's food bowl. Feeding your dog form a food bowl really undermines your ability to use food in training, and food, used properly, can make training much, much easier.

To learn more, watch this video:

 

Dunbar Academy Gets a Make-Over

Dunbar Academy is our online dog training and behavior school and presents a more structured and curated learning experience than Dog Star Daily can provide.

But it wasn't always that way. When we started Dunbar Academy a couple of years ago, it primarily consisted of video recording of Ian's many dog behavior seminar and workshops. 

 

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