The Dog Blog

Pages

dog ninja turtle karen wild blog

Staying Power - the Hidden Art of the Dog Trainer

Karen Wild  |  Fri, 10/30/2009 - 03:46

For those of you who don’t already know, in my other life I am a Karate instructor. I spend evenings teaching martial arts to a dedicated class of students who achieve amazing things both mentally and physically. Learning martial arts is partly a mechanical skill; you have to ‘do it to learn it’, rather like dog training.

Often, my private dog training clients inform me that they have tried dog training classes without success. The measure of this ‘success’ is highly personal to them, of course. They tell me their dog found the whole experience overwhelming. Some clients were asked to leave as a result of their beloved pet’s disruptive behaviour. Some struggled with a class taught using food-oriented motivation, which their dog did not find especially enticing given the other distractions on offer.

Was this entirely the class instructor’s responsibility, however?

 

Think your dog can walk politely on a loose leash? Put them to the test!

Casey Lomonaco ...  |  Thu, 10/29/2009 - 20:19

A desire to teach the family pet to walk politely on a loose leash is one of the most frequently cited reasons pet owners seek the services of a training professional. 

I'll put together a more extensive post on the methods that I like for teaching loose leash walking (hopefully with video) in a future blog entry for DSD.  For the time being, let's talk about putting your dog's loose leash training to the test.

Believe it or not, some students aren't even sure what loose leash walking truly looks like.

A good loose leash will look like the letter "J".  The top part of the letter will be where the leash meets the owner's hand, the bottom starting point of the letter (where you would start writing the letter "from the bottom up") should look like where the leash meets the collar.  I tell my students, "if you couldn't carry a full cup of coffee in your leash hand, the leash is too tight."

 

The Euphemism Tango

Nicole Wilde  |  Wed, 10/28/2009 - 13:17

It’s been a year since Mojo passed, and my search for a furry companion has officially begun. Websites like Petfinder.com and Adoptapet.com have brought the world of adoptable dogs to our fingertips, as they allow potential adopters to view a variety of pets in rescue groups and shelters. The vast majority of the listings include photographs, and, where available, a bit more information about the dog.

 

Holidays are supposed to be FUN, Right?

Nicole S. Silvers  |  Wed, 10/28/2009 - 09:48

Holidays, with their non-routine nature, have many related experiences, objects, and interactions that are novel (new, strange, unfamiliar, unpredictable, unexpected, highly stimulating).  Acclimatizing dogs to accept novelty without stress is the function of good socialization.  However, with adolescents, whether newly acquired, or seeing the holiday season for the first time, holidays can be a test of socialization, rather than a deliberate learning experience.  Couple this with the fatigued owner who may not have given the typical walking, exercise, or play routine, and we have a recipe for potential disaster!

"I could have told you that..." and "I'm not that surprised that..." are my 2 least favorite things to say to clients.  Dog trainers know that November thru January is busy season.  Dog owners with 20/20 hindsight (they and their dogs already made the mistakes in the past) also know that the holidays have potential for "incidents".

 

Tidbits from the 2009 APDT Conference

Nicole Wilde  |  Tue, 10/27/2009 - 11:08

The 2009 APDT conference has come to a close, and dog trainers everywhere have gone back to their homes and businesses with new techniques to try, along with fond memories of seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

 

Why I heart trick training

Marie Finnegan  |  Sat, 10/24/2009 - 17:05

So is anyone else as excited by the new show on Animal Planet called Super Fetch as I am? Hosted by Zak George this is a show that literally shows how you can teach any dog any trick in a step by step process. I love it. The first episode had a french bulldog that was owned by a man with a hair salon. To help drum up business he wanted the dog to fetch the clients gowns once they sat down. The other dog in the episode was an akita mix. The wife of the household wanted to teach the dog to move the husbands alarm clock when it when off in the morning to prevent him from hitting the snooze button repeatedly in the morning. I won't tell you how it turned out, but I will say I loved the part where the wife was happy that the dog was now listening to her more since starting working with him. Before that the dog was much more into her husband. She realized that the training helped them build a better bond with each other.

 

When “Obedience Training” Is Not Enough

Gillian Ridgeway  |  Thu, 10/22/2009 - 10:28

It is one task to teach a dog to sit or to lie down when asked, and it is another task altogether to alter the behavior of your dog.  When dealing with dog issues, it is quite common to hear dog owners seeking help.  How to train their dog to stop growling at the mail carrier, or to train their dog to not be fearful when in the car, or even to train their dog to not whine when left alone, are common areas of concern.

Let’s take a look at semantics.  Training is listed in the dictionary as “to teach a specific skill by practice or improve abilities as a result of instruction”.  Looking up the word behavior will show us it means “the way one conducts oneself…manners, an observable pattern of actions especially in response to stimuli”.  Quite different from each other when laid out clearly.

 
Silver Fox

Belyaev's Foxes on National Public Radio

Eric Goebelbecker  |  Wed, 10/21/2009 - 16:01

I wrote about the evolution of the dog in a pretty popular post on my blog a while back. In it I discussed Belyaev's fox experiment and its implication for two of the theories on how dogs were domesticated. WNYC's Radiolab (a podcast you should start listening to like, yesterday) just broadcast a very entertaining (as usual) show on "change." and discussed the foxes. The segment includes a theory on how selecting for behavior resulted in the startling physical changes in the foxes.  
Here's the segment:  

 

The 2009 APDT Conference is here!

Nicole Wilde  |  Mon, 10/19/2009 - 11:03

Dog trainers look forward to the annual Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) conference the way many people look forward to Christmas. It’s easy to understand why: there are fascinating presentations given by speakers from all over the world, all in one location over the course of five days. In fact, there are so many interesting choices that the challenging part can be choosing which one of three or four seminars given in the same time block to attend.

 

Cesar Millan, who is your agent!

Rachel Friedman  |  Fri, 10/16/2009 - 14:10

I've spent the past many days wondering how to make positive dog training sexy. Not the sexy of low cut dresses, rippling abs or mood lighting, but the sexy of what positive dog training could be to a vast audience of some of the people attached to the over 65 million dogs in the U.S.  To catch the ear, speaking above a whisper if I have to, to television executives willing to buck the corporate mindset that Cesar Millan's emporium espouses and endorse a show that can say "try this at home."

 

Pages

Subscribe to The Dog Blog
The Dunbar Academy Top Dog Academy – 4 books, 13 videos, 9 seminars and workshops