Search Results: Dog Behavior

For the Love of a Dog Understanding Emotion in You and Your Best Friend “A marvelous book that everybody who loves dogs should own.” -Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation “[McConnell] sheds new light on the emotional lives of animals.” – The Washington Post “A wonderful book…Fine, balanced, charming, it is sure to appeal…

Do you have a dog who isn’t good meeting other dogs when on leash? If so, you’ll not be surprised that a recent blog post on how to stop uninvited dogs from approaching your own got 129 comments and reached 352,783 people on Facebook.   Wow. That’s compelling. In some ways, I’m not surprised. My…

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The Other End of the Leash Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs “Vivid anecdotes and keen insights… a wonderful book… [that] exudes wisdom and passion throughout.” – Bark Magazine “Warm and informative, The Other End of the Leash teaches us to bridge some differences and to honor others.” – Dog Fancy “This is…

August 17, 2026 Size Matters (When Using Treats as Reinforcement) What helps an animal learn a new behavior fastest? Standard practice has assumed that learners need a large number of trials to learn a new behavior, and given the numbers of repetitions required, each reward, usually food, is small. In other words, lots of tiny…

  August 26th is National Dog Day! I know many of us celebrate our dogs everyday, but here are five additional ways to consider spending this special holiday… 1. Get out and play: Enjoy the day with your dog(s)! My favorite game to play with Willie is “Find It”. Start by hiding your dog’s favorite…

Yup, it’s that time of year when the leaping, crotch-sniffing, cat poop-eating dog that you just rescued from a puppy mill is about to meet Aunt Polly, the only member of the family who is terrified of dogs. Or maybe you’re about to have guests who hate dogs, even your perfectly behaved ones. No matter what…

October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month! My rescued dog, Tootsie, and I have been celebrating all month on my Facebook page, but there’s still plenty of time to help homeless dogs. This issue is currently more important than ever, given all the tragedies that have disrupted dogs and their families around the country. Here is…

Away to Me Trisha’s debut mystery novel.A woman. A dog. A murder. “Away To Me has it all: amazing canines, a flawed, funny, compelling heroine, unrelenting suspense…” -Cat Warren, NYT bestselling author of What the Dog Knows “Away To Me is like All Creatures Great & Small meets Agatha Christie-only with more glorious writing, and…

Much of our attention on canine behavior has focused on visual signals – and given their importance in the behavior and training of domestic dogs, that’s a good thing. However, the world of sound – how dogs use it and how it affects them – is extremely important in maintaining their wellbeing and responsiveness to…

Multi-Dog Households: From First Date to After the Honeymoon Every newly adopted dog who moves into a multi-dog household sets a story in motion – even before he or she leaves our care. Will the dogs get along?  How do we know if they will or won’t, and what can we do to facilitate a harmonious…

Patricia is known worldwide as an expert on canine training and behavior and for her engaging and knowledgeable books, speeches, and seminars. She is the author of the much-acclaimed books The Other End of the Leash (published in 14 languages), For the Love of a Dog, and her memoir, The Education of Will. Her debut…

The Education of Will Healing a Dog, Facing My Fears, Reclaiming My Life “McConnell gives a voice to those who can’t speak in words and provides hope for fearful animals everywhere.” -Temple Grandin, author of Animals Make Us Human  and Animals in Translation “Wisdom earned in the hardest places, dog and human, brings with it a carrying…

How Dogs Can Make You Healthier (it’s not what you think!)   We all know that our relationship with dogs can do good things for our health. Just petting a dog can decrease our blood pressure, or allow us to heal faster from injury. And, of course, walking with our dogs is good exercise, which is also a…

It’s never too late to go back to basics! Family Friendly Dog Training is the perfect resource to help your clients, customers, or adopters deal with the most common behavior issues. We all know how serious tiny behavior problems can become—help the animals at both ends of the leash by providing steps for healthy, effective…

It’s never too late to go back to basics! Family Friendly Dog Training is the perfect resource to help your clients, customers, or adopters deal with the most common behavior issues. We all know how serious tiny behavior problems can become—help the animals at both ends of the leash by providing steps for healthy, effective…

Getting Involved in Animal Assisted Interventions Pet Partners held their 2017 conference on “Professionalizing the Passion” earlier this month, and I was honored to give the keynote address. Pet Partners provides certification, training, and support for volunteer animal and handler teams in Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI), including Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT), Animal Assisted Activities (AAA),…

Author, Speaker, Animal Behaviorist MORE ABOUT PATRICIA Your dog is begging you to read this! A classic, now in thirteen languages. READ MORE The all-new, fully-updated version of this beloved classic is now available! READ MORE A powerful memoir about dogs, love, trauma, and redemption. READ MORE Stories, science, and advice about the emotional lives…

From the Introduction: Good Puppy Owner! Goooood Puppy Owner! How clever of you to start now on your puppy’s education! You should feel good because you are caring and committed enough to take responsibility for your new dog’s welfare. As you know, there’s more to your puppy’s well-being than physical health; your dog’s behavior will…

I have to give myself chocolate when I leave on a trip, because I find it so hard to say goodbye to my dogs. But I’m not the only one who suffers when being separated from someone I love. Separation anxiety (SA) can be a serious problem and dogs who suffer from it may panic…

I’ve been intrigued lately by a breed of dog called the Carolina Dog. These dogs have been in the news lately, because a study of the genetics of the domestic dog suggested that several of the American dog breeds (Chihuahua for example) have origins from ancient Asian breeds rather more recent European ones. The study,…

The Puppy Primer The Puppy Primer, Patricia’s beloved guide to raising a puppy, is now all-new and fully-updated! “We give The Puppy Primer to all of our Puppy Day School students because it is the next best thing to having a trainer in their living room.” – Kelly Elvin, TipTopTraining, 
Kalamazoo, MI “The Puppy Primer…

“Brilliant… a perfect balance of science and soul.” Marty Becker, DVM, reviewing For the Love of a Dog Resident Veterinarian on Good Morning America   “Choosing good information to help clients with their pet’s behavior is as easy as reaching for one of Patricia McConnell’s excellent books.” Wayne Hunthausen, DVM, co-author of Behavior Problems of…

Come, Sit, Stay: A Conversation about Coping in Hard Times. March 28, 2020 Click Here to view the discussion on YouTube Interview with Colleen Pelar, CPDT-KA, CDBC. February 20, 2018 Episode of the show “Helping Families Love Living With Dogs” Patricia and Colleen discuss “Fear and Trauma-How Dogs Experience It and How Owners can help their…

Everyone in shelter and rescue work wants the dogs in their care to go to stable homes. However, there are very few resources for people who are adopting adolescent or adult dogs into their families—most of the information written for new owners is about adopting a puppy—and things don’t always go as smoothly as hoped.…

Questions About Purchases Who do I contact if I have a question about my order? Order fulfillment is now being done by our good friends at Dogwise in Wenatchee, WA. We are confident that they will continue the same level of customer-friendly service that we have done our best to provide. Nothing else will change:…

Introducing ‘Away To Me’ the first mystery novel from best-selling author Patricia McConnell! ORDER NOW! “Away to Me is like All Creatures Great & Small meets Agatha Christie-only with more glorious writing, and more border collies!” -Sy Montgomery, NYT bestselling author of What the Chicken Knows “Away to Me has it all: amazing canines, a…

  We’re celebrating the 7th anniversary of publishing Love Has No Age Limit: Welcoming an Adopting Dog into Your Home! Since its inception, over 100,000 copies have gone home with adopted dogs and their new families. This book has the answers, from what to do (and not do) the first day, week and month, why…

The seminar in Seattle was great fun, lots of good folks  and excellent questions from the audience. In the morning I talked about treatment for dog-dog reactivity, and I promised a summary of that on the blog. Here it is, with the obligatory caution that the morning itself wasn’t close to enough time to cover…

I’ve had a lot of questions lately about resource guarding. I’m not sure why–dogs stuck together inside because of the weather? A butterfly flapping its wings in China? Who knows. But I thought it was a good time to revisit a post I wrote in 2014 about dogs who guard resources from other dogs. Here…

Can we learn anything about a dog’s behavior around unfamiliar dogs with the use of a fake, stuffed dog? That is the question asked by a team of researchers in Massachusetts, who did a study comparing the responses of 45 shelter dogs to a live dog and a fake, plush, stuffed dog. The real dogs…

Not long ago I re-posted a blog about Resource Guarding (RG), but focused treatment options on dogs who direct their threats toward people. Many of you asked about RG between dogs, and I promised I’d address that this summer. Here we go… There’s no doubt that RG between dogs is a bit trickier than when…

This is one of the questions I am most frequently asked, and with good reason. It’s a tough one. It’s also relevant to my own life right now, after having just introduced a new dog into the household, and having to make split-second decisions several times in the first few weeks. I should say first…

Let Dogs Be Dogs: Understanding Canine Nature and Mastering the Art of Living with Your Dog by The Monks of New Skete and Marc Goldberg. The primary premise of the books is that dogs can’t be happy without a pack leader, and that had better be you. It thus seems appropriate to begin this review…

Thanks for all the great comments about your experiences with dogs who are reactive, whether it’s to other dogs, or to people, or other objects. If you haven’t read the comments, here’s what comes out (at least to me) loud and clear: 1. There isn’t any one method that works for all dogs. Dogs are…

Raymond and Lorna Coppinger’s new book, What is a Dog? makes a compelling case for the “village dog” or “street dog” as THE dog, not a random collection of mongrels and strays. “We will argue that they [street dogs] are the real dogs, the ancestral type of our modern breeds. They are unique and beautifully…

Thanks to those to of you who have commented on this issue. It is such an important one, and I value the conversation we are having. For what it’s worth, here’s what I think: First off, I think that the most important factors related to who is qualified to treat a behavioral problem is their…

I was going to title this Size Matters? But then, well . . . you know. But today’s question IS about size, and whether a dog’s size influences your interest or attraction to it. Full disclosure: I grew up in a dog-loving family that gravitated toward medium to large-size dogs. Comments were made by my…

So I don’t bury the lead, here’s where I’m going today: Why does the concept that dogs can get angry make some people angry? I was reminded of that when I was looking something up in For the Love of a Dog (I often forget where I wrote what . . .) and ran into…

I’m curious about your experience with dogs who are dog-dog aggressive and what I’ll call “intensive sniffers.” Ever since I heard Sue Sternberg say that dogs who sniff obsessively in her office are often/usually/always?) dog-dog aggressive, I have paid more attention to “intensive sniffing behavior” (I don’t know what else to call it–but hey, I…

Karen London and I are revising Feisty Fido: Help for the Leash Aggressive Dog, and I find myself fascinated by how perspectives and techniques change over time. We’re not changing the essence of the booklet, far from it, but there are a few things that are being modified because of our experiences and gains in…

Full disclosure: I used to be a breedist. My family didn’t believe that little dogs were really dogs at all. “Rug rats” they called them. And then, in my second or third week of seeing clients in 1988, a Toy Poodle trotted into my office and proved to me how wrong my family had been.…

RELATED BLOGS FROM “THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH” Behavioral or Medical? Or both? March 2024 Do You Teach “Don’t Do That?” October 2023 Evaluate this Video! July 2023 The Bitey End of the Dog Podcast June 2023 Is Your Dog Doing Something You Don’t Like? Do Your Own Intake Interview! May 2023 Who ARE…

Here’s the post I thought I’d lost! (Will my viral-hazed brain ever come back to normal?) Hey, I am back among the living. Not much energy, pretty slow in the head, but actually eating real food again (well, still can’t eat chocolate, which along with fresh spinach and warm bread is the only real food…

Have you seen the latest issue of The APDT Chronicle? It has a fantastic article by Suzanne Hetts and Daniel Estep (both CAAB & Ph.D) titled Safety and Ethics in Working with Dog-to-Dog Aggression. Anyone who treats dog-dog aggression, or who has a dog who might have that problem would do well to read it.…

For the last two days, Willie has been acting abnormally. He regressed back to sleeping in the bathroom, instead of his dog bed beside my bed. He took his stuffed Kong in the morning to his usual place, but then wouldn’t eat anything out of it. He came into the office this morning and lay…

  I’ve been thinking about Maggie a lot lately, and wondering whether she wants to continue to compete in sheepdog trials. She is always eager to work sheep, leaves the course (or did last year) as if eager to do it again, even when it went badly. She clearly adores the part she’s good at…

You know I love Willie; sometimes I think almost too much. But I’ve never loved him more than I have this morning, after finishing the book, Part Wild, by Ceiridwen Terrill. Willie is a dog. Inyo, the focus of Part Wild, is a wolf-dog who Ceiridwen adopted as a puppy. The book is a brutally…

This week’s post is a repeat from four years ago. I thought of it recently when trying to take a photo of a friend’s dog, who kept turning his head away from the camera lens. I love this example of how understanding ethology helps us understand the behavior of other animals. (Full disclosure: It also…

For decades, animal behaviorist Dr. Patricia B. McConnell grappled privately with intense fear, anxiety, and guilt. In this soul-searching memoir, she recounts for the first time the compelling story of her past and how a dog named Will helped her recover from a history of trauma and shame. Patricia is forced to face her past…