Search Results: Dog Training

January has been designated “National Train Your Dog Month” by the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT), and hey, why not? (Check out their free videos, by the way, good for them.) Those of us in the north of the northern hemisphere are getting cabin fever anyway, so why not think of a few things…

Thanks for the discussion about the use of Body Blocks for teaching Stay, and to re-iterate a comment I made, they work equally well with dogs of all breeds and sizes (but you have to be a bit quicker with some breeds and with small dogs).  If your dog is getting around you to the…

This is a throwback article, one that I originally wrote in August of 2008. I thought of it today because I’ve been going back and reading what I wrote about Willie when he was Maggie’s age. It’s been invaluable–so many things I forgot about Willie’s early years that I wouldn’t have remembered if I hadn’t…

Last week I listed my “non-resolutions,” not wanting to call them New Year’s Resolutions because so many fail within weeks. (U.S. News reports that 80% fail by early February.)     But I was on the Larry Meiller Show last week, (you can listen in the archive files) and found myself thinking about how the…

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.…

    Last week I enjoyed speaking at the Lakefly Writer’s Conference in Oshkosh, WI. After accepting the invitation, I pondered for awhile about a topic, and somewhere, out of the recesses of my mind, came the question of what my two professional loves have in common. Here’s a short summary of some of the…

Every morning I start my day writing a list of things that I am grateful for. Sometimes they are big things (Jim, my dogs, opportunities to learn, grow and improve relationships between people and animals) and sometimes they are small (the plaintive Wooo Heee song of courting Chickadees, the deep, purple blue of the first…

VIDEOS ON TEACHING A DOG TO STAY Teaching a Beginning “Stay” Watch this video and learn to teach your puppy how to stay!   Teaching a Dog to “Stay” with Body Blocks & Positive Reinforcement   RELATED BLOGS FROM “THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH” “Train Your Dog Month” at the Farm January 2022 Teaching…

VIDEOS ON TRAINING YOUR DOG WITH PLAY Using Play to Train Willie Who says training can’t include fun and games?   Example of “Watch” with Willie Willie loves a good game of tug as positive reinforcement for checking in with Trisha.   RELATED BLOG FROM “THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH” Chirag Patel and the…

I just finished reading a lovely novel, The Hearts of Horses, by Molly Gloss. It’s about a young woman who strikes out to make her living “gentling” horses in 1917, when many of the men were off to war. She’s more comfortable around animals than she is around people (a current topic of postings on…

VIDEOS ON DOG TRICK AND GAMES WITH YOUR DOG Willie’s Favorite Trick! Here’s a video of Willie’s favorite trick. Want to teach your dog tricks? How-to’s for this one and more are included in the Play Together, Stay Together book below.   Willie Finds His Toy Are you looking for a game to tire your…

RELATED BLOG FROM “THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH” March 11, 2024 March 2024 Family Dog Training Classes-What’s in Your Curriculum? September 2017 Gotta Love that Recall!  October 2013 What’s In It for Me?  July 2010   ARTICLES ABOUT TRAINING A DOG TO COME WHEN CALLED Caution. Your dog is watching. Tale of Two Species – Bridging…

So I’m working Will, my young Border Collie, last night, asking him to push the lambs into a corner so that I could catch and treat a sick one. (Lambs get diarrhea just like people and dogs do, I suspect it feels just as bad for them as it does for the rest of us.…

I’m curious if any readers have some advice for me and a friend of mine. She and her husband have a young German Shorthaired Pointer they’d love to train to hunt, but are having problems finding any professional trainers who don’t use ear pinches, forced retrieves and a basic attitude of “Do it because I…

RELATED BLOGS FROM “THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH” Teaching the “Emergency Stop” (or “Flying Lie Down”) March 2021 Family Dog Training Classes-What’s in Your Curriculum? September 2017 Lure & Clicker Training to Teach Sit: Advantages & Disadvantages  May 2012 Explaining “Step by Step” Training, Step by Step  March 2010   RELATED DOG TRAINING BOOKS     

RELATED BLOG FROM “THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH” You Want Me To Pee Where? November 2018 Free to a Good Home (Booklets, Not Dogs!) September 2016 House training Dogs  April 2009   RELATED DOG TRAINING BOOKS           

RELATED BLOG FROM “THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH” Five Reasons That Dogs Become Holiday Grinches December 2021 Crates and Dogs  September 2008   RELATED DOG TRAINING BOOKS    

RELATED BLOGS FROM “THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH” Rub a Dub Dub, Willie’s in the Tub. January 2018   RELATED DOG TRAINING BOOKS

“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…

  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…

In August of 2011, I wrote an article titled “The Nail Wars,“ about the value of a “grinder” (also called a Dremel, but that’s a brand name) when trimming a dog’s nails. I’m updating and revisiting it here, after a friend mentioned that nail trims were a big issue at her house. Now that I…

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…

I’m just back from the first phase of book tour, and so much of what came up on the dog-lover side related to “reactive” dogs. As I talk about in The Education of Will, dogs can be psychologically traumatized too, and one of the symptoms of that is “hyper-reactivity.” Just as a veteran soldier with…

Lately there has been an increase, in my area anyway, in “Board and Train” businesses (B & T). You give them your dog for one, two, or three weeks, and get back a dog who is . . . what? Much better behaved? Perfect on leash walks, never jumps up, and only barks on cue?…

Dog walkers do not show up on my radar very often, living as I do on a farm in the country. Jim and I are the dog walkers, and we like it that way. However, I am also aware how very lucky we are to have the time and the logistics to be able to…

How does a dog heal if it was raised in an abusive situation? Can it ever become a “normal” dog? I’ve been asked this question often in the last week because of the release (sale, actually) of 1,500 beagles from Ridglan “Farms”, which has gotten national attention. Primarily a place that bred beagles for laboratory…

If there is anything harder than euthanizing a beloved dog for serious behavioral problems, I don’t know what it is. And yet, sometimes, that is an option that dog owners have to consider. These were some of the hardest cases I worked with when I was seeing clients full time. I would drive home, sick…

I would be excited about lessons tomorrow with the GOAT sheepdog trainer/handler  Scott Glen, but the fact is it’s so hot and humid I know that Skip will only be able to work for very short periods of time. Like just a few minutes. I also just a pulled him from a new trial I…

A few weeks ago Skip and I were in a trial when it was in the high 80’s and humid. Very little breeze. In short, awful. Of course, I was worried about Skip, given his bad heart, and wouldn’t have run him if the course hadn’t been a short one. I got him in the…

I’d love to have a conversation about avoiding over heating in dogs. We all know that it can be a life or death issue for all dogs, but the fact is that my Skip overheats easily. Very, very easily. It may be that his bad heart is the only factor, or perhaps there are others,…

Maggie, all 35 exuberant pounds of her, has lousy leash manners. That is because 1) she is a dog and walking beside me, shoulder to shoulder, makes no sense to her. And 2) because I couldn’t resist working her on sheep when we have training time together. Not to mention teaching her to come when…

Here’s one of world’s greatest descriptions of a dog: “[Gander looks like] … the canine version of a forgetful old literature professor in a corduroy jacket with patches at the elbows.” I’ve never met Gander, but the photos of him  remind me of a grown-up, bachelor party version of Little Orphan Annie’s dog, Sandy. With…

Last week’s post on teaching dogs “Enough,” when you are tired of being a petting machine, elicited a request from reader Nana-Mary: “Speaking of our two dogs, I would love some tips on controlling the BARKING! I know that we don’t want to discourage ALL barking, but sometimes it gets way out of control. It’s…

When Willie starting working sheep as a youngster, he didn’t want to quit. This is a high quality problem with a young sheepdog, but it’s still a problem. At some point you just have to end the session. It’s a common problem too–I’ve seen scores of adolescent Border Collies zoom around and around the flock…

Susannah Charleson, author of Scent of the Missing, has done it again: Given us a page turner that is exquisitely written, and rich with both emotion and information related to working dogs. However, this time the dogs aren’t search and rescue dogs; although in some ways you could suggest that’s exactly what they do. The…

Last week we traveled to the Rush Creek Sheepdog Trial outside of Sidney, Ohio. We took it slow, took two days to get there and two days back, and every day I felt grateful for how fun it is to travel with Skip and Maggie. Our meandering trip–lots of small roads off the interstate–meant three…

Grisha Stewart’s new book is an impressive piece of work, and I highly recommend it to trainers, behaviorists and dog owners who are ready to dive into the deep end to help their dog. Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0 (BAT 2.0) is a comprehensive and detailed approach to working with “fear, frustration, and aggression in dogs”. …

When I was seeing a lot of clients I could always tell when I was tired because I started working with the dog, rather than training the owners. Perhaps that’s the irony of language: It makes communication easier in one sense, and harder in another. Things were so simple and clear when I was working…

  “They SAID he was house trained!” “She said he loved EVERYBODY!” “He was FINE at my house! What did the new owners do to him?” Every trainer and behaviorist who does consults hears these phrases on a regular basis. About the “house trained” spaniel who pees on the rug, the “everybody loving” Border collie…

  The following is an update from posts I’ve written in the past, introducing Dog Bite Prevention Week. Here’s what I’d love you to do this week–comment about “Dog bites I have known,” (sigh), or “How I prevented a bite about to happen.” So, so, SO many bites could be prevented if dog owners, dog…

I’m taking some summery time off this week, and so am repeating a post from May, 2014, How to Talk to Other Dog Owners.  Wanna talk about it? Here it is: When I was seeing a lot of clients I could always tell when I was tired because I started working with the dog, rather…

I did a seminar last week in Pittsburgh for the Westmoreland County Obedience Training Club, and worked with 3 dogs who had “dog-dog reactivity” problems. In choosing those dogs I had a problem myself: I had to choose from over 12 people who offered their dogs for demo’s. Right now I’m working on choosing dogs…

“Oh no, he’s just fine! Go ahead and pet him.” If I heard that once, I heard it a thousand times, from owners anxious for me to pet their dog, while their dog begged me not to. Of course, the dogs didn’t say so, but their body language spoke volumes. Mouth closed, stiff bodied (even…

                  I don’t pretend to be able to keep up with all the dog/animal behavior books being published right now, but two books got my attention this week that I thought you might find interesting. In some ways, they couldn’t be much different from each other. Who’s…

I just spent a few days in The Big Apple, and not surprisingly found myself watching dogs and their people on the sidewalks of New York City. Here are the two things that I noticed first: One, many of the dogs had on coats. Lots and lots of coats. Granted, it was a tad nippy…

This is Part II of our case study about helping a dog after a loss (see August 24th blog for Part I). As usual, many of you came up with  insightful and helpful comments. I benefit from your thoughtfulness every day, and I thank you for it. If you are interested in this topic, either…

DOG TRAINING VIDEO Willie Learns Object Names Does your dog know the difference when you ask for a ball or a frisbee? Here’s a video of one way you can teach Fido object names!   RELATED BLOGS FROM “THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH” Guys: We Need You In Dog Training Seminars May 2024 Sniffing…

I’m always fascinated to see how dogs change when they change from being the only dog to one of a two. Or two of a kind turn into three of a kind. I thought of this when a friend called after adding a third dog to her home. In a few weeks her formerly sweet,…

If you’ve been following the bouncing ball, we’ve been talking about how the concept of “dominance” and social status may or may not relate to dog behavior. Now I’d like to summarize a bit and discuss how we might handle conflict between dogs within the household. After all, whether you buy into it or not…