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Cookies! Praise! Belly Rubs! Using positive reinforcement feels so easy, and is such a great way to have a healthy and happy relationship with your dog. The research is overwhelming that training with R+ builds trust, reduces stress, and is effective at teaching new and desired behaviors. And. Yet. There are plenty of pitfalls to…

It’s just a wonderful feeling, knowing that what you’ve written has been published in a variety of languages. Imagining people reading The Other End of the Leash in Polish or Spanish makes me smile. It’s not just the intellectual knowledge that one’s books have circled the globe; it as much a feeling of connection. A…

I was clearing out the (way too many) photos on my laptop, and ran into this video from years ago. It pretty much sums up the relationship between dogs and cats: Highly variable, and always interesting. Some dogs are best friends with cats, some ignore them, and some either chase them, or try to herd…

First: Maggie is alive. Second: She almost wasn’t. All thanks to a cork. Which she ate. Which almost killed her. I’m telling the story in hopes it will educate, inform, and inspire. And don’t we all love a good dog story, as long the the dog doesn’t die? This one didn’t, but it was pretty…

Not long ago I asked readers to tell me what they’d like to talk about, and got a plethora of great ideas. One of them that hit home was the question of whether dogs could “be autistic.” (Best described as on ASD, or Autism Spectrum Disorder, which effects social communication, learning, and behavior.) I’ve met…

In keeping with my new schedule, the first post of the month is always just photographs. Here’s a sampling of life at the farm over the weekend: First, we had a joyous reunion with three other couples on Saturday night who we haven’t seen in a year and a half. They regaled us with ridiculously…

I wrote about Chirag Patel, as a rising star in the dog training world in July of 2018 (or, a million years ago, in the Before Times), and am loving the opportunity to write about him again. What he calls “The Bucket Game” has gotten a lot of attention lately, as well it should. I’m…

A thorough answer to this question is too complicated for any one article, but it’s a common and important one. Actually, the question I am usually asked is this: “What breed of dog should we get?” The quick answer is simple: “It’s not about the breed.” Well, but, of course it is in some ways.…

I often write about what I’m thankful for throughout the year, but a holiday titled “Thanksgiving” focuses a person’s attention. I’ve spent a lot of time swaddled with thanks since last Thursday, and I don’t want to give it up. So I’m asking you to grace us with your list, understanding that lists change every…

Here’s the latest on Hope and Willie: Both Willie and Hope continued to be “spooky” to all number of things. This occurred both on and off the farm, and to all sorts of sights and sounds. Willie began high-arousal barking and lunging to other dogs when on leash, and off leash he growled and tooth…

New dogs always bring new challenges, and besides poor Skip’s leg injury, one of ours is his obsession with the cats. Frenzied Feline Focus Syndrome, or FFFS, (I do hope it’s clear I made that up) is common in Border Collies, some of who categorize cats as weird, mutated livestock creatures without hooves. Others don’t,…

Has it just been two days since Snicker’s lambs were born? Or two weeks? Here’s the good news: the lambs, at the moment anyway, are doing well. Here’s the bad news: since I last wrote, Snickers tried her best to kill the ewe lamb, both lambs got diarrhea, both lambs began bawling non-stop as lambs…

Have you seen the news that a speech pathologist, Christina Hunger, has taught her dog to “talk,” or to communicate not just nouns and verbs, but “her thoughts and feelings as well”?  Christina taught her Catahoula/Blue Heeler mix, Stella, to use a “sound board,” similar to the kind she uses to help very young children…

Get out your calendars! There are three special dates I want to highlight today, including one coming right up that is free, fun and educational. The Modern Dog: In & Out of the Shelter will be presented on Saturday, July 27th, at the University of Illinois Chicago. It’s the very special “Public Day” of the…

Recently I called Maggie, and she didn’t show up. I was outside at the farm, working on clearing the muck-infused ice from a gate. The Border collies were out with me, behind the barn. No matter what I’m doing, I never let them out of sight; we live close to a road and even though…

Here’s a blast from the past! I taught Luke and Pippy to jump over a sign with a sign in their mouths. My favorite Christmas card ever. They loved to play tug together, and one day I began to say “Good Dogs!” the brief moments when they ran together with a toy in their mouth,…

I wish the world could have seen Ken’s seminar on Sunday in Worcester MA, it was fantastic. For those of you who don’t know his name, he is the Training Director and Senior Trainer at the Shedd Acquarim, has trained exotic animals for over 30 years, and could train just about anyone to do anything.…

Last week I received a topic suggestion from a blog reader who has a reactive dog. What in heaven’s name does one do about dogs who are off leash, while you are responsibly walking your dog on leash in “on leash only” areas, and yet some goofball dog runs up to your own and ruins…

Years ago I was chased by a bull. A ground-pawing, snorting, massive animal right out of a cartoon who drew a bead on me and began to attack from about 30 yards away. The gentleman I was with ran too, passing me in a heartbeat, and yelling “Pick up a stick!” over his shoulder. I…

  My first experience in a dog training class was in 1968 in Southern California. We were to teach our dogs to sit, stay, heel and come from ten feet away. From a Sit/Stay. That was it. A lot of energy was put into perfect heels (using leash jerks of course) and long Sit/Stays for…

I’m back in the office, refreshed and recharged and ready to go. And curious–what would YOU like to talk about? Canine-related book reviews? Other book reviews? (Have you read Leaving Time? Wow!) Case studies? Research? Training Ideas? Dog-Human relationships? Flowers? Recipes? Novels about dogs that incorporate flowers? I’m all ears. Be as specific as you…

Oh my. I feel like I’m at the crest of a massive roller coaster, having chugged my way up and up and up, finally reaching the top of the curve, and looking down at a track so steep that I can’t even see it beneath my feet. All I know is it’s going to go…

When I first started seeing clients, I felt a need to send them home with as much information as I possibly could. How could I deprive them of all the things that they could do to help their dogs? Because I knew that people only remember a relatively small percentage of what they hear in…

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…

I’m working on a column for Bark magazine about positive reinforcement. It’s such a simple concept once you get it, but it’s a bit like riding a bicycle . . . it takes awhile to be able to do it comfortably and effectively. In the column, I want to stress that it is the receiver…

I worked with a dog years ago, a little buff-colored foxy thing, who had been rescued from abominable conditions. She’d spent years tied up in a barn, expected to pump out puppies for a daily feeding of kibble and a bowl of nasty, green water. And yet, she sashayed into my office like she’d been…

As you may know, a movie about a military dog, Max, is getting a lot of attention. I just read a summary of the plot, which convinced me that I’ll be better off watching bad TV at home while rubbing my dogs’ bellies than going to see it. It might be a great movie, who…

Two more posts about play from presentations at APDT: this one about play between people and dogs, and a post coming on Friday regarding Karen London’s presentation on using play to treat aggression-related behavior problems. I spoke in the afternoon about play between people and dogs. It’s a rich topic, with many nuances and complexities,…

Citizen science–be there or be square. Researchers from the University of Guelph are conducting a survey about resource guarding in dogs. You can participate by going to this link and filling out the questionnaire. I hope you do–you’ll see why as you read more… True confessions: I originally tried to take the survey in April,…

Because it isn’t necessarily a fun topic, I thought I’d start off with my favorite story about dog poop. Imagine being at a sit-down lunch at two-day seminar I was giving on canine behavior and training. Picture a large room, with 150 people or so, sitting at round tables covered in white table cloths, the…

 A recently published study has shown that cats are attracted to music that was specifically designed for them. This is important work, given all the claims that are made about effect of music “designed for” dogs and cats. Although there are several interesting studies this issue, the studies have traditionally compared different types of musical…

If you’re feeling a tad disheartened by the news, or maybe the view in the mirror when you went to buy new pants (okay, that’s probably just my problem), I have a suggestion: Go out of your way to go to the Assistance Dogs International Conference, wherever it might be held in the years to…

It’s a light post today, in celebration of the waning days of summer and a bucket of writing to do for speeches (both on “People, Dogs & Trauma,”one a Keynote at ADI Trainer’s Conference in Denver, the other a Keynote at APDT in Hartford, CT), revising a chapter with Aubrey Fine in the Handbook on…

I’m repeating a post from 2024, because I am 1) truly interested in whether things have improved, even a bit, related to the male/female ratio of dog trainers and dog training seminar in current times, and 2) I’m updating The Puppy Primer and spending pretty much all my waking hours on it. Just asked my…

Can Dogs Have ADHD? Many years ago, when I was in my early years as an applied behaviorist, a dog came to me that I couldn’t quite figure out. It was an adolescent Old English sheepdog, let’s call him “Bear,” who was driving his humans crazy by biting on the leash and increasingly, their legs…

IT’S ALL MEANWHILE, back on the farm this week. I’m working on a fun topic for next time that requires more research than I have energy for (see below). But hopefully fun at the farm (and beyond) will be enough to amuse you and distract you from, well, you know, stuff. Here are some shots…

Let me begin with full disclosure: I have my own answer to the question above. I don’t begin to treat Tootsie, my King Charles Cavalier, like I treat Willie the Border Collie. Not just because she was a mill dog, and not just because she is spaniel instead of a Border Collie. But simply because…

First off, Happy New Year! Here’s hoping that 2014 is everything you want it to be. There’s a timely issue making the rounds that I thought would result in an interesting discussion: giving pets as gifts. I’m sure you’ve all heard the warnings to “never give a pet as a gift.” Yet, recently that advice…

Chew bones and tasty snacks are nice, but here is what I think our dogs really want for Christmas: 1. CLARITY: Our dogs are living with aliens–us. They may love us deeply, but they still spend much of their life confused. After all, dogs are living in a world in which we yell at them…

This is the time of year that I regret not having a tail. If I had one, I could curl it around my nose as did Nellie and Polly this morning, the thermometer descending toward single digits. Better yet, I could use it to wag from the shoulders back, like Willie does when Jim comes…

Did you hear about the study that taught dogs to voluntarily participate in research using MRIs ? The work was done by Gregory Berns, a PhD and physician who studies, in his words, “the neurobiological basis for individual preferences and how neurobiology places constraints on the decisions people make.” After working exclusively with humans for…

I considered calling this blog “I smell dead people,” but decided that the phrase, if searched on google, might add some folks to the conversation we’d rather avoid. However, it is actually a perfect title to a great book, released tomorrow, titled What the Dog Knows: The Science and Wonder of Working Dogs. Written by…

If I was a dog in a noisy kennel I’d be the one flip spinning in circles, or chewing my mouth bloody on the cage door. I know that sounds a bit dramatic, but I’m afraid it is probably true. I am just one of the individuals who is especially sensitive to noise, and a…

First, watch the video of Katie’s young Leo trying to get an older Mastiff, Herk, to play. (You’ll know who is who, trust me!) Second, take a minute to wipe the tears from your eyes because you were laughing so hard. Third, think about all the ways you’ve seen dogs try to initiate play with…

Several readers have asked about the new product called “Dognition” that promises (quoting from the website), “You’ll learn your dog’s cognitive style by playing fun, science-based games — an experience that gives you the insight you need to make the most of your relationship with your best friend.” I was curious myself, given that the force…

Last week I wrote about that ever-so-controversial word, “dominance,” and how it might or might not relate to dog behavior and dog training. To refresh: In animal behavior, dominance refers only to “priority access to a limited resource,” has little to do with controlling the actions of another in any other context, is highly dependent…

How much autonomy does your dog have?  Willie’s work with sheep is  what motivates me to ask this question. As I mentioned earlier, Willie and I attended a sheepdog clinic 2 weeks ago with Patrick Shannahan, and the big take away for us was that, too often, Willie looks to me to tell him what…

Of course! It seems like a simple question, but as is often the case, our big, complicated brains allow us to add nuance to the answer. I’ve gone on record as arguing that yes indeed, mammals like dogs and horses can be happy, how could they not be? Feeling good is a way for the…

Our discussion about how people handle being frustrated by their dogs brought out so many interesting points, and it got me to thinking: First off, the more we know about dogs, the less frustrated we get. Frustration comes from an inability to affect the world around us, and once we understand who dogs are and…

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…