My first dog training class, in 1968, involved my adolescent Saint Bernard and an ex-marine instructor who hung a Basenji off a choke chain for not sitting when told. Me and my dog walked out. Years later, in the 80's, I became interested in dog training and took a friend's dog to classes for the experience. Both classes focused on the "commands" we were to give our dogs, and how to punish them if they didn't respond correctly. No one mentioned paying attention to a dog's posture and expression as a way to be a better dog trainer. Oh, how far we've come! I remember, when I began teaching family dog training classes in the early 90's, how surprised people were when I asked them to describe a dog's response to praise and petting after coming when called. "Oh!," they'd exclaim. Read More
Who ARE you? [Or, We Rarely Get the Dog We Think We Are Getting.]
"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 who is terrified of strangers, the Boxer who loved his crate at the foster home, but bark/screamed whenever his new owners left the house. Understandably, new owners are disappointed when their new dog behaves vastly differently than described by the foster home. Fosters and shelters sometimes express frustration when told of behavior problems, and exclaim: "But he never did that here! Those new owners just don't know what they are doing!" But the fact is, Fido in Read More
Delight in the Desert
Today is all photos from our trip to Arizona. We just got back, and it was good to be in my home state for a visit. I admit to not wanting to live in the desert any more (too many thorns, too hot in summer, too little green), but there's nothing like going back to where you were raised. There's something magical about the desert, including the gorgeous sunsets and the rock formations. Here's a classic pile of boulders outside of Carefree, AZ in the evening, with a huge metal sculpture of a bird perched on top. The area north of Phoenix and Scottsdale is a riot of rock formations, including this massive one, the size of our barn, that fell from a cliff on the other side of the road. Here's a rock formation, called a Hoodoo (and who couldn't love that name?), on the Read More
Keeping Kids and Dogs Safe–From Each Other
A cosmetic surgeon once told me that he dreads Sunday night phone calls. They are, almost always, about kids who need their faces put back together after being bitten by a dog. He said it breaks his heart. It breaks my heart too, thinking of the hundreds of cases I saw where the owner said the dog "was great with the kids all weekend, I just don't know what happened on Sunday night." Of course, we most likely do know what happened--the dog finally was exhausted, lost patience, and the rest is medical history. It's easy to blame the parents, but the fact is, are we, each one of us, doing what we can to keep kids and dogs safe from each other? We have to start by acknowledging, that no matter how much we love dogs, they can be dangerous. Especially to kids whose faces are at Read More
Welcoming a New Year
I am writing this on Monday, January 2nd, the year two thousand and twenty three. An arbitrary date, of course, depending on the whims of history and culture. Yet, I love the ritual of dipping into the river of time, and the gift it gives us to reflect and look ahead. You all know, no doubt, that New Year's Resolutions are an excellent way to disappoint yourself--given how quickly they tend to fall off the table. I stopped making them years ago, (see my "Not Resolutions of 2010" for example) but still love the idea of setting intentions for the year to come. I did a lot of reading over the holidays, and was inspired by an article authored by Amanda Morris about NY's resolutions, inspired by people with disabilities. Claire Richmond, who has a rare liver condition, said she thinks Read More
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