Dogs And Photoperiodism

Do dogs have significant seasonal changes in behavior, especially in mood state, like people? I was asked this question recently, so I figured it was a good topic for a blog post.  Photoperiodism is an animal’s response to changes in the length of day and night. For example, there are known 24-hour hormonal cycles. The […]

Why Is Dog Behavior So Hard To Understand?

I was speaking with a new student yesterday who was trying to understand why so many trainers use different approaches. In her case, she has an under-socialized young adult dog that is fearful of new people and new situations. One trainer she spoke with said that they were going to start the dog on an […]

Your Dog And Setting Boundaries With People

It is important to define and choose the appropriate physical and emotional boundaries you will enforce when people interact with your dog. Some things are going to be OK, some things are not going to be OK. A couple of examples… It is not OK for someone to hurt your dog: a physical boundary. It […]

The “Science” Of Dog Training

I’m currently reading an article from the Journal Of Experimental Analysis Of Behavior regarding stimulus control experiments, especially those of Guttman and Kalish (1956). This study was about the visual discrimination training of pigeons to better understand the concept of stimulus generalization. The authors of the article cite the definition of stimulus control as described […]

Black Friday Puppies And Dogs

Every year, after Thanksgiving, we have the Black Friday sales. Consumers have wads of cash, and they are ready to spend. A lot of these purchases are in anticipation of Christmas. There will be a LOT of great pets to choose from. However, many municipal animal shelters are CLOSED that day and through that weekend. […]

A Dog Training Mess

Occasionally, a carefully planned dog training lesson… will turn out to be a mess. That is because every dog has a vote in terms of how things are going to go. Thus, in the middle portion of one of my lessons this morning, what I was trying to do went sideways. Now, I’m not saying […]

Test

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Cage Free Dog Boarding And Rescue Facilities

I believe larger shelters and professional boarding kennels can accommodate cage free areas for pets. The keys to success are a.) proper and continuous supervision by the staff; b.) safety designed furniture and floorplans to prevent injuries or fights; c.) only allowing visitors who have been screened appropriately, educated on how to behave around these […]

Dog Training Terminology

I had a lesson today with a new student. The appointment was to deal with his dog’s separation anxiety. However, it wasn’t that. This situation was a good example of why it is important to know proper terminology and definitions.  It is easy for uneducated dog trainers to toss around various terms to describe what […]

Do You Need A Watchdog?

“Some people prey upon other people. Whether we like it or not, this is one of the facts of life. It has always been so, and it is not going to change. The number of sociopaths in a stipulated population varies widely, but we can take a figure of one in one hundred, for simplicity’s […]