Interviewing Prospective Dog Owners
If you are fostering a dog, it is important to screen out owners who will not provide a quality life. We can foresee how a dog’s life will be by asking, listening to, and personally observing the prospective owners concerning the way they view physical contact with the dog and the frequency they expect to […]
Should You Push Your Dog Away?
Most of the time you want your dog to gravitate towards you. But there are some times when you should ignore or push your dog away, and sometimes you must not. What do I mean by that and what is the right answer? Sometimes you will encounter a behavior that won’t terminate. For example, I […]
Are You Being Kind To Your Dog?
Every dog training era has ended up this way: dog training is abnormally mechanical and formulaic as a result of new fads that are now considered “the way”. It’s kind of like how a family makes the same recipes their parents and grandparents made, and even when some aspect of the recipe is found to […]
Dog Training Method Cookbooks
We are a long way from completely understanding how the brain works and how to fully explain, interpret and modify behavior. Yet, we have developed some good tools and insights, and it is worthwhile to invest time into the study of the latest avenues of scientific inquiry and how we got here. In the meantime, […]
Dog Training Relationship Synchronicity
When evaluating dog behavior problems, I often notice problems in the relationship between the owner and the dog. I evaluate their mutual stress levels, emotional states, communication, tendency to work together, and emotional health. In other words, are they in tune with one another. Are they mutually entwined in a healthy relationship? I got to […]
Confinement And Restraint Of Dogs
Animals of all species are spontaneously active because of intrinsic brain operating systems which generate adaptive innate and learned behaviors. When human brain systems are not operating properly, we call them psychiatric disorders, and in animals we call them behavioral disturbances. Fortunately, these operating systems are equipped with varying degrees of plasticity. Some behavioral outcomes […]
Does Your Dog Play?
Play is governed by an essential emotional circuit in the mammalian brain. Play circuits may also exist in other animal classes, such as birds and reptiles, but that is still yet to be proven. The impulse to play is inborn and has many theoretical purposes for survival. What does that have to do with your […]
The Big Two Influences To Resolve Behavior Problems In Dogs
What are the two biggest factors I use to effect beneficial changes in dogs with behavioral problems? Typical dog training has become too mechanical over the past 25 years. Training has become Input => Output, and we are back to the old views of Descartes that animals are just complex machines. That viewpoint prevailed for […]
Should You Spay Or Neuter Your Dog?
The effects of spaying and neutering dogs are variable. But are the outcomes acceptable from a health, behavior and welfare standpoint? What does the current research say? Earlier studies were used to justify surgical interventions, but those studies had methodological shortcomings and inadequate sample sizes. Politics have also confounded the public’s understanding since there has […]
You’re Turning Your Dog Into A Robot
Years ago, I was working with a new student. A few days prior, we had completed a first lesson with her puppy. We were using treats and using luring to establish beginning word associations for Sit, Down, Come and Heel. Pretty standard stuff. She was at a quiet park, as I recommended, doing her homework. […]