Canines With Class

03/29/2021

https://suzanneclothier.com/article/problem-head-halters/?fbclid=IwAR1ZEGhjGw_VT93PtwA_rvpVuzMtDeNSnFM3xAgB89o6P3HO82r0dFBDmz0

Before reading this article, please understand the basic concept presented: Head halters, like ALL training equipment, need to be used carefully. Why readers are sometimes violently angry with me over this concept is beyond me - all I'm pointing to are potential problems that need to be taken into c...

01/29/2021

01/16/2021

Paul Owens was the Original Dog Whisperer before another "dog trainer" stole the title. He is a dear friend of mine and for those who are adopting or have adopted recently, this is an excellent article.

01/14/2021

THIS IS A PSA

Puppies bite. They bite a lot. They bite hard. Their teeth are sharp. You might bleed. It might seem relentless.

Scaring the pants off them by yelling, pinning, shoving or shouting will not only do precisely zero, it will potentially create a fearful adult dog.

Puppies bite more when;
They are tired
They are hungry
They are bored
They are overstimulated
They are teething

Read that again. They bite MORE when they are the above. They will also bite when they are absolutely fine. They are dogs not dolls.

Be compassionate not scary. They will grow out of it but only if you teach them a good alternative. Trade for toys. Use a pen or a crate. Teach calmness. Reward gentle interactions. Grit your own teeth and ride it out while reinforcing good stuff and proactively managing bad stuff.

Be proactive when you know biting happens like after some play, when excitement goes up, when they are overtired (7-9pm witching hour anyone?) and give them a good chew or help them settle, or channel that energy into some training.

It does get better basically. Don’t panic. Most puppy biting isn’t aggression. Be CONSISTENT and PROACTIVE and expect more than a few bites along the way.

Signed,
Aalto the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever (aka the ginger shark)

11/16/2020

Trick training is a lot of fun and is a great way to enhance communication between you and your dog. From teaching your dog to 'wave' at you or give you a 'high five' to having the dog roll over on cue, the possibilities for dog tricks are almost endless. As with all training, though, Read More

10/25/2020

The problem a lot of people have with ‘Stay’ as a cue, is they often use it to practise recall as well, so they get the dog to 'stay', and then call their dog to them. However, dogs tend to learn to a series of cues, and in order to efficiently earn their reward, they often predict what the next one will be. This is why lots of dogs seem to forget 'sit' and start going straight to the 'down' position, as 'sit' has been used as a stepping-stone to teach 'down', and they have only been rewarded on the 'down' for many repetitions. So similarly, if a dog is called after a 'stay' and are rewarded when they successfully get back to their owner, they will see that as the 'end-goal' of the cue; as such they will be more likely to break the 'stay' to get to their final-goal and earn their reward.

In our classes we teach 'Stay' and 'Wait' as two separate cues; this is because we want one cue - ‘Stay’ - to be sacred. So with ‘Stay’, you ALWAYS go back to the dog to reward them, whereas with ‘Wait’ you can call the dog to you. This creates two versions of the cue: where ‘Stay’ always means ‘Stay’, until you go back to them, and 'Wait' means 'Wait' until my next instruction! 👍

10/17/2020

This is a lady who I admire greatly and follow her.

Sit is usually the first people teach their puppies, without thinking about the consequences or why they do it. We wanted to know more about the sit, so many years ago we started the sit study...

10/09/2020

...Without Ever Yelling At Or Hurting Your Dog (Click here)

09/25/2020

09/15/2020

Why I would never use a retractable leash In the past, I wrote blogs about why you shouldn't tie a dog to a...