Emergency recall is very easy to teach, provided you start slow and pay big!
Important points to remember:
1. Ensure that your emergency recall cue is the first and main predictor of the treat party. Always say your cue when your dog is NOT...
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I grew up with cats. It wasn’t until I was 27 years old that I would adopt my first dog, Shadow the husky mix and my...
Read moreFleece tug toys are easy to make and do not fray when chewed, however always supervise to ensure your dog does not swallow pieces they may chew off.
Tug games are a great way to have fun with your dog, drain their energy, reward them in training...
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It can be helpful to understand and appreciate the inherently frustrating situation we put our dogs in a lot of time. Dogs are highly social animals and when we put them on a leash they are set up for frustration by the sight of people and dogs they...
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Isn’t it ironic that the majority of my job as a dog trainer is spent training humans? We all know that in an ideal world a dog owner learns how to train their dog themselves. However we don’t live in an ideal world. People with high pressure careers...
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Yes you can. I believe it is actually the only safe way to control and modify aggression in dogs. In fact if you use aversive methods with an aggressive dog you could be, as Dr. Ian Dunbar calls it “removing the ticker from the time bomb."
About once or twice a month I set myself up at the kitchen table to stuff and freeze puzzle toys for my dogs. The 15 minutes it takes me to fill about 10 toys turns into hours of my dog’s time spent hard at work trying un-stuff them.
I do this because...
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When you ask your dog to sit, do they do it immediately or do you have to repeat yourself a few times? Can you hear yourself saying “Sit, sit, sit, sit, sit…” or giving a hand signal over and over? If so I want to urge you to break the habit immediately...
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Have you ever wondered why professional trainers are so good at getting reliable behaviour in animals? Have you ever noticed your dog will do anything for your trainer in class but when you get home they suddenly seem to have suffered hearing loss...
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Training a dog to walk on a loose leash is one of the biggest challenges most dog owners face. The need for consistency is paramount, however when you are trying to be consistent with an activity that your dog needs at least 3 times a day to do their...
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The leading hypothesis for the adaptive function of play in animals is the rehearsal of important life skills like getting enough to eat, avoiding being eaten, avoiding injury/disease and reproducing. This is exactly what we observe in dog-dog play...
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Muzzle training is a fun and rewarding activity to work on with your dog whether they have a history of aggressive behaviour or not. Some dogs are prone to ingesting non food items such as sticks or rocks which can lead to serious injuries. A muzzle...
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Some of my favourite moments with my dog, Shadow, have been the opportunities to un-clip his leash and watch him run free without restraint. Alternatively, some of my most stressful moments with Shadow have been after he spots a critter and takes...
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