When I adopted my dog Merlin, I made a couple of rookie mistakes. One: he was kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision; my life and home were not prepared to handle a six month old border collie. And two: I let him have free roam of the house and yard way before he was ready- before [...]
Jumping up and mouthing too hard: two of the most common behavior problems in dogs, especially young dogs. Fortunately the solutions are fairly simple – they just require some patience and consistency on your end. Each of these solutions are based on the following basic process. Most behavior problems can be solved by following these [...]
As far as basic obedience goes, “come” is a pretty easy command to teach. You excitedly call your dog toward you, maybe tugging the leash or offering a treat. When he comes, you praise him. Eventually you attach the word “come” to it, and there ya go, you have taught the recall command. But that’s [...]
Adolescent shelter dogs have it rough. Since most shelter adopters fall into one of two categories, those wanting a sweet little puppy and those looking for a mellow adult dog, the teens are often overlooked. Most of them are there because they are teenagers. Their previous owners bought them as puppies but were not prepared [...]
I’m willing to bet that at some point in time, the words “I just don’t have time to really train my dog” have come out of your mouth. I’m also willing to bet that time is not REALLY the reason that you can’t seem to get much training done. Because whether you’re training Sparky to [...]
This is the second post of a two part series. Here’s part one Picture this: You’re hanging out on the couch, watching TV or reading a book. Fluffy is lying quietly at your feet, chewing on a dog toy and just generally being a perfect little angel. Then, the doorbell rings. Your perfect angel is [...]
This is the first post of a series; this week’s post will show you how to teach Fluffy to bark constantly while she’s outside by herself, and next week’s post will discuss how to get her to bark ferociously at your visitors or the FedEx guy. Today’s how-to is all about how you can get [...]
My border collie-ish dog Merlin and I were at a morning practice session at my agility club. We’d been working for a long time, and Merlin, getting bored, decided that he’d rather go hang out with the other dogs. He took off after the nearest dog and got in her way. “Come play with me!” [...]
These are a couple of myths about shelter/rescue dogs I hear all the time, and am pretty tired of hearing. Why are these two so prevalent? Maybe it’s because rescuing a dog from a shelter is a cool thing to do right now, and these myths help make it seem even more like an even [...]
Does your dog struggle when you put the leash on? Does he become afraid or “shut down?” Walking on leash is not a natural behavior; it has to be taught. Most dogs will adjust to leashes with ease, but some do have a hard time with it. In order to help your dog,you first have [...]
