As a positive trainer, and more specifically a clicker trainer, clients and students will say to me that they don’t want to train their dogs with treats. After some discussion including the benefits of training their dog with treats, it’s also revealed many times that they don’t want their dog to become fat. I can’t admit enough how valid of a concern this is when training your dog with treats. Any dog trainer that would contradict the concern is perhaps misinformed, or holds the secret to effortless weight loss. In that case, I’d love to talk to them! Overall though, I don’t believe there is a trainer out there who would dispute the fact that 1) more food equals more calories and 2) additional calories, without additional exercise, equals more weight. There you have it… The student is right. Guess they’d better not train their dog then. (Can you … Read More
Giving and Getting Plenty of R&R
No doubt you’ve heard of the term “R&R,” as in “I just need some rest and relaxation.” And who doesn’t need a little R&R these days? We work too hard, sometimes we play too hard, and often in the end it’s debatable whether we’re any better for it. Well, your dog needs a little R&R in his or her life, too. I don’t mean rest and relaxation here, although it certainly is true that dogs do need those things to function properly, as well. What I’m really referring to is “Recognition and Reward.” More specifically, your dog or dogs need to be recognized for good behavior and rewarded for it, too. You may have heard this concept referred to as mark and feed, or click and treat, or maybe under some other term, too. Essentially, it means to identify the moment your dog is doing something correctly and then offer … Read More
Hot Weather Driving Your Dog Crazy?
When you wake up at 6 a.m. and the temperature is already 85 degrees, you can be sure that it’s bound to be a rough day ahead. What’s worse is that this record-breaking heat has wreaked havoc on the behavior of otherwise good dogs across the metropolitan area. Lots of dogs just simply aren’t getting the exercise that they might normally get, due to the unusually extreme weather. So what can you do when the weather is too hot (or too cold) to get out and exercise your dog? There are plenty of things that you can do to help him or her expend a bit of extra energy. Tempers usually rise when the thermometer readings are off the charts, so a little proactivity can go a long way in ensuring you are prepared and can remain level-headed when your dog gets a little stir crazy inside the house. Make … Read More
Get That Dog a Job
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard in class and in private client lessons, “We had a dog previously and he was perfect, but this dog/puppy we have now is different!” Really? Is the new dog that different, or are they maybe just forgetting what life was like with an adolescent dog in the house because it was so long ago? Are they just reminiscing about the late years of their dog’s life where their dog laid around quietly and calmly most of the day and, finally after several months or years of chaos, there was peace and joy in the home? Truly, there may be lots of differences in dogs depending on breed characteristics, exercise requirements, differences in personality and energy levels. However, there is always the underlying biological fact that a dog is, indeed, still a dog. A little bit about dogs… Dogs are self-fulfilling. Dogs … Read More
Combatting the Counter Surfer
Are you tired of making dinner for yourself, only to discover that your dog helped himself to it first? Are you sick of jumping up and down from a relaxing evening on the couch to see what the dog has gotten into now? And are you completely done with having to clean the counters constantly due to evidence of dirty dog paws? If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, it sounds like you have a counter surfer, or a dog that just cannot help himself from stealing, chewing or licking anything that you could possibly have out on the counters (kitchen, bathroom or otherwise). Why does a dog counter surf? There could be a couple reasons that your dog could be counter surfing. The most obvious reason is that there is something desirable, like food, out on the counters. If your dog is tall enough and they haven’t … Read More