Decoding Your Dog: The Tail
One of the most common misconceptions about dog body language is that a dog that wags his tail is always friendly. This just isn’t true. Dogs wag their tails for a variety of different reasons and there are plenty of dogs that have bitten a…
Teaching your Dog to Love his Crate
Teaching your dog how to love his crate is one of the best things that you can do for him. Crate training makes potty training easier, keeps your dog from chewing on something that he shouldn’t be while he’s learning the house rules, and can…
Dog Training: “Leave It”
Teaching a Leave It behaviour is a great way to begin teaching your dog about self-control, especially around people, other dogs, or other items that he REALLY wants to investigate. It’s a way to teach him to ask for permission instead of just grabbing. Sometimes…
Puppy Training: The First 5 Things to Teach
There are so many things that to teach a new puppy that it can be a little overwhelming to think about it all at once. Where to even start? One thing to keep in mind is that what your dog learns first, he learns best….
5 Ways to Improve Your Dog’s Recall
Come when Called (a behaviour also known as a Recall) is one of the most important things that you can teach your dog, and it’s one of the first things you should start working on when you get a new dog. A dog who responds quickly and…
Five Common Dog Training Mistakes that People Make
Dog training is meant to be fun! It’s an activity that you and your dog can do together that will improve your dog’s behaviour, as well as improve the bond between the two of you. However, it can also be very frustrating to work with…
5 Signs our Dogs Need More Mental Stimulation
Dogs are intelligent, active creatures. Many of the breeds that are popular today were originally bred to do something – herd livestock, help us hunt game, guard their property from intruders, or exterminate vermin for example. While many of us don’t really have a need for a…
Making Your Dogs’ Behaviour Work for You
Dogs are constantly taking in new information and interpreting new experiences. They make emotional associations with each new event, and they also pay close attention to the consequences of their behaviour in each interaction. Every behaviour has a consequence. A consequence is the action or…
How Long Does it Take to Train a Dog?
The desire to see changes in your dog’s behaviour is completely understandable, especially if his behaviour is causing a problem! Most pet owners want to know how much work they are in for and when they can expect to see the finished results when they…
The History of Canine Dominance Theory
For many years, describing dogs as “alpha” and “dominant” have been a big part of dog training culture. Dogs that are difficult to handle or that don’t get along with other dogs or people are labeled with one or both of those adjectives as a…
Teaching a Reliable Drop Cue
When we ask our dog to “drop” something, we are expecting him to let go of whatever he is holding in his mouth. Sometimes we’d like our dog to let go of a toy that we are playing with to keep him from getting overly excited. Other times,…
The Trouble with the Dog Whisperer
Cesar Millan is one of the most popular and controversial characters in modern dog training. He is a great entertainer – he is charismatic, quick witted, and appears to do amazing things with the dogs that he works with. However, he is a big proponent…