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…

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…

Barking is a normal part of dog behaviour and one of many forms of vocal communication. Sometimes barking works in our favour; many dog owners are happy when their dogs bark at strangers that approach their home or to let them know that they need…

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,…

There are some dogs that are naturals around the water; they require no training and sometimes seem more comfortable with swimming than with walking on dry land. Other dogs, however, don’t have that natural instinct or desire to swim for hours, but that doesn’t mean…

When it comes to training our dogs, one of the most common concerns we have is not being able to make time to train them. While it would be great if everyone was able to spend hours a day working with their dogs, for most people,…

The first twelve to eighteen months of a puppy’s life are incredibly important. He is a little sponge that is constantly absorbing new information about the people, places, animals, and things around him. Most of us know that we need to socialise our puppies if…

Teaching your dog how to stay in one spot is a great way to work on building his self-control, and it can prove to be a very useful skill in a variety of situations. For example, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to ask…

“My dog can’t be trained. I’ve tried everything and nothing works with him. He’s just a stubborn dog.” Most dog trainers hear some version of that story pretty frequently. While it’s completely understandable for dog owners to be frustrated, especially when they are trying to…

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…

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…

There is an old saying that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” If you have an older dog, you will be relieved to know that this just isn’t true. Older dogs are more than capable of learning new behaviours, and it’s never too…