Jumping Up

Teaching your dog not to jump is going to be a perfect behavior to brush up on before you start having family in town for the holidays. This is also an important skill to brush up on before welcoming a new baby home as jumping can be dangerous around small children or elderly. Hope you enjoy ‘Jumping’ into training with me!

Seniors and Puppies

Today, I received a call from a person who said he was calling because he was looking to help his client find a dog.
The caller described his client as a “geriatric shut in”, who just put down his elderly dog.
He was interested in a specific shelter dog for his client. The dog his client was interested in adopting was a 3-year-old dog aggressive, high drive Pit Bull Terrier. This is a dog that we are hoping to place as a narcotics detection dog program. This dog would thrive with a job. I explained about the behaviors we have seen from the dog and the fact that some of our young male volunteers struggle to handle her. The caller insisted that he needed this dog for his client stating “My client has a fenced in yard and has big dogs all of his life. She’ll will be perfect for my client.” He exclaimed.
He hadn’t asked the family if they would want to take the dog if something happened to his medically fragile client. I got off the phone thinking “Okay, so maybe she’s perfect for the person, but what about the dog’s quality of life? It certainly wouldn’t be a perfect fit for her”
Not a single question was asked about what the dog’s needs would be, or about the dog’s personality.
This pushed me to post this blog that I had been struggling with.

Complete Guide to Puppy Biting

Bringing a new puppy home is a wonderful time! It’s full of soft puppy breath, snuggles, wagging tails, and watching your puppy learning to be an adult dog. It’s almost perfect, but then the puppy biting starts. Puppy biting is one of my most commonly received questions from new puppy clients, so I thought I would take a minute to write up a survival guide for this completely normal phase of puppy development.

When Can I Stop Using Treats?

Like it or not when it comes to obedience we have a working relationship with our dogs.

If we work at it we can create something that more like a partnership where we are working towards the same goals and both of us are equally motivated.

DON’T BE THE BROKEN POP MECHINE.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Kennel Training

Kennel training is something I recommend to all my clients with young puppies and most newly adopted dogs. Kennel training fast tracks the house training process and provides your puppy a safe retreat.
How to pick a kennel, teach your puppy to go in on cue, teach your puppy to stay in his kennel and how to relax in his kennel.

Early Puppy Development

A puppy’s first 16 weeks can influence its behavior more than most people realize. Puppy brains are very special. The results of many behavior studies and EEG measurements demonstrate that a puppy’s brain is better equipped to learn about new experiences with less repetition and to retain those memories and early learning experiences longer. The ease with which they learn begins to decline noticeably around 14-16 weeks. This is when the “critical period of socialization” window closes.