Play Your Way to a Well-Trained Dog: Fetch!

If there were a People’s Choice Award for games to play with dogs, “Fetch” would win in a landslide.  Even non-dog people seem unable to resist tossing a ball when propositioned by a retrieving fiend.

The shared joy of play, along…

Service Dog Fraud - Quest for the Vest

A word about service dogs: you probably don’t have one.

Want to drive me crazy?  Just ask, “Where can I get one of those vests so I can take my dog everywhere?”  This question is almost always asked by someone without a…

Play Your Way to a Well-Trained Dog: Hide & Seek

I could live in relative bliss with a dog that knew nothing but how to come when called. I mean the screech-to-a-halt, turn-on-a-dime, zoom-back-to-me-enthusiastically -no-matter-what’s-going-on kind of recall.  A reliable recall is the Holy Grail of dog ownership.

OSHA Approved

The most…

Torpedoes of Death Masquerade as Innocent Grass to Torture Dogs

I see foxtails. Everywhere.

Hordeum murinum or “Hare Barley,” a non-native invader from Spain, grows in healthy, thick patches along the trails and in open spaces where people walk their dogs. What appears to be innocent, lush grass in early spring…

The Games People Play … With Dogs

By Carla Jackson

Any relationship would be taxed if one of the parties involved insisted on winning all the time. Golf, tennis, racquetball – what if your friend just HAD to win every game, refused to relinquish the ball and ran…

Speaking of Dogs: Resting Areas

Leadership, Part 2

Location, location, location – you may not realize it, but dogs place as much importance on prime real estate as humans. Areas like beds, couches and even doorways are potential hot spots for conflict.

In a previous article, we…

Speaking of Dogs: The lowdown on jumping up

Question: “Our 5-month-old German shepherd jumps up on people. He already weighs 60 pounds and we’re afraid he will hurt my mother-in-law. Will he eventually outgrow this?”

Answer: You could wait the 10 or 12 years it will take for him to become too arthritic to jump up, or you can train him now to do something more socially acceptable. As we’ve talked about before, greeting disorders are best handled sooner than later.

Speaking of Dogs: Make food work for you

Developing the Skills of a Benevolent Leader – Part 1: FOOD

Last month we featured a dog that was adored and spoiled by his owner, yet died in an animal shelter.
This month we’ll begin to explore how the sad scenario might have been prevented through simple leadership and training.
In our story, the owner of the dog wanted so desperately to make him happy that she treated him like an exalted guest in her home.

Speaking of Dogs: Love is not enough

Dog trainers talk about the importance of providing good leadership and structure for pet dogs.  Unfortunately, the public is most familiar with terms such as “alpha” and “show him who is boss.”

But we love dogs; we love their goofy personalities,…

Speaking of Dogs: Aggressive behavior

Q. My 3 year old fox terrier (whom we have had since a puppy) bit my 9 year old daughter. My daughter simply walked near our dog as she was by the garbage. Normally you can approach or even take…