Handsome Bandit is a 2 year old black lab who is extremely eager to learn new things. At the same time as he is learning how to walk on a leash without pulling I am starting to teach him some fun skills as well as really solid basic obedience. So Bandit is learning to touch things with his nose on cue and eventually pull things on cue as well. The family would like him to rind a bell when he wants’needs to go out and thought it would be fun to teach him to pull the blankets off of the kids’ beds in the morning, that would be a fun way to wake the kids up in time to go to school in the morning.
So I started by having him touch a target at the end of a stick. He enjoyed the game so much that he did not want to stop. After the lesson, as I was packing up my things he walked up to the target stick that was not in my bag yet and he carefully touched the target and then looked up at me questioningly!
It is that kind of interaction that I love to see develop while educating a dog. Bandit had been depressed when I started working with him and now he is coming out of his shell in a sweet, gentle and funny way.
Do you remember the story of June, the rescue mini dachshund with the megaesophagus? Yesterday I got a text that June was able to stay alone without any signs of anxiety or barking for a whole hour! It is an excellent example demonstrating that separation anxiety is largely a function…
I can’t touch her ears! She hates the brush! He shakes on the way to the groomer. Isn’t it an oxymoron that on one hand we “spoil” our beloved dogs with the fanciest beds and coats, find the greatest joy in giving them a toy they love to play with…
We now have a studio! The home-like atmosphere of the studio allows us to teach dogs and puppies manners that will transfer easily when they are back home. Sessions at the studio can be tailored to your needs. New services by Dog Relations NYC: Park and Train & SpaDoggy Would…
My dog is stubborn! He doesn’t listen! Wait….really? Maybe the “stubborn” behavior is the result of your own behavior. Maybe you have inadvertently sent out messages that reinforce the dog to be “deaf”. Don’t underestimate the power of intermittent reinforcement! If you reinforce a dog’s behavior in some way, he…
I frankly was not aware of Ian Dunbar’s theory that the playtime before puppy class where the pups are allowed to run free was to teach them bite inhibition. I always knew that bite inhibition was taught much earlier, when the pup was still with his mom and litter mates.…
Just because you say it, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen I think one of the biggest misconceptions people have about a dog’s learning process is that they think the dog can conceptualize new verbal input. Let’s take the famous “sit” example. What actually makes the dog understand “sit” and…
When I am out walking my dogs I try very hard to act like a “normal” dog owner and not a trainer. But tonight I experienced something that was deeply disturbing to me. I was walking Zeldi and we ran into a sweet young Labradoodle. They clearly were interested in one…
Let’s be practical here. As much as you would like to shape behaviors but not force the dog by molding or yanking (an example for molding would be: putting the dog into a sit position by pressing on his butt until the butt hits the floor) or teaching a sit stay…
Most of us have heard of the behavior exercise : Leave it! When the skill is learned the dog will turn away from an object he desires voluntarily because this action has been highly rewarded in training set ups. Here is a version of this game I thought would be…