How To Keep Your Sanity While Raising A Balanced Puppy

In a word, structure, structure, structure, structure.

Your life is going to revolve around a schedule broken into one hour and two hour segments from am to pm for proper puppy training.  If you don't have a life that lends itself to that kind of attention, then don't get a puppy.  Harsh, I know.  But real.  Sure, there's ways of jury rigging potty training and feeding so we can earn a living, that's not what I'm talking about.  Having the awareness that you need to figure out how to accomodate a puppy's needs is half the battle.  There are a million creative solutions.  But that those time based needs, need to be met, is non-negotiable.

Tags: Dog Training | Housebreaking | puppy training | Training Dogs

"Yes is the Key" 

One of the core tools used here at the ranch is the Marker System, the use of the word "yes" or "good" to mark a correct behavior, followed by a treat reward in the early stages to create incentive to learn and positive association with the word "yes".  Markers allow dogs to understand the precise behavior that we are trying to get them to capture, whether a simple sit, or a find in search and rescue.  Over and over again, dogs come into training with vast zones of confusion as to what is expected of them, and what we are really asking them to do. 

Tags: behavior modification | behavioral training | clicker training | dog behavior | dog clicker training | Dog Obedience Training

A Product of Kinaesthetics for Animals

This article is one in a series of articles designed to introduce key concepts from the world of bodywork as they are applied to the dog world.  The author and founder of the Kinaesthetics system of therapy has worked with humans and animals for over 20 years.  Her animal clients have included World Champion performance horses in a multitude of disciplines, dogs of innumerable breeds, and a variety of other animals.

Tags: Canine Kinaesthetics | Dog Training | Kinaesthetics | Training Dogs

For many years, after first spotting the picture of the monks on the cover of How to Be Your Dog’s Best Friend, I was fascinated with the whimsical notion of dogs in church, accompanied by their monastic handlers.  This, to me, had all the beloved idiosyncracy of a British murder mystery set in a quaint but eccentric small town.  My idea of wonderful.  That the monks in question seemed to know dogs, really know dogs was intriguing to me.  That they apparantly walked their walk, all day long, incorporating their dogs into all aspects of a community, in this case, a religious community, was even more intriguing.  That the dogs in question were German Shepherds was, for me, the icing on the cake.  I had always loved them even though it would not be until many years later that I would first own one.    I wonder, in retrospect, how much those subliminal impressions influenced and informed my later decisions.