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Puppies — and many adult dogs — test your patience. Chewed furniture, barking at noises outside, puddles of pee, and don’t even get me started on the play biting! Besides buying wine in bulk, how can you cope? A lot of it has to do with the way you view yourself, and your role, in your dog’s life. You may remember that one special instructor or coach from your past who motivated you to study harder or to aim higher; conversely, you may recall the teacher who simply seemed “out to get you,” waiting for you to make a mistake in order to punish you. Now it’s your turn to be a teacher to your dog, so which kind do you want to be? Here are some things to keep in mind, especially in those moments when you feel frustrated by your dog’s behavior. Click "Read More" below if you don't see the text below. 
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Does the doorbell send your dog into a frenzy? A simple management solution will keep your dog from going bonkers when he hears that irresistible “ding-dong!” I describe the steps below in AKC TV's Ask the Expert.
When teaching your dog polite behaviors, you have a choice: training or management. Training doorbell etiquette involves teaching your dog to do a polite behavior like a sit-stay instead of running and barking at the door. It’s a great skill but requires methodical implementation on the owner’s part, plus high impulse control on the dog’s part. Click "Read More" below if you don't see the text below. Dinnertime is when you’re supposed to unplug, unwind, and just savor the moment. But if your dog is crying for a bit of your food, jumping up on the table, or pawing at you during your dinner, it’s hard to relax. Want to fix this problem for good? Here’s how. Management is Key Why do most dogs beg? Because it works! If anyone in your family gives Fido a piece of pasta or a sliver of steak from the table, it has taught him that begging works. Dogs are always learning, not just during training sessions. This means that every time you slip Fido a chunk of chicken from your fork, you are literally teaching him to beg more. What if you have small children who drop food at the table? Though it’s unintentional, Fido will make the same association and will continue to beg. So if you want your dog to keep away from the table, he must never, ever be given food there. It’s your job to teach your pup that begging doesn’t work, no matter how much he persists. Click "Read More" if you don't see the text below.   Grabbing your puppy's chew may teach him to resource guard.
Does your dog snarl when you try to take a toy from him? Growl when another dog approaches his food bowl? Or perhaps "protect" you from passing people or dogs on the sidewalk? If so, you may have a resource guarder.
Resource guarding is a normal phenomenon in the animal world. A feral dog that doesn't guard his food is likely to starve. Even people guard what they find valuable. We set up security cameras around our properties, lock our valuables in safe places, and may refuse to share our hard-earned money with others. While our dogs don't have expensive jewelry or savings accounts, they do have items that are valuable to them: food, toys, chewies, sleeping spots, and beloved family members. And they don't want to lose their treasured belongings any more than you do. Click Read More if you don't see the text below, and check out my interview with AKC TV for resource guarding tips. Pssst... my Intro to Dog Parkour: For Titles or Just for Fun course on Udemy is just $9.99 until August 11! Use this link to get the discounted price. What is dog parkour, you ask? This Level 1 submission with Margaret demonstrates a lot of the basic parkour exercises. Think she's having fun?!  Mini-adventures will help you and your dog destress. Pandemic... unemployment... social unrest... fireworks every night. So, how are you holding up? It's OK to say, "I'm really struggling right now." And it's OK for your dog to be out-of-sorts, too.
Our dogs look to us for structure and support, and these days, you might be forced into a situation that lacks both of those things. Perhaps you've left your urban apartment to stay with family in the countryside, or you haven't cracked open your front door since March. Your lifestyle changes can affect your dog's wellbeing, and you may have noticed more barking, constant clinginess, or other behavioral issues. Click Read More if you don't see the text below.
The most common question I now get sounds something like this: "I've been working from home and my dog is in heaven. Should I be worried about him having separation anxiety when I go back to the office?"
While every dog is different, there is certainly a chance your dog will be stressed out if you go back to long absences cold-turkey. And if your dog already has the tendency to cry when you leave, shadow you around the house, or be sensitive to changes in routine, the likelihood is even higher. Now is the time to prepare your dog for the inevitable shift in schedule, even if your only absences include getting the mail or taking out the garbage. Watch my recent appearance on AKC TV's Ask the Expert, full of tips for how to ease your dog back into a solitary lifestyle. If your dog struggles to be alone, my new Separation Issues 101 online course lays out a clear plan to ease his stress.  Wave is a practical trick that helps your dog break the ice with strangers, even from a distance.
Part of the reason you got a dog is so he can interact with your family and friends, right? Yet, in reality, some dogs aren’t comfortable around unfamiliar people. Perhaps your dog is genetically predisposed to being wary of strangers on the street and guests in your home. Maybe he had negative experiences with humans before you adopted him. Or maybe he wasn’t given adequate socialization as a puppy. Click Read More if you don't see the text below. Earlier this week, I was the guest on Ask the Expert, a live program on AKC TV where people submit questions in real time for me to answer. Our topic was "why does my dog do that?" The questions ranged from serious ("Why is my dog growling at me?") to silly ("Why does my dog roll in goose poop?"). Check out the full episode below!   Some dogs won’t take “no” for an answer. When you stop playing fetch, Fido responds with jumps and barks. When you try to stop petting Pattie, she crawls into your lap and demands more, more, more. Or when a training session has come to an end, Rover silently protests by staring at you for five minutes. If any of these sound familiar, it’s time to teach your pup to have an “off” switch.
Can You Blame Them? We can’t fault our dogs for demanding things. After all, when they beg for food, attention, or play, it tends to work! When your pup nudges your hand for one more scratch, there is a pretty good chance that you’ll give in and start petting her again. And thus a habit of demanding behavior is born. Even if you only give in some of the time, it can teach your dog to be bossy. In fact, if you tell your dog “no” for her first few demands but then give in eventually, you are actually teaching her to be more persistent than if you give in every time. Dogs who are intermittently rewarded for demanding behavior are the ones who develop the most stamina, and they’re often the ones whose habits are hardest to break. Click Read More if you don't see the text below.  Parkour is about fun and engagement, not death-defying stunts. With so many dog sports out there, it can be hard to decide which one to pursue. You may have seen videos online (see links below), know someone who competes, or even taken a class yourself. Practicing a canine sport gives you and your dog a chance to spend quality time together while building skills that can help your pup develop better manners in real life. Even if your dog isn’t natural athlete, there may be a sport to suit him. See which of the sports below is right for your Rover.
Agility Agility involves the dog running a course of obstacles, including jumps, tunnels, weave poles, a teeter-totter and more. It is an ideal outlet for many active dogs, as it burns both mental and physical energy. Nervous dogs can build confidence by first practicing the foundation activities and slowly building upon them, and the teamwork necessary for Agility lets a skittish dog learn to trust his handler. As each obstacle requires the dog to pay attention both to you and to his surroundings, dogs who lack focus or are excitable can learn to channel their energy on a fun task. Click Read More if you don't see the text below. For many dogs, a routine walk just doesn’t cut it; they pull and lunge at everything that interests them on the sidewalk, and even after the walk, they seem to have plenty of energy to burn. Can you blame them? How boring it must for a dog to go around the same block, day after day, peeing on the same unfortunate shrub and getting stink-eye from the same belligerent squirrel. Rather than walk longer, it’s time to walk smarter by incorporating dog parkour into your excursions outdoors. Click Read More if you don't see the text and second video below.  Before we both turned grey. (2007) I adopted Batman only a month after I “adopted” my now-husband Jun. When Jun and I went to meet Bat (then Lucky) at his foster home, he seemed entirely uninterested in me but curled up in Jun's lap. I wasn’t sold until the foster said, “Look, the sooner someone takes this one, the sooner I can pull another one from the euth list.” And with that, I stuffed this furry little stranger into my Sherpa bag with the tag still on it, and we took a quiet, mildly awkward trip home on Metro North, as if on a business trip with a colleague I barely knew.
That night I tucked him into a doggie bed on the floor next to my bed, and when I woke up the next morning, I found Batman pressed next to me, nestled under the covers. So began thirteen years of living with a dog who knew exactly what he wanted and didn't hesitate to get it. Click Read More if you don't see the text below.  Big news! My second book, a collaboration with top trainer and agility competitor Sarah Westcott, is now available! It's a complete (and really fun) manners program built exclusively from sports, games, and tricks. Get it on Amazon here or at any number of other booksellers.
Play Your Way to Good Manners shows you how to approach your dog's manners training as a collection of cool tricks, exciting sports moves, and interactive games, changing your dog's attitude from "I have to do it" to "I want to do it." Sarah and I have drawn from techniques used in canine sports, games, and trick training, and applied them to a positive-reinforcement manners training program that you and your dog can easily follow. Inside Play Your Way to Good Manners you’ll learn strategies to teach your dog:
 Practice Stay outside, too! The doorbell rings. Lola starts frantically barking, jumping, and clawing to get the door open. You howl, “Lola, sit... stay. Stay! STAY!!” to no avail. Sound familiar?
If so, it’s time to give your dog’s Stay a makeover. Many dogs learn to stay when it’s convenient for them. This may include waiting politely while you prepare her food or standing still for brushing. But when your dog is faced with an intense distraction, such as a ringing doorbell or food that’s fallen from the table, Stay becomes much harder for her to maintain. Nailing these more challenging Stays starts with teaching relatively easy ones and gradually working your way up to high level distractions. We’re going to follow the popular method of teaching Stay using the Three D’s: Duration, Distance, and Distraction. This method isolates one variable (or “D”) at a time, so your dog won’t get overwhelmed or stressed. Click Read More if you don't see the text below.  Dogs need to de-stress, too! When my private training clients are faced with their dog’s behavior issue, I generally recommend we do “doggie therapy.” But when does a dog need “therapy,” as opposed to regular manners training? Do versus Feel Typical dog training is intended to teach your dog good manners: staying on his dog bed while you eat dinner, walking on a loose leash, or sitting while you open the door for him. This kind of obedience training prepares dogs to be polite members of your household and community by teaching them what behavior is acceptable and what is not. For instance, a well-trained dog is able to sit calmly when being pet by a stranger, rather than jump up on him. In essence, training teaches your dog to do something, whether it’s a sit-stay or recall. Then there is behavior modification, which is the technical term for doggie therapy. (I use the latter term with clients to lighten the mood and help them relate to the behavior modification protocol.) The purpose here is to encourage your dog to feel something rather than do something. But what does that mean, exactly? Click Read More if you don't see the text below.  It's important to be well-mannered AND well-dressed. One of the misconceptions about positive training is that you become a treat dispenser for your dog, constantly giving out food rewards for the rest of his life. While there are some situations that may require long-term treat rewards, there are also many others that rely on other kinds of reinforcement for good behavior.
Life Rewards The main principle of positive training is that polite behavior such as sitting is rewarded, making it a win-win for both dog and owner. Failure to do the polite behavior generally results in the owner withholding a reward. Therefore, only polite pups get what they want. But who says the reward has to be a treat? Enter life rewards, calorie-free reinforcement that gives your dog access to everything he wants... as long as he sits first. Click "Read More" if you don't see the text below. Puppies are cute for a reason. Those fluffy little jowls are hiding a set of razor-sharp, flesh-searing teeth, and between those floppy ears is a brain that is hard-wired to chew on everything in sight. Teething puppies simply cannot help themselves. Most puppies have an insatiable urge to chew whatever they can get their paws on, and when they play, they have little regard for your delicate human skin. Children under ten or so, as well as people with long hair or flowing clothes, are the most vulnerable to these petite predators, but really, no one is safe from puppy teeth. It takes months for a dog’s adult teeth to come in, so it’s important to have a plan to combat biting and chewing as soon as your puppy comes home. Here are ways to ensure your puppy will learn to be polite with his teeth. Click "Read More" if you don't see the text below.  Such purity, such innocence, such... insanely sharp teeth.  Does your dog sniff his food and then walk away? Take a treat, only to spit it out? It might be time to give your dog a new feeding routine, so he will live to eat, not just eat to live. Why Isn’t he Eating? There could be a number of reasons why your pup is turning his nose up at his meals. Before assuming that he’s stubborn, consider medical causes and discuss his lack of appetite with your vet. It would be cruel to start making lifestyle changes if your dog’s problem is in fact medical. Occasionally a dog doesn’t like his food anymore, possibly due to a change in the formula or simply boredom with the same old flavor every day. I’ve embraced feeding a rotational diet, as many nutrition experts now recommend varying dog’s diets among several high-quality brands and proteins. This is because every brand and food type (dry, wet, and so on) inevitably has a different nutritional makeup. One food, even if considered “complete and balanced,” may not meet all your dog’s nutritional needs and could put your pooch at a disadvantage over the years. Could you imagine eating the same meal every single day for your whole life? Even pizza would lose its appeal, and the missing vitamins in your diet would catch up with you eventually. Click Read More if you don't see the text below.  Jacob and Finn practice "reward for attention." Do you walk your dog, or does he walk you? If your dog drags you from shrub to shrub, or launches himself at every dog he sees, it’s time to brush up on his leash walking skills.
It’s no wonder that leash walking problems are the number one complaint I hear from my dog training clients. To a dog, leashes are completely unnatural and unnecessary. Dogs are designed to wander in this-or-that direction, following a scent or investigating things in their environment. A six-foot leash just can’t allow such freedom. But since leashes are necessary for safety and required by law, we have to teach dogs how to walk politely while tethered to you. Why Dogs Pull There are numerous reasons why dogs pull. Hint: none of them have to do with dominance. Do any of these reasons apply to your pup? Click Read More if you don't see the text below. |
Welcome!Kate is a certified dog behavior consultant, certified dog trainer, certified dog parkour instructor, and award-winning author.    Categories
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The views expressed on this website belong to Kate Naito and may not reflect the views of the agencies with which she trains.
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