We walk, think, and dream dog...

Seems our dog brains rarely power down, and there has to be a depository for all our musings. We hope you enjoy this ongoing collection of our training thoughts, with a bit of CNC news thrown in here and there.

Strange New Things Part 3 – Helping Mercy Love the Weave Poles

I’ve recently written about using classical conditioning to help your dog be comfortable around strange new things. The previous two articles were about helping my dog, Mercy, learn to interact with a big long blue tunnel. I’ve wanted to do Agility for Fun, so we’re training for that enjoyable activity.

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Don’t Blame the Dog!

So often in training, when a dog doesn’t perform the desired behavior in response to the given cue, we blame the dog. I often hear, “He’s blowing me off!” or “She’s being stubborn!” However, in reality, the handler just didn’t make it clear enough for the dog to fully understand

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Strange New Things – Helping Your Dog Learn to Love Them

When introducing new things into a dog’s environment it’s important to consider how a dog will perceive the new object.  Dogs, like people, learn through association (classical conditioning) and develop a positive, negative or neutral emotional response to new people, places or things. Any new first interaction and experience needs

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The Importance of Teaching Your Dog to “Wait”

As the guardian in a multi-dog household, the Wait cue is one of the most used in my training tool box. Once a wait behavior has been established, the cue can be incorporated in various situations to make daily life less hectic and more manageable. Once trained, when you cue

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