If you’ve ever tried to change or stop a bad habit, you know it’s not easy. Well-ingrained habits are difficult to change because we do them without thinking. Habits are the most effective way for our brains to conserve energy. Our dogs have many habits ingrained in their routines as well. Unfortunately, some of them [...]
The Association of Pet Dog Trainers is a professional organization with over 6,000 members worldwide and is focused on educating trainers. Their annual conference draws around 1,500 attendees along with other educational opportunities such as webinars and their bimonthly publication, The APDT Chronicle of the Dog. My article titled Default Behaviors was published in the May/June 2012 Chronicle. [...]
The better I am able to understand dogs, the better trainer I will be and the better I will be able to help my clients understand and relate to their own dogs. One topic of interest for me is emotions in dogs and other animals. Since we can’t really know what anyone else (humans included!) [...]
The November 2011 issue of Prevention magazine has an article by Karen Asp called The Diabetes Danger. According to the article, diabetes in dogs has increased 32% in the past 5 years. Symptoms generally show up when dogs are 7 years or older and tend to show up in genetically predisposed breeds, such as Beagles, Dachshunds, Poodles, Pugs and [...]
Does your dog have issues with other dogs? Our society seems to assume that all dogs should love all other dogs. Those of us who live with dogs know that is not always the case. At the John Rogerson seminar I attended, he had some interesting ideas about the causes or contributors to issues such [...]
