When I ask clients about their biggest difficulties in training their dogs, one of the most common answers I get is “distractions.” Their dogs might be doing great at home or in places with very few distractions, but as soon as the dogs are distracted by something else, all that training seems to go out [...]
During my recent Sunday evening Polite Pooches in Public Class, we met at Clement Park in Littleton and walked around the lake trail. This gave us plenty of opportunities for our dogs to practice dealing with distractions such as walkers, dogs being walked, bicyclists, skateboarders, prairie dogs, trash on the trail, and various other distractions. [...]
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 [...]
Every dog trainer has heard it: “This isn’t working.” In some cases, the fact is that what is being done really is not working and will not be effective. Sometimes, we just need to move on to other methods. But that is not always the case. This is where an experienced and skilled dog trainer [...]
