I spend much of my “spare time” thinking about dog training and the dogs with whom I work. The time I invest in the dogs with whom I work is not limited to the actual time spent with them. So it’s no surprise that as I was driving to class the other day, I was [...]
While not everyone uses crates, most of us do when our dogs are puppies or adolescents. Providing too much freedom in the house unsupervised during these stages of development can set our dogs up for trouble. Crates can be great tools in this process. But they should be temporary tools that we wean our dogs [...]
Looking for something new to try with your dog? In aanother post, I discussed the sport of K9 Nosework. This latest sport, called Treibball, comes from Germany. It was created with herding dogs in mind, but any dog can learn it. Treibball is a sport that utilizes a dog’s herding skills. Since most of us do [...]
During the critical development stage for puppies, it's important to expose them to as many new and different people, animals, places and things as we can. It's just as important to expose them in a safe and positive way, though, as a bad experience can sometimes be worse than no exposure to something at all. [...]
Ever tried your hand at sheep herding? Not with your dog, just you. Not something most of us would think of trying ourselves, but I got my opportunity quite unexpectedly the other day. We were out walking our dogs and a boarding dog. As we approached the top of the hill, I realized my neighbor's [...]
