Can an aggressive or reactive dog be cured? The answer should be no. Even if your dog has been good for several years you need to realize that three things can cause your dog’s bad behavior to return (recover): Stress or fear Not practicing the prevention and control protocols Not practicing the exercises that increase oxytocin and serotonin, while decreasing cortisol Not teaching your dog a lifestyle of calm and control. If you are stressed…   Continue

There are a lot of positive dog training centers teaching people that if their dog reacts, shows aggression, or become over excited then all you need is to teach it to look, redirect its behavior and the problem will magically go away. There are people who say ‘teach an alternative behavior’, but if you’ve ever owned a hound who is ‘locked and loaded’ on a squirrel, or a herding dog who is over stimulated because…   Continue

We are always worried about fading treats and rewards. Very few dog handlers worry about fading corrections, but this is the one thing you should work hard to fade. We’ve talked before about the difference between teaching and learning. Teaching a task to a dog means that we are showing the dog the task, in various environments, with different distractions, and adding duration and distance to the equation. It can take 2 minutes to show…   Continue

A lot of obedience classes teach pattern training. You are asked to have your dog complete an exercise in a specific manner, repeatedly. The dog learns the routine and by the end of the obedience course your dog can do the exercise. At least, it can do it in your home, or at the dog training center. Your dog may even be the star pupil at the training center. The problem with pattern training isn’t…   Continue

She stood arguing with me. She’d had German Shepherds all her life, but never a high drive dog. She’d only had this one for three months, and had been trying to get it to stop reacting for six weeks. Nothing was working.  It was a smart dog. More than one experienced dog person had taken this dog and worked ‘miracles’ within two or three minutes. But, well – as far as the dog was concerned…   Continue