One of the most misunderstood aspects of dog training is that the trainer is teach both you, and your dog, a series of problem solving tasks. At one time trainers felt that the owner could start an activity. If the dog didn’t understand it was punished. Ultimately the dog would ‘figure it out’ and then there would be harmony. This caused several problems. The most obvious was that the dog shut down emotionally and frustration…   Continue

One of the most frustrating ‘left overs’ from the days when dogs were treated as an animate object is the belief that the leash is a switch, steering wheel, or brake. If you hank it hard enough the dog will magically respond in a positive, obedient manner. I’ve seen dogs progress wonderfully through obedience training, then start regressing to a defensive behavior, or shutting down, because the owner starts yanking on the leash. The question…   Continue

Before any obedience training we need to calm our dog. A dog won’t focus on us if it is worried that something will come around the next bush or building. A dog will forget to stay at our side and heel if it is watching another dog play ball. The first step to an obedient dog is to teach your dog exactly what you want. But you can’t teach a stressed dog. You need to…   Continue

Do you use a choke collar? Can you explain the reason? Is it because you feel that you have more control? But the question is, do you?  Does your dog walk quietly beside you obeying even when it is excited? Probably not. The problem with force training is that dogs are very associative, and they have a strong opposition reflex. These two things provide plenty of reasons why using choke, prong, and ecollars are not…   Continue

One of the biggest misconceptions is that force free dog training does not mean you cannot, and should not, correct your dog when it misbehaves.  It does mean that you are working to help your dog learn an appropriate behavior using reinforcement instead of an alpha (master/slave) relationship. Force Free Dog Training Does Not Use Fear to overwhelm and bully a dog Pain to cause a dog to shut down emotionally Anger to break your…   Continue