I'm excited to announce the publication of my book, Best Friends: How to Make It Easy to Love Living With Your Pet Dog, available now as an e-book exclusively on my website at https://bestfriendstraining.ca/eBook
Best Friends offers not just step-by-step training instructions for the essentials, but a model for thinking and approaching training that will help you improvise when training other skills or solving problems.
Hope you enjoy, and thanks for telling your friends!
Food is a great tool in training and behaviour therapy, but occasionally you get a dog who just doesn't care, even working hungry, about treats in the context you need them to. Fortunately for me and the staff at Mississauga Animal Services shelter, Betty here can build some pretty positive associations using just praise, touch and play. Highly reactive to other dogs when we started, Betty is making lots of progress.
In case you know someone who could be Betty's future family, here's the skinny on her: https://www.petfinder.com/dog/betty-call-to-book-an-appointment-70170441/on/mississauga/city-of-mississauga-animal-services-on180/
One of the hardest things about my job is resisting the urge to reach out and pet adorable dudes with adorable little faces like this. But itty-bitty Wedge is very afraid of a lot of things he has to experience everyday life. Even with his owner, getting him into a harness or attaching a leash has so far been too traumatic. He's lucky to have a patient owner willing to take time and change his mind about things that seem scary without rushing him. I have to be just as patient waiting for the day Wedge is ready for contact with me.
Spice's very aroused response to seeing people and dogs on her walk got to be too much to handle for her people, but lucky for her Spice had made good friends with a neighbour who has offered to give her a home instead. That neighbour is a past client of mine, so we're working together to help Spice accept that others use the road too. After two sessions she's already showing really good progress, allowing people to walk by without a fuss. Her tolerance of dogs on the street will take a little more time, but we're on the way.
When you've got a big, strong dog, there's such a thing as "too friendly." Even with his happy doofus face on, nobody wants Levi leaping up on them, or darting across the sidewalk to offer a love wrestle as they walk by.
Owners' instinctive reaction to this behaviour is to start barking commands like Sit or Down, or making the bad-dog "ah-ah!" sound. All of this, for most dogs, simply fuels their excitement even more.
Levi is learning to say hi only when invited, and how to do it politely.
