Greta Kaplan, CPDT, CDBC I read a tragic news article: “Puppy Owner Pleads Not Guilty for Choking Animal to Death,” Associated Press, February 26, 2010. According to the article, the owner admitted holding the 10-week old Labrador puppy down for 20 seconds after the puppy bit the owner’s girlfriend on the nose, causing what the… [Read More]
Why Dogs Bite
Christine Hibbard, CTC, CPDT Not to put too fine a point on it, but dogs bite because they’re dogs. It’s what dogs are biologically programmed to do. Every dog has the potential to bite, no matter how well socialized or friendly. I thought it might be useful to explore the different reasons why a dog… [Read More]
I Have Four Cats, One Dog, and Two Pet Peeves
Louisa Beal, DVM I like to consider myself a fairly non-judgmental person. People may do things to their pets that I think are horrible, but I cannot judge them, since, in the past, I have done most of those things myself. We all grow and learn and change. However, there are two things that get… [Read More]
When Behavior Modification Isn’t the Answer
Greta Kaplan, CPDT, CDBC When we talk to clients about what we’ll do at our initial consultation, we explain that we’ll take some history about the situation, discuss management that needs to be put in place to ease tensions and help the training work better, and then talk about and actually start training your dog… [Read More]
Confrontational Behavior Modification Techniques and the Risk to Owners
James Ha, PhD, CAAB I have expressed my concern about confrontational behavior modification techniques in earlier blogs: the use of “positive punishment” or dominance and pack theory-based techniques, especially in the hands of untrained users, has been shown to be ineffective and to produce negative side effects. Hiby and colleagues demonstrated that positive reinforcement techniques… [Read More]
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