Christine Hibbard, CTC, CPDT I went to a place called Fido’s Farm with my Aussie named Conner: https://fidosfarm.com. We went for an “instinct test”. I had no idea what to expect since I know absolutely nothing about herding. The instructor did a wonderful job of explaining what she was going to do with Conner and… [Read More]
Control Unleashed: Rule Structures for Dogs
Greta Kaplan, CPDT, CDBC I have been engaged in an effort to find an acceptable way to explain to my clients how to provide structure and predictability to their dogs in a way that would make their dogs comfortably willing to abide by human rules. I explained that I’m uncomfortable when such programs invoke the… [Read More]
A Fundamental Skill: Learning To Read Your Dog
Greta Kaplan, CPDT, CDBC Some time ago, I received an email from someone who wanted to enroll her dog in my Feisty Fido class. The dog was a young adult, male gundog mix. I talked to Mrs. Owner, and determined that the dog had inflicted one significant puncture bite to another dog, so I decided… [Read More]
How Often Should You Train Your Dog?
James Ha, PhD, CAAB Here’s a question for all of you dog trainers (and that should be just about everyone who has a dog)… how often should you train a dog? Many of us in this business would, of course, say, “as often as possible… please!” But that is not quite what I mean: from… [Read More]
The Genetics of Behavior: What Color is Your Dog?
Jim Ha, PhD, CAAB Behavior has many causes: this is a general statement that many people believe is true, and it often causes people to extend the conclusion to one that suggests that we can never understand behavior, that it will always remain a black-box mystery. But of course, as professional animal behaviorists, academic or… [Read More]