Teaching Your Dog Calm, Slow Breathing
Radio talk show psychologist Dr. Joy Browne offers her listeners a stress-reducing “Square Breathing” technique. To relax before or during any potentially anxiety-producing experience, try square...
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Train Your Dog Using Imitation
I remember, years ago, confidently and assertively telling my training academy students “Dogs don’t learn through imitation.” But, degree by degree, I’ve been proven to be wrong. I’m taking it well,...
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Teach Your Dog to Help With Chores Around the House
Jessie can, among other things, wake up family members; dust with a feather duster; close a left-open toilet lid; mop up spills with a towel; get the mail; use a Dustbuster; mop the floor; polish shoes...
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How to Get a Dog to Behave
Listen to a mom tell her child to “Behave!” You know what she really means is “Stop doing that annoying behavior!” Similarly, for a long time in the dog-training world a dog who “behaved” was seen as...
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Clean Up Your Cues!
It’s important to know what your cues are for your dog. Yes, I bet you think you know, but in reality your dog may think your cues are very different than what you think they are. Photos by Bonita Ash...
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Fluency and Generalization in Dog Training
[Updated June 29, 2018] What’s your definition of a “well-trained dog?” For many people, a well-trained dog is one who knows how to perform a variety of behaviors. However, there are many dogs who will...
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Training Your Dog to Learn
Editor’s note: Denise Fenzi is the founder and head trainer at the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school dedicated to providing high-quality instruction for competitive dog sports, using only the...
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Shaping Your Dog’s Behavior
Like many dog trainers who use and teach dog-friendly training, I’m a huge fan of the dog training technique called “shaping.” In a nutshell, shaping requires clearly defining the end behavior that you...
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Shaping Your Dog’s “Sit”
Shaping – taking a desired behavior, breaking it into small steps, and reinforcing the steps until you build the final behavior – has become a standard dog training tool, especially in the force-free...
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The Allure of the Lure
Luring means using something the dog wants, most often a food treat, to draw her or guide her into doing what you want her to do. With her nose glued to the treat like a magnet, you can lure her to...
View ArticleHow To Train a Deaf Dog
Training a deaf dog requires patience and consistency, just as training a dog who can hear does. While replacing the verbal “sit” with a hand cue may seem odd to you, it’s normal for your dog. He’s...
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Dog Training Basics: How to Teach a Cue
While our dogs are born with all sorts of natural canine inclinations – like searching out food, investigating scents, romping with friends – “listen to words from humans” is not part of their default...
View ArticleHow Quickly Do Dogs Learn?
When the newness of a pup wears off, it’s often replaced by a little bit of wondering—or sometimes grumbling—about how long it will be until the new family member becomes as well trained as the...
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