Training & Socialization

Obviously he loved his dog. But the dog’s behavior had changed recently and he didn’t know why. The vet said there was no medical reason for the change. My new friend described the history of his dog’s behavior and interactions with others in the family. And then he asked me, “What do you think I should do?” …

Honey and I were enjoying ourselves. I sat on the porch reading my book. She pressed up against me with her head on my knee—who doesn’t love having a furry lap blanket on an 85 degree day—totally relaxed. I quietly leaned over to pick up the object sitting on the table beside me. In a moment, …

Have you ever had an Aha! moment on a walk? Where you suddenly understand something new about walking with your dog and things click into place? I’ve had three. And they’ve made my relationship with Honey even stronger. Have you had any of these Aha! moments on a dog walk? Your Dog Doesn’t Have To …

I’ve had dogs with the best of recalls. And dogs with the worst of recalls. But even my roaming adventure dogs would have done better if I hadn’t done all kinds of stupid things to ruin their recall. How to Ruin Your Dog’s Recall Go ahead. Try these things. And see if it doesn’t totally …

We train our dogs for many reasons. Not the least of which is to keep her from being a nuisance. But I’ve found an even better reason. Training makes my dog happy. Training Lights Up My Dog People who meet Honey at the door mistakenly think she’s a very happy girl. She isn’t. It’s just …

What a triumph! For Train Your Dog Month, I taught Honey to climb a steep companionway ladder, to jump from a moving boat onto a dock with a line in her mouth, and to tie a perfect cleat hitch. No, not really. Because the month that was supposed to be dedicated to training my dog …

The Real Challenge is Deciding What to Do Once again, it’s Train Your Dog Month. Should I teach Honey to pull children from burning buildings? Dance the Merengue? Climb a ladder? She could learn all of those things. But I can’t teach them. In past challenges, I tried to train Honey to ride in her Doggy …

Get a few dog lovers together, add a little vodka, and the confessions start flying. Or just write a blog post about why dogs jump and everyone shares their training fails. Or their choices not to train. It got me thinking: how well should we train our dogs? Train Your Dog Like the Marines My husband …

Why do our dogs like to jump up on us? I’ve heard lots of reasons: Because they’re excited. So they can sniff our smelly parts. To get closer to our faces. Because they want our attention. And some people even think our dogs are trying to show us who’s boss by jumping up. The current, …

I posted an interesting video on Facebook yesterday about cats who are Monty Python fans (None shall pass). According to the comments I read on Facebook and elsewhere, most people think this footage says a lot about cats. I think it says even more about dogs. And what dogs consider a danger zone. There’s information …