Your puppy is a sweet bundle of fur, full of kisses and just so cute. Three weeks later it is a destructive, aggressive monster. What happened? Two things happen when you bring a puppy home. First, you can shape the puppies behavior. You can teach it how to behave in an urban environment. You can teach it that squirrels are not prey. And, you can teach the puppy that people are to be obeyed. Second,…   Continue

The Handler’s personal agenda is the most frustrating things I encounter when working with clients whose dogs are either fear reactive, or aggressive towards people or dogs. When we have a dog that has reactive problems we need to realize it is no longer about: We want to go for a walk We want to go to the dog park We want our dog to make friends We want our dog to be polite when…   Continue

The problem with dog training and dog behaviorists is that neither industry is regulated. A person can give themselves any title they want and start charging – even if they have a 100% fail rate. In the London Ontario area there are several people who are good, a few who are bad, and one or two who have given themselves a bad reputation. How to find a good behaviorist in the London Ontario area One…   Continue

I think that everyone with a reactive dog wonders if they are part of the problem. Sometimes the answer is, yes. Other times the answer is, no.  To answer this question properly we need to explore a lot of factors. What does it mean when a dog is reactive? It means that it reacts in a way that is unacceptable in today’s urban environment. So the German Shepherd who wants to keep all dogs away…   Continue

People tend to have cognitive thoughts and memories. “Why didn’t I buy the red car?” “I should rent the red brick house.” Dogs have more reactive, or recall thoughts and memories. Sights, odors, textures and sounds can all contribute to reactive responses from dogs. In this article, I address anxiety, particularly separation anxiety in dogs, and how we humans create much of the reactionary issues. Most anxiety in dogs is the product of our human…   Continue

Keys to Supervising Dogs & Kids We thank Robin Bennet for Making this infographic available Author, All About Dog Daycare Co-Author, Off-Leash Dog Play Co-Author, Knowing Dogs Staff Training

A Walk A Day Keeps Problems Away – There is a lot of truth in this.  Does your dog have behavioral problems? Can You fix them? The truth is no. Dogs are living animals who have emotional responses to stress – like humans. You cannot promise that ‘any dog’ will never react. What you can do is ‘stack the deck’ in your favor and teach a dog coping skills so that it can manage stress….   Continue

The term reactive dog is a recent term in the dog world. Older terms included nervous, fearful, aggressive, leash aggression, or dog aggressive. Reactive dogs were ‘washed out’ of training programs, and very often were rehomed, or worse. Trainers didn’t understand the problem, and were unable to create a solution. Positive reinforcement trainers are making strong progress creating solutions for reactive problems, but there is still room for improvement. Some positive trends fail to address…   Continue

One of the main causes of behavior problems is the belief you must dominate a dog or it will try to dominate you. I’ve lived with as many as 18 dogs at my home, and have never had a dog challenge me for dominance. I’ve owned giant schauzers, huskies, german shepherds, chinese cresteds, and other working dogs. I will admit that some breeds are difficult to manage, but when a dog is treated like a…   Continue

I’ve watched decades of dog trainers with the newest, latest, training methods. But almost everything goes back to theories and training methods used by sheep herders, and farmers, for hundreds of years. The fact is, dog’s haven’t changed much. They’ve adapted to urban living, and they are now competing in an ever growing number of sports. But when it comes right down to it, dogs are relatively the same as they have always been. 1….   Continue