Overcoming Fear of Dog-Dog Play: An Interview With Suzanne Bryner
Many dogs enjoy dog-dog play. It’s enriching, it’s welfare-increasing, and it’s good exercise for dogs. But although many dogs enjoy it, the same can’t always be said for the people in the room. Standard, safe, and species-typical pet dog play can appear (to the human’s gaze, at least) alarming and aggressive, and it’s not unusual for dog […]
[Insert Shiny, Eye-catching Title Here]: New Dog Training Techniques as Marketing Ploy
Recently, some dog training colleagues and I were batting around the issue of popular dog trainers denouncing standard dog training technique as an advertising ploy. The rules and methods of changing an animal’s behaviour are pretty well-known, in the way that “tonsil removal surgery” is pretty well-known, or “building a frame wall” is pretty well-known. […]
Our Responsibility To Dogs: Fear, Self-Knowledge, and Puffs of Air
Have you ever had that test at the eye doctor, the one where they puff air against your eye? If not, just imagine it. Air in a puff right into your eye. “Don’t blink”, the doctor may tell you. Because typically, if a puff of air hits you in the eye, you blink. It’s a […]
Bringing Play Back to Sequestered Dogs
One of the most glorious times in a dog trainer’s life is that moment when we gently (if metaphorically) grasp our client’s hands and escort them and their dog into a play session. This is especially the case if the client is a bit wary or unsure—they believe in us, sure, but also trust their […]
Throw Open the Jailhouse Doors: When and why to choose training over management
As dog trainers, we love management—that is, arranging the dog’s environment to prevent mess-ups. It’s a godsend for a bunch of pesky behaviour issues. We use baby gates, dog-proof rooms, curtains, and crates to provide relief to our clients (and often, their dogs). Management can also protect shy or fearful dogs from experiences that they […]
Ouch! Acquired Bite Inhibition and Puppies
Dogs have extremely strong jaws and powerful bites. Even the smallest of dogs can deliver an injurious bite as an adult, and big dogs can inflict even greater damage. Despite this physical ability, most dog bites do not result in terrible injury. In fact, many leave only a small scratch or a few bruises. Like […]
Dog training and decision fatigue
We train dogs for a variety of reasons: to reduce unwanted behaviour, increase desired behaviour, for their welfare, to improve public safety and of course for pure, unadulterated fun. Owners who are training for fun without clear goals might be slow to reach them (or even -gasp- never reach them!), but this is no big […]
The Seductiveness of Why
My training as an archaeologist prepared me well for my work with dogs. Archaeologists tend to be consummate generalists. We learn some biology (How do bones grow?), some physics (How do percussion waves through volcanic glass make razor-sharp flakes?), and some chemistry (How does radioactive decay tell us how old stuff is?). Of course, we […]
