Teaching Reactive Dogs A New Habit, Part II: “Look At That!” for reactivity
What is Reactivity? “Reactivity” in dogs describes a dog reacting quickly and intensively to stimuli that don’t warrant such a strong response. It’s a problem behavior that can be prevented and treated with a few simple exercises. Dogs that respond quickly to certain stimuli are often trained as hearing alert dogs; these dogs don’t miss […]
The Trading Protocol for Prevention and Treatment of Resource Guarding in Dogs
Resource Guarding is a perfectly natural behavior for dogs. It can serve a valuable purpose if they are feral, living on their own, and having to find and protect food, sleeping areas, their puppies, and themselves from harm. The dogs we live with and the dogs we rescue have no need to guard their resources, […]
Cooperative Husbandry: Teach Your Dog to Love a Nail Trim!
(The Process Works for Cats, Too!) As I write this, my mentor, Dr. Bob Bailey, is teaching keepers at the Copenhagen Zoo how behavior science can help provide better husbandry for the animals there. Husbandry refers to the management and control of domestic and kept wild animals, most commonly to their medical care and grooming. […]
Puppy Treat Training
Why use treats? All puppies must eat to live. They don’t know much when they’re young, but they know about eating, and they like it! Training requires repetition; a pup can eat a treat quickly and be ready to go again. Shouldn’t my puppy do what I want just to please me? As much as […]
Balanced Training for Dogs or a Poisoned Cue?
Balanced training for dogs: is just a little punishment helpful? “Balanced training” seems to be a popular approach to dog training. Those who don’t understand behavior science think it’s a good approach, but it has zero support from science. A little scrutiny of balanced training for dogs reveals severe conflict between it and best training […]
Multi-Dog Households: Make them work
It’s all about the relationships The most enjoyable multi-dog households are the ones in which there is a rich individual relationship between each human and each dog in the home. Create these relationships through private time with each dog. Pleasant walks, fun training sessions, the dog’s favorite games, quiet time sharing affection, and other pleasant […]
B. F. Skinner on How To Teach Animals
Teaching, it is often said, is an art, but we have increasing reason to hope that it may eventually become a science. We have already discovered enough about the nature of learning to devise training techniques which are much more rapid and give more reliable results than the rule-of-thumb methods of the past. Tested on […]
How To Teach A Dog Not To Jump Up On People
Teach your dog to sit to greet people: It’s WAY better than jumping up! What’s wrong with dogs jumping up on people? Dogs that jump on people are annoying at best. At worst, jumping up can be dangerous for older folks and small children. Sometimes it’s hard to see how this behavior benefits the dog. […]
House Training Your Dog
House training a new dog or puppy can seem intense. But if you put in the time at the beginning, right from the start, the rest of your dog’s life will be smooth sailing! How to house-train your dog: Reward him when he eliminates outside – you can even specify the spot! Make sure he […]
