Training

an obedience class

If training on your own, consider enrolling in a class or booking a private lesson for one-on-one attention. You aren’t expected to have all the answers yourself. All dogs are different. Even if you’ve trained previous dogs on your own, a little professional guidance might be just what you need to jumpstart success.

Woody

In our March 2011 issue, we introduced you to a very small sampling of some of the neat “assistive equipment” options that are available to help our canine companions who have limited mobility or other physical issues. We received such a great response that we thought we’d share with you a few more finds that can help make life easier for you and your dog, particularly if he or she is aging or has orthopedic or neurologic issues. Remember: the products mentioned here are only the tip of the iceberg. There are numerous companies making innovative assistive products; what we’re hoping to do here is to get you thinking about some of the possibilities!

Food treats are an easy and effective reward for a dog when training. But food rewards are only one way to build strong behavior. There may be times when you do not want to or cannot use food, and there may be times when the best reinforcement is something other than a hot dog! Here are five great ways to reward your dog when you don't want to reach for the treat pouch.

Current research has demonstrated that many species, including our beloved canines, share brain circuitry very similar to the human part of the brain that controls emotion – the amygdala and the periaqueductal grey. While there's no doubt among most dog lovers that dogs have emotions, this concept is still being discussed in the halls of academia. Some insist that even though animals show emotional behaviors that we can observe, we can't assume the behaviors mean the animals who display them have emotional feelings. (I don't know how anyone can think this, but some scientists really do!) Others, such as the esteemed neurobiologist Dr. Jaak Panskepp of Washington State University, argue that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck – it's probably a duck!

Spending time with your dog is one thing. Watching for behaviors that can be incorporated into training is another. While free time is free for the dog, it’s work for the handler/trainer, requiring focus and attention to detail. Experienced trainers and competitors will notice things that novices won’t, but even if a handler is not actively training a dog, or the dog is best described as a house pet, free time can be an effective tool for better understanding the dog’s interests, temperament, and personality.

How well do you really know your dog? Like most trainers and competitors, Nancy Tanner of Bozeman, Montana, assumed she knew hers inside out – until some whales and their trainers taught her an important lesson. You too can adopt the simple technique she learned at a marine mammal park to improve canine interactions at all levels.Tanner’s path of discovery began five years ago at Sea World in San Diego, California, where she took a behind-the-scenes tour. What caught Tanner’s attention was the whales’ “free-time pool.” In this large, safe, comfortable environment, whales do whatever they like. Sometimes the pool is occupied by a single whale and sometimes by two or more. Trainers are always present but they never initiate activity. They simply watch and wait.

I was recently contacted by a friend about a darling Border Collie puppy whose photo she found on Petfinder.com – and who was deaf. This friend is crazy about Border Collies, and also knows that I have a deaf Chinese Crested. Thus, she thought of me when she saw this puppy. The person who was fostering the pup was unable to keep her much longer, and did not want to send her to the local shelter as that would almost certainly result in the puppy’s euthanasia. Why? Because that shelter considers all deaf dogs as “unadoptable.”

Juneau and I have learned a lot together. She came to me at 8 months of age as a well socialized puppy with tons of energy. If I didn’t find things for her to do, she’d find her own things to do. She may only be 12 inches tall, but she still figured out how to get things off of the counter (like an entire pizza).

but so are any dogs that like to play with balls and dogs that enjoy shaping games. This is Kula

The January issue of Whole Dog Journal featured “Say My Name,” an article by Pat Miller that explained the importance of teaching your dog to recognize and respond to his or her name. In a sidebar to that article, Pat also discussed the issue of naming (or renaming) your dog. And she announced a little contest for our readers, asking you to share the story of how you selected your dog’s name and why. Pat said she would select some winners and the “top three” would win a signed copy of her newest book, Do Over Dogs: Give Your Dog a Second Chance for a First Class Life.