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An issue that’s common amongst dog owners is when their dog seems to have learnt a rule, like “don’t knock over the rubbish bin,” but when left alone the dog breaks the rule, even though the owner thought they “knew it was wrong.” This problem is caused by the mistaken assumption that dogs, like humans, have a sense of “right” vs “wrong.” The real...
Read MoreFamous animal behaviourist Ian Dunbar says that punishing a dog for growling is like removing the ticker from a time bomb. Dogs use growling as a way of letting you know that they are stressed or upset. If you punish a dog for growling, you run the risk that they will avoid the early warning procedure and go straight for a bite the next time that...
Read MoreIt is much more efficient and effective to teach your puppy how to do the thing you'd like, rather than teach them not to do the thing you don't like. For example, you could teach a dog not to jump to get attention, but what if the next attention seeking behaviour they tried was even worse? You'd have to start the training all over again to elimina...
Read MoreThe concept has been so universally accepted by our culture that telling somebody “there’s no such thing as an alpha in dog training” is met with a knee jerk reaction of denial. Most dog owners hear that statement with the same kind of scepticism they’d feel if they were told the Earth was flat or fire was cold.
Read More“I couldn’t possibly stop taking my dog to the dog park every day, they’d be out of control!” The above is a common worry that trainers hear when we suggest to owners that their dog could benefit from a little less dog park time. Many owners of hyperactive and excitable dogs use the dog park to burn off their dog’s energy, so that the dog is more m...
Read MoreThe first rule of dog training is that "all behaviour that gets reinforced, gets repeated." This means that when a dog gets something that they want out of a behaviour, they are more likely to try it again in the future. A common example of this is dogs that jump up onto people. If the jumping behaviour is repeating over and over again, then that m...
Read MoreToby was the first dog that my husband Tom and I brought into our family, many years ago before we became dog trainers. He was 8 weeks old, and came from a pet store that we now realise was a front for a puppy farm. With the misguided confidence of youth, we decided that we'd home school Toby with the help of some Youtube videos, rather than enroll...
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