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I agree 100% As long as the dog is taught (desensitized) to be calm and feel safe is most important and will be humane. We always try to keep/teach our dogs as calm as possible and feel safe when we have to confine them to keep them safe (eg crate/tether).

Buttons and he was a Pekingese :)

I also recommend using KONGS for daily feedings or half bowl/half KONG. Most dogs eat in under a minute so I like to put some kibble into a KONG and use a safe filling to cover the hole and freeze. It usually takes a dog some time to get to the inside treats. Also they have many puzzle toys...

What I always recommend is to always manage the environment because all behavior has environmental conditions, see ABA. Therefore with any new dog or puppy I always have a puppy proof area when they are free and being supervised. If they are not supervised they are in a puppy proof area where...

Yes, always many variables when it comes to behavior. I actually heard a case where a dog had a bad experience/association with someone that smelled like gasoline and it became a trigger for aggression/fear. It took some investigating before they figured out the trigger was the gas smell.

Great question and I would start by saying all dogs can bite. Most people do get surprised when they hear that all dogs can bite :) As with many questions with behavior the answer is always “It Depends”. The way I look at it is every dog has a bite threshold which will be related to trigger...

Great question and here is my brief answer: I personally start training from my first interaction and day my puppy comes home. I truly believe every interaction is an opportunity for learning. Now that being said I definitely try to stay within one learning quadrant which is positive...

If it was me I would probably find what reinforces the dog I am working with. Finding what is reinforcing for a dog is very important when trying to teach or change emotional responses. I always look at things from a behavior view so If it's a ball a vacuum produces a ball. If it's fetch or tug...

This is such a controversial topic and a good one in my opinion. In my experience and being a professional in the industry as a trianer and behavior consultant I would agree 100% that it all comes down to education. Most cases involving a dog bite usually comes down to humans missing a red...

Here’s how I would most likely start my approach for changing a CER (conditioned emotional response) form bad to good. I would probably start by leaving the vacuum out in a corner somewhere and click treat for just looking at it. I would also leave some yummy treats in the area of the vacuum...

I agree so much with this statement. I feel if we ask the right questions in different ways during initial interveiw we can get a very good idea of ones passion or what they might do if your dogs does __________ (fill in the blank). Get some info on ones ideology or giwbthey might handle your...

Don’t worry if anyone post in the wrong area we can always move the whole thread if needed. My first thought after reading your question was motivation. I would say a motivated dog will be the easiest to teach. I never personally collected data on males or females learning quicker or faster...

I Agree with Woolsy on always check in with our vets.

I would agree and if I ever expanded to a commercial environment cameras will be in the plan. The only place that will be hard for cameras is in-home boarding. Many in-home boarders will not have cameras for quite a few reasons. In-home Boarding is a growing industry and ROVER would be a good...

Great question and one that happens to be part of my profession :) I always suggest to everyone to research and hats off to you for starting yours. Second thing I feel most humans forget is the dog will be the best one to let us know where they will thrive. What this means to me is we all...

Great question and I would most likely assume most dogs will not discriminate between safe and unsafe grass. In my experience some dogs will eat just about anything. As we know all dogs are individuals and I would also be interested if someone did a study on this. Here is an article with some...

Apologoies for the confusion I like to look at stimulus control as when a dog is proofed with a cue. Therefore when we say sit the dog will sit in most environmental context. “Essentially, stimulus control means that within the context of a training-session the dog offers the behavior when it...

I like to look at Dogs as being opportunist and always doing what works. I like to use a reinforcement schedule with all dogs also. New behaviors on a consistent schedule and proofed/under stimulus control on a variable schedule like a slot machine. I agree with a reinforcement schedule but I...

I would agree, if we have a track record of parents/grandparents that have been trained to a high level it shows that litters have a chance of being great learners. I seen some breeders have a large bloodline tree recorded. I did some research on breeders and blood line history and most also...

I like to say “every interaction we have with our dogs is a learning experience for them”. I do agree reinforcing and teaching is life long and the individual dog will always let us know what is reinforcing or not. I good trainer will always figure out what is reinforcing for each dog first...