Dog Training
When Your Dog Growls …
So Your Dog Growls…To Punish or Not to Punish? A stranger approaches your dog, and your dog growls. Your dog is dozing on the couch, and you sit down next to him, startling him awake, and he growls. Perhaps your dog is chewing on a favorite toy or eating his food and a child…
Read MoreScholarship Recipient Aspires to Start Her Own Service Dog Company
ST LOUIS, MO – July 17, 2019 – Cassandra Christensen was recently awarded the Hannelore Bugby Scholarship for Female Entrepreneurs by The Academy of Pet Careers. This scholarship is only offered once per year to a female student who shows ambition and aspires to start her own pet business. The ideal candidate is one who wishes…
Read MoreHow Much Training Does A Dog Need?
You’ve decided to train your new (or existing) dog. You’re going to a weekly class. Or you have a trainer coming to your home. Or maybe you’re watching YouTube videos and working on your own. But how much time should you devote to training each day? And how much time should you devote to training…
Read MoreThe Myth of Reinforcing Fear
The Myth of Reinforcing Fear There is a school of thought in the training world that says you shouldn’t comfort or give treats to a frightened dog because you are reinforcing fear. For example, if your dog is frightened while getting groomed, you should not stroke them or distract them with treats because this could…
Read MoreNoise Phobia in Dogs
How to Help Your Dog’s Fear of Loud Noises Is your dog afraid of loud noises? Does she pant, pace, drool, shake, try to hide or try to escape whenever the thunder booms or the pops and bangs from fireworks happen? Noise phobia in dogs is a serious problem in some households. My dog used…
Read MoreActive Disengagement
We’re Not Just Ignoring “Bad” Behavior, We’re Using Active Disengagement There are two main philosophies when it comes to dog training. One (often considered ‘old school’) is compulsion training. This is a style of training that uses tools such as choke chains, prong collars, or electronic training collars to correct the dog whenever they do…
Read MoreDog Training Vs. Behavior Modification
Are we not just rewarding the bad behavior? When we think about using treats to train dogs, we usually associate it with rewarding desired behaviors. And this makes sense. We ask the dog to Sit and he does, and we give a treat. We ask the dog to Stay and he does, and we give…
Read MoreMuzzle Training in 8 Simple Steps
Teaching a dog to love their muzzle is pretty easy. Just follow the steps to learn muzzle training. 1. Show the muzzle to the dog in one hand and offer tasty treats with your other hand. Once the dog has had a couple treats, hide the muzzle behind your back. Pause for 8-10 seconds and…
Read MoreThe Benefits of Using a Dog Muzzle
At The Academy of Pet Careers, all students (both grooming and training) learn to acclimate dogs to wearing a muzzle because it’s such an important skill to have. And as a professional trainer and behavior consultant, I believe that every dog should learn to be comfortable wearing a muzzle. Many people cringe at the…
Read MoreCoping With Leash Reactivity
Does your dog walk beautifully with you until he sees another dog or strange person or cat or car or skateboard or . . . anything else that suddenly appears? Those things that prompt your dog to over react are collectively called ‘triggers’. Does your dog start barking, growling, lunging and otherwise acting like they’ve…
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