ARTICLESOur Dog Blog

Let’s train more dog tricks! We worked on tricks a couple of times in 2013 and thought it would be fun to get back to it. Why train tricks? It’s super fun to show off your dog’s cool skills, but tricks also develop foundation behaviors. In July, we’re going to use a lure to teach...

Dog trainer and veterinarian Ian Dunbar has always been a big proponent of teaching all dogs an emergency sit, and it’s an invaluable skill for owners and dogs. Essentially, it’s asking your dog to sit no matter where they are, where you are, or what’s going on around them, and it’s trickier for most dogs...

The April Behavior of the Month is a Recall game that we call the Rolling Recall. It’s a fun way to start a play group, to burn off some energy and also get all the dogs ready to pay attention to the play group staff while they’re having fun with their furry friends. To play...

Stand is a useful behavior that we teach in our Puppy Kindergarten and Basic Manners classes. We teach it when we’re working on sit or down as a third position change. Adding the stand position along with sit and down is a great way to vary your training routine. Dogs are very good at learning...

In 2013 we worked on teaching hand targeting (“touch”) and targeting an object like a target stick or plastic lid in our play groups.  This month we’re going to expand on those skills and work on targeting a specific place, in this case the landings by the back doors.  The end result will be dogs...

Why train tricks? Tricks can be fun to teach and show off to friends, but they also can develop foundation behaviors for basic manners as well as specific skills needed for canine sports (agility, freestyle, treibball, and more!). Many dogs enjoy learning tricks for a variety of reasons – they’re learning new skills (often offering...

This month we’re continuing to work on “Stay” in the Doggy Business play groups by teaching a fun game called the 4-Corner Stay. This game incorporates two behaviors – asking your dog to stay in a sit or down while distracted (in this case the distraction is the trainer walking away) and asking your dog...

Last month we discussed how to teach a bungee stay (a sit stay while you moved 1, 2, or even 3 steps back from your dog), and this month we’re working on a more advanced version of stay, the Circle Stay.  As with the bungee stay, the Circle Stay is another great tool for teaching...

Sit and down stays are very useful behaviors for dog training. A stay can help prevent a lot of impulsive behavior. For example, imagine parking your dog in a down stay on a mat while you answer the front door (no jumping on friends and neighbors!) or cook dinner. The Bungee Stay is a great...

This month instead of focusing on one behavior or skill set, we thought it would be fun to talk about some canine sports that can provide a great opportunity to mix up your training routine.  Canine sports offer new options for working on basic obedience skills and skill sets specific to the individual sports. There...