ARTICLESOur Dog Blog

As promised, this month we’re continuing our discussion of play, focusing on how to use healthy play as an effective training tool. For the October Behavior of the Month, we reviewed how to recognize common characteristics of healthy play and how to use those observations to determine if an interaction is healthy and playful or...

For the next two months we’re going to discuss play – what healthy dog play looks like and how to use play as an effective training tool. Anyone who has ever had a dog knows that dogs love to play. Dogs love to run, dig holes, chase balls, play tug-a-war, fetch tennis balls, run agility...

We worked on targeting in February and July of 2013 and thought this skill would be a fun one to revisit in preparation for our Treibball Clinic coming up in the Fall (Thursday, October 2nd). In the sport of Treibball, dogs push balls with their nose across a field and into a goal. The first...

This month we’d like to get back to the basics and work on teaching Sit, Down, and Stand on a verbal cue. We work on these skills regularly in play groups, but wanted to make a special effort this month to make sure all the dogs are grounded in these basics, especially dogs that are...

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...