Monday, September 25, 2023
Toby is ready for anything! He's a quick learner, and eager to play whatever game we introduce, which makes training more fun and easy for him, and for his people too.
Posted at 06:30 PM
Saturday, September 23, 2023
After several months living at the shelter, Gnarls Barkley was still afraid of everybody he saw except his two primary caregivers. I've been brought in to help, and with the dedicated staff we've started to make progress towards getting him confident enough to be adoptable. We won't know his ceiling until we get there, but our first session gave us all hope.
Posted at 06:30 PM
Thursday, September 21, 2023
At about a year old, Gracie is a puppy at heart in a big dog's body. A formula for bull-in-a-china-shop outcomes unless she learns how to control her enthusiasm and direct her energy. But look how confident she is - she's got this!
Posted at 06:31 PM
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
What a great setup Maddie has! A big part of teaching your new puppy self-management and a solid sleep schedule is a good confinement system - some combination of crate, safe-play zone, and puppy-proofed areas for interactive time with you helps remove the opportunity to fall into habits like chewing furniture or scavenging the house while you're teaching what's ok to play with.
Posted at 06:30 PM
Wednesday, September 13, 2023
A common bit of bad advice I hear is to interfere with your puppy's meal, putting your hands in his dish or taking it away briefly, to prevent resource guarding problems later. It may not actually cause guarding, but it certainly can exacerbate a predisposition towards it.
Better to hand-feed with no dish, or ADD BONUSES to the dish while your puppy eats, to make him welcome people near his food.
Consider your mood when a waiter keeps grabbing your plate when you aren't done ("Are you through with that?") versus when the server... more
Posted at 06:30 PM
Thursday, September 7, 2023
Focusing interactive play time on objects such as tug toys, balls, chase toys and fetch toys is a big part of teaching your puppy how to play without biting your hands, feet and clothing. We started Stormi with a rope tug to get her playing productively.
Posted at 06:30 PM
Friday, September 1, 2023
Anybody know where I can get this toy? It's a latex claw that wraps around a tennis ball. Puppy chews the toy instead of the ball, it's less goopy to handle, and it's tough. A friend has one and didn't know where it came from, and we both want more!
Posted at 08:39 PM
Thursday, August 31, 2023
Dog owner's POV when they come home.
Posted at 06:30 PM
Tuesday, August 29, 2023
With no other dogs around, Sherlock is all smiles and completely relaxed. With other dogs around... well, he's getting braver!
Posted at 06:30 PM
Sunday, August 27, 2023
Ziggy's family kindly provided this clever closeup, because he's still too shy to let me come within camera range. We're helping him cope with seeing people on the street.
Posted at 06:30 PM
