Perfect Companion K9

All the dog needs is NOT only love! When we become very emotional in trying to save a dog, we can often forget whether we can actually provide the perfect home for the dog. We may think we can give the dog the perfect home because we have lots of “love” to offer, but reality is, love is not really all that the dog needs. I see lots of dogs being returned to shelter and eventually being put down because they were being rescued by people who thought all they needed to give t

Everyone says they want their dogs to know how to make better decisions. But not everyone can do it successfully. You can tell the dog “when you do this, you will be rewarded!” This is how we teach a dog what to do. We use reward to reinforce a behavior. But in order for the dog to know how to make the right decision, the dog also needs to know what would happen if he doesn’t do what we ask, what will happen if he does something inappropriate? “You will get your treats if

You are like a mirror to your dog. If you cannot stand being away from your dog for a second, your dog will likely also feel the same way and suffers separation anxiety. If you are very emotional, your dog will likely be reactive, too. Training can only help so much. You need to change. Instead of being the mirror, you can be the role model. If your dog is very obsessive, you can act independent. If your dog is very reactive, you can be aloof and calm. You can l

If you have to choose between giving up treating your dog like a human baby vs giving up your dog entirely, what would you choose? You may be surprised to know how many people l have met chose the latter instead. “I feel so sad about giving up my dog...but l think he will be happier with someone else.” Usually, what really happened is that the dog would have been really happy with the same person and would also behave much better if the owner could only stop humanizing th

I have seen so many owners who were afraid to correct their dogs. Many of them have been to other training classes and they were told that if they corrected their dogs, their relationship would definitely be damaged and there would be fallouts and their dogs would turn on them. I have met owners with scars all over their arms, ladies who could not wear bathing suits due to numerous scars on their thighs, seniors with cuts all over their faces after being pulled and dragge

When grandma comes to visit, the kids are very excited because grandma will shower them with gifts, yummy snacks and so on. Grandma never asks them to do anything they don't like to do. Grandma will tolerate all sorts of inappropriate behaviour. The kids love both dad and grandma but they display very different behaviours in front of them. There are lots more self-control in their relationship with their dad. With dad, there are clear boundaries and they understand what they

"My puppy loves to jump on all sorts of people and he gets really excited... What to do?" We need to teach our dog how to be calm around people. To start, we need to be calm and we should ask other people to be calm around our puppy. Do not let all these people just come and make a big fuss to your dog. Teach your puppy to know how to be calm and relax around other people so he will not view them as a source of super excitement. Physical touch and praise are high value affect

"Why did my dog bite me? I am so nice to him!" Many owners feel very puzzled, frustrated, and even betrayed, by aggressive behaviour from their own dogs. This German Shepherd in the picture used to attack anyone who came close to her crate, her owner, her house..,etc. It was a perception and relationship issue. Since l had Anja, she never showed any aggression even once about anything. Nothing at all. She is a very gentle, sweet, easy going dog. I developed a mutually respect

When you have a dog that you cannot take out on a walk because he is just ridiculously out of control, you most certainly have a dog who is also ridiculously out of control inside your home. To have a well behaved dog, training has to start from inside your home. A lot of people just let their dogs run free in their homes. They struggle with the concept of leashing their dogs inside; they do not want to crate their dogs; they do not spend time training their dogs inside their

Very often we let our dogs experience lots of excitement around other dogs; but once our dogs become a bit calmer, we try to ramp them up to play some more or we take them home. This will, overtime, create a dog with a single response whenever he/she sees another dog - extreme arousal. In the human world, we have more than one response in front of others- we can be very attentive (e.g. work, classroom), very active (e.g. sports), very aloof and quiet (e.g. library); we may no

Sadie used to love chasing squirrels, skunks, cats, rabbits, and racoons. She had pinned a cat down and almost killed the cat when l first got her. I almost lost my finger when she took off after a cat on the street. I recently have adopted a cat in my house, and l walk my dogs around lots of squirrels multiple times daily. We walk past many squirrels when l and my dogs walk my kids to school every morning. We can't have a big powerful mastiff going after squirrels with a bun