Teaching Your Dog to Take Food Gently

Taking food gently out of your hand is a skill all dogs should learn. For many dogs, taking a portion of their owner’s finger, along with a morsel of food, is a sure-fire way to make sure they actually get the treat from owners whom make a habit of pulling their hands away as soon as they feel... 

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Teaching Your Dog to Give Things Back Willingly

You never know what your dog might decide to investigate and chew on, or possibly even eat. Having the ability to get things out of his mouth quickly is very important no matter how old he is. When you begin teaching this, your first training lesson shouldn’t be after the dog has already latched... 

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Clickers and Conditioned Reinforcers

Introduction The clicker is a great tool to teach your dog new behaviors. It has a very distinctive sound that dogs can easily identify with and pay very special attention to. Another benefit of using the clicker is that, unlike the sound of your voice, which can vary slightly depending on a number... 

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Why Training Your Dog is So Important

We love our dogs. There’s no doubt about it. Each year, responsible and caring dog owners, spend millions and millions of dollars to feed, entertain, pamper and provide excellent health-care for their beloved dogs. For many people, almost nothing is too extravagant, or expensive for their dogs. Another... 

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How Dogs Learn – Part 2

In Part I of “How Dogs Learn”, I touched on 2 major ways in which dogs learn new things about their environment. Through learned associations and the realization that their actions really do have consequences (both good and bad), dogs are able to make reasonable assumptions about environmental... 

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How Dogs Learn – Part 1

Watching a well-trained dog listen to his owner, and do exactly as he is instructed, is often a thing of amazement and wonder to those, who either are not dog owners, or are shall we say, owners of dogs that are somewhat “instructionally-challenged”. Upon viewing the “trained”... 

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