On a recent walk at a local park, I rounded a corner and surprised a bunny who was sitting right in the middle of the path. I was only a...

As a writer, words are my tools of the trade. But words are also important to me as a dog behavior specialist. Take “nip,” for example....

If you have more than one dog, you probably most often call them to you together. You may have even instilled a phrase such as “Dogs,...

On a recent morning photo walk at a local park, I spotted an animal racing up a hillside. Was it a coyote? A bobcat? Nope! It was a blur...

I was walking at the park with a friend recently when we ran into a man walking his dog. I had chatted with the man on other occasions,...

Often when I’m working with training clients, they seem impressed that their dog can respond to a hand or arm motion alone without a...

If you have a dog who is reactive to other dogs, going for a walk can be a scary experience. There you are, wanting to get some exercise...

I recently had a training call from a woman who was very distraught. Between crying jags, she explained that she was afraid she was going...

I remember when Mojo, our beloved 120-pound German shepherd-malamute-rottweiler-wolf mix, was a senior. Like so many dogs, his back end...

If you’ve watched television in the last 10 years or kept abreast of dog training culture, you’ve probably encountered the term red zone...

You might be familiar with the adage about how, as we get older, we care less about what people think about us. I wonder if the same...

A concern I sometimes hear from clients as far as the use of training treats goes something like, “But then won’t my dog only listen when...

I have a friend who, every time we go somewhere in public, ends up talking to mothers with young children. A baby stroller is a sure sign...

I recently worked with a client who has three dogs. We’d trained each dog separately, and then decided to practice group recalls as well...

At a recent training session, I was talking with a client about the skills we would be teaching his dog. When I mentioned the recall...

While many of my posts are prompted by experiences with my own dogs or others, this one started with a sentence from my latest (not yet...

A dog’s strongest sense is his sense of smell. Dogs can detect odors buried 40 feet underground, find hidden bombs, and even sniff out...

My dogs got into a fight this morning. It was over food. Well, not exactly food, but a daily supplement that looks and tastes more like a...

I’m pretty sure every dog owner knows what I mean when I say a dog is getting cranky. Maybe you have two dogs and one is acting snarkier...

I have to say up front that I really dislike the word “spoiled”. When it comes to kids, it’s often followed by the word “brat”. I don’t...