Teaching your dog to wait at a boundary, like the threshold of a door, is not only a useful skill but could also save his life! In Wait at a Boundary: Part 1, KPA faculty member Shelly Brouwer began teaching her dog Bert to wait at an interior doorway using a leash on the ground as a boundary. Shelly clicked and rewarded Bert as he approached the leash. In Part 2 of this series, Shelly waits until Bert pauses at the boundary and inserts the cue “wait.”
A nail Dremel is a great alternative to use with dogs that hate having their nails clipped by guillotine-style clippers, although the noise it makes takes some getting used to. In this video, Ken Ramirez and his dog Marlin demonstrate how to introduce your dog to a Dremel and train for stress-free nail trims!
Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) Dog Trainer Professional (DTP) program student Jessica Benoit (RVT, CPDT-KA) is using her knowledge of targets to teach her dog Vegas to close a door. Jessica and Vegas have a previously established nose target on a piece of duct tape. After warming up with nose targets a few times, Jessica transfers the duct tape to the cupboard door and continues to ask Vegas to “touch.” With just a few approximations, Jessica teaches her dog to close the door!
With scorching heat in many parts of the U.S., many dogs may not be able to enjoy long walks or trips to the dog park on hot days. Here’s a fun training game that boosts your dog’s creativity and allows your dog to burn some mental energy using and a popular summer staple: a beach bucket!
Have you ever observed a dog performing behaviors at a distance from his handler and wished you could teach your dog to do that? You can! Teaching your dog to work at a distance is not only a fun training exercise, but it is an essential skill for many dog sports. Watch in this video as the dog learns to “go on” (move away) from his handler on cue, and then go around an object (also on cue).
In last week’s featured video, KPA CTP Michelle Wieser and her dog Timber demonstrated how to teach a paw target. By maintaining a high rate of reinforcement, very quickly Michelle was able to teach Timber to hit the Staples Easy Button with his paw. In the second video of this series, Michelle demonstrates how to add a verbal cue to this behavior!
Training a dog to target an object with his paw is easy and fun. A paw target is a foundation behavior that has many practical applications, including closing doors, wiping paws, ringing bells, and turning appliances on and off. It’s also a prerequisite behavior for many dog sports.
Most people understand the importance of socializing puppies, and there are numerous puppy classes available. However, many classes are not true socialization classes. Instead, they focus primarily on obedience training. While obedience and manners training are important components of behavior, at the puppy stage the focus should be on ensuring that the puppy is having positive experiences with as many new people, dogs, and situations as possible. This exposure is essential for developing a confident and well-adjusted adult dog that is comfortable with all life has to offer.
Everyone knows that you can teach tricks to dogs, but did you know that cats can be trained easily, too? Since many cats live their entire lives confined indoors, clicker training can provide valuable mental and physical stimulation. Enrichment improves cats’ lives, helping to make them healthier, happier, and more responsive companions. In this video, Megan Ramirez and her cat Pavlov demonstrate one of our favorite cat tricks—spin!
Chances are that when your dog was younger, you spent many hours training new behaviors like spinning, jumping, bowing, and more. Now that your dog is a senior and slowing down physically, he may not be able to do some of the same behaviors he used to. However, that doesn’t mean you should stop training. Just like people, dogs need to exercise both physically and mentally in order to age gracefully. In this video, Karen Pryor Academy faculty member Laurie Luck demonstrates a simple but fun game you can play with your senior dog—or with a dog of any age—using a simple Solo cup!
