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!
While Amy Creaven’s career focus has switched from intensive care nursing to dog training, she has not abandoned her nursing skill set or her sensitivity to those in pain or struggling. A Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) Certified Training Partner (CTP) since 2010 when she completed the Dog Trainer Professional (DTP) program, Amy offers positive and professional training at her business Trust Your Dog Training in Fort Collins, Colorado. She focuses on behavior issues such as aggression, separation anxiety, and fear; on agility; and on an interesting specialty: rattlesnake avoidance.
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).
Juliana Willems, KPA CTP, of Dog Latin Dog Training returned recently to Dr. Katy Nelson’s Ask the Trainer television segment. Offering answers to pet owner questions and suggesting steps to fix behavior issues, Juliana talked about leash pulling, barking at the doorbell, and pets rejecting their owners’ new love interests or partners.
Megan Ramirez, KPA CTP, switched her professional focus from library science, in which she earned a master’s degree, to dog training because of her “heart” dog, Amadeus. Now older and arthritic with other health problems, Amadeus demonstrated aggressive tendencies beginning at nine months of age. Because of his fear-based and aggression behaviors, “no one could get near him,” according to Megan. With a training plan from a veterinary behaviorist and lots of hard work, Amadeus now meets new people and walks in public. After learning so much about training and behavior in order to provide a better life for the dog she loved, Megan changed careers and now helps other dogs like Amadeus, and their families, too. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without Amadeus,” explains Megan.
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.
