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A Better Dog-Human Understanding
By Susan Nilson
Marco Adda is a freelance dog behavior consultant, independent researcher, dog-human facilitator (or dog trainer if you prefer), animal advocate, and educator who is passionate about all things canine.
He describes himself as a “globetrotter who moves ...
The Bigger Picture
By Morag Heirs
Within my day to day life as a canine professional, I am regularly asked for advice on cases where standard training approaches seem to be failing. In some of these cases, ...
BARKS Podcast with Veronica Sanchez of Cooperative Paws Service Dog Education: December 3, 2021
Join Niki Tudge as she chats with Veronica Sanchez of Cooperative Paws Service Dog Education about service dog certification.
Listen to Podcast here on a choice of platforms. Or simply click ...
Latest Articles
Five Days from Fear to Fun – Classical Counterconditioning
By Yvette Van Veen
I decided to spend some recent holiday time working on a whistle recall. This is when a dog learns to come to the sound of a whistle. Pamela Dennison has a number of resources on how to teach this skill for anyone who might be interested.
Unlike other whims, I ...
Dogs CAN Learn That … and That, and That!
Do you know anyone who has more than one service dog because "one dog couldn't be taught to do all the tasks" that person needs? Have you ever heard a dog owner (or worse, trainer) claim that dogs "can't learn" to distinguish similar commands or tasks or learn multiple related tasks --- for ...
The Power of Desensitization
Desensitization is a tool I use in my armory virtually every day - it's ultra powerful, versatile and it works well, that is IF it's applied correctly! Here I'm going to take a look at this 'behaviour fixer' in a bit more detail because if it's worked with in the right way, you're just not ...
Ringing the Bell to Go Out: Avoid These 4 Common Errors!
Zani learns to ring the bells
This post is for the people who have tried–and failed–to teach their dogs to ring a bell to go outside. I suspect there are a lot of bell ringing failures out there. Not that it’s so hard to teach a dog to poke a bell with his nose or paw. But it can be tricky ...
Ideas for Touch Signs to Use
By Debbie Bauer
You can give touch cues in many ways - you can use your hands, your feet, your body, your breath, the equipment you use with your dog, an extended touch stick, etc. Any way that you can make contact with your dog's body to provide information can become a touch cue.
The most ...
Appearances Can Be Deceiving
Adoption is a popular option among many families who wish to bring a dog into their lives. Sometimes, their goal may be to adopt a specific breed. Science Daily defines “A dog breed is a group of dogs that have very similar or nearly identical characteristics of appearance or behavior or, ...
Pet Professional Guild Response To Joint Industry Code of Conduct
Official Pet Professional Guild (PPG) response to the announcement (September 11, 2018) by the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC), the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT), and the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT) that they ...
Clicking your Dog for Doing Nothing!
By Sue McCabe
Recently, while out with my gang, two dogs rushed a fence, barking their hairy heads off as we passed. I clicked and rewarded my dogs even though they did nothing. Later on the walk, two horses passed us and my dogs looked at them. Again I clicked and rewarded them for doing ...
BARKS Podcast with Morag Heirs: September 11, 2018
Guest: Morag Heirs of Well Connected Canine; PhD, MSc, MA(hons)(SocSci), PGCAP, Accredited Talking Dogs Scentwork trainer, and TD Rally Judge.
Topics: Heirs' article in BARKS, Fast and Furious, that discusses training deaf dogs to participate in dog sports such as canicross and ...