New Content

My Animal Is Not Food Motivated – AT ALL! [Your 9-point motivational checklist]

By Ryan Cartlidge Have you ever wanted to train an animal that was ‘not food motivated’? This challenge is something I have often heard people tell me over the years! And I always think to myself, “does your animal eat?” If the answer is ‘yes’, I’m curious if we can say ...

Playing It Safe

By BARKS from the Guild

By Andrea Carne “Play with your cat more – and give him a meaty diet…” I wouldn’t be surprised if variations on this kind of advice has been given by vets and cat behavior consultants over ...

Alone Training

By BARKS from the Guild

By Don Hanson Dogs are social animals, and most will actively seek out our companionship. They can quickly become accustomed to having their people around all the time (especially during ...

Introducing a Puppy and an Adult Dog: Take it Slow

Remember “Lessons for My Puppy,” my collaboration with Marge Rogers? She made some videos that I loved so much that I wrote blog posts to go with them. Marge is still out there working with dogs and making great videos, and I’m featuring another one today. Although there is a lesson for a ...

Training is Simple as A-B-C

Animal training can serve useful purposes, be great fun and strengthen the human-animal bond. It can also frustrate folks, especially if they have not formally studied learning theory. Welcome to Learning Theory 101. Training is as simple as A-B-C. The “A” stands for antecedent and that is ...

Competition in the Dog Training World: Is It Necessary?

By Joanne Ometz I am a graduate of Turid Rugaas’ first US offering of her dog behavior counselor/trainer certification course. Most people in the US know Rugaas for her book, On Talking Terms with Dogs, and the study of canine body language is a big part of what I learned. But what is not ...

Changing Perspectives

I don’t know if it’s the same in the UK and the US but, here in Australia, I hear frequent laments from force-free trainers about the difficulty of competing with hard sell trainers of some of the more, shall we say, "traditional" methods. Often these laments relate to difficulties in ...

Dogs Back Then…..and Now

I don't remember, here in England back in about 1954 (I was 10), ever seeing a dog on lead. I don't actually remember seeing many dogs at all. My brother, my friends and I would also be free to walk or cycle around the roads near home or go and play in the woods. My first memory of a dog was ...

A Puppy Owner’s Short Guide to Chewing

Chewing is natural, it helps to clean teeth and relieve stress. Puppies need to chew, but they also need to learn what to chew. Safe chew toys: Kongs, chew toys designed for dogs Not safe chew toys: Furniture, small children’s toys, cables Safe chew toys can be made more interesting by ...

The Smartest Dog?

The other day, I got a good laugh reading the bumper sticker of the car in front of me: “My Dog Is Smarter Than Your Honor Student!” This got me wondering as we “pet-parents” often do, about how smart my own dogs are. By coincidence, I happened upon a newsletter from a local veterinarian’s ...

The Conscious Equestrian – Extinguishing Force From the Rider’s Repertoire

By Sara Richter CPDT-KA As an equestrian coach and riding instructor, most of the clients that I work with come to me with a pre-existing knowledge of traditional horsemanship. One of the most prevalent challenges that I face in my line of work, is transitioning those riders from ...

Report from the Pet Professional Guild 4-Day Pet Care Technician Certification Program Workshop

Professional Pet Care requires knowledge, skills, individual competency and a high level of responsibility. I recently had the pleasure of attending and presenting at a 4-day workshop designed to do just that. In this blog post, I am going to give you a brief overview of the topics covered ...