Pet365's nice post on Dog Development

Dog Development graphic created by Pet365 - a UK stockist of stunning dog beds and brands like Hamish McBeth. Click here to view the full post.

Building Attention Game 3

Chase games

Chasing games are a great way to play and interact with your dog and build your reinforcement value to your dog. However, the easiest game to play is to have your dog chase you, rather than you chase your dog. Some dogs can find chasing so reinforcing that they might start offering running away whenever you approach them. If you put rules on the game where you chase your dog, you can make sure your dog will not run away from you every time you run towards your dog. One way of doing this is to have a cue to mean "run away, we are playing the chase game". Another option is only play the chase game in one particular place- like around a sofa in your house, or in a certain place in your house, and never encourage the game anywhere else.

Adult dog mentors- Raising a puppy

Having your puppy around sound adult dog mentors is a great way for puppies to learn the skills of living in a modern world. This does not mean, letting the adult dog correct the puppy constantly, but instead setting the puppy up to succeed in the presence of the adult dog by reinforcing calm choices and preventing the puppy from practicing undesirable behavior. A lot of puppy classes focus on puppies learning to learn from other puppies, and this can lead to some unwanted behaviors- like over excited play, or no impulse control around other dogs, etc, so make sure your puppy has some adult dog mentors as well as playmates!

"Everything you can imagine is real."-Pablo Picasso

"Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake."
-Henry David Thoreau

Use the weather to your advantage:

Use the weather to your advantage:

Depending on the dog, there can be an extreme difference in behavior in relation to different temperatures. So use it to your advantage to yield faster results.

Hot weather- Work on separation anxiety, handling issues, reactivity, and any training situations where you want your dog to be calm and relaxed. However keep in mind that you don’t want your dog to overheat. An example: Working on separation anxiety with a Chihuahua by leaving the dog alone in a room lying in a patch of sun, rather than on a chilly evening. Or counter conditioning your dog to nail trimming in the yard in the sun while he’s laying in your lap spread out.

Cold weather- use the evening zoomies time to your advantage to work on a trick that needs speed and enthusiasm.

Reach for the sky...

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”- Michelangelo

Splash and Tug train some GSD pups

Splash and Tug teach Bella and Bear that hanging out with other dogs can not only be fun but also relaxing

Behaviors Are Like Notes on a Piano

“Think of your dog’s repertoire of behaviors as keys on a piano. To create variety you will need to play songs of different length, tempo, and tune- Never play the same song repetitively. Never play all the notes just because they are there!”- kikopup

The Art of Trick Dogging- Set of 4 DVDs

Here is the link to 'The Art of Trick Dogging' DVDs:
http://www.tawzerdog.com/product/info/1017/The-Art-of-Trick-Dogging--Emily-La...

Produced by: Tawzer Dog LLC

Copyright© 2011, all rights reserved

Run Time: 7 hrs 40 min

The Art of Trick Dogging: Two Day Workshop by Emily Larlham

Trick Dogging is not only a great way to bond with your dog, but it increases your dog's confidence, strength, fitness, balance, flexibility, and bodily awareness. It is also a great way to increase one's own training skills.
In this DVD you will learn how to teach the core positions, movements and placements of trick dogging from which to build very simple to the most complex tricks and behaviors.

Some topics covered are teaching backwards tricks, advanced object holding, paw work and double dog tricks.

This DVD also goes over the most important skills for getting your pet into commercials, movies and magazines, as well as how to train your dog fun service dog skills such as putting laundry away, and turning on light switches. It also covers the basics of getting the perfect start in teaching Freestyle Frisbee.