Recent Articles​
10 effective ways to help our dogs feel safe
http://blog.smartanimaltraining.com/2013/06/28/10-effective-ways-to-help-our-dogs-feel-safe/
Jennifer Cattet, Ph.D. June 2013
Barking, aggression, destruction, separation anxiety, resource guarding, … Many behavior issues that directly affect the dogs welfare can be attributed to stress and fear. These emotions dominate the dog’s life experience and are often responsible for the human/dog relationship breakdown. Just like in humans, many attribute aggressive displays as signs of strength and character. In reality they’re an expression of underlying feelings of being threatened. We’re most likely to yell or fight at others when we fear that another person will keep us from getting our needs met. A confident and well-adapted person or dog rarely needs to resort to aggression, vocalization or destruction to regain homeostasis.
Surviving our dog’s adolescence
http://blog.smartanimaltraining.com/2013/09/09/surviving-our-dogs-adolescence/
Jennifer Cattet, Ph.D. September 2013
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When we bring a new puppy home, we expect to teach her the basics of potty training, bite inhibition and general good manners around the house. We hopefully make sure to socialize her, and do our best to get her off to a good start. What we often underestimate though, is how short the puppy months really are and how challenging the adolescence period can be. Adolescent dogs can be rambunctious and full of energy. There are times when all the hard work we’ve put into teaching them basic good manners, just seems to have gone down the drain. The pup has stopped chewing on our hands and peeing in the house, but is now jumping on our visitors, marking around the yard, barking and lunging at other dogs or growling when we approach his food bowl. Just like people though, all dogs go through that period of development, there is no way to skip over it. Expecting it and being prepared to deal with the changes in our dog’s behavior makes it easier to live through without getting frustrated and give up on the dog altogether.
Easy Potty-Training for puppies Instead of Housebreaking.
http://blog.smartanimaltraining.com/2013/05/30/easy-potty-training-instead-of-housebreaking/
Jennifer Cattet Ph.D May 2013
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Teaching a dog good potty habits as well as house manners in general, is about making sure he’ll develop the habits of behavior that we’re looking for(the opposite approach of ‘housebreaking’ uses punishment). Building strong habits is no different than building muscles. The more arm curls we do, the stronger our biceps become. Similarly, the more the dog practices a particular behavior, the stronger the behavior will become. We can also think of it in terms of neuro-pathways getting stronger as the behaviors occur over and over again until they become habits; behaviors that are now so natural that the dog will chose them over others. Effective dog training is really about preventing the dog from behaving in ways that we don’t like and setting him up to being more likely to chose those behaviors that we do like.