Giving Thanks for Dogs and Pie

Giving Thanks for Dogs and Pie

by lennearbNo Comments
I love dogs. And pie. The presence of both dogs and pie in my life are things I am definitely grateful for as Thanksgiving draws near. Like many Americans, my Thanksgiving will be full of dogs and pie and a number of other food items that are definitely Not For Dogs (NFD for short). That makes this the perfect moment to discuss how to keep our dogs safe this Thanksgiving. I have talked before about dogs at parties, but Thanksgiving has a few differences from other parties. Most of the guests are often family members. In my experience, family members can be some of the hardest to convince to follow your rules. So make your rules clear and explicit in advance. And make sure they are followed. Lots of food. Admittedly, a lot of parties have food, but Thanksgiving has some extra-delicious and very not-dog-safe food items. Like turkey bones. And pie. Not to mention, a lot of food that may be served in...
Read More
6 Things I’ve Learned from Cats

6 Things I’ve Learned from Cats

by lennearbNo Comments
In honor of national cat day, I thought I would share six things I have learned from cats. 1. Take time to see the world from new vantage points. You never know what a new perspective will teach you. 2. Don't be afraid to try new things. You never know when one will suit you better than you expected. 3. Go after what you want. Especially catnip. Don't wait for things to come to you. 4. Know when you look good. And own it. 5. Nothing is more important than a good friend. Provided said friend knows how to open a can of cat food. 6. There is always time for a nap....
Read More
Quiz Time!

Quiz Time!

by lennearbNo Comments
Pop quiz! Scenario 1 You are trying to cutback in sweets. You walk into the breakroom at work and find a large platter of your favorite dessert sitting in the middle of the table. The sign next to them says: "Help yourself." Do you Say, "Thank goodness!" And grab a large helping? Say, "No thanks," and sit down a few seats down to eat your healthy snack? Say, "Uh-oh" and walk out of the room before you can give in to temptation? Scenario 2 You check your receipt and realize the store clerk overcharged you by a few cents. Do you March back into the store and loudly demand things be made right? Quietly approach the customer service counter, explain what happened, and request a refund? Shrug and decide it is not enough money to waste time on? The way you answer these questions depends on your personality and personal circumstances (health, finances), but it also depends, more than we sometimes like to admit on our mood and what else has...
Read More

Dress for Success, Part 1: Collars

by lennearbNo Comments
Story 1 We were walking our dog near our house when the dog ran up to greet Sirius Black. We looked around, but saw no one near the dog. When he approached close enough, we were able to catch hold of his collar and read the address, less than a block away. A minute later, we were ringing the doorbell and returning the dog home to his family, who didn't even know he was missing yet. Story 2 We were walking our dog near our house when the dog ran up to greet Sirius Black. We looked around, but saw no one near the dog. When she approached close enough, we were able to catch hold of her collar and read the information. The phone number had been disconnected, and the address turned out to be out of date. It took close to 18 hours to locate the dogs owner, only a few blocks away, and get her home.   Both of these stories are...
Read More

4 Pieces of Advice for Me

by lennearbNo Comments
Sometimes people talk about writing a letter to their younger selves. I haven't found any service that will deliver one of those yet, so I hope you can benefit from my advice. Train Earlier Bailey earner her nickname as the best dog. No matter what you wanted to do, she was happy to do it with you, whether that was a long hike or a lazy day on the couch. Her easy-going nature made it easy to ignore her less appealing traits, like going through the trash, as well as her issues, like stress in the car. When I finally started training with her, when she was 8, she was able to pass the Canine Good Citizen test on the first try. The experience also helped with other issues, like the car stress. I only wish I had tried it sooner. Don't Live Downtown Don't get me wrong: living downtown is the right choice for a lot of people, and it even seems to...
Read More

Happy Fourth!

by lennearbNo Comments
I love fireworks and thunderstorms. I feel almost guilty admitting this, when these loud noises are so terrifying for so many dogs, including Sirius Black. However, at moments like this, it seems especially important to admit the truth. This is Fourth of July weekend, and I will probably attend at least two fireworks shows this weekend. In fact, a lot of my planning around Fourth of July usually goes into deciding when and where to attend fireworks. And, since this is the mid-Atlantic in summer, I have been told to expect thunderstorms several days this weekend. That will make it an even tougher weekend for Sirius, who is already on edge after several bad storms this past week. It's always important to practice good fireworks safety, but it's especially important to look out for the safety of our pets during this holiday. Every year, many dogs and cats are reported missing over this weekend, since even pets that normally don't react to...
Read More

An Ounce of Prevention

by lennearbNo Comments
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We've all heard it, but we don't always apply it successfully to our own lives. However, prevention, often in the form of management, is a key aspect of training and behavior modification. This is especially important when we bring a new pet into our lives. Of course, no new pet, whether 8-weeks-old or 8-years-old is a completely blank slate; but, when we bring a new pet into our homes, we are creating new relationships and setting new patterns for behavior. At this point, we have the opportunity to act to prevent many behaviors that can cause problems in the future. One important step in this process is taking stock of the environment your new pet will be entering. Are there items a puppy or an anxious dog might chew? Expensive or irreplaceable items that might be knocked over or destroyed? For cats, is there an easily accessible litterbox that is not being used...
Read More
How I Got Here

How I Got Here

by lennearbNo Comments
My parents were visiting this weekend, and that got me thinking about a question I am asked fairly often: How did you become interested in working with multi-pet households? It's a question that I am never sure how to answer because I have never felt that it was something I became interested in, but rather, that I was born into. When I was born, my parents' household consisted of three dogs and a cat. One dog and a cat were my mother's from before their marriage, while one dog was my father's. They had rescued the third dog when they found her running loose in a grocery story parking lot. While these animals were a story of integration themselves, throughout my childhood, the animal composition of our household changed several times. As exciting or painful as each change was in itself, every change also necessitated a process of integration help new and resident animals adjust to new routines. During my childhood, I was...
Read More

A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words

by lennearb2 Comments
When I started training, we used to describe using a clicker to taking a Poloroid photo of the desired behavior. These days, however, many of my (human) students are too young to have more than a hazy idea of a Poloroid, so the analogy doesn't work quite as well anymore. However, I recently realized that the concept is even more relevant than it used to be. In an era when cellphone cameras capture every cute pose and expression our dogs make, what could be more relevant than the concept of taking a photo to capture desired behaviors? That is what markers help us do. Markers signal to our dogs when they have done something right. Of course, we reinforce our approbation with food or play rewards, but the use of a marker makes this connection cleaner and clearer. If you are rewarding a sit, during the delay between sit and treat, your dog may have looked at the ground, licked his lips, and...
Read More
Anything Dog Can Do…

Anything Dog Can Do…

by lennearbNo Comments
Most of us focus most of our training attention on our dogs. I do this just as much as others. I balance talking about training my dog with discussing cute things my cat does: sit in boxes; climb on my shoulders—sometimes while I am trying to brush my teeth; sit on my hands while I'm typing. But in doing this, I am selling my cat short, and you may be doing the same to yours. Cats, like most animals, are perfectly capable of being trained to do a number of things. Since most of us have cats that are smaller—and quieter!—than our dogs, we are often able to ignore a great deal more of their obnoxious behaviors. But I encourage you to pull our your clicker and treats with your cat in mind. I would guess that you would be shocked at how much your cat can be trained to do. That old adage that you can't train a cat is...
Read More
123