A few decades ago, an interesting thing happened. Animal trainers, with their practical experiential knowledge, and behavioral scientists, with their experimental knowledge, began talking with each other. The [...]

In Animal Behavior, the use of Operant Conditioning with Stimulus, Response, Reinforcement is the most effective way to train an animal to do the desired response or behavior. [...]

If you can’t directly supervise the puppy (especially during the first month), put the puppy in a confined space by closing doors and blocking access. Feed the puppy [...]

Timing “potty breaks” As a general rule, potty the puppy before and after naps and about 15 minutes after feeding. At 9 weeks, take the puppy out for [...]

Getting your dog to focus on you is one of the most important foundations for successful additional training. If your dog isn’t focused on you, he isn’t likely [...]

Perhaps an owner ’s greatest concern is getting his dog to come when called. This can be a life saving command and needs to be reliably learned as [...]

The cues of “sit” and “down” are probably among the most frequently trained.  If you are considering going on in formal Obedience and/or Rally training and competition, you will find that [...]

What's the difference? These two cues are often used interchangeably and are also confusing to handlers. Both are telling the dog to remain where he is. The reality [...]

The “Leave it” cue is an important one for safety of your pet and those around you. It can be used to have your pet ignore specific items [...]

Targeting is a method of training your dog to follow or go to a specific target. It has been used in formal obedience training for years, most often [...]

Two Main Reasons Why Dogs Pull The number one training issue of most pet owners is that their dog pulls on the leash and what they want is [...]

Quick Review Before we can work on stopping unwanted behavior, we need to do a quick review about understanding animal behavior in general. Take a few minutes to [...]