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Is a Dog’s Comfort Zone Really That Comfortable?
“Your comfort zone will kill you” I couldn’t agree more. Only after breaking out of your comfort zone, patterns or dependent habits can you truly grow. Dogs practice behaviors that produce rewards as well as behaviors that relieve stress. They may practice aggression BECAUSE it’s a release of stress. It becomes comfortable to do so. It becomes comfortable to just act the way you act, and use your old mechanisms to deal with the things that bother you in life. Even though it may not look like it, a dog’s “comfort zone” can be really uncomfortable: barking, whining, reactivity, restlessness,
Half of Dog Training is Doing Nothing
Dogs don’t know how to do nothing. They’re really bad at it and they need our help at making them feel like it is a comfortable option. Let’s be real, left to their own devices dogs will make really, really crappy decisions. Even if they are well trained, in the absence of the owner they can make really poor choices. Most dogs do not know how to self soothe in any way. Crate training, place command and obedience commands with duration, teach dogs to control their impulses, regulate their adrenaline, and feel comfortable doing nothing… even when the world around
Anxiety in Pet Dogs and CBD
Anxiety is probably the biggest emotional issue in pet dogs today. They are anxious for so many reasons: they are not performing job/tasks for what they were bred for, we shower them with unearned affection, we allow too much freedom and not enough structure, we are completely confusing to dogs with our constant talking/fawning over them. Pet dogs live in a world-wind of confusion. Hampton a current board and train student, has lashed out aggressively in many ways. But his barking/biting/lunging is not his “problem” his problem is his anxiety. His anxiety is what’s making him lash out. You can
The Power Of The Place Command
The “place” command is probably the most posted and talked about command/skill in dog training. Place has all kinds of uses for all different types of behavioral issues. I love place for hyperactive dogs to use as an off-switch for arousal. I will use place as a “safe zone” for extremely fearful dogs. I convince the dog that when they are on the bed no one ever comes over and “pops their bubble”. You can actually transfer that concept of the dog feeling like they have a safety bubble around them, to the outside world and different objects. It’s really
Unpredictable Behavior?
On many occasions I’ve heard people describe their dog’s behavior as “unpredictable”. Trainers know that dogs are not only predictable in their actions, but highly predictable. Identifying these triggers is something that should be left to the assessment of professionals, as things are so often misdiagnosed by pet owners. If I had to give an example of a situation where I thought “unpredictable behavior” would be prevalent there is one scenario that comes to mind immediately: the re-introduction of litter mates as adults. I am fortunate enough to be very good friends with people who have litter mates of two
Baby Talking to Dogs: Good or Bad?
How dreadful, how dare I! I’m going to reinforce her fear by baby talking to her! Oh, no! How selfish of me. There are many grey areas in dog training. There are many things that are incredibly counterintuitive as well. It has become popular opinion that baby talking to dogs is a terrible thing that reinforces all kinds of bad behavior. Here’s what I have to say about the topic: Reinforcement has to be something the dog wants. It also has to be something the dog wants in that particular moment. Could baby talking to a dog and coddling them
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