Phoenix Blog Competition: A Rough Start
By Kim Jukes Zeus had a rough start to his days at Fuzzy Friends Rescue in Waco, Texas two years ago. Early one morning, the staff came in to find that someone had thrown a young German shepherd puppy over the fence. When they did, he had cut his underside on the fence. Fence Jumper The staff at Fuzzy Friends Rescue, being compassionate as they are, took him in, neutered him and doctored his wounds. Then, they found out how high spirited he was. As a young pup, they couldn’t… Continued
Puppy Joint Problems: An Unexpected Detour
By Gail Radtke Porter came into Sam’s life at the age of 8 weeks old as a healthy, happy, and adorable American pit bull terrier pup. Sam had met both Porter’s breeder and his biological mother and could not have been happier to bring Porter home and start raising her puppy. Sam works as a veterinary assistant at an animal hospital in the Lower Mainland in British Columbia, Canada, and is well experienced in canine care. Porter was your typical happy, playful, and goofy puppy and Sam enrolled in puppy… Continued
BARKS Podcast with Debra Millikan of PPG Australia: October 2, 2020
Join Niki Tudge as she Chats and Chuckles with Debra Millikan, a PPG board member and steering committee member discussing the Pet Professional Accreditation Board and Pet Dog Ambassador program. Pet Professional Accreditation Board Leran how the three Pet Professional Accreditation Board (PPAB) credentialing levels developed and evolved, what they involve, and how you can become an ethical, credentialed force-free professional. PPAB sets a very high standard for competency and each credentialing level tests knowledge, basic training skills, conditioning a positive emotional response, running classes and, for the behavior consultant… Continued
Puppies Being Puppies
By Sally Bradbury Preventing food guarding at mealtimes is usually pretty straightforward: simply allow puppy to eat in peace. If you have more than one dog, feed them separately and teach them that the presence of a human near their food bowl always means they are there for the sole purpose of adding a tasty treat to the bowl. Food Guarding Don’t be persuaded that you need to take your dog’s food away or put your hand in the bowl while he eats to make him tolerate or accept you… Continued
A Problem Like ‘Down’!
In a training class, I always find that a significant number of dogs (and their guardians, of course) have some trouble when it comes to learning/teaching how to lie down on cue. Why Teach Lie Down Anyway? If we can ask our dogs to lie down on cue, it can be really useful in terms of helping them relax and settle. Obviously, it’s great to have our dogs stay in one place and not leap all over the place or all over the furniture or our house guests, but for… Continued
Phoenix Blog Competition: Blake’s Story – Adopting a Prison Program Dog
By Rhonda York One of the many things I get to do as a dog trainer is train inmates at the Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas in tandem with the Leavenworth County Humane Society. It helps both the residents and dogs and we work together to train the dogs in the program to have good manners and basic skills. Last November, one of the dogs, Blake, had finished his training but hadn’t been adopted yet. I didn’t want him to go back to the shelter, so knowing he should be… Continued
Young Dogs Might Be More Similar to Human Teenagers Than We Think: New Research
By Naomi D. Harvey and Lucy Asher Speak to many dog owners and they will tell you that their once perfectly behaved puppy started to become “difficult” at around six to 12 months of age. There are articles all over the internet that advise owners on how to cope with teenage dogs. But until now there has been no scientifically documented evidence of behaviour changes in dogs during puberty. Our new study, published in Biology Letters, confirms what many dog owners and dog professionals have long suspected: that dogs have… Continued
Networking for Success
By Niki Tudge “More business decisions occur over lunch and dinner than any other time, yet no MBA courses are given on the subject.” – Peter Drucker Networking is an effective way to spread your value through those around you. Understanding the basic mechanics of networking will increase your success in delivering the right message about yourself to others. In this post, I will cover how to create an effective introduction and how to make a great first impression. Creating an Effective Introduction Most people form an opinion about you… Continued
BARKS Podcast with Veronica Sanchez of Cooperative Paws Service Dog Education: September 9, 2020
Join Niki Tudge as she chats with Veronica Sanchez of Cooperative Paws Service Dog Education about the service dog industry, public access dogs, and the concept of at-home service dogs, as well as her new program, Mobility Task Training How-To’s. Listen to Podcast here on a choice of platforms. Or simply click ‘Play’ below. Veronica Sanchez M.Ed CABC CPDT-KA is the founder of the Cooperative Paws Service Dog Coach™, an educational certification program for professional trainers. She teaches dog trainers how to train service dogs and how to incorporate service dog… Continued
Preventing Resource Guarding in Dogs
Resource guarding is a dog’s natural tendency to protect valued possessions such as food, toys or resting locations. From a dog’s perspective, the approach of a person or animal is a potential threat to losing the valued possession. The behavior reflects a lack of trust and a fear of loss. Dogs in the wild must guard their food, water and shelter or they cannot survive. Domestic dogs will of course survive if someone takes their chew bone away, but their behavior is influenced by 32,000 years of evolution. If a… Continued
Phoenix Blog Competition: Choices Matter
By Maria Zarate As a veteran shelter professional, I’ve always sought outside the box to find effective and efficient methods to help residents skill build. Here are three “go to” methods we use regularly in the shelter environment and I hope you find them helpful too. Pillow Case Feeds What to do with all those donated pillow cases? Don’t toss them, use them instead to feed the residents who eat quickly or who enjoy a good game of “find it”. Pillow case feedings make meal times fun and help slow… Continued
The Importance of Ethograms
By Dr. Sheryl L. Walker With a background in behavior analysis and animal behavior, I am easily captured by behavior in the wild. I was driving to work a couple of weeks ago and stopped to watch a family of geese walk across the street. One adult was in the front, one adult was at the back, and they were separated by four juveniles. The adult at the back was moving his head back and forth with his beak open, I’m assuming making some type of noise. Those 30 seconds… Continued
BARKS Podcast with Laurie C. Williams of Pup ‘N Iron: September 4, 2020
Niki Tudge is joined by Laurie C. Williams the Owner of Pup ‘N Iron® in Virginia to discuss diversity in the dog training profession. Listen to Podcast here on a choice of platforms. Or simply click ‘Play’ below. Laurie C. Williams CPDT-KA has had a love of and connection with dogs from as far back as she can remember. She is the owner and director of training and behavior counseling at Pup ‘N Iron Canine Fitness and Learning Center in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she has been serving her community as a… Continued
Phoenix Blog Competition: Traumatized Dog
By Rhonda York Claire, an Aussie/cattle dog mix, came to live with us in May 2016. When I brought her home to foster her, I had no idea how to help her. She was completely unsocialized to humans and utterly terrified of everyone and everything—except for my two Labs, Angel and Buddy. I read many books, but nothing addressed how traumatized she really was. I regularly volunteer at PAWS for Life animal shelter in Pueblo, Colorado and am used to hyper dogs, big dogs, slightly OCD dogs and nervous dogs.… Continued
Getting Exercise Just Right!
By Robyn Lowe of PPG corporate partner Canine Arthritis Management Exercising and the Arthritic Dog I would like everyone to meet Daisy, the apple of my eye. She’s a Chihuahua cross Jack Russell terrier and is extremely active for her size (2kg). Unfortunately Daisy has osteoarthritis (OA) in her hips; exercise has changed a little now. I now know how hard it is to get it right, not over do it so they are sore the next day but not to restrict exercise so much that you ruin their fun!… Continued
Practice Makes Perfect
By Joanna Moritz Nobody likes going to the vet’s office with a sick pet. But here are some simple rules to follow that will make your trip more pleasant for you, your dog and the office staff – and that’s a win-win-win. 1. Practice Makes Perfect The less stressed your dog is for an exam, the better for everyone involved. So: If you have a puppy or a small dog, put him on your washer or dryer occasionally and practice touching him all over – and give him treats while… Continued
BARKS Podcast with Judy Luther of Trust Centered Training: August 26, 2020
Join Niki Tudge where she Chats and Chuckles with Judy Luther, chair of the PPG Canine Committee. Their discussion explores the great programs the committee is working on such as Project Trade, standard training procedures for boundary training, and so much more. Listen to Podcast here on a choice of platforms. Or simply click ‘Play’ below. Judy Luther is based in the St. Louis, Missouri metro area and Branson, Missouri and has provided training and behavior consulting services for a variety of species, both domestic and exotic, for over 27 years.… Continued
Raising a Puppy
By Sally Bradbury If you’ve read the children’s book Jack and Billy: Puppy Tales that I co-wrote with Steven Goodall, you may remember that we related the tale of two littermates who were placed into two very different homes. Explains Norris (2019): “In the case of Jack and Billy, both puppies go to homes that are similar: they both have children, both puppies have access to toys, both puppies are to be crate trained and house trained, and both puppies go out for walks. But there is a big difference… Continued
Celebrating National Dog Day 2020
By Bella / Animal Courses Direct, a PPG corporate partner In honor of our canine companions, Animal Courses Direct are celebrating National Dog Day 2020 with some truly inspirational stories from some of our students. “My Four-Legged Glasses Called Karma” Anne, from London, is completely blind and so depends on her wonderful helper Karma to get around. Karma, the dog, is the perfect supportive companion, helping Anne with day-to-day life. One day, Anne had to go into the city center to deliver some documents to a particular office. Karma did… Continued
How to Be More in Tune with Your Dog
How can I bond better with my dog? How do we connect more? I’m not even sure she even likes me! We care about our dogs and, as a consequence, we worry about questions such as these from time to time. Certain situations or scenarios mean they just pop into our head from time to time and, most likely, they’re completely unfounded. Having said that, there’s definitely room to think about how we can be a little more ‘in tune’ with our dogs – if we are, both our lives… Continued
Phoenix Blog Competition: Understanding Behavior
By Kimm Hunt In my second week as an animal control officer, a few heartbeats away from my 21st birthday, I had a rude awakening about the realities of working in animal welfare. The incident set the course for my professional career, including my current work in animal behavior and training almost 30 years later. A 14-week-old pit bull-type puppy I picked up had just completed his seven-day stray holding period at our shelter and I was crushing on him. He was sociable, wiggly and adorable. The sympathetic woman who found… Continued
Quick Cat Behavior Tip: Trimming Claws
By the PPG Cat Committee While there are a lot of cats who may not initially be terribly keen on the whole claw trimming process, there are ways to make it enjoyable and fun for both parties. This article will explain the steps cat owners can take to make it a more pleasant, stress-free experience all round. Important Reminders: Trimming a cat’s claws can prevent damage to furniture and other household items, as well as to humans, from inadvertent scratches. Often the biggest challenge isn’t the claw trimming itself but… Continued
Stumbling through Puppy Socialization
In 1983 my wife and I moved into our first home on a ¾ acre lot in a small city and could finally have a puppy. She was a black Labrador Retriever whose AKC registration name was Monona Midnight Melody, but we called her Samantha. We knew nothing about raising a puppy and there were not abundant dog trainers to work with, nor could we have afforded them at the time. I bought the best-selling dog training book available and tried to teach Samantha according to the instructions of the… Continued
Bath Time
By Robyn Lowe of PPG corporate partner Canine Arthritis Management After coming home from our walk the other day, Daisy needed a bath. It got me thinking… Daisy is 2kg (4.4 lbs)… yes 2kg! (that’s not Daisy in the picture, just in case you wondered!) She can be bathed in the bath, shower or even the sink. She’s extremely easy to support and doesn’t slip or jump about when getting baths. I know for a fact this isn’t true of all dogs and especially for larger breeds it’s extremely difficult… Continued
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