By: Ty Brown on Oct, 05, 2008 at 12:36 pm |
Just a quick video to show how much dogs can improve in a short time with the right methods. These Labradors have been in training for about two weeks at the shooting of this video. Before training they couldn’t even walk on a loose leash let alone follow along off leash.
By: Ty Brown on Oct, 04, 2008 at 12:28 pm |
This is a recent question from a reader of my website:
Question: I recently adopted a dog from an animal shelter. She’s precious. She keeps trying to “hump” my children’s teddy bears, though. She’s been fixed so I don’t understand why she does this. Can you please help me?
Answer: There are a few things to understand about your dog:
1- Fixing a female dog has nothing to do with sex drive. Fixing a male dog may alter certain behaviors that are characteristic of sex and gender but that is not the case with females.
2- Mounting is not a sexual behavior. Mounting is a dominance behavior. What your dog is doing is her way of exerting dominance over those stuffed animals.
The problem is easy to fix. Engage her in obedience training and teach her what ‘no’ means. Good luck.
By: Ty Brown on Oct, 03, 2008 at 12:17 pm |
This is a recent question from a reader of my site:
Question:We have an 11 year old Bichon who has been queen of our house. We recently added a puppy to our household and the Bichon is refusing to eat or have anything to do with the puppy or us. She even growled at the puppy and has NEVER growled at anything, including babies who pulled her hair. What do you make of this situation? My husband is so upset he wants to give the puppy back.
Answer:Your Bichon is obviously stressed out by the new addition to the family. Stress does different things to different dogs. In your case it has caused your dog to stop eating.
First of all, don’t worry about your dog going off her food unless it continues for a long time. Dogs have a strong survival instinct and I have never heard of a dog starving himself.
Second, don’t coddle her. The natural reaction of many people would be to coddle a dog like this. The problem is that you would be coddling her frame of mind. Right now her frame of mind is that of stressed out and nervous. If you coddle her you would be sending her the message that acting like this is okay.
Third, try some obedience with both dogs. Obedience is very calming and soothing for dogs and reinforces the bond with the owner.
Fourth, giver her time. If she is very stressed it may take her a while to get used to the new pup in the house. Don’t give away the new puppy, you made a commitment. Train both dogs so that you can restore happiness for everyone.
By: Ty Brown on Oct, 02, 2008 at 12:05 pm |
This is a recent question from a reader of my website:
Question: My dog has always been really good about staying in our yard if I let her out to go to the bathroom. Lately, she’s been running away a lot. This morning my husband let her out. In a short time, she had already run off. She ended up at the elementary school across a major road. The only thing I can think of is we just had our neighborhood repaved. A neighbor said the smell of new asphalt can make pets crazy. Apparently her cats have been running away. Could this be it?
Answer: There are literally hundreds of reasons why a dog may run off including the dog going into heat, being distracted, getting older and more independent, etc. Whether or not the asphalt is the cause of the issue doesn’t matter, the solution is the same regardless of the cause….GET A FENCE!
No responsible dog owner is going to allow their dog to be in an unfenced yard unsupervised. Dogs that aren’t contained are dogs that are likely to get hit by cars or poisoned by annoyed neighbors. Loose neighborhood dogs are so much more likely to bite a child or another dog. Dogs without fences are a nuisance as they go to the bathroom in neighbors yards, dig up neighbors gardens, and steal items from neighbors yards. NOT ONE OF THESE SCENARIOS IS POSSIBLE IF THE DOG IS PROPERLY CONTAINED. I’m not saying that everyone with a dog needs a fence. If you don’t have a fence, though, it is your responsibility to never allow that dog alone outside.