My Journal.
Ideas and Articles that help to enrich the relationship between dogs and people.
Zivah’s Page.
Zivah. Finding her the home that she deserves. 9-21-20 We have found a great home for Zivah. Thank you all for caring about her! Age: 3 years. Female/spayed. Australian Cattle Dog….. plus a little something else which would explain her lovely, long legs? One...
Socializing young puppies during Covid 19.
It is March 29th, 2020. We are at the height of the Covid-19 epidemic and I have an eight week old puppy. How am I going to socialize this puppy during a time when you have to stay at least 6 feet away from another human being? One of the silver linings about this...
Cooperative Care for Veterinary and Grooming.
Fear Free Cooperative Care. Do you dread taking your dog to the vet because it turns into such an ordeal? Does your dog become highly stressed and afraid or even aggressive during vet visits? Would you like to be able to groom your dog and clip toe nails and give at...
Is Lassie Coming Home?
Our changing domestic dog population. Our domestic dog population is changing. Twenty-five years ago shelters were overflowing with stray dogs, unwanted dogs, and unwanted litters of puppies. Dogs were given about three days to be claimed before being euthanized....
Reinforcement and Dogs. What is it?
When we talk about reinforcement in dog training what do we mean? Essentially, it means anything that lights up the reward center in an animals’s brain is a reinforcer. What is reinforcing to one animal is not necessarily reinforcing to another. How can we tell if...
Socialization. Let’s be clear.
Exactly what does socialization mean when we talk about domestic dogs? There is a lot of buzz these days about the importance of “socializing” our dogs, especially young puppies. There is also a lot of misunderstanding about what this means. I try to find clear...
Baker Pond.
Pisgah State Park in Chesterfield, NH is an absolute jewel. I try to hike the trails with Quicken as often as I can during the summer. We actually hiked the same loop last year on Christmas day! The trails are beautifully maintained. My favorite loop is a 2 1/2...
Counter Conditioning.
Changing the dog's emotional response. Much of my work is helping reactive dogs. In dog training, reactivity is a negative emotional response to some sort of trigger in the environment. Some examples of reactivity are when a dog explodes into lunging and barking, at...
Finding a Good Dog.
Be smart about it. This is a subject that could easily fill a book. Our domestic dog population is changing. In Vermont we used to be able to go to the local shelter and there was a good chance we could find a gentle, sociable dog that needed a new home. ...
Christmas Day Walk.
This year we have no snow. This is bad for critters and skiers but good for walking! Christmas Day was bright and sunny, around 30 degrees. Quicken and I went for a favorite hike in Pisgah State Park. We made a beautiful loop, up the Hubbard Hill Trail to Baker...