Annie & her dog, Amos.
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Once you have set the stage to up the chances that you'll get lots of behaviors you want (see The Dog Training Triad Part 1: Management), you'll need to figure out how to reinforce those behaviors. In this episode, Annie discusses, among other things:
-The difference between reinforcers and rewards
-Discerning whether something is a reinforcer
-Figuring out your dog's individual reward cornucopia
-Understanding rewards as currency
-The changing value and appropriateness of rewards
-"Real life" rewards
-The importance of treat size when using food
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There are three major ingredients required in any positive reinforcement-based dog training plan. They are: Management, Timing, and Rewards. This episode is about Management, and is the first of a three part series on the Triad.
Simply put, management is all about making the right options the easy options for your learner in order to up the chances of getting the behaviors you want. In this episode, Annie looks at the many ways in which we can set up our dog students for success by controlling their physical space, and the ways in which we can also smartly manage their time and energy.
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In New York City, a good dog walker can be hard to find. Dog owners open up their homes to them, and put their most beloved and vulnerable family members in their care, but a majority of walkers have no training or even interest in their chosen career. DivaDog is a walking company that strives to bring professionalism to the industry. I interview its owner, Shelley Goldberg, about her three decades in the business, her hiring and management practices, and finding meaning and soulfulness in the pet care industry.
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As someone who works with pets and pet owners and spends a lot of time on social media, I see lots of photos of dogs. In fact, I see so many dog photos that it can be hard to judge a single one as good or bad any more than I could judge the value of a single grain of sand. But every now and then, I’ll see a picture that really gets my attention. It was a photo like that that helped me first discover the work of Milla Chappell, owner of Real Happy Dogs.
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For our first Q + A episode, I addressed questions from three listeners. Two of the questions in this episode are about jumping — one is about dealing with a dog who is jumping on people on the street, and the other is about jumping on people who enter the home. The third question is about a dog who is dealing with a lot of fear regarding novel things, people and dogs.
If you would like to have a question answered, I will be happy to answer it!
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This week’s episode is all about the dog flu which has recently swept through the NYC area. I’ve heard different numbers thrown around, but it’s safe to say that somewhere around 100 cases have been diagnosed in New York City in the last month. To learn more, I interviewed Dr. Andrea Y. Tu of Park East Animal Hospital and Veterinary Behavior Consultations of NYC.
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If, when I was a little girl, someone had said “When you grow up, you can be a professional dog party planner,” I think growing up quickly would’ve become much more of a priority. I didn’t take that particular awesome life path, but Hayley Mehalco did!
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Nipping is something that tends to drive new puppy owners batty, for two reasons. Firstly, no one likes to be chewed on; secondly, there are just too many conflicting opinions out there on how to deal with it. A lot of the advice you’ll find on the Internet suggests scolding a pup for nipping; usually people are told they should use a high pitched voice (as if to emulate another puppy) or to berate the dog in the deepest voice possible. Here is a guide to understanding how to deal with nipping in a sensible way.
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What happens when you fall in love with a certain kind of dog, but then learn about all the genetic problems that plague the breed? You might eschew the breed all together, or you might just take your chances. Basket's owners did neither...
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Meet Anamarie Johnson, School For The Dogs’ longtime General Manager and one of our trainers. Anamarie is relentlessly peppy, talented and effortlessly funny woman and being her employer these last three years has been a complete pleasure.
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