PetLvr.com - [The Blog]

Once a dog has learned to sit, come, fetch, and stay, and perhaps do a few tricks, many pawrents stop training new behaviors. It’s easy to stop with the basics, but ongoing training yields many rewards. Dogs learning new behaviors throughout their lives are happier, calmer, and can even help with chores around the house. Armed with just a clicker and a bag of treats, you can teach these useful behaviors to your dog. This is the first of a series.

Answer the Phone

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As anyone who’s ever had a fearful adult dog can attest, eliminating an established fear is tricky, whether it’s a common one like thunderstorm phobia or something more unusual, like a friend of a friend’s dog who’s afraid of pineapples. It takes patient, persistent desensitization to eliminate fear, and even when everything’s been done correctly, one startling experience can turn the “cured” dog back into a quivering mess. So, it’s clear that preventing fears from developing in the first place is the preferable option. But how does one do that?

Socialization Scavenger Hunt

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Many dogs retrieve (fetch) naturally, and begin to do so from puppyhood with no special training and no reward other than their enjoyment of retrieving. However, other dogs either don’t chase a ball at all, don’t return the ball after chasing it, or will only fetch occasionally. If your dog isn’t a retriever by nature, but visions of throwing the tennis ball at the dog park are dancing in your head, don’t despair; any dog healthy enough for vigorous activity can learn to fetch and to enjoy the activity.

Capture the Behavior

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Does your cat allow only a certain number of strokes before turning and nipping your hand? If so, you’re in good company. Many cats, of all genders, ages, breeds, sizes, and personality types, have the clearly defined behavioral pattern known as “petting and biting syndrome.” Most of these cats allow the same number of strokes during each petting session before biting, but others vary the number of strokes permitted.

The Problem

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It’s not always easy to find time for your dog, especially if you have work, a family, school, and other committments weighing heavily on your time. However, it doesn’t always take hours of hard work to prevent problem behaviors like barking, chewing, jumping, nipping, pacing, and begging. Eliminating a problem behavior that’s firmly entrenched can be very time-intensive, but if you’ve got an average dog and want to prevent future problems while improving her current behavior, all you need is an extra 15 minutes a day.

That doesn’t mean you can replace meeting your dog’s exercise needs with these 15 minute training sessions. However, if you can give up one section of the paper, 15 minutes of surfing the web, or half of a TV program, and dedicate that time instead to training your dog, here are five ways you can use that time to improve your relationship with your dog and build productive behaviors while preventing undesirable ones. More →

It’s easy to explain most of the behaviors displayed by a dog as related to dominance. But is it correct? Sometimes, yes, but sometimes this over-simplified characterization of behavior does more for the human than the dog. It’s easier to convince someone that to change a behavior like mounting, scent marking, or jumping on the furniture, you just need to dominate your dog and show him that you are the alpha, than to convince someone that training, time, and patience are needed.

There is a pervasive myth in play here: More →

It’s a familiar scene to many pet owners: Fido is gnawing the couch or has gotten into the trash and is dragging rubbish all over the new carpet. Naturally, your first reaction may be to shout, “No!” Fido stops and drops the moldy chicken casserole as you chant, “No! No! No! Bad dog!”

He stopped, right? So what could possibly be wrong with telling your dog, “No?” More →

Guinea pigs, or cavies, are like any other species in having a number of distinctive behaviors. Within that broad outline, of course, each pig will have its own peculiarities. It’s the latter that makes detailing the former a little tricky.

Most guinea pigs enjoy companionship, both of other cavies and of humans. How do we judge when a guinea pig is happy? The same way we would judge ourselves or any other animal - by its behavior. Dogs wag their tails when happy, but tuck it between their legs when they’re fearful. Similarly, guinea pigs give a number of tell-tale signs to signal their moods.

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