• Set your dog up for success over the holidays!
•  “Out” is a useful cue with your dog when preparing your holiday meal
• The benefits of play for dogs
• Successfully training a dog not to chase cars or anything else
• Links and Social Stream Activity

Please Share This Email

Forward This Email

Happy holidays to our subscribers!  Please stay safe in your travels and we hope you get to spend lots of time with your animals!  We'll be taking a few days off and getting out for some hiking, snow shoeing and generally just playing around with our dogs.  

Here's a few timely articles that might help you and your dog over the holidays!

Set your dog up for success over the holidays!

The holiday season tends to be very hectic for most of us. This means some of our usual routines go out the window. Unfortunately, for our dogs, this often includes training, walks and other important bonding and exercise time.

 

Romeo's first Christmas in 2009- visiting family in California

 

When people travel without their dogs, many people see their dogs’ manners and training take a nosedive. Dogs are often boarded at a kennel where it can be noisy and stressful. Dogs are bombarded with barking dogs and get very little, if any exercise. Other dogs are able to stay in their own homes with a petsitter or stay in the home of friends or family. In most cases, the dogs’ normal routines, training, and manners are not kept up. When you return home, you feel like you’re starting over again.
 

Click here to read the rest of the article.

 “Out” is a useful cue with your dog when preparing your holiday meal

The previous post above, Set your dog up for success over the holidays!, included training tips for setting your dogs up for success over the holidays when we often do not stick to our normal routines. For this post, I am including a tip for a specific issue many people have at the holidays. How many stories have you heard about dog’s getting into the holiday meal when food is left on kitchen counters or the dining room table?

 

Has your dog ever done this before?

 

If you will be hosting a holiday meal, you will most likely be focused on cooking, visiting with family, and other things. Your dog might not get as much attention, which means he might not get enough exercise either. Add that to the tasty smells wafting from the kitchen, and you have the recipe for potential problems with your dog!

Click here to read the rest of the article.

The benefits of play for dogs

Play is fun for our dogs. It’s fun for us to watch our dogs having fun. But we often don’t consider all of the possible benefits of play for our dogs beyond just having fun. In my training, I point out that play is a great opportunity for our dogs to learn our rules. It’s a great opportunity for our dogs to learn how to interact appropriately with us as well as do what we ask even in states of higher arousal. Whether our dogs are playing with us or with other dogs, there are important lessons to learn during play.

 

Romeo's favorite game of chase with best buddy August

 

According to Marc Bekoff, an author and former Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in his book, The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow and Empathy – and Why They Matter:
 

Click here to read the rest of the article. 

Successfully training a dog not to chase cars or anything else

I recently received an email from a client who had completed our Basic Training Online Course. Training was going well except for one specific distraction: this dog loves to chase cars. When this dog accidentally got out, he chased a car and was injured. That didn’t stop him from wanting to chase cars – even with casts still on!  Chasing is one of the problem behaviors discussed in my new book, scheduled to be published in February 2012: Juvenile Delinquent Dogs: The Complete Guide to Saving Your Sanity and Successfully Living With Your Adolescent Dog.

 

One outlet for the desire to chase: a game of chase with other dogs. Picture of a recent playdate with 5 other dogs at our house

 

Here is the condensed version of my advice for this eight month old dog, which applies to dogs who want to chase cars, rabbits, people, bikers, other dogs, or anything else.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Links and Social Stream Activity

• First Dogs Came from East Asia, Genetic Study Confirms
• Canine Coats and Jackets for Dogs
• This is not dog related, but too awesome not to share: Mimic Octopus
• Some good reminders here: 5 ways to help your pet live longer
• Dogs chasing their tails on YouTube could be a sign of welfare issues and pathological conditions

Sue Brown, MNM, CDBC, CPDT-KA and Ed Soehnel, The wife/husband team of The Light of Dog, with Jahzara, our Greyhound and Romeo, our Vizsla. 

Sue conducts all training for Love My Dog Training, our business in metro-Denver, Colorado, since 2004. Sue has been providing dog training and behavior counseling since 1996. She is a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant and Certified Professional Dog Trainer with over 15 years of experience. She has written for the APDT Chronicle of the Dog and was a contributor to the book The Association of Pet Dog Trainers Top Tips from Top Trainers: 1001 Practical Tips and Techniques for Successful Dog Care and Training published in 2010. She also writes a bimonthly Ask the Trainer column for the Colorado Greyhound Adoption newsletter and is the the Co-Founder of the Colorado Dog Trainers Network, which provides networking, training and dog -related education, business education, and referral sources for trainers in Colorado. Her designations include: approved Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Evaluator; Certified Dog Behavior Consultant through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants; Certified Professional Dog Trainer through the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers; and, a Professional Member and the Greeter for the State of Colorado of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers.

Ed’s background is leading consumer product/service companies, from start-up through exit. He has a strong skill set in marketing, sales, branding, product development and finance. He splits most of his time between The Light Of Dog and Love My Dog Training, but also provides consulting to start-up and small consumer product companies and owns a small tree farm where he and Sue live. Ed has an MBA from the University of Denver

Please Share This Email

Forward This Email

Did someone else forward this email to you?  Then we invite you to subscribe to our mailing list  to get our latest blog posts directly in your inbox.