Professional Paws Pet Blog
A professional dog trainer’s thoughts on training, animal behavior, pet care and more!
Training and Communicating with a Deaf Dog
Throughout my personal life and professional career I have worked with, loved, and lived with deaf dogs. Dogs can be born without their ability to hear, or they can lose their hearing later in life due to accident, injury, or just the natural aging process. As far as the training process goes, it is extremely similar to training a dog that can hear. In honor of Deaf Pet Awareness week, I wanted to go over some ways that we can tweak things to make training and communication easier with these special dogs.
Should Your Dog Respect You?
This a request that a lot of clients or potential clients have when they first contact me. If it doesn’t come up prior to booking services, it often comes up during the training process. “I want my dog to respect me.” I hope to shed some light on this common desire, but there isn’t a short or easy response to this. Basically, it depends on what you mean by “respect.”
The Truth About Balanced Training
Dog training is not a regulated field, and because of this, there are several different types of training and different methodologies that trainers may use to induce behavior change. Some of these are more effective and humane than others. Balanced dog training is a style of training that combines the use of positive reinforcement and physical corrections for bad behavior. Advocates for this type of training may make it sound appealing, but don’t believe the hype.
3 Tasty Homemade Dog Treat Recipes to Try at Home
Food rewards are extremely effective for teaching our dogs more appropriate behaviors. I find personally that our spoiled hounds sometimes get bored of eating the same store purchased treats over and over. We do what we can to keep things fresh and random by purchasing different brands and flavors and textures. However, an easy and cheap way to add some pizzazz to your treating routine is to make your own dog treats. This can also be a great option for dogs with medical issues or allergies that prevent them from safely eating certain foods or ingredients, since you control what goes into the cookies. I have listed and linked my favorite DIY dog treat recipes below. Enjoy!
Never Punish Your Dog for Growling
Today while I was working with Tule, something happened. A dog approached us displaying really upfront and excited behaviors and iffy body language. The dog was straining on leash to get to us, and we were in a crowded space. Before I could duck out of the way the owner lets the dog run up to Tule who is now trapped with nowhere to go. Before I could ask the owner to pull their dog back Tule growled and let out a single (but loud) bark. Luckily, the human took the hint and took their dog away, as I apologized. So what was my response as a dog trainer?