I’m sure by now you’ve seen or heard of Stella, the talking dog. In case you haven’t, here is a link to her blog: https://www.hungerforwords.com/ . At first, I was amazed and blown away. But after thinking about this concept for a couple of days, I realized that the ability to communicate different needs or wants is something that my dogs (and yours) have been doing for a long time. A speech board makes communication between canine and human far clearer. Everyone knows that potty bells can be the best thing for potty training or the most annoying. Many dogs quickly discover that ringing the b ..read more

Something happened today and since I've cooled down I realize how lucky that it was me and not a neighbor. I very rarely walk all of my dogs together for reasons that aren't incredibly important for this story. Today was Mirage's turn for the neighborhood 2 mile patrol. While we were starting on our way home, I heard a dog alert barking. I couldn't see a dog and figured we were being barked at from behind a window. I was wrong. A large dog (~80lbs I'd say) was barking at us from his yard while we were a few houses down the road. From where we were, I was unable to tell if he was tethered or no ..read more

Let's talk for a moment about head collars. I'm hearing a lot of opinions from the dog training community that head collars are being considered aversive. And I understand that idea. But here's the thing: anything can be aversive. It isn't up to you, the person, to decide what is and isn't aversive. It's up to the dog. Anything the dog finds uncomfortable is, by definition, aversive. This includes boots, costumes, harnesses, sweaters, collars, etc. Again, it is up to the dog. My son also found diapers aversive at one stage in his life. So we had to take time to get used to wearing them because ..read more