Do you need something fun to do with your dog? Check out Dog Scouts! The Texas Dog Scouts Minicamp is taking place this December. Don't miss out on this great way to have fun and also learn with your dog. It's a great way to bond with your dog and really advance your relationship with fun, games, and training. Check out the website for details!
Cara, Austin Dog Trainer
The American Veterinary Society for Animal Behavior has some excellent position papers on current practices and trends in dog training and behavior modification. Their paper on Dominance Theory is excellent! Check it out here.
Cara, Austin Dog Trainer
Many of my clients' dogs will listen to cues in the house but act like they're speaking Yiddish the minute they're out in public with their dogs. This is very frustrating, but it can be fixed! One of the first steps to take is to break down the criteria jump. Don't jump straight from doing a sit inside the house to doing a sit at the dog park! That jump in the criteria is much to difficult to expect your dog to do.
Instead, start out by asking your dog to sit in your backyard. Next, your front yard. Then, 5 steps down the street from your house. Make sure your dog gets a food, toy, or butt scratch reinforcer, not just praise for these!
Then. begin to ask for sits on walks around the neighborhood. Then, try a sit just after your dog gets out of the car at the dog park but not when you're right near the entrance. Pretty soon, you'll have worked your way up to a sit in the middle of the dog park even with other dogs around! You just have to break down the criteria and help your dog succeed by taking smaller steps towards your goal!
In my dog training classes in Austin, we teach dogs a sit stay. Whenever I begin to teach my students the sit stay, they always exclaim that their dog can do a great sit stay in front of the food bowl! Then, they hang their head and say that the dog can ONLY do the stay in front of the food bowl.
There's no reason for that! The food bowl is simply an asset that your dog wants to earn. Choose from any number of other assets that your dog wants and train your dog to stay for those! A ball your dog wants you to throw, a door your dog wants to walk through, a bone your dog wants to chew, a tug toy your dog wants from you, can all be assets that you teach your dog to stay for!
Cara, Austin dog trainer
We are working on getting the Austin Dog Scouts Troop back up and running! Dog Scouts is a wonderful organization that promotes responsible dog ownership and training in a fun way so that owners can really bond with their dogs! If you would like to volunteer for dog scouts or be a member in Austin, please contact us via our website at www.buddyschance.com.
Many of the dog training classes and board and train programs that we use in our Austin Dog Training Center are heavily focused on teaching dogs impulse control. Impulse control exercises are excellent for those dogs that we so lovingly refer to as Teenage Terrors at our Training Center! When you incorporate impulse control into your dog's daily routine, you effect their overall ability to focus and listen to you.
Here are some impulse control exercises you can work into your dog's schedule:
Teach our dog to sit and wait for a cue to go through doors
Teach your dog to do a down stay for all meals or food toys
Ask for a sit and eye contact during games like tug and fetch
Ask for sits periodically when your dog is playing with other dogs and then allow your dog to return to play as soon as they sit
Adding impulse control will help you see an overall improvement in your dog's training and responsiveness!
Cara Shannon, Austin Dog Trainer
I am currently raising my darling Rev, a ten week old puppy from a litter of Labradoodles that we raised at our Austin Dog Training Center. Raising Rev reminds me of how exhausting it can be to raise a puppy. In fact, I had planned on raising two of the litter's puppies (something I always recommend that clients DO NOT DO!) but it quickly became apparent that their training and socialization was suffering because I couldn't focus my attention on one without ignoring the other and there simply was not enough time in the day to work with each of them separately as I had intended.
As I take a break from chasing Reverend around the room, I stumbled on this story on the Dog Scouts webpage - what a great reminder to me to have patience as I raise my little man!
Cara, Austin Dog Trainer
Can you teach a three week old puppy to sit? You betcha!
Here is Hermione learning how to sit:
Our whole litter of 7 labradoodle puppies has begun learning to sit at our Austin Dog Training Center! They think it's fun and by week 4, they should have it on cue!
We are very excited to announce that our new DVD, Bad to the Bone: Analyzing and Assessing Dog Bites is set to shoot this Sunday and should be released for purchase within the coming months. The presenter is Cara Vacchiano, Austin Dog Aggression Consultant. In addition to helping dog owners with canine aggression on a routine basis, Cara teaches other dog trainers and dog behavior experts how to work with aggressive dogs. In this new DVD, Cara will teach dog trainers, behavior experts, veterinarians and their staff, and animal control officers how to properly assess bites to both humans and other dogs. The DVD uses actual photos to help dog behavior professionals assess risk and weigh the factors involved in tough dog aggression cases. There is currently no product like this on the market and dog trainers and consultants are eagerly awaiting the release of this much-needed educational product!
The babies and mom all cleared their vet checkup today and are catching up on their beauty sleep. The 7 puppies that are now being raised by our apprentice at our Austin Dog Training Center ranged from 4/10ths of a pound to 7/10ths of a pound. Although I was worried about her attention to the pups at first, Cider's instincts have kicked in and she's turning out to be a wonderful mama - the puppies are content, happy, and quiet. Rev, Cinder, Nutmeg, Chester, Harry, Hermione, and Ron can't wait to meet all of the friends that have been asking about them. So far, they've been visited by an infant, a toddler, many adults, and a fox and they can't wait to continue their socialization as they grow up. Here are more shots from day one of these tiny baby angels:
Rev
Cinder
Tiny Nutmeg, the runt! She's eating very well, so she'll catch up on weight soon!
Hhhhmmm. I can't tell from the picture which one this is. Could be Chester?
Cara, Austin Dog Training and Dog Behavior Consultations
