There are thousands of dog trainers out there working with dogs. But there are also scientists hard at work discovering more about canine genetics, biology, behaviour, and cognition. What a wonderful thing it is when you can bring both of those worlds together. Imagine what we can learn!

Our dogs learn what we mean by “right” and “wrong” because we teach them our signals. But could we be teaching them more than we realize? Maybe we could be using more signals to improve our communication and our lives with our dogs.

Our dogs will sometimes get it wrong when we are training with them. How we deal with those mistakes determines not only how fast they learn the behaviour but also their attitude about working with us. Should we focus on getting the results we want or helping our dog get it right?

Dog trainers have learned that rewarding the behaviours you want can be a wonderfully effective way to train. Understanding the mechanics of how that reward system affects your dog’s learning can be a big help!

Training a dog is not as simple as it used to be. The current debates raging in the dog world show that quite clearly. Is it more important to be right than to help the dogs? Some trainers seem to think so.

One of the great joys of dogs is their silly nature. Shouldn’t we encourage that side of our dogs rather than saying “No!” when they get a little goofy? There’s nothing quite as much fun as being silly with our dogs. And we can do it safely.

Do you think you have a dominant dog? You might want to think again. In fact, you might want to take a step back and make sure of what you mean when you say “dominant.” You might be surprised.

Most dog owners are proud of their dogs when they are behaving themselves. But it never seems to amaze me how often dog owners blame their dogs for their own fails as trainers. Is it the owner or is it the dog? I’m pretty sure I know who is at fault.

Choosing a different approach to dog training can be difficult and a little scary. Especially if you have never done it that way before. When things seem to break down 7 years into your training it can be soul shaking. That’s when it’s all on the line and you have to trust that you made the right choices.

Most of us have had that feeling of relief at encountering something familiar when we are in a new situation. We shouldn’t be surprised that our dogs can feel that same sense of relief if we present them with something familiar when they are uncomfortable. Do you know what your dog has good feelings about? Do you know what comforts them? You can use that to help them learn and cope with difficult situations!