by Emily Larlham Food: Keep your dog’s treats as healthy as you can. Real meat is a great treat because it is healthy and easy to swallow quickly. Less healthy treats are tiny bits of cheese, hot dog, bread and other table scraps. Find out which treats are the most and the least reinforcing for […]
“There are no bad dogs, only dogs that need more guidance and training.” by Emily Larlham I was recently asked, “Well if you don’t use corrections, what do you do when your dog does something you don’t like?” And I was stumped because I could not think of one thing at that moment that my […]
By Emily Larlham Every time a puppy is reinforced for putting teeth on human skin, a bite-reinforcement history is being created. Take mouthing seriously and make sure you do not reinforce it! Ignoring biting is a bad idea because it is self-reinforcing! There are many ways to stop biting from being reinforced. Use your judgment […]
By Emily Larlham The world can be a scary place for a young puppy. This is especially the case if the breeder or previous caregiver did not take the litter of puppies out-and-about in the company of their own mother and littermates in order to socialize them to everything they will see and hear in […]
by Emily Larlham Sitting in a room full of pregnant women and their husbands in a local hospital in San Diego, California, just moments before hearing Madeline Gabriel’s lecture, “Dogs and Babies: Play It Safe,” I thought to myself, “I am sure I know all of this stuff! “ Boy, was I wrong. I wish […]
by Emily Larlham Fading a lure, or teaching your dog to offer a behavior without having a treat waved in front of his face can seem like a daunting task if you have never done it before. However, once you have gotten over the first hurdle of your dog’s dependency on the treat lure for […]
by Emily Larlham You should never ignore behaviors your dog or puppy does that you find “undesirable” if the behaviors are self-reinforcing. This is because by practicing the behaviors the dog will find them reinforcing and be more likely to continue doing them in the future. By repetition the “undesired” behavior attains a reinforcement history, […]
By Emily Larlham Perhaps you adopted a puppy from another home where he was kept only outside, or perhaps you yourself have decided to keep your dog inside the house from now on. A very normal response for a puppy or even an adult dog who has never or rarely been in a house […]
