Snake-avoidance training can be a lifesaver for dogs that live among venomous snakes. A common way to train snake avoidance is to pair a strong aversive, like an electric

One of my greatest passions is conservation training; I lecture about this topic at every opportunity. I always end my talks with a call to action, inviting more

A search-and-rescue start Sometimes trainers venture into uncharted training territory without realizing how novel or new it might be. I have been teaching a graduate course on animal

My letters are usually training-related, but this time I want to share with you a personal story that affected me in a profound way. The details of the

A perplexing tool As I travel around the world lecturing about training, there are certain questions that come up again and again. The end-of-session signal, the keep-going signal, the

The controversial clicker Should we stop using a clicker? Is it really needed? A study by Chiandetti et al. published in November of 2016 in Applied Animal Behavior Science has raised many questions

Is the end-of-session signal beneficial or harmful? Should trainers use it or not? At a conference, I got into a debate with a group of search-and-rescue trainers about

A Mysterious Change in Behavior A few years ago, a search-and-rescue trainer named Sharon asked me to help problem-solve a perplexing case. Her dog, an energetic five-year-old Lab

Scents, in many scenarios Scent-detection training has been receiving more attention in recent years. The use of dogs to alert on explosives has become increasingly critical in our

I’ve always been fascinated by the cognitive abilities of animals. I used to teach a graduate course on animal intelligence. The popularity of the course was indicative of

As I write this article, I am in the middle of an exciting and quite lengthy period of travel. Jokingly, I have referred to this as my International Consulting