A new trick Many dog guardians complain that their dogs steal food from kitchen counters or even the dinner table. A term was even coined to describe this behavior:

Clipping, snipping, brushing, poking… Pets have to tolerate not-so-pleasant procedures during grooming or veterinary care. But it’s hard to convince a feisty Fido that it’s great fun to

Focus on the student and the process Someone recently asked me how the term “microshaping” developed, and what, exactly, it means. I think I probably originated that term

Happy New Year! When you make your New Year’s resolutions this year, why not include your dog? Popular resolutions such as “get more exercise” can easily include the

Recognize your dog? Do you have an excitable, active, or reactive dog? Does one or more of the following phrases describe your dog? Wishful thinking Wouldn’t it be

Old view, new view The old school of thought was that playing tug with your dog would teach him to be “dominant” and should be avoided at all

Scent discrimination is one of the “advanced” obedience exercises, but it is actually one of the easiest to train. Why? You are working with the dog’s single most

The limited hold is scientific terminology—laboratory slang, really—for a good way to use the marker and reinforcer to speed up response to a cue. We’re all used to sluggish responses. You call folks

At an annual meeting of the Association for Behavior Analysis, where over 2,000 behavioral scientists gather each year, a woman professor with whom I was acquainted told me she had

When do I fade the click? How do I fade the click? We hear those questions all the time. The smart-aleck answer is “Never.” Because we don’t “fade”

“Clicker training is easy,” said the woman in the puppy class. “It’s growing a third hand that is hard!” Like many beginning clicker trainers, she’s discovered that clicker training is as

When we first start out clicker training, we tend to get very excited about the fact that we can teach the dog a new behavior in just a few clicks. Suddenly,