Many pet guardians think that training their dog is only crucial if they have a problem behavior or something that needs to be fixed. Or they believe that

Terry Ryan is known for her pithy wisdom, patience, and signature classes that are creative, fun, and effective. Her training games help improve the performance of both canine

A recent paper from Gilchrist et al. (2021), “The click is not the trick: the efficacy of clickers and other reinforcement methods in training naïve dogs to perform new tasks,”

I am asked regularly, “What are the first behaviors that we should train our animals? Does the order matter? How do we determine what should be trained first?”

Oh, my aching arm Get your dog to walk without pulling! But how? We are masters at allowing our dogs to drag us down the street. The most

What a difference a day makes You and your little four-legged bundle of joy arrive home. 24 hours later you begin to question your sanity, wondering what has

Luring is legal Let me start by saying that if you decide to use a food lure, you are NOT committing a “training felony,” and the “’lure police” will

Picture the possibilities Imagine teaching your dog to put his hind feet—just his hind feet—on a mat. Or, imagine teaching your cat to give a high-five. What if

Run toward the sun In busy families, the front door seems to be in perpetual motion, constantly revolving and providing myriad opportunities for escape. Friends and clients who

How did that happen? One day, I woke up and my Labrador, Zam, was old. It happened that quickly. Suddenly, his eyesight and hearing weren’t that great anymore.

Free shape—or not? Free shaping is a type of animal training where you teach the behaviors in gradual steps using a marker, like a clicker, and rewards. Shaping can be a great

Most often, a sit where the animal pops up immediately is not the goal. So, how do you train your dog to maintain duration of a sit? The