The majority of gundogs are natural swimmers and love nothing better than doing it for pure pleasure. There is a skill to it, and experience alongside confidence is also required. Some dogs find the paddling action difficult to master at first, causing them to lift out the water at the front end whilst the rear end sinks—lots of splashing but no movement. This is one of those skills where practice does make perfect.
Dogs
When Are You Coming Home? How to Ease Separation Anxiety
By Irith Bloom on 07/01/2011Alone again
Separation anxiety is a problem many dog owners face. Some dogs are merely bored when left alone and find their own ways to amuse themselves (often through behaviors humans don't find particularly amusing). Other dogs are genuinely distressed when left alone—or even when a certain human or animal leaves the household.
Treibball: Give it a Try!
By Casey Lomonaco on 07/01/2011New fun
If you follow dog behavior and training blogs or articles, YouTube videos, or other popular electronic media, it’s likely that you’ve heard of a recently imported European dog sport that is sweeping North America—treibball (pronounced “try-ball”). While the sport is very much still in development here, classes are popping up around the country quickly, most with a strong emphasis on clicker training to teach and refine the foundation skills associated with treibball.
How to Stop Unwanted Barking
By Melissa Alexander on 07/01/2011When you deal with barking, it's important to look at the whole situation. Barking is sometimes a symptom of another problem—for example, fear, boredom, or stress. If you fix the problem, the symptom will likely go away. However, if you simply treat the symptom, the problem will just manifest itself in a different way—one which may be worse! Treat the problem not the symptom.
On My Mind: My Dinner with Andre
By Karen Pryor on 06/15/2011Clicker friends
At the most recent ClickerExpo, I met two new Certified Training Partners (CTP), graduates of Karen Pryor Academy’s (KPA) flagship Dog Trainer Program. They were Andre Yeu, who runs a dog training school in Toronto, and one of his teachers, Mirkka Koivusalo, from Finland. Soon after that I was scheduled to give a talk in Canada, at the University of Guelph. I e-mailed Andre and asked if after my university gig I could come to Toronto, visit his school, and meet some other KPA graduates from the area. Andre said that would be great!
