Karen Pryor Clicker Training Library

A search-and-rescue start

Want to try some fun and games?

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 family pet, and many spiritual, personal growth, environmental, and philanthropical goals can include your best friend, too. Here are our top 7 ideas for including a favorite canine in your New Year's resolutions.

Many dog owners complain that their dogs steal food from kitchen counters or even the dinner table. A new term was even coined to describe this behavior: counter-surfing. If you're tired of losing your dinner to a sneaky pooch every time you turn your back, here's what you can do about it.

A dog’s nose is an amazing thing to behold. Dogs have the ability to: wiggle each nostril independently, breathe in through the holes in the front of the nose and exhale through the side slits, and discern individual odors making up what we could call a “scent.” Humans have about 5 million cells devoted to smelling; dogs have up to 220 million. Not only that, but dogs have four times the brain power devoted to processing scents! We smell “vegetable soup,” but a dog smells each individual ingredient. Dogs’ noses are so powerful they can detect one tablespoon of sugar in the amount of water it would take to fill two Olympic-sized swimming pools!

February means Valentine's Day, a happy time for me as a child. I lived with the principal of our school, Mrs. Sturley, who set up a card table in the parlor so I could spend hours pasting together the paper, lace, stand-up figures, and stick-on hearts and lovebirds to make twenty-one special valentines for my twenty-one classmates. Sometimes I signed mine; sometimes, daringly, I wrote "Guess who?"

Animal lovers find great joy including their animals in as many holiday celebrations as possible.

Splash?

Pet caregivers  often wonder how to keep pets active without having to walk in 90-degree weather. Swimming, and other games in and with water, can be fun for both people and dogs, especially during hot summer days.

What’s “SUP?”

What is your dog’s favorite time of the day? For my dogs, it’s mealtime! If I had my dogs rank their favorite things on a scale of 1-10, I’m sure eating would be a 15.

There's nothing like a new year to inspire a fresh start with goals and resolutions. Need to lose 30 pounds to make it easier to get around the agility course? This is the year for it. (True, the last five years have also been the year for it, but this year is different—really!)