One of the most encouraging trends in the dog-owning community is the increase in attendance at puppy classes. More and more vets are aware of the considerable benefits of well-run puppy classes taught by qualified professional instructors in a safe, sanitary, and controlled environment. Puppy class is frequently, and correctly, touted as a "behavioral vaccine," a proactive way to prevent behavior problems in adult dogs.
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ALS (All Life Stages) Training: A Well-Behaved Companion for a Lifetime
By Casey Lomonaco on 10/01/2012Do You Know a Ball-Crazy Dog? Try Flyball!
By Denise Lacey on 10/01/2012Controlled chaos! Drag racing for dogs! These are some of the phrases used to describe flyball—a relay race for dogs and their humans.
Flyball began in the 1980s as an offshoot of scent hurdling (a sport that was itself started in the 1960s). In scent hurdling, a team of four dogs and handlers races against other teams. The object is to see which team can be the first to send all their dogs over four jumps to retrieve scented dumbbells and return with the correct dumbbell.
Taking Care of Business: An Interview with Toronto’s Andre Yeu
By Julie Gordon on 09/01/2012When I was four, my mom, perhaps in response to nagging from my sister and me, bought us goldfish. We came home with eight goldfish in a tiny one-gallon tank. They all died within 48 hours, due to overcrowding in the tank. I remember realizing that we must have been doing something wrong. I was left with the important lesson that pet ownership is something to take very seriously and to learn to do properly.
How to Teach Give: A Winning Recipe
By Leah Roberts on 08/01/2012By the time most dogs get to my classes, their owners have already taught them that when they get hold of something special, it's going to be taken away. Most of the time, the owners get upset, yell, and force the object out of their mouths. So, when dogs find that deliciously smelly dead squirrel in the yard, they are more likely to hide the squirrel under the couch than allow their owners to catch them with it.
How to Train Your Dog to Find a Lost Pet
By Annalisa Berns on 07/01/2012Editor’s note: You may have heard of search and rescue dogs that find people, but there are search and rescue dogs that find pets, too!
