
Recommended Reading for puppies:
- Before you get your puppy, by Dr. Ian Dunbar (free download)
- After you get your puppy, by Dr. Ian Dunbar (free download)
Recommended Reading for dogs of any age:
- Culture Clash, by Jean Donaldson
- Don’t Shoot the Dog, by Karen Pryor
- The Power of Positive Dog Training, by Pat Miller
Recommended Magazines and newsletters:
- Whole Dog Journal. Monthly guide to natural dog care, health, nutrition and training.
- The Bark. Bi Monthly magazine of modern dog culture.
Recommended Websites:
- For books: Dogwise
- For clicker training: Karen Pryor Clickertraining
- For videos: Tawzer Dog Videos
Open Enrollment is a new flexible way of teaching classes that gets you started faster, encourages attendance and takes into account that everyone is busy!
Here’s how it works: Once you’ve taken Orientation first, then you can jump into the lessons. Each lesson is an independent module and does not have to be taken in any order. If you take 6 lessons in a row, then you will have taken all the lessons. If you have to miss a week due to illness, vacation etc., then you can take the class you missed at any other time it shows up in the lesson schedule…You can take lessons on any day that it is offered. Please refer to the Lesson Schedule so that you can plan your attendance! We’ll explain this at Orientation too.
In the past 20 years, there has been a lot of scientific research in the fields of psychology, animal learning and training that shows that we can get our dog’s full cooperation by rewarding the behavior we like and ignoring, or redirecting, the behavior we don’t like. Reward-based training builds the relationship you have with the dog and you get his happy cooperation!
After I’m certain that the dog is fluent in the behavior, and then he doesn’t do it…then the worst thing that happens is the dog doesn’t get the reward! (Oops! Too bad for you!) Believe me, the dog learns in a hurry that that behavior didn’t work!
As for praise, dog’s generally don’t work for praise. (People may work for praise for a short time, but eventually you will want a paycheck! Let me ask you how you would feel if you just got a pat on the back at work instead of a paycheck?!) People work for money and dogs work for food!
Puppies have sharp teeth, but no muscle in the jaw and can nip at each other and not hurt each other. Puppies playing with puppies of a similar age will give each other a needed correction. We want pups to learn bite inhibition before they get their adult teeth (around 6 months of age.) Come to our Puppy Playgroup!
