Dog Training & Behavior Tips
Why Dogs Need Guidance, Not Dominance
Last night, I had a pretty cool experience. In my brochures I was handing out about Faithfully Yours, a man read the section that said I was studying Psychology.
He asked me where I was studying and what plans I had after that. I told him I would be continuing on for my Animal Behavior degree in a year or so. He said, “WOW! They have an animal psychology degree now!?”He then told me this amazing story about his older dog he had trained to sit at intersections on their walks and wait for him to point in the direction they were going, before the dog would continue walking.
He then added, “I used my psychology degree to teach him all that stuff, come to think of it.”
Training Deaf, Blind, and Three-Legged Dogs
As a dog trainer, I never know who is going to call next. Every client, dog, and family are different. They have different needs, wants, and goals for their dog and household. Of course, there are some common complaints I hear quite often, but most of my job is being creative and making the humans’ lives with their dogs easier. The truth of the matter is most of the “behavioral issues” I see are just dogs being dogs. The dog is perfectly fine and happy. The people, however, have expectations of the dog and are therefore, unhappy when they aren’t met.
Puppies Bite! How to Stop Puppy Biting
It is that time of year again! It is puppy season! This is the time, us dog trainers, see a huge increase in clients, especially puppy clients. The weather is getting warm, the kids will be out of school, and what better idea than to get a puppy so, they can have summer adventures together, right?
Ermm… maybe not so much.
We have all heard it a million times; puppies are a huge responsibility. As adults, we should be able to handle this responsibility, right? Well, to be honest, puppies are not for the fate of heart. Puppies bite, pee, poop, whine at all hours of the night, and in general, get into trouble.
Top Five Reasons You Should Do Agility with Your Dog
Let me just start this blog by saying, agility is my passion. Out of all the training I do with dogs, agility is my favorite. It isn’t my favorite because you can compete and win fancy ribbons. It is my favorite because the dogs love it and you build an amazing bond with your dog throughout the process. I didn’t think dog owners in Mississippi had an interest in dog agility when I first started training, so I put my passion on the back burner to focus on the needs of my clients.
Positive Dog Training in the Deep South
My name is Lauren Parks and I have been training dogs using positive methods for 11 years. I started training dogs in Nashville, TN. Eleven years ago, trainers in Nashville were using positive methods to train dogs. Clicker training was highly recommended and you rarely saw a prong collar on a dog. Fast forward to today, I am training dogs in Mississippi.
Mississippi is known for many things. Most of those things are negative, like having obese citizens, having lax animal cruelty laws, and being the most corrupt state in the nation. We are known as being backwards and behind on the times.
The Science Behind Clicker Training
Clicker training, for those who are unfamiliar (and boy, are you missing out), is a positive reinforcement method that can be used to train any mammal, domesticated or wild. I have even seen fish learn from a modified version of clicker training.
While clicker training, you use a clicker, which makes a “click” noise, to mark the behavior we want to reinforce. The clicker doesn’t mean anything to the dog at first, but by following Pavlov’s lead, we can condition the dog to be reinforced by the clicking sound.
Crate Training and Housebreaking: The Positive Way
Congratulations on your new fur baby – literally a baby. If you haven’t had an entire night of whining or accident piddling, just wait, it is coming. My recent foster, Rugby (now named Maxx by his forever mom), who many of you have seen in videos I have posted, reminded me of what it is like to have a puppy.
Of course, I am a dog trainer, so I knew what to do the moment he started crying or sniffing around for a potty spot. Don’t think I do not remember the days when I didn’t know though.