DogBoy's Dog Blog

Does your dog love to going to the vet? I would expect if you’re reading this, the answer is probably no. What if I told you there was a way to make your dog love going to the vet and voluntarily submit to shots, injections, and other medical procedures without any fuss?

So your dog knows how to sit, down, stay, come when called, leave it, and walk on a loose leash. That's great. Those are extremely important foundational behaviors that all dogs should know, especially when you ask them to. But, what about the behaviors that we'd love our dogs to perform on their own?

Generally, when we think about what a dog should know, we go to those usual basics. While knowing these skills is vital for your dog and you to have an enjoyable relationship, there are some skills that we tend to not think about, or overlook:

Self-Settling

This is something that I put a large amount of stock in. It is extremely important for dogs to be able to self-soothe and self-settle. This means that a dog who is not being directly interacted with can simply hang out without trying to do a million things at once. You would be surprised at how few dogs have this skill.

Typically when a family starts thinking about adding a new dog to their household, most people immediately jump to which puppy they want. I totally get it. Puppies are adorable, fluffy, and you really just can’t resist puppy eyes. What people rarely consider is all of the work that goes into raising a puppy into an adult dog, like:

• Frequent late night restroom breaks in and out of the house
• Tons of house training and behavior training hours
• The socialization process for your puppy
• Possibly having your things torn up as they learn their boundaries

There's a reason people say that having a puppy is like a light version of having a newborn--it's a lot of work. Now, don't get me wrong, all of that work is TOTALLY worth it if you're willing to put in the effort.

However, you can get just as much love, affection, and incredible companionship from a dog that's already passed the puppy phase. And, in general, there's less work involved up front. Adopting an adult or older dog is an amazing way to add a new canine to your family. Here are five reasons why:

A general frequent question that we get from all of our clients is “How do I train my dog?”.

I’m just going to say it: I am not a fan of dog parks. There, I said it. Here’s the reason: Typically, they are overrun with dogs with poor manners whose main exercise outlet is a weekly trip to the dog park. These dogs tend to be pushy and overly friendly.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a human anxiety disorder that causes those affected by it to disrupt their daily life by getting caught up in patterns. For example, the urge to turn the light on and off 33 times before you leave any room. It is not a very well understood disorder, and can be very difficult to live with. Oftentimes, you will hear someone make a joke along the lines of “oh yeah, I’m so OCD about that”.

When this topic came across my desk to write for the DogBoy’s blog, I was very excited. This is a heavily discussed topic among professionals and the public alike, and it also frequently appears in the media.

Back in November, I was lucky enough to attend the Pet Professional Guild’s very first Force Free Summit. While I was there, I was able to attend a seminar presented by Ken McCort on this very subject. It was a fascinating seminar, and it left me feeling much more educated on how breed and behavior inform each other.

It also provided me with an answer to the question. The answer: Yes, and no.

Fence fighting between dogs is one of the most common nuisance behaviors that I talk to dog owners about. A lot of owners will shrug it off, insisting that “they just want to play”. Sometimes, that is true. We see it out here sometimes:

Dog owners worry WAY too much about their dog’s behavior in public. It’s understandable though. If there is one thing most people have in common, it’s that we wish we cared less about what other people think of us. The vast majority of us care a lot about how we are perceived in public. We put great effort into our clothing, our makeup, our accessories, and are even careful about who we associate with to avoid others getting the wrong impression of us.

Feeding time is a very important aspect of training our dogs that we often forget about. In most homes, dinner time is more of a missed training opportunity than anything else. But, let's face it, we don’t all have an hour to dedicate to using every single piece of kibble as a training treat. Especially for those of us who have dogs that are eating 2 or more cups of dog food for every meal. So, how can we take advantage of feeding time for our dogs as a training opportunity, without giving up our whole evening of relaxing?