Common Problems

Building Confidence

I recently adopted a 2.5 yr old female bullmastiff. She is a great dog- house broken, create trained, solid on all basic obedience commands and very affectionate with her new family. Unfortunately, she is rather skittish in new situations and around new people - not exactly the fearless confidence the breed is supposed to project. She will often urinate if approached too quickly by a man (she's more comfortable with women) and will stop dead in her tracks if spooked by a shopping cart or other loud moving objects.

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Afraid of the nail cutter

Hi Aidan,

Seems like I always turn to you whenever I run into a stumble block with my dogs :-) Becky and Ben are both spayed and neutered now, smooth process for both. Becky no longer goes after children since we had a "little helper", a fearless 4-year-old who visited often and got Becky used to being around small people.

Male Neutered Cockapoo marking in House

My 1.5 year old neutered male cockapoo has begun to mark in the house. Buckland has been housetrained successfully for nearly a year. He is a very social pup and enjoys being with the family. The entire process is very strange: he will leave the room where the family is and go upstairs alone. He will then do his marking on either of my sons' bedroom rugs and come back downstairs. At first I thought he hadn't been out often enough, so we've been taking him out more often.

Bad Habits are becoming a list.

My lab x border collie is about to turn 1 year old. I have gone through some rough times with him and just when I thought he was settling down I am now wondering about some of his new behaviour. 1. We live on 5 acres and what we originally thought was our boy just exercising has become an annoying habit. When he sights a car, truck or sometimes pedestrian he will charge down to the fence line and run at full speed along the fence line as if he is racing the car, barking as he approaches the end, he is not aggressive.

Ouch! My Puppy Dog is Biting My Hands and Clothes

This article explains in plain English the fastest way to stop your puppy dog biting at your clothing, hands or other body parts. If you have "tried everything" or simply have no idea what to do, the answers are all here and made easy. Methods are humane and pet-friendly, utilizing positive reinforcement and 'time-outs' instead of spanking or scolding.

Puppy Problems

Hi,
I am pretty new here. I have a puppy 5 mo old born May 15th, 2007 I think she is part Jack Russell but not sure who her dad is for sure. Anyways she is very hyper, I leave she tears the house apart, chews on any and everything. She has eaten on 3 library books I have to pay for now which her damage of the books are now over $100.00 total with all the books together she has chewed on I have had to pay for which is alot!

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What to Use Instead of a "Training Collar" for Loose Leash Walking in Safety

Over the years I've had a lot of questions from people with big, strong dogs who use some sort of "training collar" (prong, electronic or check chain) to prevent being over-powered. Often they have a very good reason for using this sort of collar, but want to know if they can wean their dog off it.

The answer is definitely "yes". A friend of mine weighs in at about 80lb and has two massive German Shepherds. They are both trained to walk on a loose leash, but she uses head halters on both dogs in case of emergency.

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Positive Petzine e-Book now available for download

If you've always wanted the Alladin's Cave of dog training and behavior nuggets that is "The Positive Petzine Collection", but wanted it in e-book form - now you can get it for just USD $25!

This will suit anyone with a dog, but especially professional dog trainers looking for class hand-outs. You will be able to print-out select articles for use in your classes (some conditions apply, please contact us for details).

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Tamar Geller Video - "Child Proofing Your Dog"

A topic of a recent blog post was "child proofing a dog". This is a procedure where we try to make a positive association with things kids do to dogs, and reward calm, accepting behavior.

Oprah's latest dog trainer and author of "The Loved Dog", Tamar Geller, has a video hosted at the HSUS which demonstrates:
Click here to view the video

Slow come when called

Hi, I have tried to use the method that you mentioned as below [Editor: the question was originally asked in relation to the e-course instructions, and do not appear in this blog] to teach both pepper and prada for the 'come' command. At this moment, prada ( the younger dog, 4 yrs of age) responded very sharpe and fast to the recall. So I have no worries about her even when we are in the park because I have tried to implement your method over and over again while having our daily walk.

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