Keeping the Peace in a Multi-Species Household
When you think about it, it’s a bit of a miracle that animals who would be predator and prey in many environments are often able to live peacefully together in our homes. How does this happen? Sometimes it just happens, thanks to good luck, but...
Canine Massage Case Reports
Aimee Johnson of Little Bear Animal Massage (littlebearanimalmassage.com) in St. Paul, MN, reports: One of my clients is a 13-year-old German Shepherd Dog, Izzy, who was referred to me by her traditional Chinese medicine...
Canine Massage Therapy
As a newly board-certified canine massage practitioner, I want to encourage everyone who is dedicated to their dogs to consider adding professional massage to their dogs’ healthcare plan. Who needs this? I would suggest...
Audio Products for Sound Conditioning Your Dog
Dog trainers often recommend smartphone apps and YouTube videos for desensitizing and counter-conditioning dogs who are afraid of specific noises. There are many apps designed and marketed for this purpose, and they typically include...
Counter-Conditioning and Desensitization (CC&D)
Counter-conditioning and desensitization (CC&D) involves changing your dog’s association with an aversive or arousing stimulus – in this case, another animal – from negative to positive.
The easiest way to give most dogs a positive...
Life at Peaceable Paws
As a lifelong animal lover and the owner of a dog-training and horse-boarding facility, I’ve had countless opportunities to practice multi-species introductions – including many in just the past two years! About two years ago,...
Not-So-Great New Pet Introductions
In a perfect world, the lion really would lie down with the lamb (or the wolf with the rabbit), but our world isn’t perfect, and introductions don’t always go as smoothly as we might...
Meat and Meat Meal: Sorting Through Animal Protein Sources
A few years ago, we added a new column to the chart full of information that we publish in our annual “approved dry dog foods” list in the February issue. The column tabulates how...
Have a Dog? You Are a Trainer
I confess: I am absolutely fascinated with animal behavior and “training.” I think about it all the time – so much so, that I even think about most human-human interactions in terms of basic principles...
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The Strongest Reinforcements
Ask a dog trainer to tell you one of their biggest pet peeves about their training clients, and they will almost always mention the...
