Tag: dog training

Why “Luring” With Treats Isn’t How You Want To Obedience Train Your Dog

The vast majority of modern-day trainers will teach obedience commands by "luring" the dog to do the desired behavior. Usually with edible treats, but the same can be done with a ball, squeaky, tug toy, bone, or other desirable [...]

The Failure Of Treat-Focused, “Purely Positive” Dog Training

So-called "purely positive" training is a huge new fad. It means you only reward your dog's good behavior; you never correct the bad. Most purely positive trainers are what I call "treat-focused", centering around giving the dog edible treats [...]

“Don’ts” When Training Recall (“Come!”)

In my last post I explained why what I call "Leading" is a more helpful obedience ritual to have mastered than recall ("Come") when taking your dog offleash. Still, "Come" can be a very useful command, particularly in various [...]

Why Is My Dog Racist?

It's a phenomenon that people try to sweep under the rug, laugh off, or simply pretend isn't happening; then it gets whispered about in embarrassed tones afterward. Namely: your dog gets along just fine with other dogs, mailmen, skateboarders...then [...]

Fight or Flight? Neither Please!

This past few weeks I've had several experiences involving the combination of dogs and fear. Most of those experiences have involved fearful dogs ... ... and some have involved fear OF dogs. Somewhat unsettlingly, a portion of [...]

Are Fearful Fido’s Faculties Fatigued?

The New York Times recently published a fascinating article on a phenomenon called "decision fatigue". Scientific studies repeatedly back up the fairly commonsensical idea that being forced to make decisions - in particular when the chosen options demand exerting [...]