After welcoming a baby in to the world you are probably concerned about how your dog is going to react to him or her. Many people surrender their pets to shelters because of exhibited jealousy from their dog after a new baby’s arrival and fear of the infant being harmed by the animal. Yet many families have been successful in introducing their dogs to the new baby. Introducing your dog to you baby is a process that needs time and the utmost of care to ensure a happy and safe welcoming process! The steps to ensuring your dog acts appropriately around the baby when he or she is finally taken back to your home are twofold usually – preparing your dog for the infants arrival and introducing your dog to your infant.

Preparing your dog:

Preparing your dog for the baby’s arrival in advance is one of the best ways to help avoid friction and jealousy between your baby and your dog. Your dog is used to your attention and pampering, some jealousy will naturally surface when your new baby becomes the center of attention. Taking some precautions, Continue reading

It’s widely accepted among the vast majority of dog training experts that the most effective and humane way to train your dog is through a process called positive reinforcement training.

This is a fancy phrase for what’s essentially a very simple theory: using positive reinforcement entails rewarding the behavior that you wish to see repeated, and ignoring the behavior that you don’t.

This method is in direct contrast to some of the now-outdated but once-popular techniques for dog training, some of which were frankly abhorrent: physical pain and intimidation (such as hanging an aggressive dog up by her collar), or inhumane methods of aversion therapy (such as shock collars for barking).

Positive reinforcement works with your dog. Her natural instinct is to please you – the theory of positive reinforcement recognizes that lessons are more meaningful for dogs, and tend to “stick” more, Continue reading

Nipping - the playful biting and mouthing of your hands and clothes by your dog - is particularly common among puppies, but can also occur in older dogs that haven’t been taught proper bite inhibition.

It’s natural for dogs to mouth and nip. They explore the world using their mouths - to a dog, his mouth is as important as eyes and hands are to us. Nipping is very different from true aggression: it’s a form of communication, interaction, exploration, and play. From birth, pups use their mouths to explore the den, their mother, and their littermates. From a few weeks old, they use their mouths to play with their siblings: puppies play by biting and mouthing each other. Some adult dogs - usually, those with owners who encourage rough play, or who were removed from the litter at too early an age - retain these same tendencies to nip during play and in moments of emotional duress.

Sibling play is actually how young pups learn a very important lesson, called bite inhibition. If a puppy bites another puppy too hard, Continue reading

Exercise is a major part of our dogs’ lives. Cesar Millan, the “Dog Whisperer”, tells us that to maintain a healthy relationship with our beloved pooches, that relationship should consist of 50% physical exercise, 25% discipline, and 25% affection. That’s a lot of exercise!

In order for us to be able to enjoy exercising our dogs as much as they need, it’s important for them to behave well both on the lead. Unfortunately, there are many dogs out there who are afraid of the leash itself – resulting in neurotic, fearful, submissive behavior whenever the lead comes out.

So we’ll take a look at the most effective way to deal with fear of the leash.

Fear of the Leash

The majority of the time, Continue reading

Deciding whether or not your dog is permitted access to the furniture is a pretty big deal. If you have a big dog, it’s an even bigger deal.

Furniture access is a matter of some importance for two reasons: firstly, because it’s mighty inconvenient to have to fight for space on your own couch; and secondly, because it strongly relates to the matter of dominance, which is of the utmost importance as far as a harmonious dog/owner relationship goes.

Your dog knows that the furniture – in particular, your bed - is your turf. If he’s allowed up onto your personal, private territory as a matter of course and whenever he feels like it, Continue reading

A fear-bite is a bite that occurs out of sheer panic. It’s not to be confused with dominance-aggression, which is a sign of deep-set personality problems; a fear-biter isn’t necessarily a ‘fierce’ dog. He’s just scared.

Why does fear-biting happen?

A fear-biter bites because it’s his only way of expressing his extreme fear or panic, and his only way of telling his owner that he can’t handle the situation.

Almost all cases of fear-biting are actually caused by well-meaning, but ill-advised, humans: they see what’s clearly a scared dog, Continue reading

If you’ve never seen a dog with serious food-guarding issues, it’s difficult to appreciate the potential severity of the problem. Food-guarding issues are not necessarily a reflection on the personality or training level of the dog: it’s an instinctive thing, and although dogs with a general aggression problem are naturally more prone to demonstrating the condition, it’s also exhibited by otherwise-sweet, well-behaved, well-adjusted family dogs. Like an evil djinn, the problem can rear its ugly head only when food (or the food bowl) is present: a real case of Jekyll and Hyde.

A dog with serious food-guarding issues can be a real danger to anyone who should approach her during a meal: it’s not a scenario in which you can expect to train your dog to “play nice”. Instinct is what’s compelling her to act in this undesirable, and even dangerous, way - you need to take steps to turn the behavior around before your relationship with your dog suffers or somebody gets hurt.

There are different degrees of food guarding. In the mildest case, a dog will merely tense up a little or freeze if somebody approaches her while she’s trying to eat. She may even continue eating, but her posture will be rigid and stiff: she’ll clearly be uncomfortable. Signs that the problem is more severe would include a marked increase in eating speed, a direct, hard stare right at you (often accompanied by a still, tense, “watching” posture), a lifted lip, a snarl, a snap, and finally a real bite. NOTE: A dog exhibiting any of these last three symptoms has a pretty severe case of food-guarding aggression, Continue reading