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You and Your Rescue: Navigating the first weeks after adopting a dog
Photo by zane.hollingsworth, acquired via Flickr Creative Commons license. Imagine living for days, weeks, months in a shelter. Your home is a kennel, surrounded by lots of other kennels and...
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A Christmas tribute to my heart dog
One and a half years ago, my heart dog, Digger, passed away. He was 14. I have never written about him since his passing, as I never seem to find the right words, the right time, the courage to relive...
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The power of letters: Hopes for the dog training community
Today’s society is full of letters. Letters that come after a name, meant to engender trust, respect, some sense of work an individual has undergone to earn the right to provide services. Some...
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Trainers as capable communicators
Recently, The New York Times interviewed Alan Alda, whose Center for Communicating Science strives to create effective communication between science and health professionals and the public. Reading the...
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Dogs deserve science, not guesswork
Why should dog owners and dog trainers care so much about evolutionary biology? Because it forms the basis for how we understand animal behavior, animal learning, where dogs came from and how we got to...
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Making trust a terminal behavior
When training fearful dogs, the simplest behaviors, the ones us humans take for granted, often become the most rewarding. The most important component in a fearful dog’s training plan isn’t a behavior...
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No Stimulus Goes Unconditioned: Thinking out of the NILIF box
When I first read Kathy Sdao’s book, Plenty in Life is Free, I cried. I cried because her words made sense. I cried because she described the incredible impact, negative and positive, we can have on...
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Creating safety amid chaos: Thinking out of the NILIF box, part II
One of the most rewarding aspects of my work is making a connection with another dog owner, and finding a way of explaining training information, that changes a dog’s life for the better. My job isn’t...
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Muzzle Up! Online: Peace of mind, less stress, more success
Originally posted on muzzleupproject.com When I created the Muzzle Up! Project over two years ago, I developed it with three objectives: 1) Reduce stigma surrounding muzzles 2) Provide high-quality...
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A Rebuttal
Disclaimer: I am a force-free trainer and do not use pain, intimidation, or fear to modify dogs’ behavior. The following is a rebuttal to Gary Wilkes’ article titled “Modern, Scientific, Positive Dog...
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Coercion: A cry for help that calls for empathy
“Coercion is not the root of all evil, but until we adopt other than coercive ways to control each other’s conduct, no method of physically improving our species will keep our survival timer from...
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Caveat Emptor: Bringing consumer protection to dog training
In his latest article in The New Yorker, “Overkill,” Atul Gawande writes about the epidemic of patients undergoing unnecessary medical care and suffering from overdiagnosis. I was struck by the...
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