A May Sale in Honor of All Puppy Moms

(and Dads!)

In our house, Mother’s Day (and Father’s Day) consists of each of us receiving one or more cards from our four legged children.  And the “thank yous” for being a good pet parent that each of us makes up to write in the cards for the other, can bring a tear or a chuckle just as readily as if they were written by two legged children.

So we wanted to do something special for all puppy Moms (and Dads) for Mother’s Day.  Through the month of May, “gently used” copies of our award winning book “Raising a Behaviorally Healthy Puppy” will be on sale for ONLY $4.97, with no minimum number required to receive this discount.  At a 100+ pages, it would cost more than that for you to make copies to distribute OR to purchase individual behavior brochures from a variety of sources to cover all the topics in the book.

These “gently used” books are like new.  To tell the truth, these are books returned to us by a large pet store chain in excess of what sold at a retail price of $15.95.  The books have an extra pricing sticker on the back, and some covers may have a crinkled corner, but they’ve not been read or used by anyone.

“Raising a Behaviorally Healthy Puppy” provides a Five Step Guide to create healthy behaviors, with detailed plans for housetraining, crate training, introducing puppy to resident pets, managing chewing and puppy biting, preventing “chaos at the door” through controlled greetings, teaching basic “manners” (sit, down, come, give, walk nicely) using methods puppies can easily understand, and socialization. 

Veterinarians and groomers will especially appreciate the chapter on teaching puppies to enjoy handling and mild restraint.  Everyone will appreciate the common sense chapter about social roles and relationships that exposes the “dominance” myths and substitutes common sense instructions for enjoyable, daily interactions that build on puppies’ inherent willingness to cooperate and avoid conflict.  CLICK HERE for a more complete description of the book.

You can’t make a better $5 investment in your puppy’s behavioral health or for those puppies you see as veterinarians, trainers, or other pet professional.  So take advantage of this special Puppy Mom’s Day Offer good through the end of the month.  But don’t wait too long – when our supply of these ‘gently used’ books at the special Mother’s Day price of $4.97 are gone, they’re gone.

Click the Add to Cart Button NOW and choose your quantity in our shopping cart.
 

Why Labels for Dogs AND Trainers Are Misleading

Over the years we’ve written many articles about the importance of describing what dogs DO rather than – or at least BEFORE – assigning interpretive labels to their behavior.  For example, describing a dog as “stubborn” is an anthropomorphic interpretation of his behavior and doesn’t really give us any information about what the dog is doing. 

Even more behaviorally useful terms such as “fearful” or “defensive” require descriptions of the context, the dog’s body postures and other behaviors to really be sure those interpretations are correct.

Read More

Is “How Can I Get Him to Stop” The Right Training Goal?

The most common question we hear from pet owners is how they can get their dogs or cats to stop doing some behavior they don’t like.  Perhaps they want their dog to stop barking, their cat to stop spraying or urinating outside the litterbox, their cats or dogs to stop fighting or being destructive, or their dog to stop pulling on the leash or lunging at other dogs.

When we think about how we want our pets’ behaviors to be different primarily in terms of stopping a behavior, we are talking about suppression of behavior.  If all we are thinking about is behavior suppression, we’ve put on some very dangers blinders in describing how we want our pet’s behavior to change.

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Habits, Routines, and What’s Important to Dogs

We’ve been at our new “snowbird” townhome in Sun City AZ for a little over a week now.  It’s a bit of a change for Coral, our 8 year old field-bred Irish setter.  She’s accustomed to a decent sized backyard where she loves to spend time watching her birds and squirrels and burying an assortment of toys and treats.  (Before leaving for AZ we spent half an hour searching the yard for a new toy we’d given her that she promptly carried outside and buried.  It was NOT easy to find!).  Here she has a small patio that we’ve just had redone, so she’ll have some soil to relieve herself in and also bury her treasures when she feels like it.

Read More

Did You Do Your Dog Training Homework?

Statistics indicate that most pets will engage in at least one behavior in their lives that becomes a problem for owners.  It’s not known how many pet owners consult some sort of behavior or training professional for help for their pets’ behavior versus trying to solve the problem on their own.

We’ve become more and more interested in hearing about pet owners’ experiences when they do work with a professional – and sometimes more than one – because the problem persisted despite expert help. 

Many pet pros we work with who offer behavior and training services express significant concern and frustration about pet owners not following through with the recommendations or “homework” they are given.  We know there are multiple, and probably complex reasons for this.  But we want to try to discover what the professionals might be able to do better, or do differently, to improve pet owner compliance. 

So – if you are a pet owner who has turned to a professional – trainer, behaviorist, behavior consultant, veterinarian – or other pet pro – for help with your pet’s behavior problem, please complete our 10 item questionnaire about your experiences.

CLICK HERE to complete the survey.