Fear Free Happy Homes
Reading Time: 4 minutes When Olivia Emenaker decided to train her Basset Hound, Dublin, to alert her before she had a seizure, it was partly because he seemed to already have a talent for it on his own. At the time, she was living with her mother, because her seizures made it unsafe for her to live on her […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Whenever I comb my 9-pound Poodle, Peach, she cranes her neck, coos with pleasure, and wiggles her way into my lap to be as close as possible. She doesn’t approve when I try to comb her legs and feet, but having her neck combed when she’s not wearing a collar sends her into rapture. My […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes “The monster must DIE!” At least, that’s what I imagined the Chow mix was thinking as she launched herself at the vacuum cleaner, growling and snapping as if she were taking on a zombie horde. I cued the owner to shut off the machine. “You’re right,” I nodded. “She hates the vacuum cleaner.” Now that […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes Now that vaccination rates are rising, you may be starting to think about having visitors come to your home again. This may be a big surprise for your recently acquired dog. “It’s the classic pandemic puppy story,” says Beth Harpaz. “My husband and I wanted a dog to bring some joy into our boring pandemic […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Two seconds into the lesson and I already knew I was going to like this client. She had a treat bag clipped to her waist, loaded with yummy bites. She also had a clicker on a lanyard around her neck and had already been practicing with it. She was eager to begin training her two […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes When I worked as a professional dog trainer, my dog school was called “Oliver and Me.” Oliver was my dog. But I didn’t just name my school after him because I loved him. He actually helped me train. Doing private training in the suburbs outside of New York City often meant there were no other […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Once you’ve trained your cat to accept restraint, you can start training for blood draws. Depending on your cat’s age and lifestyle, they may need regular blood draws for wellness or to test for diseases such as FeLV/FIV. Of course, you won’t actually be poking them with needles at home, but by teaching them to […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes If you’re anything like me, you probably hug your cat several times a day. It wasn’t until I became a veterinarian that I realized many cats don’t like being hugged, and if they do, it’s not by strangers poking them with needles at the vet clinic. Many cats also dislike having areas of their body […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes When you are training many dogs a day rather than just your own, it’s easy to find shortcuts and little tricks that make training a dog easier, faster, and more fun for both the human teacher and the canine student. It’s also easier to see things from the dog’s perspective which can be the hidden answer […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes I was training a client and her dog outside in her neighborhood when a scruffy dog happily approached us. There was no owner in sight. I slipped a spare leash on him and checked his collar. Luckily, “Fred” had an ID tag. I called the number. “Hello,” I said when a woman answered. “I found […]