Fear Free Happy Homes
Reading Time: 3 minutes After a few days of quiet adjustment, your bird is ready to become a part of your life. Your first interactions with your new bird are extremely important, because they set the tone for the kind of relationship you’ll have for life. You need to assure your new bird that you’re a wonderful, kind, and […]
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 When my husband and I moved from a Colorado mountain town to Denver in 2018, our biggest concern was how our Lab mix, Rio, would adapt. The outdoorsy dog spent the first seven years of his life hiking off leash on trails a block from our home, swimming in alpine lakes, and running free in […]
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 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 […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes The Seek Back is used by police to send a dog to search a large area where a crime may have been committed. A trained dog will search methodically, quartering the area and searching back and forth, the way you might mow a lawn, so they don’t miss a spot. Once they find something that […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Tricks are perfect for puppies. They’ll help your puppy learn to pay attention to words, and to you; they’ll demonstrate the joys of cracking a joke and making people laugh; they can reinforce training; make for a better partnership; instill confidence in a new puppy; and give you, the human partner, a chance to show […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes When your dog does something you want her to repeat, you offer a reward. You may think of a reward as a tasty treat, a cheerful “Good dog,” or a pat on the head. These are all rewards that work for most dogs, helping to show them you’re happy about what they just did. But […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes As a certified yoga instructor as well as a veterinary behavior technician, I have found many similarities between yoga in humans and relaxation cues in our pets. In humans, yoga has been shown to decrease stress and anxiety, lower blood pressure and heart rate, and regulate the fight or flight response. Animals do not have […]