Blog - Part 3

New Friends

Today on the beach, Bob and Daisy made some new friends. Tonya and her crew were doing a peace project for their Montessori School - cleaning litter on the dunes and beach at Hunting Island State Park in South Carolina. Daisy provided some entertainment by doing tricks and playing fetch with them to say thanks for doing such a nice good deed! What a pleasure to meet such nice young men and women being good citizens! ... continue reading...

Bob on WGLT

Here Bob talks to Laura Kennedy of WGLT (on Animal House) about the best tools to use when walking your dog. http://nccnormal.org/wp-content/uploads/Bob-on-WGLT.mp3 ... continue reading...

Good Manners

Bob recently talked with Laura Kennedy on WGLT's "Animal House" segment about good dog manners. You can listen to the interview below. ... continue reading...

Pet Care When You Travel

Check out Bob's latest conversation with Laura Kennedy on WGLT's "Animal House" segment. ... continue reading...

Cats and Dogs

Bob was on WGLT with Laura Kennedy last week, talking about dogs and cats living together in peace and harmony. You can listen to their conversation below: ... continue reading...

Dog Origins

Bob was with Laura Kennedy again last week on WGLT talking about the origin of dogs. You can listen here: ... continue reading...

Shelter Training and Enrichment

Bob just completed the Karen Pryor Academy online course on "Shelter Training and Enrichment," which will help in his volunteer work at the Human Society of Central Illinois. He looks forward to putting some of the the new things he learned into practice soon! ... continue reading...

How Dogs Learn

Bob will be on WGLT later this week with Laura Kennedy for another segment on "Animal House." This time he'll be talking about "How Dogs Learn." Let us know if you hear it! ... continue reading...

Less No, More Yes

We all get frustrated when our dog does something she isn’t supposed to do – like chasing the cat, raiding the trash, or jumping up to check out the counter (or our guests), etc. Our usual response is to get frustrated and tell our dog “NO!” in order to get her to stop. But there […]

It’s ALL Tricks To Your Dog

Bob was recently on WGLT with Laura Kennedy on “Animal House” to talk about the best way to train your dog to do fun tricks and good manners. Listen here. And watch the video of Bob and Daisy demonstrating some of her tricks!

Winter Exercise Tips

It’s Cold – Keep Moving! As I mention often to my clients, one of my favorite training proverbs says, “A tired dog is a well behaved dog.” Conversely, a dog who is bored and bustling with pent up energy is a problem waiting to happen. Exercising our dogs can be challenging when it’s too cold to […]

Dominant – NOT!

“He thinks he’s alpha.” “We have to establish the dog’s rank in our family.” Let me persuade you what scientists have known for a while – it just ain’t so! No misunderstanding harms our relationship with our dogs more than “dominance theory.” Poorly done research in the mid-20th century mistakenly concluded that wolves fight to […]

Building Better Behavior

Here are two keys for helping your best friend be a well-behaved member of the family – management and exercise. Management – One of the most important behavior strategies is management – setting up the environment so that desirable behaviors are easy and problem behaviors are inaccessible. Whether as puppies or adults, dogs don’t arrive knowing the rules for living in […]

Pretty Tricky

Want to have a better-trained best friend? Want to have more fun with your dog? (Duh!) Here’s a big step in the right direction – approach all training as if you’re teaching a fun trick. This is obvious for behaviors like “sit pretty” (up on her haunches), jumping through a hoop, or rolling over. It’s […]

Puppy Two-Step

Life with dogs is an adventure – that we share our lives so successfully with another species is amazing. Like any relationship, friendship with a dog calls for trust, good communication, self-control, and patience. Yet we humans bear the yeoman’s share of responsibility for ensuring that things smoothly. Most of the clients who hire me […]