DOG TRAINING AND BEHAVIOR

How to Get Your Dog to Come When You Call

Most people, if you ask them, What is the one thing youd most like your dog to be able to do? respond by saying, Come when I call. So reports Nicholas Dodman, BVMS, the director of the Animal Behavior Clinic at Tufts. It makes sense. If your dog understands Come, you can keep him safe. He wont run into the street, get into scrapes with other dogs, or otherwise put himself in harms way.…

What Definitely Wont Work When Teaching Come

How many times have you seen people angrily or exasperatingly telling their dog to come to no avail, then, when they finally catch up with their pet, yelling at him and letting him know what a bad boy he was. Would you come if you knew the person calling you was angry? Never, never, tell your dog to come in anger or frustration. Thats teaching him that coming will only led to unpleasant consequences, which…

Does Your Dog Jump On People?

People often start out with the right strategy when trying to teach their dog not to jump on people, says our Behavior Clinic director, Nicholas Dodman, BVMS. They ignore the behavior. But what they fail to realize is that when you ignore a behavior that in the past has gotten a reaction, the first thing that happens is that it gets worse. So owners lose patience, assume theyve taken the wrong tack, and resort to the counterproductive measures they have been using all along, like pushing the dog off, which only makes the animal think thats part of the game - jump/push, jump/push.