DOG TRAINING AND BEHAVIOR

Some dogs absolutely hate to go out when it’s raining. It becomes a tug of war at the door. Yet you want your pet to be able to comfortably relieve himself rather than try to hold it in (and potentially fail in that attempt). And you don’t have a backyard you can let him out […]

Teaching your dog to refrain from jumping up on people is not one of the easier behavior training tasks. One reason is that your pet is usually exuberant while doing it — she’s showing that she really likes the person she’s jumping on and is eager to engage. It can be hard to say no […]

Ask 100 dog parents the one thing they wish their dog would do that they currently don’t, and the answer will be, “Come when I call.” Perhaps that’s why so many people with dogs use electric shock collars. When you push a button on a gizmo that you hold in your hand, the dog receives […]

Lots of dogs move their limbs during sleep, twitch, or emit soft barking sounds. None of those are signs of nightmares. They just mean a dog is dreaming. If it’s a nightmare, you’ll know it. A dog will clearly exhibit distress and perhaps even fear and may scream as she sleeps. Should you wake her? It’s […]

Doorbells are intrinsically exciting for dogs,” says the head of the Tufts Animal Behavior Clinic, Stephanie Borns-Weil, DVM. “They signal something is about to happen, so it’s associated with arousal.” Some dogs will even run to the front door when they hear a doorbell ring on television. There are dog owners who can list all […]

Q. About four months ago we adopted the sweetest rescue dog named Violet — a Lab mix of about 60 pounds who loves to...

Too much fat is not the only thing that predisposes a dog to pancreatitis. Certain breeds have a predisposition, particularly schnauzers. Terriers are prone,...

When training either a puppy or adult dog, you’re going to need lots of food treats to keep your pet focused on getting it...

Some dogs react negatively to men with beards, tall people, people in hats, young children — even those with different skin tones. That’s right. Differences...

Dogs who get less than an hour a day of physical activity and who seldom engage in training activities are more fearful of people...

Since ancient times, people have been saying that animals become more agitated before an earthquake, aware that something is amiss hours before the devastation...

How many times have you heard that dogs are pack animals with an alpha as the head, and that if you don’t take the...