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Q: How can I get my beagle, Jake, to stop barking whenever someone rings my doorbell, knocks on my front door, or walk past my house? A few barks are okay, but Jake barks on and on and at a volume so high that I want to take out my hearing aid so I dont have to hear his noise. When I yell at him to stop he ignores me and barks even louder.

Q: When I talk to my dog, Charlie, he usually cocks his head, as if he is really listening and understanding what Im telling him. Do dogs know words, or is he just listening to the tone of my voice?

A: Dogs read your voice tone more than the actual words to gauge if youre delivering praise or discipline. Try this test with Charlie. Stiffen your muscles, grab a telephone book, and begin to call out the names alphabetically in a stern, low tone in

Q: When I get ready to leave the house and when I first come in the front door, my dog is always underfoot. She wiggles her whole body, wags her tail a mile a minute, tries to jump on me, and gives me kisses. More than once, I've spilled a bag of groceries because I've tripped over her or tried to reach down to pet her in an attempt to quiet her down. I love Katie, but what can I do so that I can come and go without this over-the-top demonstration of affection?

A: Now you know how a rock star or other celebrity feels when surrounded by adoring but obnoxious fans. Katie is doing all she can to deliver canine love your way,

The game of Tug has an undeserved bad rap in some training circles, while others, most notably the Agility world, have fully embraced it as an excellent activity to create focus and high arousal. Those two extremes aside, its a great game just because its fun, many dogs adore it, its the perfect play activity for human family members who might otherwise want to get in appropriately physical with the dog and its a terrific energy-burner.

One of the most commonly-heard myths about playing Tug is that it makes the dog dominant. Theres so much misinformation passed around about hierarchy in dogs - this is just another log on the fire. If you are concerned about what Tug might do to your relationship with your dog, just remember that the definition of leader is the one who controls the good stuff, and orchestrate your Tug-play accordingly.

Your best option for finding compatible playmates for your dog is to identify your dogs play style and select dogs of similar size, energy level, and play style preference.Size matters. No doubt there are dogs of significant size disparity who can play well together, but as a general rule, its wise to keep the difference in the realm of 25 pounds or less. A playful dog can easily injure a little dog, even

Everyone in the family, including children, should play with their dogs. Even young children can be suitable playmates for many dogs, with some important caveats. Assuming your dog likes to play, the more humans she gets to play with, the more humans shell think are wonderful because they make good stuff happen, and the better socialized shell be. Dogs who are will-socialized are far less likely to bite or otherwise engage in behaviors that are…

In this chapter you are going to learn a fun and effective way to teach your dog new skills using a process called shaping. Shaping involves slicing the behavior you want your dog to do into tiny pieces, successively clicking and treating each slice, until you have built up the finished behavior you want to train.

Automatic attention is the mother of all behaviors and one of the first things you should teach your dog. There is no point in teaching your dog how to do things if he is going to ignore you when you ask him to do them. If your dog is off in a mentally distant land and you repeatedly call his name, you are just like static in the background to him. The only thing you will have accomplished is to devalue his name.

You do have the time to train your dog. Whether you realize it or not, you already are spending a lot of time training your dog. Every minute you are with your dog you are training him. Your everyday interactions with him are the most powerful training tools you have.

I feed my two dogs together, and the smaller one seems to gobble her food without chewing it and then throws it back up a few minutes later. Why does she do this?

She may be worried that if she doesnt wolf down her food, your other dog will get some of it. This is rational fear, but her coping strategy isnt ideal. How about feeding your dogs in separate rooms so the little one feels less pressured by the presence of the bigger dog?

Sooner or later, your dog will get chewing gum, tar, tree sap, burrs, or some other sticky or tenacious substance in her fur. To get rid of sticky stuff without cutting the hair, work some vegetable oil into the goo with your fingers. The oil will help break up the goo into smaller pieces, which you can gently pull out of the fur. When youre done, bathe your dog with a mild dog shampoo to…

Visual though primates may be, we humans often miss the signals that our dogs are sending us. For example, in my seminars I do a demonstration in which I pet and praise my Border Collie Pip for giving me a ball back. Pip is my sleeper Border Collie, who looks a bit like a goofy Labrador cross when in fact she's from pristine sheepdog lineage. But she loves balls like life itself, so to reward…