Dog Training: One great workout that teaches your dog to fetch and come to you enthusiastically
Welcome all, especially to those of you who are visiting from the blog carnival. Here at NaturalDogBlog.com, we're primarily focused on techniques that utilize your dog's deepest instinct (the prey instinct) and their emotional perception of the world to achieve...
Dog Training: What is dog aggression and how do I stop it?
You may recall that I am the proud person to a formerly aggressive dog, and that "curing" Nola's dog aggression was what led me to become a dog trainer in the first place. Since aggression is a fairly common issue with dogs, it has been widely discussed; however,...
Dog Training: How long it takes to train a dog
In my life as a dog trainer, I'm often asked how long it will take for a dog to be "trained". There is, of course, the practical aspect to this question - dog owners wondering how many lessons they'll be signing up for, which is especially important to them since I...
Dog Training: Training your dog to come when called - use the prey instinct and play hide and seek
One of the best games (other than tug of war) that you can play with your dog is hide and seek. Playing hide and seek (as I'm about to describe it) will increase your dog's attraction to you, engaging their prey instinct, and it will go a long way towards...
Natural Dog Training Fundamentals: How pushing teaches your dog what to do with their energy
In our last post, we discussed "pushing", which is one of the fundamental techniques of natural dog training. I described in detail HOW to push, taking you step-by-step through a very gradual process of introducing yourself, and your dog, to the technique. The goal...
Natural Dog Training Fundamentals: How to relax and attract your dog using pushing
One of the fundamentals of natural dog training technique is a style of food work that we call "pushing". By now, if you've read the other dog training articles (and please do, since they've been leading up to this moment), you understand that our goal with our dogs...
Dog Training: Eleven essentials that all children (and adults) should know about dogs.
Sometimes it feels as if there is an overwhelming amount to learn about our dogs. We'll be getting more and more in depth as this blog continues, but I wanted to take a moment and distill some of my thoughts about what is absolutely ESSENTIAL information for people...
Dog Training: Should I get a second dog?
With all of the modern emphasis on the pack instinct in dogs, and most training methods or models of dog behavior so "pack" focused, one of the many things that it seems every dog owner considers is whether or not to get another dog to expand the pack. Most of the...
Dog Training: How to control your dog when they're off leash - use a LONG leash.
One of the most common questions I'm asked as a dog trainer is "how do I control my dog when they're off leash?" Well, if you're ASKING the question you should know that the answer is obvious - you can't! At least you won't be able to until you've done a lot more...
Dog Training: How to relax your dog
We've talked about how our dogs are primarily responding to the emotional energy in the world around them. We've also addressed how a dog needs to be relaxed in order to deal with this energy in a healthy manner (by letting it flow through them), since a physically...
Dog Training: Understanding how your dog feels the world
So we've talked a little bit about our dogs and the prey/predator dynamic at work in their lives. One of the central premises of Natural Dog Training is that our dogs feel the world and respond to that feeling, long before they have a chance to "think" about what's...
Dog Training: How to Turn a Negative Mindset into a Positive Mindset through Acceptance, Forgiveness, and Action
In the Abundance Mindset, Steve Pavlina talks about the “outrage script” – which essentially is the mindset where you judge others for spending what you might consider to be “outrageous” sums of money on “extravagances” (such as a $10,000 hotel room). He goes on to...
Dog Training: How to be calm, assertive, AND relaxed - be the moose!
Ever since the rise in Cesar Milan’s (“the dog whisperer”) popularity, the mantra among dog owners (and some dog trainers) has been “calm and assertive, calm and assertive, I must be calm and assertive”. The problem is that not many people actually know what that...
How to play tug of war with your dog - and have the happiest dog on the block.
Play tug of war with your dog. Let your dog win. Your dog will love you for it. This article consists of two parts. The first part is a (very) brief introduction to tug-of-war and the philosophy of natural dog training. The second part is a step-by-step guide to...
