Professional Paws Pet Blog
A professional dog trainer’s thoughts on training, animal behavior, pet care and more!
Why I Prefer to Adopt Senior Pets
I love seniors. I just love them. Our two current dogs were adopted when they were over the age of 8 years. (BJ was 10 years young, and our best guess for Tule’s age when we adopted her was 8.) Honestly. I don’t know that I will adopt a puppy or adolescent dog ever again. Don’t get me wrong, puppies are precious. But I am in love with the idea and process of bringing an elderly dog into our home. In honor of National Senior Pet Month, let me explain why.
Training and Communicating with a Deaf Dog
Throughout my personal life and professional career I have worked with, loved, and lived with deaf dogs. Dogs can be born without their ability to hear, or they can lose their hearing later in life due to accident, injury, or just the natural aging process. As far as the training process goes, it is extremely similar to training a dog that can hear. In honor of Deaf Pet Awareness week, I wanted to go over some ways that we can tweak things to make training and communication easier with these special dogs.
How to Tell if Your Pet is in Pain
Our pets are beloved family members and we do all that we can to make sure they live long, happy, healthy lives with us. We provide them with routine vet care to prevent problems before they arise and to monitor existing conditions. We also take them to the vet if they become sick or injured. The problem is that our pets don’t speak human language. Because of this, it is easy for us to miss early signs that something is wrong. And for many medical issues, early detection and monitoring are key.
Should Your Dog Respect You?
This a request that a lot of clients or potential clients have when they first contact me. If it doesn’t come up prior to booking services, it often comes up during the training process. “I want my dog to respect me.” I hope to shed some light on this common desire, but there isn’t a short or easy response to this. Basically, it depends on what you mean by “respect.”
5 Things Your Pet Sitter Needs to Know
As a professional pet sitter, it is my responsibility to provide quality care for pets while their owners are away. People trust me to provide for their critters and make decisions for them as if they were my own. However, in order to perform the duties of the job there are certain things that I need to know. Pet owners need to ensure that their pet sitter has the most accurate and up to date information about their animals so that they can receive the best care possible. Without this, pets can suffer. Here are 5 things that you need to make sure your pet sitter knows about the next time you leave town.
The Truth About Balanced Training
Dog training is not a regulated field, and because of this, there are several different types of training and different methodologies that trainers may use to induce behavior change. Some of these are more effective and humane than others. Balanced dog training is a style of training that combines the use of positive reinforcement and physical corrections for bad behavior. Advocates for this type of training may make it sound appealing, but don’t believe the hype.
7 Tips for Keeping Pets Calm This 4th of July
Here in the United States, July 4th is a beloved and fun filled holiday. Backyard barbecues with friends and neighbors and exciting and beautiful fireworks displays are staples in most celebrations of this holiday. Many humans look forward to these events, but did you know that many of the things we do to celebrate our nation’s independence are frightening to our pets?
Pet Anxiety: When Being Alive is Scary
June is national Pet Anxiety Awareness month, and anxiety in our furry friends is something that is near and dear to my heart. As a dog trainer and professional pet sitter it is something that I encounter on a regular basis in my career. It is also something that I have personally dealt with in our own animals. No pet parent or animal professional enjoys seeing animals suffer, but sometimes it is difficult to know what to do when our dogs and cats are scared. I wanted to share some tips with you!
3 Tasty Homemade Dog Treat Recipes to Try at Home
Food rewards are extremely effective for teaching our dogs more appropriate behaviors. I find personally that our spoiled hounds sometimes get bored of eating the same store purchased treats over and over. We do what we can to keep things fresh and random by purchasing different brands and flavors and textures. However, an easy and cheap way to add some pizzazz to your treating routine is to make your own dog treats. This can also be a great option for dogs with medical issues or allergies that prevent them from safely eating certain foods or ingredients, since you control what goes into the cookies. I have listed and linked my favorite DIY dog treat recipes below. Enjoy!
Never Punish Your Dog for Growling
Today while I was working with Tule, something happened. A dog approached us displaying really upfront and excited behaviors and iffy body language. The dog was straining on leash to get to us, and we were in a crowded space. Before I could duck out of the way the owner lets the dog run up to Tule who is now trapped with nowhere to go. Before I could ask the owner to pull their dog back Tule growled and let out a single (but loud) bark. Luckily, the human took the hint and took their dog away, as I apologized. So what was my response as a dog trainer?
5 Pet Training Products I Can’t Live Without
It’s time to talk about dog training tools! Now, dog training as an industry has changed vastly in the past 10 years. Educated trainers are using modern and science proven methods over traditional methods that were used to cause pain and/or instill fear into the canine pupil. With this change in technique also came a change in the types of tools that progressive trainers recommend to their clients and use on their own dogs at home. This is a topic that I often discuss with clients and am asked about on a regular basis by other animal professionals, friends, acquaintances, etc. So much that I have whittled down my list of products that I love to recommend and use personally to only 5 items.
