Skills are essential! They give dogs tools to use in a complicated world and can actually give them more freedom because they’ll know how to navigate different environments and scenarios with you. They come to know what to expect and what is expected.

There’s nothing more joyous than a dog being able to run full out, off leash! But they need the skills to do so safely, especially a recall or response to their name.

Wait is one of the very first skills, after response to their name, that I teach my dogs when they are puppies. Why? It’s a foundation skill for good manners that requires impulse control as well as an important safety skill.

Do you think training tricks is silly or just something that you do when you have some free time? Think again! Tricks are skills that can be used to increase focus, control energy and replace unwanted behaviors.

Ever have to cross the street and walk on the “wrong side” where your dog is on the outside, next to traffic? Ever have to walk past another dog and wish your dog could be on the “other side” so that you’d have more room between you and the unknown dog? He can! Teach him to switch and you’ll have a great skill that your dog will see as a fun game.

“Sit” is probably the first thing you taught your new dog or puppy. You held a treat up over his nose until he lifted his nose up, lost his balance and sat. Once he learned that sitting predicted a treat, he sat all the time.

Imagine that you were forced into a car, unexpectedly taken to your doctor’s office without you knowing why. You were met at the door, taken by the arm and led to a room where you were restrained in a chair. And you were still not told why you were there or what was about to happen. How hard would you fight the restraint?  How loud would you scream, trying to be heard, demanding you have some choice in what was happening?

Next time your dog does something you don’t like, think of what you’d like the dog to do and ask for that.  Too commonly, we don’t take the time to give our dogs the skills and the ability to do what we’d like them to do instead of just telling her “no!”

Many dogs bark to get attention—and it works for them.  They bark and we either tell them to stop or, even worse, pet them or give them a biscuit—all without thinking about it, so long as the barking stops. That bark becomes successful as it gets the dog what he wants—attention. And when a behavior is successful, it become stronger and more frequent until you have a dog that barks at you, your family and your guests all the time. 

Shopping, baking, decorating, cooking, cleaning—the preparations for the Holidays go on and on. And then it’s guests, lots of food, wrapping paper and ribbons, music, laughing and playing. So…where’s the dog?