Being a pet columnist or a blogger is sort of like teaching 5th grade. Just when you think you’ve seen and heard it all, someone asks a question like this: “Dear Dr. Yin: Do you think it is possible that a great deal of behavioral problems in dogs may be due to constipation?” My academically honed intuition—as well as the fact that a friend had suggested I check my e-mail—told me to examine the sender’s name carefully. Just as I suspected. It was a message from my running-club friend thinly disguised under his dog’s name. Knowing that this friend was

Traditionally, dog classes focus on basic exercises like training dogs to sit, lie down, stand, come, and heel on command. While these may be important tasks for dogs to learn, dog training can and should include a more global approach. For instance, the dog may know how to sit or to walk next to their owner in class, but if they haven’t learned to actually focus on their owner, they won’t be able to perform these behaviors in the presence of every-day distractions. Furthermore, positive reinforcement classes often give adequate rewards for desired behavior, but without also training the dog

Readers will frequently ask me questions like, “My dog chases my cat, what do I do?” or, “My dog goes after my chickens so he can’t be outside. How do I stop it?”  I’m always surprised at the timing of these questions because they tend to occur right after I’ve explained in detail how to train your dog to be calm and relaxed around other dogs instead of barking, lunging at, or attacking them. Why am I so surprised? Although the problems and their answers may seem unique, they are actually just the same problem in disguise.  If your dog

As many of you know, I recently moved to a new house that is perfect for me and my pets. Actually, I mean almost perfect. There was one major change I had to make and that was to fix the grass. It turns out that dogs, plus grass, plus a year-round need to take photos and videos in the yard with the dogs and grass, equal a “not likely.” In the past, it seemed like every time we needed to take photos, the lawn was either a healthy green with brown polka dots, or it had big mud spots.  Or

If you’re like the general population, your dog has a decent or so-so come when called in the house, but outside in the yard or at the park, you might experiences something like this: “My dog doesn’t really like to run to me when I call her,” says one reader of this blog. “She prefers to search for food and find things than run around at the park. I’m too nervous to let her off leash because her recall is not good yet.” This reader has the right idea. She’s keeping her dog on a long leash at the park

In the first two blogs, we covered the benefits as well as the steps for carrying out this impulse control and leadership developing program. If you’ve started or are thinking about starting this program you may have some specific questions. Here are answers to the most common of those questions. For a step-by-step photo-illustrated version of this program, view Perfect Puppy in 7 Days. What if my dog is not “motivated” for his food? He’ll eat it out of his bowl when he feels like it, but he’s not hungry when I want to use food for training. Dogs who get their