People frequently ask me why I use hands-free leashes in my dog classes instead of letting owners hold the leash. One main reason is the hands-free leashes allow the clients to easily handle and deliver treats quickly, in rapid succession, and with correct timing. A less obvious but very important reason and my answer: Have…

What should you do? What DO you do in this type of conflict where dogs are at risk of biting and humans are at risk of being bitten? Well, a couple of years ago when I was on my way to Australia to lecture at APDT-Australia (Association of Pet Dog Trainers), a nonprofit called AMRRIC…

My general rule of thumb is that we should use methods that focus on rewarding the correct behavior, starting with steps the dog can easily perform and quickly moving on to steps that are closer and closer to our goal behavior.

During busy seasons some shelters are filled beyond capacity and the best way to remedy this is to get pets adopted out quickly. Besides ensuring that pets are healthy and the environment low stress so that the animals will be comfortable and engaged, what else can shelters do to get these pets adopted out quickly?…

“A month ago we couldn’t even take Boo, our Lhasa Apso mix, out on walks because he would bark and lunge at other dogs no matter how far away they were. It was embarrassing and even dangerous,” says Theresa Montemayor. That changed in October, after Theresa and her husband David attended Dr. Yin’s Reactive Dogs Workshop in…

If you peruse the internet for animal training advice, you’ll see a lot of information that seems to make sense, but if you know the science behind how animals learn you know that these statements are misinformed. For instance: A zoo trainer might claim, “It’s difficult to train our lions because they are overly motivated for…