The Modern Bark | Dog Training Tips

The Paws Aboard Doggy Boat Ladder has been the gold standard for dog water safety when boating on lakes and other large bodies of water.  Now a newcomer has arrived, Pawz Pet Products Doggy Boat Ladder. We wanted to know, what's the difference and which is better? The Paws Aboard Doggy Boat Ladder in Action  Starting at $184.00 We checked with several distributors and the manufacturers of both products.  It appears that the owners of Paws Aboard decided to go their separate ways.  As a result, both owners enjoyed the intellectual property rights to the Paws Aboard boat ladder patent. This spawned a new company, Pawz Pet Products, producing exactly the same product, possibly even being produced at the same factory.  The only difference right now is the lettering on the side of the ladder. The Pawz Pet Products Doggy Boat Ladder at Work. As you can see they attach in exactly the same manner and look almost alike, right down the dog modeling its ease of use an

Did he do it? Does this dog look guilty to you? Is it a mistake to confer human emotions and motives on our dogs? Are dogs really more human than some of us are prepared to believe?  Recently, dogs have become the new darlings of cognitive science, and research exploring the range of canine emotions and cognitive abilities is mounting at an exponential rate. Among the many human characteristics attributed to dogs is the concept of guilt. It’s not unusual for a dog owner to state, “I knew he had done something; he had that ‘guilty look.’” We all know that doleful, guilty dog expression, but does it really demonstrate that dogs feel shame? If not, what’s behind it? Researchers at University Barnard College in New York set out to answer a few of these questions. The Guilty Dog Experiement In a study by Alexandra Horowitz, Assistant Professor from Barnard College, dogs were placed in a controlled environment where they and their owners were setup to make guilty dog

How Prevalent is Dog Anxiety for Thunder Typical dog fear stance: ears back, whites of the  eyes  showing,  head lowered  and back hunched. A dog anxiety survey of 2000 dog owners found that approximately 13% of dogs suffer from noise phobias, defined as a persistent, irrational fear response.  Yet of those surveyed, only one third of the respondents whose dogs exhibited  symptoms had sought any treatment or professional advice to manage their dog's condition. Furthermore the Bristol survey found that 50% of owners did not recognize that behaviors they reported in response to loud noises were in fact fear related symptoms. Here are three effective treatments for reducing canine anxiety caused by fireworks, gunshots and thunderstorms. Noise Sensitive Dogs: Causes of Noise Phobias and Anxiety Some dogs exhibit fear of loud noises from an early age while others display a sudden or slowly increasing fear of loud noises over time. Certain breeds, such as

Dog whistles have been used since the late 1850’s  for long distance control of dogs for  obedience,  hunting and retrieval as well as the herding of stock.   Whistle commands are used when working  dogs outdoors over long distances, where  verbal and visual commands are impractical.   Typically these whistle commands are taught after the dog has mastered the related visual or voice commands in close proximity to their trainer.  A variety of styles of whistles are in production, and each has its advantages based on the type of work the dog is performing and environmental conditions.   In this review we will discuss which model whistles are appropriate for herding dog training along with video tutorials of whistle training basics for this venue. Herding Dog Whistles Compared If you are adept at whistling, scroll on down for the video on traditional herding whistle commands. For those of us that have a hard time making any sound through pursed lips, Acme makes two models

Luna's puppies emerging from their den Crate training, when properly done, provides owners with peace of mind during those times when they cannot monitor the activities of their new puppy or dog.  Dogs Love Their Dens and Crates Dogs are essentially den animals by nature, meaning they instinctively enjoy being in dark close quarters.  In the wild, expectant mothers dig dens in order to whelp and raise their new puppies.  In fact, our border collie regularly digs dens or re-excavates old dens in accordance with her seasons to prepare for her coming or imaginary litters.  These dens are relatively spacious, and will protect the puppies from the elements such as summer heat, winter snow and rain. Their den maintains a relatively constant temperature, as it is typically one foot underground.  Here the puppies will stay until they begin to walk and venture out short distances from the den, returning to the den to sleep and nurse.  With proper introduction to his new cr

The average dog can learn as many as 150 words, a fairly substantial vocabulary beyond sit, stay and come. Research with several border collies has brought those vocabulary numbers up beyond 400 words, and a border collie named Chaser has learned the names of 1022 objects, which he can differentiate and fetch on command.  There appears to be no upper limit in Chaser's vocabulary lessons, as he continues to add words to his lexicon. In the wake of such impressive results, researchers Emile van der Zee, Helen Zulch and Daniel Mills sought to determine the presence of a key feature of human word comprehension in canine learning. In the research article,  Word Generalization by a Dog (Canis familiaris): Is Shape Important?, the researchers sought to determine if shape bias existed in dogs as it does in humans. Experiments with human 2 year olds, have shown a "shape bias" exists in the learning of new words.  Simply put, once the child associates a name with an object,