Our very own Dog Blog for training and the State of the Trade in The Age of Wingnuts and Zealots.
A collection of articles written by Linda Kaim on the State of Dog.
All comments are moderated, but open, intelligent discourse is welcome. Posts MUST be signed with a real name. Anonymous, unsigned comments will not be published. Inflammatory, troll-like behavior will not be rewarded by inclusion, nor will profanity, threats to my person or other nonsense. Spam is welcome in some parts of the world, I guess, but not here.
If you are still with me, read on…
Dog Bite statistics. What they fail to mention…
This week, The State Farm Insurance company released a report on the number of dog bite claims they had received in the year 2011. What I find interesting to note is that children, between the ages of 5 and 15 (predominantly male children) are 900 times more likely to...
Teaching my puppy about Actions and Consequences
We have spent the last 14 days teaching my puppy how to navigate his world and overcome emotional obstacles. How not to run from strange, unfamiliar things and that curiosity is rewarded. Zwei has successfully learned to follow, to respond to his name, to sit for...
The Social Animal
http://youtu.be/mKpE3OX2lNY Our pup Zwei will be nine weeks old on Sunday, sometime around 10 pm. He has come far in the weeks since his ears and eyes have opened. He has met probably about 40 or 50 Total Strangers, and many dogs offering him a perspective on the...
Exploiting Normal Puppy Behavior
We decided it was time for Zwei to begin fulfilling his role as chief distraction and functioning working partner, starting with our 8 am appointment. Our Thursday morning regular is a young Lab mix named Murphy. Murph is a great dog, although his enthusiasm is a...
A day of discovery; getting to know your pup
Today kept us largely at home. Dog Training clients in the morning and chores in the afternoon kept me close to the house and to our new English Pointer pup, Zwei. As I suspected he would, Conor abdicated to spend the night at a friends' house on the last day of his...
Socializing your new puppy
It helps that our son Conor doesn't go back to school until Wednesday. He was also very enthusiastic about being Zwei's caregiver overnight for his very first night in his new home. We organized Conors' room to accept his new guest much to the dismay of Goth Cat. She...
Houndawg Homecoming; Puppy comes home
Little guy has been here for about 4 and a half hours and he's konked out in his crate after a pretty busy afternoon. All of his party guests left and there wasn't much left to do besides pass out from exhaustion. I imagine he's pretty happy, we made good and sure he...
Making plans; the importance of proper puppy socialization
It's always a good idea to think about not only why you want a dog, but what your plans are for your dog once you bring him home. Everyone has high aspirations for their new dog. Intentions run wild with possibilities as you and your new pup get acquainted, but even...
Preparing for a new puppy
Well, in less than 40 hours, our house will be welcoming our new puppy. An 8 week old Pointer pup will be setting up housekeeping here and we are thrilled to have him. Having a medium for bragging about his exploits is always wonderful, and I am sure there will be...
Purebred Dog Dilemma: Beautiful dogs vs Healthy Dogs
I thought this was a topical discussion considering the Samantha Brick article regarding the purported disadvantage of being attractive and a comment on FaceBook about the deliberate, planned breeding of mix bred dogs. My mind works in funny ways, I agree, but bear...