Leave Your Puppy Alone! (Introducing Puppies to Alone Time)

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2025-02-07T16:27:44-05:00May 23, 2024|Helpful Hints, Puppies, Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|

Crate training and acclimating your puppy to “alone time” doesn’t have to [Read more…]

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Puppy Teething & Nipping: Survival Tips & Misconceptions

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2024-12-18T12:21:22-05:00April 18, 2024|Helpful Hints, Myth Busting, Puppies, Tutorials and How-To Guides|

“Teething” is perhaps the most misunderstood concept in puppy raising. In today’s blog post, I’ll explain what it is, what it isn’t, and how to work through your puppy’s nipping behavior effectively and with kindness.

Teething [Read more…]

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Sensitive Stomachs: How to Select Dog Training Treats

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2024-04-23T16:54:42-04:00April 5, 2024|Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|

Does your dog experience loose stools after training class? While frustrating to deal with, the good news is with some prep work and [Read more…]

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What Chew Should I Bring to Dog Training Class?

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2024-01-29T15:30:09-05:00January 29, 2024|Blog, Group Classes, Helpful Hints, Tutorials and How-To Guides|

At Crossbones, we have an unusual item on our group class “required equipment” list: an edible chew or enrichment toy. After many years of teaching [Read more…]

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Fear of the Clicker: How to Train Your Dog Through It

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2024-05-09T05:22:38-04:00September 5, 2017|Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|

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How to Chop Dog Treats in 5 Minutes or Less

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2017-12-30T03:42:59-05:00September 7, 2016|Tutorials and How-To Guides, Helpful Hints, Product Reviews|

In our Day School program, we go through a lot of dog treats! During our busiest weeks, it is not uncommon for us to use 10 pounds or more. We’re always looking for the fastest and most cost-effective ways to prepare and store this much food in our training studio.

When it comes to food rolls, we have this down to a science. [Read more…]

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Capturing Your Dog’s Behavior: A How-To Guide

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2016-05-04T17:59:36-04:00May 4, 2016|Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|

Over the last several weeks, I have written about shaping and luring here on Spring Forth Dog Blog. My next topic is capturing, which is a pretty simple, straightforward way to get behavior!

Clicker training allows you to capture a behavior, like this terrier’s adorable tilted [Read more…]

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Luring Your Dog: A Primer

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2024-07-01T07:29:34-04:00March 10, 2016|Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|

Last week I started off my series on “How to Get Behavior” with shaping. Now I’m going to explain a bit about luring and how to use a lure to teach behavior.

The term luring refers to the use of a desired reward to coax the dog into achieving the desired behavior. The “desired reward” is nearly always a [Read more…]

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How to Get Behavior: Shaping

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2024-04-29T08:42:19-04:00February 29, 2016|Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|

Cricket has been taught to lie on her mat using shaping.

When it comes to positive reinforcement based clicker training, there are four major ways of getting behavior: shaping, luring, targeting, and capturing. There are other ways, including physical modeling, but they [Read more…]

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Training How-To: Adding a Cue

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2024-05-13T09:27:00-04:00January 4, 2016|Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|

The cue “sit” was only added when we were willing to bet $10 that this puppy would put her bum on the ground immediately after we said it.

What is a cue? A cue is a name or label for a particular behavior. It is the “green light” for the [Read more…]

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Creative Puppy Socialization

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2017-12-30T04:20:29-05:00December 31, 2015|Helpful Hints, Puppies, Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|

Good puppy socialization requires a bit of creativity. Read on some suggestions for getting your new addition “out and about” in the real world.

Always be on the lookout for [Read more…]

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How to Teach Your Dog Self-Control Around Food: VIDEO

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2024-05-22T08:07:38-04:00December 28, 2015|Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|

In one of my previous blog posts about self-control versus imposed control for dogs, I explained that I do not teach “leave it” to my dogs. Instead, I train my dogs to wait for permission to take food, objects, or anything else they want.

Here is [Read more…]

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