Puppy Teething & Nipping: Survival Tips & Misconceptions

“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 refers to the period of time where a puppy’s teeth are erupting. The discomfort associated with the teething process is the cause of some undesirable behaviors that puppies demonstrate.

When is my puppy teething?

Most puppy owners don’t actually know when teething starts […]

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2024-04-18T15:20:15-04:00April 18, 2024|Helpful Hints, Myth Busting, Puppies, Tutorials and How-To Guides|0 Comments

Sensitive Stomachs: How to Select Dog Training Treats

Does your dog experience loose stools after training class? While frustrating to deal with, the good news is with some prep work and support for your dog, you can reduce the likelihood it will happen again.

Just because your dog has a sensitive stomach does not mean training needs to come to a halt. With a little bit of creativity you can continue training […]

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2024-04-23T16:54:42-04:00April 5, 2024|Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|0 Comments

What Chew Should I Bring to Dog Training Class?

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 group classes (Katherine started back in 2007!), we realized it’s difficult for owners to manage their dogs and listen to the instructor at the same time. To set everyone up for success, we now coach owners to bring something tasty that […]

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|Comments Off

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

Does the sound of one of these send your dog running for the hills? Read on for some tips to fix that!

Most dogs take to clicker training like ducks to water! But occasionally, one of our students […]

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2017-12-30T03:42:13-05:00September 5, 2017|Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|Comments Off

How to Chop Dog Treats in 5 Minutes or Less

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. We recommend and sell Happy Howie’s treat rolls. Happy Howie’s rolls are way less crumbly than other rolls on the market, which is why they are our favorite. These are 1- or 2-pound chubs of semi-soft dog treats which you can […]

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|2 Comments

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

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 head, so you can put it on cue in the future! (Photo Credit: Mike Weston)

Getting Started with Capturing

Simply put, capturing involves waiting for the dog to do the ENTIRE behavior you are looking for with no prompts from you, then clicking […]

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2016-05-04T17:59:36-04:00May 4, 2016|Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|1 Comment

Luring Your Dog: A Primer

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 food treat, but it is possible to lure with toys. Luring can be used to teach many behaviors, including sit, down, loose leash walking, and a lot of tricks.

How to Lure

I use food lures in my group training classes unless the owner […]

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2016-03-07T17:15:10-05:00March 10, 2016|Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|Comments Off

How to Get Behavior: Shaping

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 have limited applications and are rarely used by most force-free trainers. In this post, I’ll address shaping, and in the coming weeks, I’ll follow-up with the others.

Shaping

What is shaping? Shaping is a method of building behavior “from scratch” by clicking successive approximations […]

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2016-02-29T14:23:27-05:00February 29, 2016|Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|3 Comments

Training How-To: Adding a Cue

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 dog that tells it “perform that behavior now to get rewarded”. Once a behavior is on cue, the dog should only offer it upon perceiving the cue.

The most common examples of cues in dog training are words like “sit” or “down,” […]

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2017-12-30T03:54:09-05:00January 4, 2016|Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|Comments Off

Creative Puppy Socialization

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 new people for your puppy to meet! This German Shepherd puppy is learning that people in uniform are a good thing. (Photo by Nicholas Wadler)

Remember that when socializing your puppy, your goal should always be exposure without overwhelming him. We want your puppy to experience novel things without getting scared […]

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|Comments Off

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

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 a quick video demonstration of how I train dogs to have self-control around food.

Keys to Training

One of our students demonstrating self-control around food. Great job, Willow! (Photo: Smiling […]

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2020-05-27T14:14:45-04:00December 28, 2015|Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|Comments Off

Training How-To: Loose Leash Walking

What is loose leash walking? Loose leash walking is an informal leash walking behavior. It’s not “heeling”, which is a precision walking behavior required for obedience competitions, but it can be a precursor to that. While loose leash walking it is acceptable if your dog sniffs, lags behind you, or forges ahead of you a little bit, as long as the leash stays loose.

Keeping the leash loose is a two-way street. Remember, your dog can’t walk politely if you are pulling her! (Photo Credit: Dave Fayram)

Why does my dog […]

By Katherine Ostiguy, KPA CTP CPDT-KA|2015-12-09T17:29:13-05:00December 14, 2015|Training, Tutorials and How-To Guides|Comments Off