BarkBox June 2014

It's my dogs' favorite time of the month! It's BarkBox day!!! BarkBox is a monthly subscription that sends you new toys and treats for your dog, based on their size. If you click the link, you can use my referral link to sign up!

Here's what I got this month for my doggies:

This toy cracks me up. The brand is Silly Bums. And it's literally just the bottom half of a monkey. LOL!!! With giant red butt cheeks!

Next up, I got Benebone Nylon Chew. This is a chew and is not meant to be edible. I think my doggies are going to like this one!

I gotBenny Bully's Beef Liver and Banana treats. My dogs love bananas so I think they'll go crazy over these!

Lastly, I got Green Bark Gummies Skin and Coat Treats.

My dogs love BarkBox! I signed up for the largest size because my dogs are huge, but they have smaller options as well!

Fundamentals of Training Your Dog

My family, friends, and co-workers know I'm a CPDT-KA dog trainer which means I get asked a lot of questions about their dogs. The question is never, "Why is my dog so adorable?" but is usually something along the lines of, "Why is my dog __________?!?!?!?!" Fill in the blank: Chewing my shoes, peeing on the carpet, nipping me, digging, barking, jumping, humping, the list goes on and on! By the time my friends ask me this questions, the "F" word is usually involved...and I don't mean "Fun"! They usually look something like this:

 

I have one piece of advice that will explain the "Why is he doing this?" question:
Everything a dog does is normal dog behavior. It's just how and when they decide to display that behavior that makes it okay to humans or not.

Digging? Totally normal.
Barking? Totally normal.
Chewing? Totally normal.

You get the point.

So where do we go from here? There is one fundamental to remember. This applies to dogs, cats, birds, kids, co-workers, spouses, bosses, siblings....anything that has the ability to learn. (Insert joke about siblings not being able to learn here.)

Anything that gets rewarded will happen more often. Period.

Your dog (and co-worker and parent and kid and spouse) is doing things because something happened that made them think it was worthwhile to do again. For example, you go to work and on Friday, you get a paycheck. You think to yourself, "Hm. That worked out well in my favor. I think I'll do that again!" And you return to work on Monday.

Your dog digs in the garden, finds a delicious, juicy worm and thinks, "Hm. that worked out well in my favor. I think I'll do it again!"

If you can remember that one fundamental, then you can pretty much solve any problem you're having. Don't worry, in future posts, I'll go into more details on specific problems, but remember this:
"Anything that gets rewarded will happen more often" will help you understand what's going on. You just need to harness the power for good!

For example, when you ask your dog to sit and they do it, reward them. Then they will think, "Hm. That worked out well in my favor. I think I'll do that again!" See? And THAT'S the dog you want!

Until next time... Have a great day!

About Me

I live in the Pacific NW with my husband and three dogs. In May 2009, we adopted a lovely white puppy and named him Kerberos, or Kirby for short. He has now grown into an amazingly handsome and wonderful member of our family. He forces me to sleep in because he's so snuggly and makes a wonderful pillow!


In October of 2009, we decided that Kirby needed a sister to play with. We started looking through the postings at our local animal shelter. We knew we wanted another big dog so she could keep up with him. We stumbled upon a Malamute named Tina. Her owner had passed away and a neighbor brought her to the shelter. When we started learning more about Tina, we learned that her original owner had kept her tied up in the back yard for her whole life. She was two years old at the time. Therefore, she was extremely afraid of people. We decided she was the one we wanted to rescue. We renamed her Magdalena, or Lena for short.


Lena ended up changing my life. In order to help her overcome her fears, I started reading more and more about dog training. I couldn't get enough! That was when I decided to become a dog trainer so I could help other families. I even took a certification test in 2013 to prove that I know what I'm talking about. :) Here's me teaching a walking on leash class. Lena is on the right. She is wearing a halti for safety reasons. If something startles her, she sometimes pulls out of her collar and then it's hard to get her back!

In 2010, I started fostering dogs for our local shelter. I wanted to make a positive impact on their lives before they found their forever homes. I fostered a Pomeranian puppy named Odin, a Chihuahua puppy named Cosmo, and finally a cattle dog mix named Bandit.
Oh, Bandit!

It was love at first lick. ;) He was the sweetest, funnies, little guys I'd ever met! So we adopted him. I think that was July 2012. Here's a picture of Bandit being his silly self.



In September of 2013, I sat for and passed the Certified Pet Dog Trainer's exam.

And that's just a little bit about me!