Good Tips

Last Friday I interviewed Lisa Rasmussen, the trainer and owner of The Noble Hound Dog Training and Obedience. In school I’m working with a group of five, including myself, on constructing a dog magazine. Lisa gave me some awesome tips and I learned a lot of interesting stuff about dogs’ behaviour, dog breeds, and how dogs work in general. Lisa seems to really know her stuff and I can’t speak from experience but judging by her dogs behaviours and the tips she gave me to stop Diesel from doing certain things, I would recommend getting training or just advice from her.

Her approach of training is not to use aggression to discipline dogs. She ignores dogs to discipline them rather than yelling or being aggressive with them. She says grabbing a dog by the collar is both dangerous and hurtful. She says there’s too many glands around that area and the area is too close to the brain—it’s just dangerous.

Also, thanks to Lisa, I can bring some great leash handling tips to my blog for anyone who has a difficult time controlling their dog on a leash.

1.     Be Patient – If your dog pulls while on a leash, don’t expect to walk two kilometres, work in the driveway. 20 minutes of good leash walking in the driveway is better than a couple of kilometres of pulling. Quality over quantity!

2.     Tight Leash vs. Loose Leash – Don’t let the dog walk with a tight leash. When the leash is tight stop and let the dog loosen it on it’s own.

3.     Yanking Creates Frustration – Yanking and letting the dog pull makes the dog pull more—it’s an opposition reflex. When it’s around they’re neck they feel like they need to counteract your pulling.

4.     Treats – Use a type of treat that keeps the dog interested in you and fade out the treat as the dog improves on the leash.

Another thing I learned, for anyone who has a puppy, socialize your puppy with other dogs when the dog is four-12 weeks. Socializing at this age will help the puppy to learn how to properly treat other dogs, how to respond to the mother, and to deal with other dogs bullying or playing with them.

Also I have to note that this week was a sad week for the Dufault family. Maggie wasn’t doing so great when I wrote my last post but she had to be put down on Wednesday night. She was a sweetie and everyone will miss her. I’m glad she got to spend that last year or so of her life with a family as loving as the Dufaults.