When you hear a dog growl, does it make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up? Do you stop what you’re doing and figure out why the dog is growling? Do you respond to the dog with aggression, or do you avoid…
You can feel them sometimes even before you see them. Maybe it’s just a tingle in your spine, or maybe you see your Service Dog’s body language change. Any time you’re in public it can happen. Drive-By Petter…INCOMING! You’ve asked them politely not to touch your…
Imagine a dad who hears his daughter say, “I met a really great guy. Yes, he picked a fight with those idiot people in the Costco parking lot, but anybody would be stressed in that situation. When I got him home, he was perfectly fine!”…
You look around you and find yourself in a tiny, unfamiliar room. It smells like veterinarians, and your human is jittery. You shiver, and then there’s a knock at the door! Do you abandon your training and bark at the sound? If you did, who could blame you?…
A good Service Dog has to demonstrate more than enthusiasm and mastery of core skills. The dog must also show tolerance in the face of mild, but annoying and repetitive actions typical of a child. Of course you can’t endanger a real child during temperament testing, but…
As we educate dog trainers, we talk a lot about how dogs learn. But if we consider what we know about how humans learn, we can get a fresh perspective and maybe some new ideas about what will succeed with any given dog. In the MHHD Soundwork…
When considering the breed of your next Service Dog, there are some “TRIED-AND-TRUE” breeds, and some “IF/THEN” breeds. Your skill as a trainer may allow you to choose just about any dog, but the amount of work you have to do, and the time it…
Science tells us great things, and often helps us understand why things work. But most of human progress has come from the accidents, the experiments, and the surprised observations of what works out. Every day I eagerly read the online posts on the owner-trainer Service Dog…
A dog can train itself to act “reactive” in only a few intense learning experiences. I’ve watched hundreds of dogs learn these behaviors, but was shocked to see it happen with my own dog. My friendly Border Collie had never barked at any human, and…