Are you bringing home a new puppy? Or have you recently brought home a new-to-you family member? This course will cover what you need to know to properly integrate your new puppy into your household.

Do you have your eye on a dog in a shelter or rescue organization? Or have you recently brought home a new-to-you family member? This course will cover what you need to know to properly integrate your new dog into your household.

Raising a puppy to do well in a human-centered world is a big challenge! And every puppy is a mix of easy and difficult traits to live with. What’s the best way to focus your puppy time to bring out the best in your life together?

House training can be hard! We all want our dogs to learn, as quickly as possible, where they should go when nature calls. Sometimes this process goes fairly smoothly, and in other cases it can seem like an impossible task. People often underestimate the time and dedication it can take to sufficiently house train a puppy. When problems persist or develop in adulthood we may be at a loss as to how to proceed. In this presentation we will consider why house training can be so difficult and what we can do to help our dogs understand what we want.

Does your dog resist getting his nails trimmed? How does he feel about going to the vet’s office? Imagine how much easier it would be to have a dog who was comfortable and relaxed with basic grooming and vet care.

Our dogs are thinking beings with agendas and opinions. Many behavior problems arise when we ignore this fact and attempt to treat them like fuzzy couch ornaments. Leveraging their simple caloric intakes needs is a great place to start in offering them the brain candy they so desperately need. Daily enrichment activities, like food puzzles and scent games entertain wild puppies and keep older minds active. Dog is destructive? Provide ample shredding opportunities that are appropriate, inexpensive, and enticing to save your shoes. Dog barks incessantly? Scent-based enrichment turns off the voice because scenting and vocalizing are simply incompatible. Enriching our dogs' lives helps them to engage in fewer undesirable behaviors, and it helps them live happier more fulfilled lives. It doesn't take a lot of money or a lot of time to provide your dog with the mental stimulation he desires on a daily basis. Food, scent, and novelty based enrichment plans are all here for the taking!

Throughout your dog's life, there will be times when a crate is vital for his safety. A crate trained dog can easily travel, spend time at the vet or groomer, and be contained at home so that he can't get into trouble. But it is normal for puppies or young dogs who are not familiar with crating to be quite upset about the confinement. It isn't fair for you or your new dog to sit through hours of whining and barking, and you don't have to! With this program your dog can learn to see his crate as a cue to relax, a place to chew a bone, eat a meal, or take a nap. He can learn to seek out his crate as a good place to be. Traditional crate training approaches have relied either on allowing the pup to "cry it out" on his own, or on the heavy use of food "pacifiers" that can be hard to get away from. As a bonus your dog will learn to go into his crate when you ask him to, and how to release from the crate on cue, too, making things like unloading from the car much safer. With some dedication to the process, you can create happy crating for life for your dog!

Multiple Methods For Loose Leash Walking! Just as there are a multitude of great cookies recipes so are there many ways to teach and our dogs not to pull on the leash. Unfortunately, not one single way works for all dogs and many of the methods used can be quite dog unfriendly. Especially so because they don’t always address the preparation work that needs to be put in before you actually venture out. Nor do they take note that there are many different types of Loose Leash Walking and just how hard it is for our dogs to walk with us.

There's so much to do with a new addition to the family, and you've heard how important socialization is. Make sure your puppy meets a lot of people, everyone says, and see that he’s introduced to dogs for lots of play dates. Fortunately, you've enrolled in a group puppy class and you've got some plans for the park, so you're all set, right? Right? Maybe not.