The lack of external cues has been throwing our household for a loop. While I’m generally rather good at creating routine, none of us realized just how much the dog’s feeding routine and cues were based on external triggers. Like…
Home, Home all the time
With the many closures of non-essential businesses, businesses shifting to work from home, and school closures, many of our dogs are suddenly finding their people home, home all the time. While this might be exciting and fun at first, having…
Boundary Skills
Place targets, body targets, waiting at doors, and loose leash walking are all versions of boundary skills. All are very valuable in helping our dogs understand and succeed in our human world of fences, leashes, gates and endless number of…
Best Cue Ever
It’s the weekend. The corgi is bored. I am otherwise engaged. She is standing, staring at me, willing spontaneous adventure to begin. “Zora, go find William.” She turns tail and determinedly trots off through the house to find her other…
Don’t Take Good for Granted
With all of the millions of behavior choices available to our dogs in any given instance, it never ceases to amaze how frequently the behaviors they chose are ones that are pretty darn wonderful. That isn’t to discount the moments…
Falling in the Pond
Often when we look at or make plans for behavior modification with our dogs the focus is on management and gradual exposure to stressors that allow the dog to practice alternate coping skills below threshold working to change the dog’s…
Practice saying, “No.”
What phrase have I said more than any other phrase in the past week? “No, but thank you so much for asking!” Can anyone guess the question my response is answering? If you guessed, “Can I pet your dog?” You’re…
Scents of the Season
If any kind of weather is timed to remind that fall is right around the corner, the weather we’ve had here this week is it. Cooler, breezy, and full of smells the dogs are enthralled by. Often season changes prompt…
The Magic of Space & Time
Frequently, it feels, we are all so often rushing, rushing, rushing. And with that rushing, putting pressure on those around us, including our dogs, to hurry up and be who we need them to be. We give small credit to…
Do You Train Service Dogs?
Every so often I’ll receive an inquiry from a person about whether or not Maplewood Dog will help them train their service dog. To begin, let’s start with a few clarifying definitions: Service Animal: In the USA, a service animal…