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Your dog’s first agility trial: a comprehensive guide
It’s time to enter your first agility trial. Daunting? Perhaps. Here is some information that will guide you through the process. The venue There are numerous agility venues in the United States and Canada. Decide on which to enter based on your dog’s breeding, proximity and frequency of trials, classes available and competitiveness of the venue. Limit competition to two or maybe three venues so you can learn the rules and classes for those organizations and begin to accumulate points towards titles. All venues require your dog to be registered with the venue to compete. Some allow registration with the first entry. Your dog’s registration number will stay with him…
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5 dog walking tips you’ll wish you always knew
Dog walking is great exercise for both dogs and dog lovers, but for new owners it can be a challenge — particularly if the dog is of a larger breed. For smaller framed individuals with plus size pups, it can also be tough to maintain effective control in the event the dog sees something he or she desperately wants to check out. Here are a few tips to help walk your dog in a manner that is safe for you, your dog, and other people/animals you might pass along the way. Have any tips of your own? Add them in the comments! Obey, then we’ll go Ask your dog to…
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How to stop doggo from digging up your backyard
While based on doggy instincts, boredom and an excess of unused energy are some of the main causes of dogs deciding to scratch a hole big enough to start your own fish pond. Here are some tips on how to mitigate issues with this behavior. Provide a fenced area (like a sand-box) in your garden or backyard where your dog can dig to his heart’s content. You could even bury interesting things (they can be special treats and toys) for your dog to discover and make a little game out of it. Release your dog from its boredom by giving it things to occupy its mind like special toys they…
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Dog owner trains pooch to act like a parrot
Before you get too excited, let’s make this clear: When we say “trains his pet pooch to act like a parrot,” we don’t mean in the talking-and-squawking way. We mean the riding-on-his-shoulders-as-he-walks way. Of course. Obviously. As you’ll see from the clip below, a man takes his dog for a walk. After seeming to find the snow on the ground a little too cold for his liking, the dog in question leaps onto his owner’s back. Not after a first attempt, mind you, but still, it’s more nimble than we’d ever be. Climbing onto another man’s shoulders, that is. Not that we’ve tried. Anyway, up he pops, and soon the…
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Training the teeter with tiny dogs
Creating a teeter performance that will work for a tiny dog may be a different challenge than doing the same for a large one. After solid foundation training on wobbling boards, handlers of dogs of all sizes often play The Bang Game (where the down end of the teeter is propped up so that the new down end is only a few inches above the ground; your dog jumps on, pushes it down, and leaves). Then it’s time to teach the specifics of traversing the teeter. What does an ideal teeter performance look like? Sassie Joiris, who has had much success with her tiny terriers, says “We teach ours to…
