Tag Archives | Reviews

Things Your Dog Will Love: Tennis Tug

By in Training Equipment on May 19, 2012

Tennis Tug

If your house is anything like ours you’ve probably got dog toys everywhere on the floor in every room.

It’s a fact: dogs love toys. They love toys so much that they’ll make anything into a toy given enough time, boredom, and lack of supervision.

Toys are also one of the most powerful tools to have in our positive reinforcement bag of tricks and there’s always been one that I keep hidden away – only pulled out on super-special occasions – whose value at the moment I take it out is almost as good as a bag of hot dogs.

When I need to go nuclear with dogs to distract them, direct them, or just to reward them, I push the button with the Tennis Tug.

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Things Your Dog Will Love: Twist ‘n Treat

By in Training Equipment on April 4, 2012

Twist-n-Treat

If variety is the spice of life for humans it’s just as important to our furry friends – especially if what we’re aiming for is to keep them cognitively stimulated.

While the Atomic Treat Ball is our go-to puzzle toy to slow down speed eating (or to just keep one of our dogs busy), if it’s the only puzzle we give them it’s going to become less and less stimulating over time. In short, the name of the game is to not allow them to get bored.

Keeping our dogs engaged in problem solving – as well as on their toes – is where the Twist ‘n Treat shines.

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Things Your Dog Will Love: Thundershirt

By in Training Equipment on February 16, 2012

Thundershirt

The Thundershirt isn’t a dog toy.

It’s not something that dispenses yummy treats.

It isn’t even something that you’d think that your dog would like, but if they experience anxiety from storms, company coming, or crazy human holidays your dog will absolutely love the Thundershirt.

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Things Your Dog Will Love: Atomic Treat Ball

By in Training Equipment on February 7, 2012

Atomic Treat Ball

Dogs and other canids are natural problem solvers:  you can see it when wolves hunt, when the dogs in our Nose Work classes are tracking down the scent target, or when our own dogs are rooting for that single piece of kibble that fell behind their food bowls.

It’s what they’re wired to do, what they evolved to do, and it’s what they love to do, but the normal life of a dog living in a house doesn’t make for too many riddles to solve – except for the one we don’t want them to solve like how to open the garbage can lid, how to get into the closet, etc.

That’s where the Atomic Treat Ball comes in and why I’ve been using and recommending it to clients for years.

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Things Your Dog Will Love: MannersMinder

By in Training Equipment on January 26, 2012

MannersMinder

Do these scenarios sound at all familiar:

  • There’s a knock on your door and it’s a race between you and your dog to see who can get there first?
  • Is the first thing company hears when they come for a visit the sound of barking and you on the other side of the door trying to get your dog to sit quietly?
  • How often do your guests have to greet your dogs before they can say hi to you?

These are all incredibly common behaviors in dogs and ones that I’m consulted on frequently, but they can also be extremely difficult for owners with less-than-stellar compliance to deal with because the things in play – a knock at the door, the commotion of guests coming, and the possibility of someone new entering the house – all can combine to push a dog’s buttons for good or bad.

Luckily, there’s a great tool out there for situations just like this that I’ve been using since it came out: the MannersMinder.

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