Patience and Time—the Keys to Successfully Integrating a Rescue Dog with Your Resident Pets: One Dog’s Amazing Story

December 31, 2018 / Luna Winchester / Behavior Modification, Dog Behavior, Dog body language, Dog Fighting, Dog Rescue, Human-Dog Bond, Pit Bulls, Rescue Dog

Shadow and Thor snuggling on the couch together. It took several months of patience and work to reach this point.

This is the story of a dog that came from a cruel background—from treatment that caused extreme fear —beyond what most of us will ever witness. But it’s also the story of two people who were determined to make the adoption of this extremely fearful dog work, especially in regards to integrating him with their resident dog. The fearful dog was seized from dog fighters. Both dogs in this story are pit bull mixes – a breed type that is greatly misunderstood and probably suffers more abuse and neglect in the US than any other breed type. But this couple knew better, and they invested the key ingredients to making any adoption work—patience and time.
If they could successfully integrate a dog with severe behavioral issues (extreme fear to the point of being almost non-functional) with their resident dog (and cats) and help him gain confidence so that he enjoys his life much more, imagine what other adopters of rescue dogs could do if they commit the time and patience needed to integrate their new dog into their family and home.

adopting rescue dogs, behavior modification, dog fighting, dog fighting victims, integrating dogs, rescue dogs

Setting up Rescued Dogs for Success: Key Lessons from Rescues in Central America and Central Canada

December 22, 2018 / Kristi Benson / Behavior Modification, Dog Behavior, Dog Rescue, Force-Free Training, International Adoptions, Positive Training, Rescue Dog, Sled Dogs, Training

Joaquin just above the Unidos para los Animales rescue in the mountains, 8 km above Antigua, Guatemala. Locals grow corn, avocados, and commercial flowers on the sides of the mountains. Joaquin is a former Unidos rescue. He now lives in his forever home in California.

Whether a dog was chained outside, or came from the streets or from some other rough background, they can be successfully transformed into pet dogs with the right handling and care from both their rescue and their adopters.

Kristi Benson and Linda Green discuss key lessons for setting up rescued dogs for success. Both are certified trainers by Jean Donaldson’s The Academy for Dog Trainers. Linda runs Unidos Para Los Animales (“United for Animals”) in Antigua Guatemala and Kristi previously ran Parkland Husky Rescue in Manitoba, Canada.

Meet some of these dogs! And enjoy the gorgeous photos of Antigua.

dog fostering, dog rescue, dog training, Guatemalan dogs, puppy socialization, rescued dogs, rescued sled dogs, Successful adoption

Theorie der Dominanz: Die überholte Idee, die unseren Hunden Schaden zufügt

November 10, 2018 / Tanya Hawkes / Behavior Modification, Dog Behavior, Dog body language, Dominance Theory, Force-Free Training, Human-Dog Bond, Hundetraining, Körpersprache des Hundes, Mensch-Hund-Bindung, Positive Training, Service Dogs, Training

Lexi, our fearful dog who brought me to the dog training world.

Alpha-Hund. Alpha-Rolle Rudelführer. Hierarchie packen. Rang packen Unsere unerschrockene Bloggerin Tanya Hawkes aus Wales, Großbritannien, nimmt das kontroverse Thema Dominanztheorie auf. Warum gibt es diese veraltete und schädliche Theorie noch? Tanya bespricht, woher es kam, wie es unseren Hunden schadet und warum es bestehen bleibt.

Let Dogs be Dogs: Understanding and Respecting the Nature of Our Furry Friends

October 26, 2018 / Sylvie Martin / Behavior Modification, Dog Behavior, Dog body language, Dog Freedom, Force-Free Training, Human-Dog Bond, Positive Training

Frisbees and balls are a great way to stimulate our dogs’ hunting and chasing instincts. These dogs are allowed to express their natural predatory drive and have fun.

Dogs’ tendency to behave like dogs has become frowned upon these days – it is not uncommon that their barking, chewing, chasing, digging, jumping, growling, snarling and biting is labeled “abnormal.” Dogs are suspected to have psychological problems when in fact their only problem is that we routinely assign thoughts and intentions to our dogs which exist in our imagination only. Australian dog Trainer Sylvie Martin of Crosspaws delivers another unflinchingly clear vision of how we humans can greatly increase our own happiness as well as our dogs’ by better understanding and respecting the nature of our furry friends rather than constantly projecting human intentions onto their behaviors, which only leads to conflict and stress for both parties.

anthropocentrism, anthropomorphism, behavior modification, dog behavior, dog training, fear-free training, Force-free training

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