Submissive Urination: 6 Tips to Curb It

Submissive urination can be annoying and frustrating. It can also take a while to break your dog of this behavior. Whatever you do, try to remain calm and don’t punish your dog. 6 tips to curb submissive urination Build confidence – basic obedience training can build your dog’s confidence. Get your dog used to noises, […]

Food Aggression in Dogs: What to do about it

Food aggression is a form of resource guarding in which a dog becomes very defensive when eating and uses threats to force others away. It can be directed towards other animals, humans, or both. The behavior can also extend to treats. Many dog trainers and experts have narrowed down food aggression into three degrees: Mild: […]

Territorial Urination and How to Curb It

Dogs are territorial and like to protect, establish, and mark what is theirs. Territorial marking is different than just peeing. While it can be a big puddle, sometimes it’s nothing more than a few drops around the house. It’s not spiteful though, it’s a sign of insecurity. If a dog senses that the area is […]

5 ways to stay calm when training your dog

One of the most important things when raising your pup is to make sure you are calm and keep the training sessions on track. It’s hard. Puppies have an attention span of about 10 seconds before they go do something else that is more fun to them. Sometimes they can learn how to sit and […]

Teach Your Dog To Come When Called

One of the best tricks to teach your dog is to come back to you when you’re out and about. Imagine your dog slips her collar and runs, stops, and then looks at you – known that she will come back when called will cut down on panic that she’ll keep running or think it’s […]

12 Reasons to Teach Your Dog To Sit

Basic commands that we teach our dogs help with being able to control them when they get hyper, teach them to have manners, and keep them from getting into trouble. Many dogs know the word “sit” and associate it with getting a treat, putting on a leash, or waiting by a door. But knowing this […]

What is does it mean for your dog to be a Canine Good Citizen?

As we become smarter with ways to raise our pets, foods to feed them, and how to communicate with them, many of us may find our pets becoming these model citizens in the community. Some of us may even end up working with our pets to become therapy pets. While the rest of us may […]

4 Tricks Every Dog Should Know

Life sometimes gets in the way of the fun things we want to do. Heck, it even gets in the way of our day to day. Sometimes you find yourself awake at 3am on a workday doing dishes or up at 7am on a Saturday so you can finish up some report due on Monday. […]

Canicross: Putting Your Dog To Work

Some dogs have a need to pull. We can train them to walk next to us, heel, and have perfect leash manners but some dogs just were made for working. If you have a pup that has a working dog’s mind and could probably tow your car if you hooked her up to it, you […]

Ow My Chin! Stop Your Dog From Jumping Up on People

We all love when we are greeted with an overly enthusiastic tail wag, bright eyes, and bounding dog after a long day at work but if you have a dog that jumps up it can also mean you’ll be greeted with a few paw prints and a head butt that could knock your tooth out! […]

Pet Stores and Services Around Ottawa, Ontario

Ottawa, Ontario, sure isn’t short of pet stores and services! There are many different options to shop for holistic and healthy pet foods, as well as specialty businesses for things like aquariums, grooming and training. Bark & Fitz Bark & Fitz is a Canadian chain store that sells all types of holistic and healthy foods […]

The Pros and Cons of Puppy Pads

Puppy training pads are great for owners who are trying to get their young dog to learn not to go in the house everywhere. Owners of small dogs who live in big apartment complexes and senior dogs who can’t hold it for a full day anymore often also have wee wee pads placed in the […]

Vacuum vs. Dog

Does your dog or puppy hide from, bark at, chase, bite, your vacuum cleaner?  It seems there are a group of dogs who pretest our efforts to clean up or think the vacuum is a monster and must attack it as moves around on the rug. Sometimes it can be funny to watch your dog […]

Coprophagia: The act of eating poo… EW!

I’ve worked with dogs who have a bad habit of eating feces. I’ve also known dogs who “clean” their own back yard. I don’t enjoy getting “kisses” from these dogs at all. I’m sure there are a bunch of us who have met or have dogs that do this and wonder why they think it’s […]

Canine Good Citizen: Making You and Your Dog Good Citizens

Does your dog have a great personality? Does she play with other dogs without ever getting angry? Does she come when called? Does she allow small kids to tug her ears and pull her tail? Does she approach strangers and your friends with a wagging tail and happy disposition? Your dog could qualify to be […]

Destructive Chewing: Why and How to Curb It

Dogs explore and learn about the world using their sense of smell, sight, and touch. We touch with our hands to figure out how something feels; dogs use their mouths. Chewing is normal behavior for dogs of all ages. While chewing is normal, dogs sometimes direct their chewing behavior toward inappropriate items. Both puppies and […]

Dog Etiquette: 7 Tips for a good canine citizen

Do you notice that your dog sometimes goes nuts when meeting a new person? Maybe your dog jumps up and knocks people over or runs over dogs at the dog park while playing. There are some basic commands your dog should know to not be considered the “Dennis the Menace” of your neighborhood. If you […]