What a Great Dog, Author at What a Great Dog!

Tips for Living with a Blind Dog

What a Great Dog — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 04:02:53 +0000

Tips for Living with a Blind Dog by Paige Varvel, Trainer

It can be challenging when a dog loses sight or if you’re adopting a blind dog into your home. There are many things to take into consideration when making your home a safe place for a pup with impaired or no vision.

Consider investing in a good pair of protective dog goggles (such as Rex Specs) to help protect your dog’s face and hopefully help them feel more confident in maneuvering around spaces. These dog goggles help protect your dog’s eyes from both outdoor elements as well as indoor hazards.
Create a consistent language for the dog to help build trust between them and the handler. Some examples include “step up/ step down” for stairs and curbs, “careful” to let them know they’re about to run into something, “easy” for slow down there are things in your path. These words, along with some others can really increase your bond with your pup as well as increasing their confidence in moving around with you.
If your pup is comfortable around other dogs, having buddies to follow and coexist with can really help with confidence. If you don’t have multiple dogs in your home, finding a dog friend that you can meet up with for walks or outings can help build your pup’s confidence.
It’s very important to keep the paths around the house as much the same as possible so your pup feels like they know where they are in their space. Establishing a good routine also helps them feel like they know when things will happen. Consistency is key.
Don’t panic/get upset when your pup bumps into something. Most of the time it upsets the people way more than the dog and overreacting to it concerns them way more than the actual bump.

Dogs with limited vision or blindness can continue to enjoy a wide variety of activities. My personal dog, Trip, lost his vision completely at age 7, and still participates in sports like Barnhunt, regularly hikes and travels around the country, and enjoys his daily stuffed Kongs and Toppls. With a bit of training and support, our blind dogs can continue to live active, joyful, fulfilled lives!

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Great Dogs, Great Kids! Summer Camp

What a Great Dog — Mon, 08 May 2023 09:39:20 +0000

Do you have a dog loving 10 – 14 year old kid and a friendly dog (who’s attended class at WAGD) in your house? If so, we have the perfect summer activity for them!

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Enrichment to the Rescue! by Brittany Wingfield

What a Great Dog — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 17:38:23 +0000

In this blog, learn ways to increase your dog’s mental exercise!

Sometimes our dog’s normal exercise routine gets thrown off – after an injury, surgery or just with age. A dog who can’t get their physical needs met can be quite difficult to live with! One of the ways we can help is to increase our dog’s mental exercise, or enrichment. Here are 6 ways to help mentally enrich your dog:

Introduce new smells – This can be a great addition to your dog’s normal routine. You can use things you have around your home that could be novel: perfumes, citrus, spices (only smelling – no ingesting!). Animal/hunting lures can provide a fresh new take to your back yard! Walking in new neighborhoods or parks can provide new smells for your pup.

Take your dog on a field trip – Ramps can help your dog get in and out of the car much easier for older or recovering dogs. There are many dog friendly store you can visit to give your pup some new scenery to take in. Often bookstore, home improvement, pet stores and plant nurseries are happy to have dog visitors, always call the specific location ahead of time to ensure they’re a pet friendly store.

Add a few ingredients to your dog’s bowl – Exposing your dog to tasty new things can be exciting for them. New chews, flavors and texture can really activate your pups brain!

Provide novelty – Having toys and chews is certainly important to fill in the lack of exercise gap. However, giving your dog every chew and toy they have can leave them bored, quick. An item being new or novel can oven times create a lot of interest, having a bunch of items you can rotate for your dog can be super beneficial in keeping things fresh and fun.

Solve a puzzle – Food puzzles can be a great way to encourage and challenge your dog. Many puzzles have varying degrees of difficulty. Start easy, then gradually make the puzzle more difficult as your pup gets the hang of it. Don’t underestimate the beauty of “trash” – paper towel tubes, boxes and egg crates are some good, shreddable puzzle feeders!

Incorporate Training – Engaging your dog’s brain in learning a new behavior and help to run out some energy! Some good low movement/energy behaviors can be teaching: a shake, a chin rest, rolling onto their side for veterinary exams, even an online nose work class can be beneficial.

While in a perfect world our dogs would be able to run around until their heart’s content – that may not always be an option. We hope these tips and tricks can help you bring enrichment to the rescue for you. For more enrichment information take a look at our Online Enrichment Seminar.

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WAGD Gift Cards Available Online

What a Great Dog — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 16:19:42 +0000

Looking for that perfect gift for a dog lover or new puppy owner? Learn more!

Gift cards are good for in-facility, online training classes or retail products at WAGD. You can purchase a gift card here

If you’d like to purchase yours over the phone, just give us a call! Frisco 214-297-3000 Richardson 972-677-7097

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Is Your Dog a Jumper? Here’s a Great Tip!

What a Great Dog — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 12:00:40 +0000

Does your dog jump on everyone he sees? If so, be sure to click here!

Your dog’s greeting behavior starts with the way you allow him to greet you. Many dogs get overly excited even when their own family comes home. Since most dogs find guests much more exciting than their own family, the stage is set for out of control greetings for guests to your home! Start with creating the desired greeting behavior with your own family members.

The best thing you can do is to make sure your family greets your dog in a very low key way. If your dog learns to anticipate excitement upon your return, he’ll work himself into a frenzy. A better approach is to completely ignore your dog when he’s overly excited. At the point he finally calms, then ask him to sit and give him some affection. He’ll quickly learn that approaching you calmly is the quickest way to get to interact with you. And, that’s a great first step toward developing a “four on the floor” greeting for your family AND your guests.

If you still need help or have any questions, sign up for our upcoming Season’s Greetings workshop or schedule a private lesson, and we will gladly show you the steps to a polite greeter in no time!

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Destructive Doggies – Tips for Survival

What a Great Dog — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 13:46:09 +0000

Don’t put your young dog in the position to make THIS choice!

By Maureen Patin CPDT-KA, Founder/Head Trainer of What a Great Dog! Training Centers

Does your dog get into everything in sight while you’re away? Preventing this takes some time and effort, but with the right strategies you can teach your dog to consistently choose his toys and not yours!

Just like toddlers, dogs, especially puppies want to put anything and everything in their mouths! While scolding can seem like the right thing to do, punishment can decrease your dog’s desire to want to train with you. The other problem with punishment is that your dog doesn’t really know why he’s getting in trouble, especially if the destruction happened earlier in the day.

Training is really all about creating the right HABITS in your dog. Learning will occur best when you set him up for success and make sure he gets LOTS of practice doing the things you want him to do. In this case, that means he needs a lot of practice choosing his toys and chew bones. You’ll also need to manage him in a way that he does NOT get to practice the habit we don’t want (i.e. destroying your things).

All dogs need lots of mental and physical stimulation. But, this is especially true with the young or destructive dog. Having a bunch of dog toys isn’t enough for this dog. He needs truly irresistible chew items and enrichment games that satisfy his needs on a daily basis. I recommend a frozen, stuffed Toppl once a day (or even twice) for the young or destructive dog. Additionally, plan to have bully sticks and NoHide chews at the ready. We also recommend increasing physical exercise for the destructive dog. However, it is often the excess mental energy that is the bigger culprit in these cases. Going for sniff walks and participating in group training are two excellent ways to satisfy your dog’s mental enrichment needs.

When you’re home, you can set your dog up for success by first making sure he always has enticing chews and toys available. Equally important is that you keep your house picked up so he doesn’t have a chance to practice the unwanted behavior. If he does manage to get a hold off something you don’t want him to chew, convince him that his things are even BETTER! For example, if your dog is chewing on a shoe, trade the shoe for a super yummy appropriate chew (maybe a bully stick or equally awesome item). It’s important that you have chews that your dog finds interesting and desirable, otherwise, the fair trade will not work.

If you manage the environment (not allowing access to things he shouldn’t have) for your young dog, he will develop the HABIT of chewing only his things. Then you’ll find you can ease up on yourself a bit as he chooses to walk by that shoe on his way to the chew he’s in the HABIT of playing with and chewing one.

When you’re not home, your dog most likely needs to be confined. Most young dogs and virtually all puppies are going to be destructive if left alone, loose in your home. Setting them up for success means confining them in an appropriate manner (crate, ex-pen or baby gated in a safe area) AND leaving them with super enticing (but safe) chews and toys. You want to create the HABIT of them focusing their attention on their things, not yours. It’s not fair to expect him to choose his own toys over yours if you haven’t helped him learn that habit.

Realizing that it is your job to prevent destructive behaviors from becoming your dog’s habit is the biggest part of the solution. Only AFTER you see that your dog is ready to make the right choice, i.e. the chew bone instead of the chair leg, should you start experimenting with gradually increasing your dog’s freedom. The outcome of your careful efforts, a lovely family companion that does not destroy your things. That’s an outcome worth working for!

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The Best Way to Handle Puppy Biting

What a Great Dog — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 21:21:31 +0000

Puppy biting is a 100% natural canine behavior. Its also naturally outgrown as the pup matures. Punishing for puppy biting is not recommended as it puts your pup at an increased risk for developing other behavior problems.

If you do a great job of meeting your pup’s needs, you’ll find that excessive puppy biting is greatly minimized.

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RAD Agility Trials Coming to WAGD Richardson!

What a Great Dog — Sat, 10 Oct 2020 10:18:47 +0000

We will be having our first Reactive And Distracted Agility trial on 11/21-22Learn more here!

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The Power of the Cookie Jar

What a Great Dog — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 12:57:48 +0000

By Maureen Patin CPDT-KA Founder/Head Trainer What a Great Dog Training Centers

Setting up treat stations around the house will take your dog training to a whole new level! Being able to quickly reward your dog for around the house behaviors is powerful. This concept also tells your dog that great behavior “could” be rewarded at ANY time, not just when you’re wearing a treat pouch.

Treat stations are small containers, like a cookie jar, or bags of treats placed throughout your house – especially near problem areas where training is needed the most. Catch your dog doing something you’d like to see more of? Say a special word that means “You just did something awesome, let’s go to the treat station together”. “Cookie!” is a popular choice. Then, hustle over to that treat station and reward them! Here are just a few ways to use this powerful tool:

The Front Door: Reward for things like calm behavior when getting ready to go walk, preventing or interrupting barking when someone knocks at your door or four feet on the floor when guests visit.
The Back Door: Reward your dog when you call him back inside.
The Kitchen: For those counter loving dogs, be sure to reward your dog before they get a chance to check out what you’re cooking for dinner. Having a place for your dog to settle in the kitchen / when you’re eating gives your dog a place to go that gets rewarded.
Living Room: Reward your dog for noticing someone walking by without barking when looking out the window.

Recognize that for many behaviors you’ll need to reward anything that is “headed in the right direction”. For example, I should start with rewarding my dog EVERY time I call him in from the backyard. Then I can progress to only rewarding the times he comes FAST or when there are distractions.

The more you use these impromptu rewards, the faster you’ll see behavior change. Think of some areas where your dog’s behaviors could be improved and some places around the house you could use the power of the cookie jar!

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Raising a Puppy while Social Distancing

What a Great Dog — Tue, 25 Aug 2020 21:29:09 +0000

In many ways this can be the ideal time to add a puppy to your family.

If you aren’t an “essential worker”, you’re probably spending nearly all your time at home. That can certainly be a big advantage when you are house training and bonding with your pup. Also, if there were ever a time that we could all benefit from the companionship and unconditional love offered by a pet, this is it!.

However, there are some significant potential drawbacks to be aware of. The drawbacks fall into the areas of the pup’s socialization and his learning to spend time alone. But, I believe if you’re proactive, and take the necessary steps to mitigate these issues, your pup will grow up to be a confident dog who is a great companion for you and your family. If you take the right steps, the pros of adopting now will outweigh the cons.

The key drawback is in puppy socialization. Socialization is incredibly important for puppies. If they don’t get adequate socialization when they are young, many pups will develop into dogs with serious fear issues, including leash reactivity and fear aggression. These are issues which are difficult to improve in adulthood. Many of the typical ways of socializing your pup are not available to you now. Going to a well-run group puppy class is usually a very important part of a good socialization strategy. Also, visiting with friends, having people come into your home and taking your pup to public places are great ways to have your pup learn that strange people are a normal and pleasant part of life. All of those strategies are taken away or dramatically changed with social distancing. I’ll give you a few new strategies for accomplishing your socialization goals in a time of social distancing requirements.

Passive socialization is key! This is the type of socialization where your puppy sees the strange people, places, dogs and noises, but does not interact directly with them. Even during normal times, I highly recommend emphasizing passive socialization in your puppy raising strategy. An important part of good socialization is being sure to never scare the puppy. A scare during this time can create deep seated fears which last for your dog’s lifetime. With passive socialization, the risk of scaring the pup is much less. Accomplish this by letting your pup see people walking their dogs, or taking him out with you when your run errands. Drive him to see things he might not otherwise encounter in your neighborhood, maybe a construction site, a pasture with livestock or a busy parking lot.

Novelty is the name of the game. A big piece of socialization is the pup learning that new things aren’t scary. You can teach this important lesson by creating fun novelty in your house and yard. You can make a fun, easy obstacle course that exposes your pup to different objects and surfaces. Have family members do a “parade of novelty” walking by wearing hats, costumes, boots, surgical masks, etc. Other pets could wear costumes or scarves.

Alone time is A-okay. With many families staying home 24×7, the scene is set for a lot of puppies to grow into dogs with debilitating separation issues. Separation anxiety is one of the most difficult canine behavior issues to treat. It’s also one of the most heartbreaking. The dogs that suffer from this condition are truly miserable anytime they are apart from their people. Which during normal times, is usually a big part of most dogs’ lives. You can ensure that your pup learns that being alone is safe and okay by making sure that he spends at least a portion of everyday alone. This should be done both by having him in a room by himself (safely in a crate) and by having the family leave the house without him. The time alone can initially be very short, but increase gradually over time. The best way to introduce alone time is to leave for just a minute or two and return very calmly. Don’t make a fuss when you return, just go about your business. You’d like your pup to learn that his people will come and go, and that it’s no big deal.

Start training now. Early training is the ideal way to help your pup learn how to be the companion you’ve always dreamed of. Pups are little sponges ready to absorb whatever you want to teach. Because group classes are cancelled and private trainers can’t even come to your home, you may be tempted to put off your pup’s training until the social distancing restrictions are lifted. But, starting your training now, while your pup is young, is absolutely the most effective strategy. At Great Dog Online, we offer high quality, interactive online training, both as group classes and private sessions. Additionally, our Puppy Seminar will give you all the pro tips and tricks needed to maximize your pup’s potential. Join us and see what a great dog you have!

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