clicker training


Presenting… SQUID! 16

So, every Tuesday I go to the Humane Society of Washington County to do behavior assessments for adoption dogs, and every week I manage to resist some wonderful faces and personalities. We even play an “if” game at the end of assessments… Teasing ourselves a little we ask each other, “If you had to adopt one of the dogs we assessed today, which one would it be?” I’m pretty safe playing this game – we have five dogs in the family, with no intentions of adding another permanent canine resident. Five is our limit. However, that doesn’t preclude an occasional […]


Giving Back 4

An admirable quality of our species is that those who have more are often willing to give back to those who have less.  For many years, much of my own giving has been focused on the animal sheltering world, with an occasional book donation to some other dog-related cause. I decided it’s time to extend that give to the dog training world through an offer of scholarships to our Peaceable Paws Level One (Basic Dog Behavior and Training) Dog Trainer Academies. There are presently three scholarships available, one for each 2011 date, for our Maryland location only. Academy dates are: […]


Recharging Our Batteries & Reinforcing Our Clients with PPaws Performance Titles 4

Happy Holidays!!! It’s December! It’s almost Christmas! Why not put “Tuition for a Peaceable Paws Class or Training Program” at the top of your wish list for yourself – or for your dog-loving family members and friends?   Happy New Year… I always feel a little drained by the end of a Peaceable Paws year, what with our half-dozen week-long academies, multiple 1-3 day workshops, out-of-town seminars, weekly group classes, articles to write, private consults, a couple of dozen articles, sometimes a book,  and more. Fortunately things grind to a halt in early December. My assistant, Shirley and I have […]


Contest Winner Announcement(!) and Level 1 Academy 3

Exhausted after completing our last Level 1 Academy for the year… so why am I up at 5am on a Sunday morning? Well, clocks turned back at 2am this morning, so it’s really 6am and my internal clock just doesn’t get the message that fast. And besides, there are horses and dogs to feed, a dog-hike on the schedule, and blogs and articles to write. Not to mention laundry to do. Might as well get up instead of lying in bed trying to convince myself to sleep in another hour… Had a great week with a terrific group of dog […]


Long Overdue: Giving Thanks to PPaws Interns 4

It’s been so long since I’ve blogged I’m almost embarrassed to start up again. I have friends e-mailing me asking if I’m still alive – and Jim Croce’s song lyric, “You never seem to have enough time to do the things you want to do once you find them…” is making endless loops in my brain. So… my apologies for the long absence. So here it is, almost November already. Where does the time go? It’s been a very busy couple of months. For some reason this fall seemed more jammed than usual – perhaps because of the addition of […]


Instructors Course 8-2010 12

Yesterday was the closing day of yet another Peaceable Paws Academy – this one our Level 2 Instructors Course. We tend to not get as much interest in this one as our Level 2 Behavior Modification (BMod is sexier), but it’s an excellent opportunity for trainers to hone their teaching skills – teaching humans is a very different skill set from training dogs. The students take turns teaching our Peaceable Paws Basic Good Manners exercises to each other, and as we do in our Level 1 Academy, students are working with shelter dogs. This week’s group consisted of: Bob Ryder, […]


Downtown Hound 9

Always a popular class, we offer our Downtown Hound experience just once a year, when we can take advantage of the long summer evenings. It always fills quickly, with some of our favorite students. This year is no exception. Our class is: Katie and Brooklyn – an 8 month old Rottie/Shepherd mix (below): Kristy, Bobbie and Grace – a 1 year old Belgian Tervuren: Mary and Milo – a 2 year old Collie mix: Lori and Pearl – a 1 year old Cockapoo: Ronda and Shea – a 7 year old Australian Shepherd (foreground): Karen and Cullen – a 2 […]