Peaceable Paws

Presenting… SQUID! 16

 in Animal Training / Dog Behavior Modification / Gold Paw / Peaceable Paws / positive dog training  tagged Behavior Assessment / bite inhibition / clicker training / counter conditioning / dog / dog trainer / dog training / Flyball / Humane Society of Washington County / Pat Miller / Peaceable Paws / shelter by

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

 in Academies / Animal Shelters / Animal Training / clicker training / dog trainer / Peaceable Paws / positive dog training / Scholarship / Uncategorized  tagged clicker training / dog / dog trainer / Dog Trainer Academy / dog training / Humane Society of Washington County / Level 1 Training Academy / Marin humane Society / Pat Miller / Peaceable Paws / positive training / Scholarship / shelter by

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: […]

Bright Light on the Veterinary Behavior Horizon 9

 in Dog Behavior Modification / Peaceable Paws / positive dog training / Travels with PPaws  tagged dog / dog trainer / dog training / Karen Overall / NAVC / Pat Miller / Peaceable Paws / positive training / seminar / Veterinian by

Every trainer I know can recount horror stories of veterinarians giving their clients bad training and behavior advice, and handling dogs inappropriately. You know: “Alpha-roll your puppy to show him you are dominant” “Don’t take your pup anywhere until after he’s 6 months old and has had all his shots” Techs and vets forcibly restraining a violently resisting dog in order to trim nails or draw blood (To be fair, I’m sure veterinarians have equally horrifying stories of trainers inappropriately giving veterinary advice, but that’s grist for another blog.) The good news is that a growing number of veterinarians are […]

The Chronicles of Narnia 2

 in Animal Training / Dog Behavior Modification / dog trainer / Peaceable Paws / positive dog training / Travels with PPaws  tagged Chicago / dog / dog trainer / dog training / Narnia / Pat Miller / Peaceable Paws / Reactive Rover / seminar / Sturgis by

No Lion, no Witch, no Wardrobe, just a wonderful weekend with some of the nicest hosts I’ve ever had the privilege of spending time with. They took me out for delicious dinners both Saturday and Sunday evenings, and we laughed so much my stomach hurt. The trip started on my favorite plane with my favorite airline (Cape Air) out of my favorite airport (Hagerstown, MD). I was the only passenger on the 8-seater propeller plane – I love the feeling of having my own private airplane – and it sure beats driving to the Baltimore airport in rush-hour traffic.   […]

Contest Winner Announcement(!) and Level 1 Academy 3

 in Academies / clicker training / contest / dog trainer / Peaceable Paws / positive dog training / Travels with PPaws  tagged clicker training / contest / dog / dog trainer / Dog Trainer Academy / dog training / Humane Society of Washington County / Level 1 Training Academy / Marin humane Society / motorcycle / Pat Miller / Peaceable Paws / positive training / shelter by

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

 in Academies / Animal Training / Dog Behavior Modification / dog trainer / Peaceable Paws / positive dog training  tagged clicker training / dog / dog trainer / Dog Trainer Academy / dog training / Dog Training Workshop / Level 3 Academy / Marin humane Society / Pat Miller / Peaceable Paws / positive training / shaping by

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 […]

Cops Shooting Dogs 21

 in Animal Shelters / Dog shooting / Dog-related fatalities  tagged dog / Dog-related fatalities / Marin humane Society / Pat Miller / Peaceable Paws / police / shelter / shooting by

It used to be a rarity to hear of a dog being shot by a law enforcement officer. Not any more. Something has happened in our culture and our law enforcement communities that has caused an exponential increase in tragic incidents such as the one that occurred on September 12th at a crowded street festival in Washington DC. On that afternoon, Officer Scott Fike shot and killed Parrot, a Pit Bull/Shar-Pei mix who was attending the event with his foster caretaker. Other recent cases from the Police-Killing-Dogs Hall of Shame include Bear-Bear, a Siberian Husky who was shot by an […]

Behavior Modification Academy 8-10 4

 in Academies / Animal Training / Dog Behavior Modification / dog trainer / Peaceable Paws / positive dog training / Uncategorized  tagged Behavior Assessment / dog / dog trainer / Dog Trainer Academy / dog training / Humane Society of Washington County / Pat Miller / Peaceable Paws / positive training by

Confession time… I’m waaaaaay behind in getting a blog done, and now I have a dilemma – there have been so many things happen that I’ve wanted to blog about, like the Humane Society of Washington County donation jar getting stolen from the table at Martinsburg Bike Night, and the subsequent exciting chase, capture of one suspect, and ultimate recovery of the jar with over $250 in it. (It was the father of the two juveniles who actually went out and found the jar!). Or my observations from the Humane Society vaccination clinic and flea-less market that drew a long […]

Of Marinated Cats and Baseball Bats 2

 in Animal Cruelty / Animal Shelters / positive dog training  tagged dog / dog trainer / Humane Society of Washington County / Pat Miller / Peaceable Paws / positive training by

One of the things I do in my “spare time” is to write short articles about Pet Law for Examiner.com. From time to time I submit Legal Briefs for which I mine the Internet for reports of animal abuse and cruelty cases and present a short synopsis of some of them. While doing this recently I ran across two articles that stuck me as particularly noteworthy. Marinated Cat The first one was just bizarre. Gary Korkuc of Cheektowaga, New York (near Buffalo) had adopted a cat from a local shelter. Sunday night, Buffalo police pulled him over for running a […]

Instructors Course 8-2010 12

 in Academies / Animal Shelters / Animal Training / dog trainer / Dog training classes / Peaceable Paws / positive dog training  tagged Bark / clicker training / contest / dog trainer / Dog Trainer Academy / dog training / Dog training classes / Humane Society of Washington County / Level 1 Training Academy / Level 2 Instructor Academy / Pat Miller / Peaceable Paws / positive training / shelter by

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, […]

CONTEST: Where in the World is Pat Miller? 5

 in Academies / Animal Training / contest / dog trainer / Dog training classes / Dog Training Workshop / positive dog training / Travels with PPaws  tagged contest / dog / dog trainer / Dog Trainer Academy / dog training / Dog Training Workshop / Pat Miller / Peaceable Paws / positive training by

Are you ready for a contest???? Description: below are 15 photographs taken during Pat Miller’s travels over the last several years to seminars, workshops, and on the back of the Harley. Your job is to correctly identify the locations of as many of them as possible. Identification must include city, state (if US), country, and a brief description as to what the photo represents or where in the city it is located. The contest will run for 3 months. If more than one person correctly identifies all 15 photos, the one with the most accurate descriptions wins. If there is […]

Downtown Hound 9

 in Animal Training / clicker training / dog trainer / Dog training classes / Dog Training Workshop / positive dog training  tagged clicker training / dog / dog trainer / dog training / Dog training classes / Downtown Hound / fun training / Pat Miller / Peaceable Paws / positive training / shaping by

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 […]