THIS HURTS! Giving a chomper food is painful. My dog Raven needed to take a step back in training for me to re-teach her how to take training food with ease. So I stopped training the behavior we were working on, and for a couple of sessions, we worked on taking the dog training food nicely and in a polite manner minus any pain to my palm. I wiped some chicken fat on my palm, and offered her my palm. {Read More}
Our Motivating Dog Training Food
May 9, 2017 By
When training dogs, I always use a motivating, nutritional food and most of the time, this is food that I bake. I bake trays of dog training food at a time, wrap what I’ll not be using immediately in waxed paper, and store them in the freezer in sturdy freezer bags. Later, I take out and defrost as needed. The waxed paper helps keep freezer crystals from forming and the plastic freezer bags insulate the food. They defrost nicely. Take {Read More}
Hiring a Professional Dog Trainer
May 8, 2017 By
If you are a service professional, have you found that people come up to you to ask for free advice just because you are present? I would bet more service professionals than not would answer the question with a resounding yes! It eventually happens. As for me, a couple weeks ago, someone who I’ve had scant conversations with asked me a how-to dog-training question on the fly. The question she asked me needed more than a 60-second sound byte, especially {Read More}
What Makes You Giddy?
May 5, 2017 By
When a dog gets it right during our dog training sessions, we celebrate! When she gets it wrong, we are silent. There’s no need for pain or punishment. This humane method of dog training works. There’s nothing better for me as a humane dog trainer than watching my dogs learn to learn while moving along a training plan to a goal. Dobermann Emilie Lifts Her Dumbbell and Makes Me Giddy from Helen Verte Schwarzmann, CTC on Vimeo. Do you want {Read More}
Spatial Dog Training
May 3, 2017 By
Like any dog, my new rescued Dobermann, Emile, is learning from both me and the environment. She’s curious and cautious, which is a good combination. When she first arrived, her house manners were scant because, I believe, she hadn’t been in a house before. She would quickly turn around so hard and fast that she gave no credence to what was behind her. The last time she did this, she’d slammed her head into a door. I was worried about {Read More}
Trick Dog Champion
April 30, 2017 By
The AKC is starting a new set of titles for people who like to teach their dogs tricks. The titles are Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Performer. I trained my Australian Shepherd to the Trick Dog Champion title through Do More With Your Dogs. So now that the AKC is recognizing and grandfathering in DMWYD titles through 2017, I’ve decided to apply for Dudley’s AKC equivalent for his TDCH title – Performer. Below is the video we put together when Dudley {Read More}
Training An Adopted Rescue Dog
April 28, 2017 By
The only thing better than watching a dog do a happy dance is watching a recently rescued shelter dog doing a happy dance. This is our new addition, Miss Emilie. I adopted her from a shelter a month ago, and here is a comparison of her shelter photo and her photo now. When she arrived, she was still drying up from the litter of puppies she’d been nursing. God only knows where those puppies are now. Miss Emilie was exhausted {Read More}
Dogs Air Caching
April 27, 2017 By
Take a look at this one-second video. What do you think is happening? In an instant, it looks as if Emilie the Dobermann is done with her toy and pushing it off the dog couch. She looks a little sassy, doesn’t she? But that’s looking through the human-centric lens. What is really happening is a misfire in Emilie’s innate behavior. That behavior is caching, or burying, usually food, to dig up at a later date when hungry. When Dobermann Emilie {Read More}
Impulse Control Training
April 25, 2017 By
I love my board-and-train clients. Everyone of them brings a unique personality, special interests, and challenges to their training program. I see similiarities within breeds and differences from dog-to-dog. I’ve yet to meet a Labrador Retriever, for example, who would turn her back on a ball or interesting toy. What’s interesting in a toy depends on them! Then there are dogs whose interest in toys is dilute. With that said, the training games I use to help each dog learn {Read More}
Egg Hunt For Dogs
April 16, 2017 By
They aren’t eggs, but accroding to both our residet and board-and-train dogs, they are better. They are pieces of homemade tuna fudge and a few Charlee Bear crackers (dog equivalent to oyster crackers) that were placed around a portion of the Outsmarting Dogs’ grounds for a Sunday afternoon springtime egg hunt. The dogs had fun using their noses to find the goodies and because they are non-food aggressive, and are dog-dog friendly, the game was a big success. We love {Read More}
