In The Moment With Dogs

Meditation is proven to be beneficial to us humans. I sometimes wonder if getting lost in a project such as gardening, writing, or decorating doesn’t give us similar benefits. Both meditation and creative focus removes the “what-ifs” and “what’s happeneds” from our mental spotlights and replaces them with in-the-moment experiences. I only have to look to my dogs to see examples of this. And puppies, especially, prove to us time and time again, that discovery of something new can create {Read More}

Dogs Play Like They Mean It

After our training work at Love Wags A Tail dog training, our dogs get plenty of play time, and they play like they mean it. Dogs often use skills from their deeply embeded feral software to play games. Like tossing a prey item up in the air, which our adolescent board-and-trainer, Aussiedoodle Magic demonstrates in this video. Or chasing each other, as if they were practicing chasing a prey item. Here Magic plays that game of chase with our Director {Read More}

The Hyper Pet’s LickiMat Fail

We bought the Hyper Pet’s LickiMat to try out on a Sheltie pup to help boost her confidence. The results of our test with the mat and our gentle pup weren’t favorable. Here are the claims of the Hyper Pet’s LickiMat Line. 1. Hyper Pet’s LickiMat Line is designed to deliver a medical free way to promote calm behavior in your pet while home alone or during stressful times, like storms. We say that dogs should not be left alone {Read More}

Teaching Dogs To Play Inside and Outside

On a lovely Sunday afternoon, my dogs relax. Lazy Sunday at Love Wags A Tail Dog Training from Helen Verte Schwarzmann, CTC on Vimeo. Unless you’re fine with your dogs using your house and furniture as a playground, racetrack, or trampoline, then you’ll need to teach them that the inside of the house is where either no play is allowed, or play is subdued. Subdued play can include chewing on dog toys or food toys, playing a controled game of {Read More}

Even Dogs Break The Norm

What makes you feel good? Do you do something a little different from the norm, but it works for you? When I played tennis as a high school student, before I knew any better, I used to do my backhand by twisting my forehand upside down. When I stroked the backhand, my thumb would face the ground. I had a mean backhand and forehand then. When I took private lessons, I was admonished for using such a technique. I was {Read More}