4 Frigid Weather Training Tips for Your Service Dog
How to Train Your Service Dog in Training (SDiT) When It’s Too Cold Outside If you’re struggling with your service-dog-in-training’s education when the temperatures are below freezing, you’re not alone! Here are four tips to get through the cold times with your dog’s behavior intact. As we dive into this topic, we want to extend … 4 Frigid Weather Training Tips for Your Service Dog Read More »
“Service Dog Trainer Near Me?”
How to Find the Best Service Dog Trainer By Sharon Wachsler CPDT-KA KPA-CTP When seeking out a product or service, most of us start with a search engine. To find an oil change, pet food store, or the best late-night pizza joint, googling your local area can be a perfect solution. However, to find a … “Service Dog Trainer Near Me?” Read More »
Maintaining Your Service Dog’s Ideal Weight
Training a service dog means using a lot of treats! If we’re not careful, this can lead to overfeeding and weight gain. If your service dog in training is overweight, there are multiple health and behavior consequences: How to avoid overfeeding your dog Base how much you feed your dog on the appropriate feeding instructions … Maintaining Your Service Dog’s Ideal Weight Read More »
8 Reasons to Train Your Service Dog with Shaping
What is Shaping? Shaping is a form of service dog training using successive approximation. When shaping, we reinforce tiny steps towards a goal behavior. We mark and reward (e.g., click, then treat) for minuscule increments along the path, rewarding many times for any step toward the larger goal. Once your dog has mastered offering the … 8 Reasons to Train Your Service Dog with Shaping Read More »
Joy and Kisses — Remembering Frankie Mazzei
As a service dog trainer, I have the privilege of working with a lot of wonderful people and dogs. I grow very fond of all the service dog teams I train with, but sometimes there is a team with whom I forge a special connection. That was true with Frankie Mazzei, a disabled veteran, and … Joy and Kisses — Remembering Frankie Mazzei Read More »
3 Surprising Results of Positive Reinforcement Training For Service Dogs.
Should you only use positive reinforcement to train your service dog? Or will combining rewards and corrections provide greater reliability? By Sharon Wachsler CPDT-KA KPA-CTP If you are training your own service dog, or thinking of taking this journey, you should know how using exclusively positive reinforcement training can affect you and your dog. As … 3 Surprising Results of Positive Reinforcement Training For Service Dogs. Read More »