Puppies use their mouths to explore the world and to play with other puppies. Without his littermates, your puppy will turn to you to play with and if not corrected, will include their nips and bites in his play repertoire. Even though this nipping and biting may be cute in the beginning, it’s most certainly... read on

One thing you can count on when bringing home a new puppy is the fact that he will nip and bite at your fingers during the first few days or weeks.  This is perfectly normal and there is no reason to get alarmed that you may have purchased an aggressive dog.  However, like any behavior... read on

For many centuries now, humans have totally domesticated dogs. We have brought them into our society and, in most cases, expected them to act like us and to be a regular part of our families. We should accept that fact that, in doing so, we have caused some of our own human emotions to develop... read on

Before you can train your dog to stop his destructive chewing habits, you must first identify the type of chewing that your pet is demonstrating. There are different reasons why puppies and dogs engage in this habit, as well as a variety of ways to fix the problem. Therefore, identifying the type of destructive chewing... read on

We all love our puppies, especially when they are being cute and well behaved. We also adore them even when they are acting out in bad ways with annoying habits. These annoying habits, however, are based on our standards of how they should behave. To our puppies, they are only acting like – well –... read on

Who hasn’t heard the plaintive barks and howls of dogs left home alone? Nuisance barking is one of the most frequent complaints phoned in to urban and suburban quality-of-life hotlines. What are these dogs trying to say? Several things, actually. Dogs bark to sound an alarm that they’ve spied a stranger. The bark may ratchet... read on

Your neighbor’s 10-year-old boy appears at your back gate, ready to enter your yard to retrieve a baseball that inadvertently flew over your fence. Before the boy can make a move, your pup flies toward him with hackles up, furiously barking. The child flees, figuring nobody needs a ball badly enough to take on Cujo!... read on

Does your dog try to make the great escape from your backyard every chance it gets, working to tunnel his way out beneath the fence? Ask yourself why it feels the need to leave the premises. An unneutered male will seek out females in heat, so sterilization may put an end to this desire to... read on

Does your yard resemble the moon’s surface, riddled with craters everywhere? When resolving a digging problem, it helps to know why your dog digs. Reasons for digging are many: to relieve boredom, to hunt vermin, to create cooling pits, to escape under fences and to underneath buried treasures, the list goes on… A dog left... read on

Many people believe that you shouldn’t even consider owning a dog unless you have a fenced-in yard. While this opinion may be extreme, it’s no argument that a backyard makes dog ownership simpler: House training can begin outdoors from the start and pace is readily accessible for exercise and exploration – even before leash manners... read on