Dog Lady

02/01/2025

😁😄😃

01/30/2025

Please 🛑 STOP 🛑 putting a hand in front of a dog's nose.

😱 BIGGEST MYTH OF ALL . . .
Probably the most widely spread myth is that you should put your hand out to let a dog sniff so they know you're a friend.
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⁉️ WHY IS THAT A MYTH

🧫 Did you know that some dogs have been used to sniff out cancer cells in a petri dish? They can do this because olfaction in dogs is their memory system, their primary sense in dealing with the world.

👃🏼 Dogs have 20 times more scent receptor cells than humans, and the scent-processing section of their brains is larger than ours.

🍔 Where we might say, "Mmm, I smell burgers!" a dog would say, "I smell: fried ground cow muscle; imitation cheese made with vegetable oil; wheat bun; a dozen sesame seeds; one day-old lettuce; partly green tomato; spices in a tomato-based sauce, all touched by the hands of a human!" Dogs smell in minute detail!

🧼 It's safe to say that dogs can smell you before you enter their personal space. You putting your hand up to their nose only lets them smell what you had for lunch & what type of soap you used to wash your hands!

🤜🏼 What a hand in the face of a dog can do is appear threatening. It can sometimes be a good way to get bit if you do it in the "just right" circumstances.

🤔 Dogs that don't appear to care might care once you start to pet them. Likely this indicates a misunderstood body language cue that was not taken into account.
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⭐️🐕 Read the dog's body language ‼️

❓Is the dog giving signals of wanting to be approached?

❓Is the dog moving toward you?

📸 Learn more dog language, here: http://bit.ly/2qXZowE
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🤷🏼‍♀️ SO, HOW SHOULD I GREET A DOG?

👉🏼 If the dog wants to be pet she'll start coming toward you.

👉🏼Then the dog might sniff you, then you may pet her, on her side or under her chin.

👉🏼 If she moves away or shifts she may not be comfortable with the greeting. Stop & allow her to move or walk away.

👉🏼 Some dogs just don't care to be greeted by others. This is ok!
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🎥 Watch this wonderful video on how to properly greet a dog! https://youtu.be/Bu1n1mPCCOo
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Stacy Greer, CPDT-KA

🐕🐩🐕‍🦺🦮

COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© 2025 Stacy Greer
All rights reserved. Feel free to share via the “Share” link to the original post. Downloading for redistribution online or in print form is strictly prohibited.

01/30/2025

Exactly right.
Advocate for your dog!
They don't have to love every dog or every person.

01/28/2025

Dogs are so misunderstood.

01/22/2025

⬇️This⬇️

WHOSE WALK IS IT ANYWAY?

Imagine going on a long-anticipated walk, through new scenery and exciting smells after being cooped up in the same place all day, but you have been fitted with a blind fold and are being dragged or yanked along at a fast pace.

I imagine that this is how dogs feel when we don’t allow them time to stop, sniff and explore the environment.

Dogs largely perceive their world through scent and it’s how they collect and process information to help the world make sense.

Taking away an opportunity for sniffing on a walk really isn’t being fair.. As much as physical exercise is important, the mental stimulation that sniffing provides is equally, if not more important.

Allowing dogs to choose when to stop and sniff provides so many benefits – increases self-confidence, promotes calmness, lowers stress and anxiety levels, lowers pulse rates, reduces cognitive decline in older dogs and provides important mental and environmental enrichment.

Make time for a slow sniffing walk when you can, where your dog is allowed to choose which direction to go and allowed time to just investigate, interpret, process the environment and follow wherever their nose leads them.

It may take far more time and patience as we wait for them to finish smelling that particular blade of grass, but the benefits are well worth it – after all, whose walk is it anyway?

01/21/2025

Thoughts?

01/13/2025

It's the truth

😉🐶😁

01/11/2025

Dog Lady observation 🤔

The more expensive a dog trainer is
The more pain they use to train

01/10/2025

Please...just leave them alone!
And teach the kids to leave them alone.

It's sad to see people being told to invade all areas of their dogs life. Let's assume that like us, they want agency, undisturbed rest and that they have the right to manage their meal without strange human interruptions.

01/09/2025

What is happening?
Enrollment for classes is WAY down, so far down that I am cancelling classes.
The frustration is immense. I need a minimum of 3 dogs in a class to make it barely financially viable.

Is it the economy? Time of year? ME??!

Is it time to stop offering group classes?

01/05/2025

The training world lost a great lady and pioneer of positive reinforcement, Karen Pryor.

You may not know of her, but she changed the training world with her work with dolphins.

Her book "Don't Shoot the Dog" is required reading for any trainer...or parent. It was written to help parents understand why they don't need to hit their children to teach them.

Animal trainers around the world changed how they approached training.

Thank you, Karen Pryor.

"When you stop relying on aversive controls such as threats, intimidation and punishment, and when you know how to use reinforcement to get not just the same but better results, your perception of the world undergoes a shift. You don't have to become a wimp. You don't have to give up being in charge. You lose nothing of yourself. You just see things you didn't see before."
Karen Pryor. 1932-2025
Nice words, but can you back them up? Oh, you can.
Books:
On My Mind: Reflections on Animal Behavior and Learning – 2014
Reaching The Animal Mind: Clicker Training and What It Teaches Us About All Animals – 2009
Click to Win: Clicker Training for the Show Ring – 2002
Dolphin Societies: Discoveries and Puzzles –ed. with Kenneth Norris; University of California Press, 1998
Don’t Shoot The Dog: The New Art of Teaching and Training – 1984, 1999, 2002, 2006
A Dog & a Dolphin 2.0: An Introduction To Clicker Training – 1996
Getting Started: Clicker Training for Cats – 1999, 2002, 2004
Getting Started: Clicker Training for Dogs – 1999, 2002, 2005
Lads Before the Wind – 1975, 1994, 2000 (Harper & Row 1975)
Nursing Your Baby – 1963, 1973, 1991, 2005 (HarperCollins Publishers 1963)
On Behavior: Essays and Research – 1994
Crunch and Des: Classic Stories of Saltwater Fishing – 2002
How To Teach Your Dog To Play Frisbee – 1985
Pryor, K. (2014). A dolphin journey. Aquatic Mammals 40th Anniversary: Special Issue, 104–115.
Pryor, K. & Chase, S. (2014). Training for variable and innovative behavior. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 27, 218–225
Pryor, K. & Ken Ramirez, K. (2014) Modern Animal Training. In The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Operant and Classical Conditioning. McSweeney, F.K and Murphy, E. S. (Eds.).
Pryor, K.W (2001). Cultural transmission of behavior in animals: How a modern training technology uses spontaneous social imitation in cetaceans and Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 352–352
Pryor, K. & Shallenberger, I. (1991). School structure in spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata) in the tuna purse seine fishery in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. In Dolphin Societies: Discoveries and Puzzles. Pryor, K. & Norris, K.S. (Eds.). Berkeley: University of California Press
Pryor, K. (1981). Why Porpoise Trainers Are Not Dolphin Lovers: Real and False Communication in the Operant Setting. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 364, 1, 137
Norris, K.S., Pryor, K. (1970). A Tagging Method for Small Cetaceans. Journal of Mammalogy, 51, 3, 609–610
Pryor, K.W., Haang, R., & O’Reilly, J. (1969). The creative porpoise: Training for novel behavior. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 12, 653–661
Lang, T.G., Pryor, K. (1966). Hydrodynamic Performance of Porpoises (Stenella attenuata). Science, 152, 3721, 531–533.
Pryor, T., Pryor, K.,& Norris, S.K. (1965). Observations on a Pygmy Killer Whale (Feresa attenuata Gray) from Hawaii. Journal of Mammalogy, 46, 3, 450–461.

01/03/2025

If your dog is in the Velociraptor stage, I have a class for you!

Beginning K9 Manners is perfect for dogs over 4 months old. Check the comments for a link to learn more and register.

The next class starts on Thursday, January 9th at 7pm at Harmony Pet Clinic, 1208 Dolphin Ct.

Have FUN training your dog!

01/02/2025

Puppies are just the cutest and so much fun!
Until they are not.
🥺Peeing everywhere
🤨Chewing everything
😫Biting everyone
K9 Kindergarten will help! Also, get you teaching your pup manners that will last a lifetime. And, we have FUN doing it!!
See the comments for a link to learn more and register.

12/30/2024

🫣😬
Yep at my house

😂😂