FACT Academy, LLC

06/30/2020

Stuck at home because of COVID-19? Mental enrichment has never been more important for your dog. Check out Director Camille Dabney Asmer as she explains the what, the why, and the how of mental enrichment for dogs!

Learn from FACT Academy Director, Camille Asmer, CPDT, CBCC, as she talks about what mental enrichment is, the benefits, and how to provide it for your dog! ...

05/04/2020

Teaching loose-leash walking can be one of the most fun behaviors you teach a high-energy dog! Watch as FACT Academy Director, Jill, demonstrates her favorite method for teaching the "heel" BEFORE transitioning it to loose-leash walking.

Jill Beitel, Fact Academy Director and owner of Courteous Canine teaches "Heel" using an adaptation of Pamela Denison's method. This detailed instructional v...

04/27/2020

FACT Academy Director, Jill Beitel, showing a detailed explanation of teaching a dog to lie down using luring.

Jill Beitel, Fact Academy Director and owner of Courteous Canine teaches “Down” using the lure/reward method. This detailed instructional video is geared tow...

07/22/2019

Are you using negative reinforcement with your animal? Be careful

Let's untangle the confusion between automatic (natural) negative reinforcement and socially mediated (contrived) negative reinforcement.

07/07/2019

The same is true for our dogs. When they enter Fight or Flight mode, they don’t hear you and they can’t respond to cues. This is why we use food to redirect - it engages their prefrontal cortex with the smell and the taste.

Learn more with FACT Academy.

07/01/2019

Saying goodbye to a beloved pet is never easy. The decision as to when to euthanize is agonizing. This quiz may help you assess your pet’s current quality of life. I still struggle with my decision to euthanize our little Maltese 2 years ago. But taking this quiz he scored only an 8. 😓

To help pet owners make decisions about end of life care, a veterinarian developed a decision tool based on seven indicators.

06/30/2019

So this raises questions. As you may recall, studies into calming signals have not shown that these signals alter other dogs’ behavior - or “calm” them. Could lip licking be either a response to a drying nose during stressful situations (changes in stress chemicals causing the nose to dry) OR during social interactions is it best to have a wet nose to gather smells?

Hmmm...

The philtrum is the vertical groove between the base of the nose and the border of a dog's upper lip, and it has a purpose. Every time a dog licks his lips, a bit of saliva stays in this groove and is drawn upwards due to capillary action. This keeps the dog's nose moist, if not wet, which enables the dog to capture scent particles from the air. Pretty cool, eh?

Image from Wikicommons

06/30/2019

Littermate Syndrome. We’ve see it. Best to avoid it.

Think twice before adopting a pair of puppies from the same litter; find out why you may want to resist the temptation and not have to regret your action later.