Yesterday was the last day of my 30-day challenge to teach my dog five new commands: bang, roll over, crawl, go long and bucket. Let me stress that although my dog is grasping these new commands, he is still learning. The biggest mistake I made with this challenge was to set a deadline. Dogs can’t …
Lindsay Stordahl
My mutt has a fixation Note: This is part one of a three-part series on my dog’s tennis ball obsession. Click these links to read part two, 10 signs your dog has a fixation and part three, Breaking Ace’s fixation. You’ve heard me joke about it, complain about it and then half-heartily try to fix …
My dog running business is officially launched with a new web site, Run That Mutt. If you are looking into starting a similar business, check out my post on how to start a dog walking business. I can’t stress enough the importance of exercising your dog. From the day I adopted Ace, I began taking …
With three more days left in our challenge, I better get going. Ace will now do all five commands. The problem is he only does them … sometimes. And he won’t do them all in a row. He needs a lot more work (probably another month), but at least we are off to a good …
Dogs have it easy. They adapt well to whatever environment they’re in. The first year of my mutt’s life was not ideal. He lived with a family that kept him in a kennel nine hours a day, never walked him (not once) and never trained him. Even so, when I met Ace for the first …
While training my dog, I have learned to set up situations where he is likely to be successful. Ace has been working on “roll over” for the past week or two, with little success. The only time he rolled over on command before today was outside in the grass. So I took Ace out for …
For the past week or so, I have practiced “roll over” with Ace three or four times a day for very short periods. This is the hardest of the five commands for him to pick up on. I don’t think he understands it yet because he usually just stares at me, like, huh? The only …
Ace did not do so well on his commands yesterday. This is our hardest challenge so far, and I do not know if Ace will successfully learn the five commands within 30 days. Well, I don’t know if I will be able to successfully teach him the commands in 30 days. The mutt kept getting …
Ace rolled over on command today for the first time! Good boy! He only did it one time, though. I really made a big deal when he did it right, like he just won an Olympic gold medal (he thought he had). Now he is slowly improving on all five commands. Hopefully in the next …
What to do before you board your dog to make sure everything goes OK.