Dentler's Dog Training, LLC
  • Home
  • About
    • The Trainers >
      • Why Certification?
    • Training Philosophy
    • Testimonials
    • Affiliations/Resources
    • Contact Us
  • Services
    • Private Training
    • Trick Training
  • Project Trade
  • Multimedia
    • Videos
    • E-newsletter
    • Woof! The Blog
  • Muttz Mart

​

Fatalities By Dogs Extremely Rare

4/25/2013

 
Picture
I am still waiting for the reactionary borough council to make a move regarding the recent attack by 3 dogs in Pottstown (read it here). But truth be told, you are at greater risk of being killed by a lawn mower than a dog. Infant deaths are more likely to happen from plastic buckets than from dogs. And, sadly, children are more likely to be hurt or killed by a parent or guardian than by a dog. This is not to say there aren't dangerous dogs out there. But let's use our heads and not make knee-jerk reactions.

National Pet ID Week

4/17/2013

 
Picture
In observance of National Pet ID Week please make sure your dog has proper ID tags on her collar (including license and vaccination tags). If your address or phone number has changed now is the time to update her tags. Also, make sure her microchip data is up-to-date and registered with a reliable organization such as AKC Companion Animal Recovery. If your dog is not microchipped please strongly consider doing so. Microchips are inexpensive, painless and, most of all, effective. Collars and tags can come off, but microchips are always there and can be scanned by most vets and humane societies.

Dealing With Noise Phobia

4/11/2013

 
Picture
Last's night storm was an early reminder that thunderstorm and fireworks season is fast approaching. If your dog is noise phobic remember to not comfort them during their anxiety attacks. Telling them "it's okay" or petting them just reinforces their stressed behavior. It is best to just let them handle it the best they know how, whether it be hiding under the bed, in the basement, or seeking refuge in their crate.

While there is no hard and true "cure", there are some treatments that can help your dog cope during her times of stress: medications, dog-appeasing pheromones, and products such as Rescue Remedy and the Thundershirt. Counter-conditioning and desensitization have also shown to work in some dogs. I am currently working on a research paper about noise phobia in dogs and I will provide detailed updates to all these treatments after my paper is completed.

Dogs Can Form Concepts

4/4/2013

 
Picture
From ScienceDaily: "Like us, our canine friends are able to form abstract concepts. Friederike Range and colleagues from the University of Vienna in Austria have shown for the first time that dogs can classify complex color photographs and place them into categories in the same way that humans do. And the dogs successfully demonstrate their learning through the use of computer automated touch-screens, eliminating potential human influence.


In order to test whether dogs can visually categorize pictures, and transfer their knowledge to new situations, four dogs were shown landscape and dog photographs, and expected to make a selection on a computer touch-screen.

In the training phase, the dogs were shown both the landscape and dog photographs simultaneously and were rewarded with a food pellet if they selected the dog picture (positive stimulus). The dogs then took part in two tests.

In the first test, the dogs were shown completely different dog and landscape pictures. They continued to reliably select the dog photographs, demonstrating that they could transfer their knowledge gained in the training phase to a new set of visual stimuli, even though they had never seen those particular pictures before.

In the second test, the dogs were shown new dog pictures pasted onto the landscape pictures used in the training phase, facing them with contradictory information: on the one hand, a new positive stimulus as the pictures contained dogs even though they were new dogs; on the other hand, a familiar negative stimulus in the form of the landscape.

When the dogs were faced with a choice between the new dog on the familiar landscape and a completely new landscape with no dog, they reliably selected the option with the dog. These results show that the dogs were able to form a concept i.e. ‘dog’, although the experiment cannot tell us whether they recognized the dog pictures as actual dogs."

Amazing! So don't ever call your four-legged friend a "dumb dog"!

    Author

    Jeff Dentler, CPDT-KA, IAABC-ADT, FFCP, CTDI

    Archives

    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

    Categories

    All
    Quotes Of The Week

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
    • The Trainers >
      • Why Certification?
    • Training Philosophy
    • Testimonials
    • Affiliations/Resources
    • Contact Us
  • Services
    • Private Training
    • Trick Training
  • Project Trade
  • Multimedia
    • Videos
    • E-newsletter
    • Woof! The Blog
  • Muttz Mart