Our dogs are pack animals. They’re highly sociable creatures with a genuine need to socialize and interact. Because we humans have done such a bang-up job in domesticating our canine friends, socialization with other dogs isn’t enough for your friend: you are the center of your dog’s world. She needs to spend time with you.
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Nipping and play biting
Nipping - the playful biting and mouthing of your hands and clothes by your dog - is particularly common among puppies, but can also occur in older dogs that haven’t been taught proper bite inhibition.
It’s natural for dogs to mouth and nip. They explore the world using their mouths - to a [...]

Common house training problems for Dogs
House training is one of the areas of dog ownership that’s most subject to misunderstanding, confusion, and just plain dread!
Today’s newsletter is going to deal with two of the most common problems surrounding the issue of house training:
- Submissive/excited urination
- Scent marking
Common house training problem #1: Submissive / excited urination
What [...]

Jumping is a really common problem among dogs - or should I say among dog owners? It’s rarely a problem for the dogs themselves – in fact, jumping seems to act as a reward in itself. It’s a different kettle of fish for the exasperated owner, who’s forced to deal with a new set of [...]

Separation anxiety is one of the most common problems that dogs develop. It’s an anxiety disorder, and is defined as a state of intense panic brought on by the dog’s isolation/separation from her owner(s).
In other words: when you leave for work in the morning, your dog is plunged into a state of nervous anxiety which [...]

Does your dog chew grass?
My dog crops grass like a cow. He eats it with gusto whenever he encounters it, to the extent that my friends have begun to refer to him, jokingly, as ‘The Ruminant’. This habit of his doesn’t bother me at all, since it seems to have no ill-effects on him whatsoever [...]

Recognizing, preventing, and handling dog aggression
A dog is an instinctively aggressive creature. In the wild, aggression came in very handy: dogs needed aggression to hunt, to defend themselves from other creatures, and to defend resources such as food, a place to sleep, and a mate. Selective breeding over the centuries has minimized and refined this [...]

Dogs, man’s best friends…
Sometimes, they are like kids, the things they do and react can lighten up our day. Watch these

Barking dogs – Understanding it and dealing with it
Some owners seem to want their dogs to stop barking, period: a good dog is a quiet dog, and the only time that barking’s permitted is when there’s a man in a black balaclava and stripy prison outfit, clutching a haversack marked ‘Swag’, clambering in through your [...]

Licking: affectionate, disconcerting, or just plain disgusting?
For us humans, it can be a bit difficult to identify with the doggie habit of licking one another in greeting. We don’t do it, after all, and though our tongues come in handy for things like ice-cream eating and sucking that last dollop of peanut butter off the [...]