pet training.
Sometimes when my cat is giving herself a bath, and I call her name to get her attention at the right moment, she'll look at me mid-lick and forget to put her tongue back in her mouth. I find this hilarious every time. And though she often leaves her tongue hanging out for several long seconds, all my attempts to photograph it or call it to anyone else's attention have failed; she always manages to retract the tongue at the last second. This video makes me wish cats were as trainable as dogs, and that I had the apparent patience of this border collie's owner. I wouldn't have to wait for the right tongue-wagging moment to try to snap a picture, only to fail once again. I could get my cat to ...
Jesse Gardner, Flickr Meet Mary Burch, American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen Director and Paw Nation's expert columnist addressing your questions on animal behavior. Dr. Burch has over 25 years of experience working with dogs, and she is one of fewer than 50 Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists based in the United States. She is the author of 10 books, including the new official book on the AKC Canine Good Citizen Program, "Citizen Canine: 10 Essential Skills Every Well-Mannered Dog Should Know." I have a 6-year-old Lab named Charlie. I also have a new man in my life who has a 4-year-old mixed-breed dog (about Charlie's size) named Kathy. The problem is that Kathy and Charlie don't ...
Anna Westhoff Each week, Ben Westhoff shares the ups and downs of owning Pippi, the dalmatian mix he and his wife Anna adopted as a puppy in late 2009, and the first dog Ben's ever had. No one wore a cap or gown, but Pippi graduated from her basic training class this week. Actually, going into the final session of the eight-week course, I wasn't entirely satisfied with Pippi's progress. Sure, she could sit and wait, but that was about it. When it came to going "down" onto her belly as commanded, she would only do so if there were treats involved, and even then she didn't do it very quickly. As far as getting her to "drop," forget about it. When she had a toy or a forbidden food item ...