Towards the end of the walk, when we stop, Rafa lies down to rest. After rigorous exercise, travel or hunt, it is in the dog's best interest to use every opportunity to conserve energy. Unfortunately, most dogs today have lost touch with their naturally balanced side, and struggle to relax outdoors.

Frankly, I don’t care what you call it. Pack leader, employer, parent, or friend - no matter how you define the relationship to your dog, you will sooner or later be required to provide leadership.

We have brought dogs into our, at times strange and confusing, human world. Our rules are far from obvious to dogs, and behaviours that are normal to dogs are often deemed inappropriate by humans.

As dogs have been domesticated and brought to live in the human world, dog owners provide food, shelter, and enjoyment for their dogs, and sometimes, in abundance. Dogs are obviously not conscious of this, and often seem to forget their owner has a role in their life at all. When dogs are constantly overwhelmed by toys and treats and pets, they sometimes begin to see the owner as nothing but a shuttle to get to the park.

Fear of fireworks, thunder, gunshots and other loud noises are quiet common in dogs and can cause a lot of stress. This post is intended to help you teach your dog how to better cope with noise phobia, and how you can manage the situation to decrease stress.

You wouldn’t get on a bike for the very first time on the day you start the Tour the France. When it comes to our personal activities, we rarely forget to practice, and often progress in a gradual manner. This is often put aside when we work with our dogs.

This is the first part of a series of Training Tips on rewards which will cover what rewards are, how to use them, and when and when not to use them, to be as successful with your training as possible.

The most obvious rewards are food, toys, physical affection and verbal praise. Less obvious rewards can be anything that the dog finds enjoyable or rewarding. These rewards can be things like access to furniture, coming out of the crate, or being invited into your personal space.

Many dogs and cats become severely ill each year from rock salt and antifreeze products. Rock salt is a mixture of salt and grit used to de-ice roads. Unlike table salt, even small quantities of this can be dangerous to your pet. Antifreeze used for cars is extremely poisonous for animals, and in many cases fatal.

Often we complain about a dog’s behaviour, and tell the dog off for doing whatever it isn’t supposed to be doing, when the behaviour has already been practiced. That is – you were too late. If you know that your dog will behave in a certain way when given the opportunity - act before it happens. Teach your dog an alternative behaviour to practice in these situations.

A Human-Dog dyad is inevitably a constant balance between two individuals’ desires, needs, and intentions. As dog owners we often have very high expectations of our dogs, as well as wishes and ideas of how we want our dogs and our relationship with our dogs to be. Unfortunately, dogs don’t come pre-trained, and sometimes do not meet our expectations.