Here’s a nifty method for living peaceably with two or more dogs. Train them to go to their “mat” — which can be a particular bed or just a towel you put on the floor. That way, if you need to do something with one dog, you will have a way to handle the others easily.

The Most Important Exercise for Multiple Dog or Puppy Owners

By Aidan Bindoff

If you have more than one dog or puppy living under your roof, then this is one of the most important and useful exercises you can teach. Without this exercise (or something very similar), one of your dogs will probably learn to bully the other dogs out of the way for attention or food. This exercise lays the foundation for happy, well-mannered multiple dog homes.

What we’re going to do is teach each of our dogs to stay on a Mat while we pay attention to, groom or feed one of our other dogs. The mat gives our dogs a clear place to go to and a boundary to stay within. If we have multiple dogs we can send each dog to their own individual mats. This removes any confusion about what our dogs are to do, and removes the need to place our dogs in position. If you have several dogs, it could be quite time consuming to place a number of dogs. Read the rest of this entry

This guest article advocates a different way of responding when your puppy nips at you. I’ve always found it worked to say an aggrieved and loud “Ouch!” before moving away. Aidan has another idea, down a ways in the article.

Ouch! My Puppy Dog is Biting My Hands and Clothes
By Aidan Bindoff

This article explains in plain English the fastest way to stop your puppy dog biting at your clothing, hands or other body parts. If you have “tried everything” or simply have no idea what to do, the answers are all here and made easy. Methods are humane and pet-friendly, utilizing positive reinforcement and ‘time-outs’ instead of spanking or scolding. Read the rest of this entry

What does your dog do when you go out? We still laugh ruefully about the time our Rottie Lola dug up every carrot in our garden and ate most of them.

Give your dog a Kong and it will provide entertainment for a good long time.

Funny looking, isn’t it? We always have a few somewhere, usually including some temporarily lost in the bushes.

I’ve used them for years.  Even with my Rottweiler’s strong jaws working them over, the Kongs seem to last and last. Read the rest of this entry