When I got Stella almost two years ago, what I knew about raising a dog would have fit on the head of a pin. Like everything now that deals with unknown territory, I got online immediately, looking for experts. As many of you know, there is no shortage of dog training advice out there. It comes in all sizes and repeats itself often. There were however, a couple of sites that stood out and managed to hold my attention over the ensuing months.
One was Lindsay Stordahl's blog, That Mutt. As a newbie, I found in Lindsay's tone a comfortable, friendly approach. I liked that she used her very own dog Ace to illustrate her tips and occasional set- backs and I was inspired by the fact that she continued on with her routine through winters in Fargo, North Dakota. We like to cry and whine about the cold winter here in Tennessee, heh.
Another blog I discovered early on was Neil Sattin's Natural Dog Blog. I found this page quite by accident back when I was interrogating people in the park, about how they trained their dogs to walk off leash. I didn't necessarily want to walk Stella off leash but I did want to know how it was possible to teach a dog such a thing. Again, Google returned a list of choices that included someone recommending you "get a really long leash" (see above photo). That was both humorous and hard to ignore. I clicked on the link and found an entirely new way of thinking about dogs and their behavior. It explained a lot and I think I've mentioned before, Stella responded to even the tiniest changes, in a totally positive way, or maybe it was me.
I say all that to say this: One day about three weeks ago, Lindsay gave away a set of Neil's DVD's and I'm happy to report - WE WON!!!!!The DVD's are excellent and Neil didn't ask me to plug him or his blog, I just thought I'd turn you all on to them in the event someone out there is having problems or looking for a new approach that moves beyond the basics. Enjoy.
6 comments:
You should share the tips that work for you. We are always looking for new ideas and training advice. I also knew nothing about dog training, especially pitbulls, before I got Miss M. This has been a long process of trial-and-error and research, but we always like to hear what works for everyone else.
Thanks for the heads up on the websites. I'm always interested in other ways of doing things. what works for one dog, doesn't necessarily work for another, it's good to have back up plans.
Stella is such a beautiful girl and you take beautiful pictures of her!
Thank you so much for the great compliments about my blog. I'm glad that you enjoy Neil's blog as well, and that you enjoyed the dog training DVDs.
Keep up the good work with that pretty dog of yours!
Yeah, I was hooked on his instructions when in the first intro scene to his DVD that his demo dog fell asleep and he had to WAKE her up for the instructions!
I quickly read Neil Sattin's home page. His comments about tuning in to your dog's "prey instincts" and working WITH them sounds interesting. An article about Stella's prey instincts and how you deal with them might be fun reading. (Hint, hint.)
I love it, thanks for the hints!
Post a Comment