2 FREE Puppy eBooks by Dr. Dunbar

Thinking about a pup or have a new pup?
Here are some books we stamped as "Certified Good Reads".

Dr. Ian Dunbar's
BEFORE You Get Your Puppy

Free PDF


Dr. Ian Dunbar's
AFTER You Get Your Puppy
Free PDF

In these books, you'll learn the critical aspects of choosing, raising and training puppies from Dr. Ian Dunbar, a renowned vet, behaviorist and dog trainer. The free distribution of these eBooks is part of his "Sirius Puppy's Initiative" to empower new puppy owners and to give them essential tools to help with house training, nipping, confinement training, socialization and preventing common behavioral issues like separation anxiety. Basically - these books are the "soup to nuts" on everything puppy.

Even if your dog is nearing the end of puppyhood, these books can help.
In "After you Get your Puppy", Dr. Dunbar includes information about how to prepare for the turbulence of adolescence. Learn about how behavior changes as your dog grows up, so never take your friendly pup for granted. And approaching training and socialization as an ongoing process can help you create not only a behaviorally healthy pup, but a happy and well adjusted adult dog.


Dig in, share and spread the love.
Early education, training and a good understanding of what your dog needs can go a long way to create a balanced dog. If these eBooks help owners learn the basics, then we can only hope for more happy, healthy and well adjusted dogs out there. Please share this with other puppy owners, dog owners and dog pros!

Happy training, enjoy the journey and we hope you find these Ian Dunbar books an invaluable resource to help get you started on the right foot!
- Sweets & The Opportunity Barks Team

Trainer Tip: Dinner time (teachable moments)

We're tawlkin' dinner time, because we seem to have seen a slew of well trained dogs that totally lack manners when it comes to dinner time (with the humans that is).
Take you pick! While you eat, is your dog...whining, pawing, nudging, laying against you, barking or army crawling towards you as you eat? My personal favorite- a
dog square staring at you or panting heavily in your lap, (just kidding). Well, look, there are a lot of dogs that get aroused when the food hits the table.

Here are a few sanity savers to begin with:

· Proactive management- (prevent annoyance behaviors/and ignore your dogs)
Yes, ignoring your dog works, (really). The harder part for most two footers is totally committing to IGNORING the dog (no eye contact, no talking, no touching).
Often using a short leash (or tether) can work well to empower the "ignoring" part and keep them in a spot (near a dog bed or a comfortable place to hang out).
How? Wrap a leash to a heavy piece of furniture a door knob or put an eye hook in a baseboard for the beefcakes.

· Ignore
Yep, just ignore!

· Enrich
Before your dog begins to whine, bark or otherwise try old tricks to get your attention (and maybe a piece of food)- give them something to alleviate stress and nosh on- a frozen stuffed dog bone or Kong toy is a great start.

· People food
If you want to feed a bit of something from the table- you could always do this- BY putting it in a Kong or bone before you settle in to eat. Or better yet, as you begin to build and get a
more reliable, calmer behavior at the dinner table...you can simply reward calm, cool behavior by a good ole' dinner plate licking if you'd like.

Dogs usually beg because they have been reinforced for it- hey- that means the two footer- has given them food or attention (positive or negative). So keep in mind, most dogs that
get a taste of "human food" if it's used to reward in the correct context (i.e.- "hey you're being calm and cool- here's a french fry") won't turn into human food begging monsters.
Remember folks, everything in moderation :) And those highly tuned noses won't miss a whiff.

Trainer Tip: Hiking, beaching and starting your dog off leash

This August I spent a week with my family and my dogs at Dewey Beach, DE- a beach and dog lovers paradise (second only, in my experience with San Diego's Dog Beach). I'd love to live within walking distance of the sand and be able to enjoy it year round (and off leash) with my dogs.

And, however, I live much closer to trails and parks and wooded areas where I can hike (and I relish those weeks and weekends where we are 'living' at the beach!) I think all of us want to allow our dogs to be dogs, but the reality is, that only the well trained or "reliable" ones afford these off leash freedoms. So, how do we develop or foster off leash reliability or at least work towards it?


Here we go:
1. The relationship. Sorry folks, but before you bust out the hot dogs or take off the leash, what kind of "check in" do you regularly get from your dogs? Do they look to you or watch you or hang near you?

If not...spend some time working on eye contact and name recognition.


2. If your dog has lousy name recognition. Stop, change and start again. Choose a nick name and start to reward the dog for being reliable to their nickname RIGHT in front of you- just say their name, and click or "good" and a bit of food.


3. Passive eye contact and attention. For me, this is an integral part of developing a relationship with my dogs, communicating leadership and simply using my real life to shape the behavior I'd like...
Please (voluntarily) look to met to get this door to open, this get this bone, to get off a leash (without asking). Also if I disappear or hide behind a tree (will the dog come back and find me, scent to me?) Try that around the house!

How do you get "there" from "here"?
Good question.
Start with eye contact in the house and outside of the house. Train it, wait for it voluntarily and see if you feel that your dog is more connected, simply by doing the work.

If you are the broken record calling your dog again and again as they ignore you...zip it and do a lot more relationship building work before loosening up that leash. Relationship building? Yep! More to come in later posts...