Petiquette

Great dogs, good neighbours

First begun in 1991 in response to my own need to motivate and teach my dogs in a manner that builds confidence, and improves relationships.

Petiquette is about healthy-minded dogs, trustworthy communication between owners and dogs, and happy neighbours.

Learning and teaching can and should be enjoyable.

Understanding is an important element to solving and preventing problems. Some of the following are things that are studied and understood:

• normal behaviour for dogs
• how learning is achieved
• small steps toward a goal
• it is more effective to replace a behaviour than to try to stop it
• use of positive reinforcement to get repeated behaviours

Behaviours are a result of some hard wiring (instinct) and a lot of reacting to the ever-changing environment. Now by environment I'm not talking about acid rain or melting icebergs, rather the day-to-day things that have immediate impact: the pup gets petted when jumping up on people; the doorbell rings and a person appears at the door leading to barking when the doorbell rings again.