Dog Behavior 101

By Gary Newcomb Gary is a contributing editor and works closely with The Little Red Dog as a volunteer and trainer. His own company PawsRMade4Walkin.com works with families who currently have problems with their pups. You can also listen to Gary every other week on our Podcast, For The Love of Dog Please Welcome Fido To The Show! When you adopt a dog, there will be a transition period where the dog is settling in and you are getting to know each other. Those first days and weeks are going to be the foundation for your new life together. Imagine being taken by people you don't know, driven somewhere you've never been and told it's your new family and home. Many dogs experience the same nervousness you and I would in the situation. When you bring a dog home, they need time to decompress. Allowing them the time and space to get back to a calm state of mind, and comfortably get to know the new environment. During that time, try to keep everything calm and soothing f...

By Gary Newcomb Gary is a contributing editor and works closely with The Little Red Dog as a volunteer and trainer. His own company PawsRMade4Walkin.com works with families who currently have problems with their pups. If you watch the news, then you have undoubtedly heard commentary on how inherently "dangerous" Pitbulls ( by the way, Pitbull is not a breed—rather a slang term that was used to describe any dog that was used for the cruel sport of bull-baiting ). It is true, pitbulls have killed people, as have Labs, Shepherds, Cattle Dogs, Dalmatians, and just about every other breed of dog. But this isn't really about dog attacks. It's about the misrepresentation by the media to make these attacks seem like a regular occurrence. According to a study conducted by dogbite.org there were 36 U.S. dog bite-related fatalities that occurred in 2018. With an estimated 89.7 million dogs (3.6 million being bully breeds), Simple math computes a 0.00001% chance of bei...

Recently I have been scrutinized more than usual for being too difficult on potential adopters. I can always take the heat, but at the same time I attempt to keep an open mind, wondering if I could soften my tone or water down the scrutiny. But here is the issue. It's our organizations responsibility to ensure that once a dog is placed in a home that the environment is safe, secure and loving for both the pup and the family. In order to facilitate this decision, we focus on dog behavior. The more the potential family knows or is willing to learn, governs directly in how successful they will be with the chosen dog. In other words, if a family has only ridden a moped I am not going to let them have a Harley Davidson—especially if they are not wiling to learn how to ride it correctly. To me focusing on dog behavior is common sense and all rescue facilities should make it standard practice. However, the hard truth is, most do not. Also, city, county and state dog shelters are so ov...

I have written other pieces on getting your canine fitted with the right equipment—but in today's article I wanted to express my disdain with the worst apparatus for walking your best bud, the retractable leash. Honestly, especially if you are a new dog owner, I do see the appeal. Companies marketing these devices perform an outstanding job, focusing on customers who are not yet savvy about how to walk a dog correctly. At first blush, they appear to be a nifty gadget to keep Fido at bay, engineered with a cool trigger to reel him in when needed. However, this doggy yo-yo can cause major problems, injuring your precious pup or you, the handler. The original retractable leash was designed for recall drills in order to teach a dog to come to the owner on command. They were much longer and never designed to take dogs on walks. However, with a couple of tweaks, companies soon saw the potential to sell these oscillating corded contraptions as proper leashes. But the reality is, as th...