Great Online Resources for Dog Owners
Find some great sites for learning about dogs – and know how to avoid the online junk.
Jolanta Benal, CPDT-KA, CBCC-KA
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Great Online Resources for Dog Owners
With the addition of our newest Quick and Dirty Tips expert, Tech Talker, I was inspired to think about technology.
The Web is a hot mess, as we all know. If you’re not a pro in a given field, good luck figuring out which of your 12,872,433 search results is worth a click. People looking for info about their dogs have it especially rough, because there’s plenty of folklore and not very much formal, independent credentialing in dog training and behavior. Good thing I’m here to help. This week, some of my favorite online sources of veterinary, behavior, and training info, and pointers on how to judge the ones you find yourself..
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Behavior and Training Sites
I haven’t separated behavior and training sites, because most that cover one category also have a pretty good smattering of info about the other. Many sites deal with cats, birds, and horses as well.
If you’re looking for brief, comprehensive guides to common behavior problems, head straight for the ASPCA’s “Virtual Pet Behaviorist.” It comes in dog, cat, and horse flavors. I should probably consider the Virtual Pet Behaviorist my competition, because many of the topics are ones I’ve covered in these articles – housetraining problems, fear of children, and breaking up a dogfight, to name just three. So check out both! The Virtual Pet Behaviorist and I don’t often disagree, but it’s always good to get more than one reality-based perspective on an issue.Â
I love the website of Dr. Sophia Yin, a board-certified veterinary behaviorist. Dr. Yin is probably most famous among professional trainers for her book and DVD set Low Stress Handling, Restraint, and Behavior Modification of Dogs and Cats.Â
Look under “Resources” at drsophiayin.com for acres of practical, humane, scientifically sound behavior and training info, including videos, for anybody who has a companion dog. The website is particularly strong on dog bite prevention and safety for kids.
The trainers and behaviorists collectively known as Companion Animal Solutions also have a blog, Behind the Behavior. My favorite category here is “animal behavior research,” with info you can’t find anywhere else – how to teach a dog to track whale poop from a boat, for instance. Those wacky conservation biologists: you never know what they’ll get up to.
Unlike the ASPCA Virtual Pet Behaviorist, Behind the Behavior isn’t one-stop shopping for tips on specific problems – well, of course not: it’s a blog. Read it for newsy, clever, scientifically sound takes on pet issues, and occasional practical pointers that you can take to heart.
Training Videos
First, let’s get the celebrity material out of the way. Skip it. “Telegenic” + “Has TV Contract” does not equal “Has a Good Knowledge of Dog Behavior.” It doesn’t even equal “Kind.” The most informative and inventive training videos on YouTube are put there by people who are celebrities among modern trainers and completely obscure to everybody else. Their videos are homemade, so don’t expect fancy production values. Do expect clear explanations, solid understanding of how dogs learn, and practical advice.
Last time I looked, Kikopup, otherwise known as Emily Larlham, had 192 videos on her YouTube channel. The woman is a trick-training fiend – in fact, you should immediately do yourself a favor and watch her Halloween “Trick or Treat” video, a study in canine tailoring and revenge. But Kikopup also offers practical videos – for instance, teaching your dog to greet you without jumping up, teaching puppies not to bite and mouth people or their leashes, and “purse training” tiny dogs for happy portability.
I also love the British trainer Chirag Patel, who goes by DomesticatedManners on YouTube. This man has never met an animal he didn’t want to clicker train. Raven? Check. Pony? Check. Cat? Check. Parrot? Check. He doesn’t offer as wide a variety of training tips as Kikopup, but he’s always clever and some of his videos have become instant classics. His guide to teaching a dog to drop items, for instance, beautifully applies reward-based training methods in an unusual and innovative way. Or if you’ve ever had a dog who hated being muzzled, watch Chirag and learn how a dog can be so eager to have the muzzle put on that she actually chases it with her head.
Body Language and Behavior Videos
YouTube is hugely valuable for anyone who wants to read dog body language. Check out my previous articles on dogs’ tails and facial expressions, and especially the article on stress signals, and then watch a few random dog-and-baby videos. You’ll see why many of these interactions are cold-sweat-inducing bywords among trainers and behavior specialists!
To recover from the terror, watch the Zoom Room Guide to Dog Play Gestures and supernaturalbc2009’s Dog Play Techniques. Sharpen your eye for dog interactions, including appropriate dog-to-dog snarks, with the well-narrated videos from KCDogGuy. Now you won’t have to worry about whether those dogs are playing or fighting; you’ll know.
How to Choose the Good Stuff Online
It wasn’t easy picking a few favorite sites and videos from the wealth of great material that generous trainers and behavior specialists offer us for nothing but a click. But, as I’ve said, there’s a whole lot of junk out there as well. Here are a couple of pointers for giving it a miss.
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There Is No Secret of Dog Training
Scientists have been studying animal learning and dog behavior for quite some time, and there is also more and more good research being done on how dogs think and perceive the world. I promise you, the guy with the Speshul Sekrit Formula hasn’t gotten ahead of them while they weren’t looking. All up-to-speed trainers and behavior specialists are applying the same science, though we bring our personal style and creativity to our work.
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If It Seems Mean, It Probably Is
Lots of people out there are still choking, yanking, and shocking dogs in the name of teaching them things. Force and coercion do work, if they’re well done, but don’t let anybody convince you they’re necessary. Movie dogs, service dogs, search-and-rescue dogs, and even police dogs are being successfully trained by modern reward-based methods. Your Dogalini can be too. As for dealing with behavior problems, such as aggression, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior is so troubled by the use of force that they put out a position statementopens PDF file to make clear that such methods are actually contraindicated.
That’s it for today – I don’t want you to get any more glued to your laptop or smartphone than you already are. Did you see a trick-training video you liked? Good. Now go get some treats and your clicker, and teach it to your actual dog. Have fun!
You’re welcome to send comments and questions to dogtrainer@quickanddirtytips.comcreate new email. And you can talk to me on Facebook, where I’m The Dog Trainer. Dogalini is me on Twitter. Thanks for reading, and have a great week.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
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About the Author
Jolanta holds professional certifications in both training and behavior counseling and belongs to the Association of Professional Dog Trainers and the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. She also volunteered with Pet Help Partners, a program of the Humane Society of the United States that works to prevent pet relinquishment. Her approach is generally behaviorist (Pavlovian, Skinnerian and post-Skinnerian learning theory) with a big helping of ethology (animal behavior as observed in non-experimental settings).