There are some articles we feel it's important that pet owners have the opportunity to read and consider, especially in the veterinary field. Whether or not they are utilized should be an individual choice, with a vet's guidance. Training | Vet Health | Nutrition We encourage the use of low/no force/fear/pain based training. So much can be accomplished with positive reinforcement--even in "high drive" and working dogs. Please keep checking back while we add to this page. George Hickox's methods incorporate marker training! For more info/videos/resources, we recommend you visit his website. More on Marker/Clicker Training from Karen Pryor's website. We also recommend her books Don't Shoot the Dog and Getting Started: Clicker Training for Dogs. For sale on her site, is Positive Gun Dogs, by Jim Barry, focused on training gundogs positively. Another positive focused book is called Clicker Gundog, by Helen Phillips. There are some great examples of using positive reinforcement for field training from Willow Creek Kennels. Finally, Wildrose Kennels has several books, DVDs, and articles available for a low-force field training diy. There are also several groups you can join to see how positive reinforcement principles are applied to field training: Positive Gun Dogs on Facebook, Positive Gundogs on Facebook, and Positive Gun Dogs on Yahoo Groups. Be sure to check out our Links page for more training resources.
Rick Smith Articles Delmar, Rick, and Ronnie Smith are talented, reputable, and trusted gundog trainers, with many quality resources available. We recommend their videos for those who aren't ready to crossover to positive reinforcement methods. On Dominance in Dogs. It's not what you probably think! On the use of Positive Reinforcement as the recommend primary method of teaching:
From AAHA's Canine Vaccine Guidelines: Click here to download the PDF article "2006 AAHA Canine Vaccine Guidelines, Revised." We recommend you read this and discuss an appropriate vaccination regimen with your vet. Spay/Neuter: Don't Overlook the Decision. On the subject of early spaying and neutering, we strongly suggest you read this article published by Laura J. Sanborn, M.S. Finally, we have an article that presents both sides of the surgeries to help people make the decision based on their individual dog and situation. Until recently, I naively had no idea such articles even existed! Moreover, I had helped to perpetute the one-case-fits-all neuter every pet as soon as possible mindset. Now, I'm keeping in mind that spaying will be a benefit for most people and pets; however, veterinarians and owners should consider waiting until the dog reaches physical and mental maturity, taking responsible care in the meantime to prevent unwanted breedings. We encourage responsible pet ownership, which obviously includes considering anything that may harm vs benefit your animals, so a case-by-case determination of if/why to spay is important. In case you didn't absorb all the details in that excellent but in-depth article, here's another one, more condensed! The author is Ms. Nienke Parma, B.Sc., M.D. And from another source, here is an article by Chris Zink, DVM, PhD, DACVP. For the final resource on this topic, this is a link to the Society for Theriogenology's Basis for Position on Mandatory Spay-Neuter in the Canine and Feline page. (Theriogenologists are veterinarians that specialize in reproduction.) I find this page very interesting and compelling; note especially what they've chosen to emphasize by bolding. If your veterinarian is pressuring you to spay/neuter without showing much individual case interest, as outlined in this article, I'd refer them to it just as a reminder. It's easy to get caught up with the spay, spay, spay pressure. Here is a recent study, published in Dec 2009, in a peer-reviewed science journal, "The Aging Cell," that shows some interesting correlation between the presence of ovaries and longetivity in the female dog. Top | Training | Vet Health
Well, as this is one of the most controversial subjects when you start talking to dog people, I've been dragging my feet getting information together for this section. I guess I will put together some links to the various camps (ie commercial, holistic/natural, and raw diets) so that you can see all sides and form your own opinions. For now, here are some links to toxic foods for dogs: Toxic Food and Plants for Dogs Note: I like this page for the Plants chart; per the foods, it should specify COOKED bones are hazardous. Many people, including us, feed raw bones. Also, many feed raw eggs, even the shells, when washed, in BARF/SARF diets; if doing so, biotin should be supplemented or eggs not fed on daily basis. (More on this later.) Foods to Avoid Feeding Your Dog (Great list, but same thing about the bones and eggs. By the way, salmonella is typically carried on the outside of unwashed eggshells and in the less common case, inside the egg had the hen been infected.)
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