heatherwitt.com blog

Hi Heather, I have a couple of questions for you…Molly has been getting up at 4am to go out. I take her out and she does in fact pee and poop. The problem is when I put her back in her crate — she barks endlessly. This morning she literally barked from 4-5:10am. I ignored [...]

Charlotte Schwartz from DogChannel.com got it partly right. Of course, you don’t want to reward your dog for attention-getting barking, but having your dog sit as a way of asking for attention won’t achieve the ideal behavior either.  We don’t need dogs coming over and ’throwing sits’ at us either.  So when should you give attention and praise? When your dog is laying passively [...]

Q:
Hi Heather,
I wonder if you remember me.  I think it was last year you came to my 
house and helped me with my adopted dog, a Lhasa Apso named Luke.  At 
the time his problem was agresssion.  I solved it (almost completely) 
with your help.
Everything was going fine until two weeks ago.  During our walks in 
the morning and [...]

Q: My dog has separation anxiety issues. He barks when we leave and chews on shoes, etc. He’s a rescue from the humane society. Can we set up an appointment with you?
-Amy (Westport) 
A: Yes, when we get together we can discuss the behavior modification to correct this issue. Don’t worry, separation anxiety is a very correctable [...]