Dogs on Thursday! I'm such a fan. :)

Welcome to this week's Dogs on Thursday post! Hope everyone has been having a good week. Also for all of you who are experiencing some very harsh weather, please keep you and yours safe. We'll be thinking of you.

This week we have a big welcome to Dawn, Robin and Cheryl. I hope I'm not missing any welcomes but if I am...Let me know!

Also there have been several treats and grocery store brands added to the Peanut Butter Recall. Please go back here and check to see if any of your foods or treats have been added.

For this week's DOT post I wanted to talk about one of my favorite authors of dog books, who also happens to be an amazing trainer. Her name is Sarah Wilson. If you haven't already heard of her...now is the time to check her books out. She has co-authored many many books but two of my favorites are My Smart Puppy, which she wrote with her husband Brian Kilcommons, and Dogology, which she wrote with Vicki Croke. If you have a dog or especially a puppy go out and pick yourself up a copy of My Smart Puppy! It's one of the best books on training a puppy or just any dog that I've seen. Her training methods are simple and very positive. There is also a great site for the book called MySmartPuppy.com and it has some great resources and a forum with many helpful people.

One of the main reasons I'm talking about her in my post this week is recently, I got to finally meet her! She was just as great in person. She came down to the Tampa area to visit the SPCA of Tampa Bay and do a book signing and a dog behavior demonstration. The demonstration was amazing...yes we know I'm being bias here but it's my post this week. :) Anyway, she took some shelter dogs and some of the volunteer family dog trainer's dogs and worked with them. She had never worked with these dogs before but she access what they need and then played the games from her book that would help them the most. She answered tons of questions ranging from how do you train your dog not to bite your husband when he gets out of bed and then wants to come back to bed(seriously) to why is my dog all of a sudden experiencing separation anxiety. It was great to see her in action and I'm just as star struck as I was before. Even more so now that I've met her.

After she was here, she posted video of her demonstration on youtube. The following video is my favorite of the bunch but I recommend going and viewing all the ones she has posted. The Mastiff on the little stage is adorable.



I hope you get something out of this post and/or videos about Sarah Wilson. I know I'm just a fan but I can tell you that I know from experience that her games do work. I have been playing many of them with my dogs and my pups aren't perfect but they have helped!

I will end this post with one of her quotes. "Your dog can change, but you have to change first."

Hope you all have a wonderful tail wagging week!
Gnat