Category Archives: Activites

Top Ten Misunderstood Behaviours: # 5 Winning Tug of War

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Marika S. Bell

Tug of War has gotten a bad name in the dog world and is just starting to recover. So lets first cover why ‘people’ decided  Tug was a bad game to play with your dog. In the mid 90’s a … Continue reading →

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Disabilities and Assistance Dogs

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Marika S. Bell

About a year ago, I was contacted by Melanie Donne, founder of Kotuku Foundation Assistance Animals Aotearoa. Melanie wanted to know if I was interested in becoming KFAAA’s Wellington Region dog behaviour consultant. She had heard of my work with … Continue reading →

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Kids and Dogs: What are your biggest concerns?

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Marika S. Bell

At the end of March I will be helping to present a workshop/seminar to Porse caretakers on the subject of kids and dogs together. Some of the biggest concerns I have heard from upcoming new parents and parents adopting a … Continue reading →

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Scenting and Tracking

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Marika S. Bell

I recently read the book “Scent of the Missing: Love and Partnership with a Search and Rescue Dog” by Susannah Charleson, in preparation for a HITT (Hydration Intensified Tracking Training) weekend seminar I attended on the 25th and 26th of … Continue reading →

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Easy Shaping: Part 4

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Marika S. Bell

Ok, time to continue our discussion about shaping behaviours in your dog. Our first three points following Karen Pryor’s list from “Reaching the Animal Mind” are… 1. Raising Criteria (successive approximation) 2. Breaking Down the Behaviour 3. Vary the Reinforcement … Continue reading →

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Why not use traditional methods? It works for Cesar!

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Marika S. Bell

I have heard many reasons why people still use ‘traditional’ or aversive methods to train dogs or deal with inappropriate behaviour. Even when kinder, cooperative training based on trust has been proven over and over again to not only get … Continue reading →

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What would you like in a puppy or dog group class?

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Marika S. Bell

As dancingdogs has grown, I have started to consider how to best expand so that I can reach more people and make my training more accessible. Classes might be a great way to do that! See the thing is, I … Continue reading →

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My Trainers New Year’s Resolution

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Marika S. Bell

My resolution as a trainer is to get more information out to my community, concerning training, behaviour and dog welfare. I will do this by posting at least 2 blogs a week on my dancingdogs blog. I will start my … Continue reading →

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dancingdogs so far…

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Marika S. Bell

I would like to take a very short time to review dancingdogs’ accomplishments and growth in 2011. You all are probably aware that I have only lived in New Zealand since January 2009. My plan on coming here was to … Continue reading →

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The Dog Talk Project

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Marika S. Bell

I have been registered for awhile now with a survey group called “Dog Talk Project”. Dog Talk Project is basically a survey program that is collecting data from dog owners about their relationship to their dogs. It has been a … Continue reading →

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