Recent Articles

Pre-School for Dogs

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Broad Ripple Animal Clinic & Wellness Center has staff members that are trained animal behaviorists to offer comprehensive behavior services. They’ve decided to do this for the same reasons that CattleDog Publishing and DrSophiaYin.com were born: seeing so many animals put to sleep because of behavioral problems rather than disease or injury. They created a school for dogs called Bark Tutor, where they work with owners and their pets to help them be successful. Last year, Dr. Yin had the pleasure of conversing with Amber Taylor, RVT and practice manager, about their puppy program.

New DVD: Desensitization and Counterconditioning

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We are proud to release the latest part of the Handling, Moving and Restraining series: DESENSITIZATION and COUNTERCONDITIONING: Teaching Dogs to Willingly Accept Medical Procedures. This part of the Handling, Moving & Restraining series completes a revolutionary, educational, workshop collection in which you learn directly from Dr. Yin, right in your own home.

How to Break Up a Dog Fight Without Getting Bitten

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If you have a dog and he goes to the dog park, lives with doggie housemates, or otherwise socializes with other dogs, chances are at some point you may need to break up a spat. What should you do?

New DVD! Dog Aggression: From Fearful, Reactive, or Hyperactive to Focused, Happy, and Calm

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You may know many techniques for dealing with your reactive or aggressive dog, but with many dogs, to get the results you want you need a clear step-by-step plan. First you need to realize that every interaction is a training session, so what you do outside of official sessions may undermine your progress. Second, for fast and enduring results it’s often essential to improve the dog’s impulse and emotional control. Third, your training will require good technique and an integrative approach and should focus on creating a dog who is happy, focused and calm.

Scruffy’s Cadbury Egg Disaster: A Case for Training Dogs to Sit Politely Instead of Counter-Surfing

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Written by Dr. Yin in 2009, this article covers the dangers of those holiday snacks we often leave out for friends and family. And, unintentionally, for a rambunctious pet with a finely tuned nose. Although the tasty candy here was chocolate eggs, Halloween and Christmas also feature dangerous, delicious chocolate.
For most pet parents, having a dog that’s well trained would be nice but doesn’t seem like a necessity. This is especially true if the dog spends most of his time in familiar places—such as the home, or the yard, or just on short walks in the neighborhood. He may be so used to the scene that he never gets excited enough or distracted enough to be bothersome. It turns out that you can’t count on life being so mundane. One family found this out the expensive way when their Holiday house plan went awry.

The Case of Finn, the Cat Who’s Afraid of Toenail Trims and the Vet

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In 2009, Dr. Yin produced the first and only textbook and DVD on Low Stress Handling of dogs and cats in the hospital or shelter setting. Since then the methods and philosophy have spread around the world. In this article, Dr. Yin’s colleague in the Netherlands, Dr. Valerie Jonckheer –Sheehy details how she used desensitization and counterconditioning to give a cat a pleasant toenail trim.

Sedating the Killer Cat

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A cat comes in to the hospital stressed to kill. What should you do? While cases like this are stressful for these fearful cats, they can cause just as much anxiety in experienced hospital staff as well as clients and other patients exposed to the sound of the loud struggles that ensue.

Proper Walking Technique: Turn an anxious dog into a calm dog in just minutes

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Every veterinary hospital has canine patients who are anxious away from their owners. Dogs who were seemingly happy when they arrived but as soon as they are separated from their pet parents, they pace and whine. And if left for the day, they bark incessantly in their kennels and can even become unsafe when handled.