Trainer Kris Rooney and her 3 dogs
Kris Rooney is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer at Ministik Hills Dog Training. You can learn more about Kris and her programming at ministikdog.ca.
Kris and her husband currently have 3 dogs, Cooper (right), Angus (below), and Quinn (bottom right).
Angus was a difficult dog as a puppy and is the reason Kris got into dog training after retiring from teaching. Cooper and Quinn are the pups of the family, both are 3 years old.
Enrichment
Leaving your dog with enrichment puzzles when they’re home alone is a great way to ensure they don’t damage your house in your absence.
Kongs with frozen treats is very effective at ensuring your dog is both physically and mentally occupied while home alone.
Don't Impose Human Emotions on your Dogs
Dogs may have expressions that you interrupt to be human, but you are likely giving your dog too much credit. If your dog looks guilty after causing some chaos, they are more likely responding to your body language than to the incident they’re guilty of. Disciplining them in this situation is unlikely to achieve the desired outcome of preventing future incidents. Dogs respond better to being rewarded for good behaviour than punished for bad behaviour.
Rewarding Good Behaviour
For Quinn, he knows he may be rewarded with a treat for sitting politely by the dishwasher when it’s being loaded, so he doesn’t help lick the dishes clean.
Setting Expectations
Kris’ dogs are allowed on the bed, but they have been trained to get off when asked to.
