Agility is a fun and challenging sporting event for both dogs and handlers. An agility course includes obstacles such as jumps, tunnels, and dogwalks. If you don't want to purchase your own agility obstacles, here's how to make your own with items that you probably have in your home. If your dog enjoys this jump […]

You're getting a new puppy! This is an exciting time, and it's easy to daydream about all the fun things you'll do with a dog in your life. There's a lot you can do in preparation to make sure that your puppy's introduction into the household goes smoothly. It starts by creating some house rules […]

How many tricks does your dog know? Once your dog knows a few different tricks you can start to put together a small routine. Trick routines are a great...

Learning Objectives Students will understand that all people have rights and describe the importance of them.   Grade Levels 3-5   National Council for the Social Studies Standards 6-Power, Authority, and Governance   Materials Needed Copies of the Bill of Rights (one for each student)   Lesson Introduction Ask your students if they know what […]

Learning Objectives Students will research several historic dog figures that changed society forever and will create educational podcasts to showcase the information to listeners. *Note: This is a multi-day lesson.   Grade Levels 9-12   National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies Theme 2: Time, Continuity, and Change   Common Core English Language Arts Standards CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.4 […]

Training Tip - A Look at Methods for Teaching Behaviors to Dogs This issue’s training tip is contributed by Julie Hill of Mandeville, Louisiana, who has enjoyed much success with her All-American Dog, MACH Up and Running a Mile a Minute CD MX MXJ MJB MXF. Julie has a master’s degree in geophysics and worked […]

Training Plans and Development Overview How Training Frequency Impacts Learning Lemonade Starting with an 8 week old pup The Play Ideas Video Assessment versus training Play is Pay!!! Putting it all together Content versus Context Raising Criteria in Odor Recognition Stuff Creating Behavioral Pathways Training with Food Machines A Puppy named Task Possession, possession, possession! […]

Learning Objectives Students will demonstrate an understanding of cellular respiration as it relates to dogs and create a model representation.   Grade Levels 9-12   Next Generation Science Standards HS-LS1-7: Use a model to illustrate that cellular respiration is a chemical process whereby the bonds of food molecules and oxygen molecules are broken and the […]

Learning Objective Students will interpret numerical expressions without solving them and write simple expressions.   Grade Levels 4-5   Common Core Standard CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.OA.A.1 Use parentheses, brackets, or braces in numerical expressions, and evaluate expressions with these symbols. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.OA.A.2 Write simple expressions that record calculations with numbers, and interpret numerical expressions without evaluating them.   Materials […]

At this year’s AKC Detection Dog Conference, I was asked to create a scoring rubric for the weekly assessment records. You can find it on the webpage under the Records tab, along with the link for submitting your weekly records. This is adjustable based on the participants needs, but it should serve our purposes.