Does your animal have a choice about what they do or don’t do? Retired psychology Professor, Deborah Jones has been training dogs for over three decades and has developed a philosophy and method she calls Cooperative Care. This method is about giving dogs choices whenever possible during training and in daily interactions. Although there will always be situations where the dog has no choice (such as being examined at the vet’s office!), but we can best prepare dogs for this experience by finding and training situations where they can let us know how they are feeling. By paying attention to the way they are communicating with us, we can observe and correctly interpret their feelings — are they comfortable in this situation? What is bothering them? Are they tired? Are they reacting to our tension or agenda? We can greatly improve all situations for the animals who share our lives when we respect their feelings and provide opportunities for them to choose pace, duration and timing.

EPISODE NOTES: Animals Have Feelings Too

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