10 Reasons to Train Your Dog with CPT

1) CPT has been in business since 1992.

Unlike many fly by night operations in the pet industry, we have stood the test of time.

2) CPT has trained over 50,000 dogs and over 100 cats.

Not only have we been around, we have been successful. We have experience in both years and numbers.

Canine Play Styles

CPT Trainers often get asked, “Is my dog playing or fighting?” Similarly, our Head Trainers conduct behavioral analyses of dogs removed from dog day care because the day care operator and dog owner are uncertain regarding the intent of a dog’s behavior or because the operator says that a dog plays “too rough.”

Therefore, the natural segue leads to several questions:

How can I tell if my dog is playing or fighting?
How rough is too rough?
What criteria should I evaluate when selecting playmates for my dog?
When and how should I intervene when my dog plays with another dog?

Murphy Learns to be Calm Around Unfamiliar Dogs

If you have a dog that is reactive to people or dogs when on-leash, we encourage you to contact CPT. A properly designed and implemented behavior modification program can quickly work wonders in creating a dog that is a much more pleasant walking companion. As a result, you will become happier with your dog and your dog will have a happier quality of life, since you will likely walk him/her more frequently- without sneers, grimaces, and snide remarks from the neighbors, who will appreciate and admire the progress achieved by you and your dog.

Recent Research Raises Concerns Regarding Early Spaying/Neutering

Whereas in the early part of the 20th century pet ownership was common only to rural American households, after World War 2 the country experienced the baby boom, an increased urbanization and suburbanization of society, and an expansion of pet ownership within non-rural households. Subsequently, with the advent of a significant increase in pet ownership in high-density population areas, concomitant problems developed. The number of stray and unwanted pets increased in regions where the issue received more political attention and posed greater public health and safety concerns than when stray pets remained principally a rural issue. Moreover, without strategic fertility control measures, given the frequency of stray dog and cat copulations and the size of resultant litters, the pet population grew prolifically.

CPT Assists Dog Star Technologies in Researching Apparel Products

CPT is assisting Dog Star Technologies in researching the anxiety reduction properties of several existing canine apparel products and concepts. Concepts that Dog Star wishes to study include the benefits and/or detriments of loose garments versus compression garments and the benefits and/or detriments of thermally controlled garments and weighted garments.

Lili Learns Not to Bark at Dogs on the TV

Science aside, Linda, a CPT client, had no doubts that her 5-year old Maltese, Lili, could precisely see the television. Almost every time an animal, especially a dog or horse, appeared on the screen Lili barked aggressively at the set. Lili’s barking was so tenacious and cacophonous that Linda could not comfortably watch television if a program included an animal. Therefore, Linda called in CPT behavior modification expert Mark Spivak to solve the problem.

Sid, Judy, and Bristol- Resolving Dog-Owner Aggression

Bristol is a 4.5-year old, neutered, male Chow Chow. Sid and Judi owned him since he was a puppy. Historically, he has been non-aggressive with Sid and Judi, although he was at times stubborn, and he has been highly affable with guests- much more convivial than the average Chow. Therefore, Sid and Judi were surprised when Bristol recently snapped at people who tried to pet him. Sid and Judi were even more shocked when Bristol bit Sid when he asked Bristol to release a piece of pizza that Bristol took from the garbage and when he again bit Sid when Sid tried to remove him from the bed. Bristol also recently began growling at Judi when she tried prompting him to enter the car or when she approached his food bowl.

The CPT Doorway Behavior Drill

The following video demonstrates the CPT Doorway Behavior Drill. The goals of the drill are: 1) to provide a replacement behavior (sitting) in lieu of jumping or lunging, 2) to allow the calm owner to take control of the doorway greeting process from the dogs, 3) to provide the dogs a specific protocol to perform at the door, 4) to calm the dogs and institute impulse control, and 5) to countercondition the dogs so that they feel more secure and trusting of visitors invited into the house.

Fairy, Andrew, and Bandit Visited CPT for a Private Behavior Modification Session on Dog Aggression

Fairy and her husband Rusty first contacted CPT in July 2014 regarding their then 8-month old Norwegian Elkhound littermates Smokey and Bandit. They were concerned about the dogs’ unruly household behavior, which included jumping, digging, stealing food, and bolting, their lack of adherence to obedience commands, and their pulling and apparent aggression when encountering unfamiliar dogs while walking on-leash. Fairy and Rusty completed one private lesson at CPT, then elected to convert to board training.

Success in Addressing Leash Walking Reactivity

Remi brought Ngoni and Luckie to the CPT Sandy Springs Training Center to address on-leash reactivity when they observed unfamiliar dogs. In one lesson, we conditioned the dogs to a reward marker, conditioned them to the Gentle Leader, taught them how to walk on a loose leash while wearing the Gentle Leader, taught them to become more attentive to Remi and less to the environment, and then separated them so that they could work individually amidst a volunteer dog.