06/23/2025
You can check out all of these adoptable doggos from Frederick County Animal Control, Maryland who are ready to be your new best friend at https://frederickcountymd.gov/114/Adopt
Here's a bonus dog tip for today's Meet Your New Best Friend Monday!
“My dog needs training.”
We hear this a lot. And it can be helpful if your dog learns some key skills, like stay, come when called, and polite leash walking. But “My dog needs training” often turns out to be code for a deeper problem—one that can’t be solved with basic obedience training. You might be more likely to achieve human–dog harmony, not by spending thousands of dollars on obedience training but by:
• meeting your dog’s needs,
• setting your dog up for success, and
• learning to understand what your dog is trying to tell you.
Many dogs struggle with a disconnect between what their ancestors were bred to do vs. the life of a modern pet dog. Our dogs have involuntarily traded freedom (at some risk) for restriction (in the name of safety). And we often scold them for doing the jobs they were bred to do—the jobs that every fiber of their being tells them they must do, like bark at potential bad guys.
Here's a tip to help:
Ditch the bowl! Rather than simply handing your dog a bowl of food for them to scarf down in 3 seconds, allow your dog to find, scavenge, and extract every bite of food, turning a quick meal into a drawn-out food-seeking mission. The easiest and cheapest way to do this is to simply scatter your dog’s kibble on the ground or on the floor of your home and allow him to use his amazing nose to find it. For more on how and why to ditch the bowl, check out this podcast episode:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4VbL2hDiyInwpCsdnZdsRV?si=7ca0e0b6b6ed4e10
