Puppies Are Born Perfect - Owners Have Some Skill-Building to Do - How To Become a Great LGD Owner
I do not use, or promote, training methods that dogs fear or will work to avoid. Puppies are born perfect. And yet, in the case of LGD...
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Cindy Benson
Feb 103 min read
Building a Strong Defense: Training the Black Alder Pups as Livestock Guardian Dogs
The Black Alder trio is hard at work. Let us out! No time to eat in this pen! The litter of six Black Alder pups came to me for training...
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Cindy Benson
Aug 31, 20234 min read
How To Introduce Pigs to a Young LGD and Make One Very Big Mistake
#littermatesyndromenot, #bensonmarremas, #bensonmaremmasLGDtraining, #LGDtraining, #positivereinforcementdogtraining,...
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Cindy Benson
Aug 10, 20232 min read
Yukon Meets the Goat Girls! - How To Introduce New Livestock To An LGD
Yukon is an eight-month-old intact Maremma. He has been a full-time working LGD almost all of his life. The goat girls, Party and Pearl,...
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Cindy Benson
Aug 9, 20237 min read
Clicker Training! Practice It With An Easy Animal Before You Use It With Your LGD
This was shared with me this morning; shared here with permission. These are the words of an experienced animal trainer, now completing...
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Cindy Benson
Jul 24, 20233 min read
Meet Kyrie - Mouth Everywhere, Feet Everywhere, Never Stops Moving! What Can I Do?
This is going to be a very short post about a very important dog. Kyrie came to me for training at about seven months old with her...
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Cindy Benson
Jun 1, 20237 min read
"String Training" - Building a Connection Between the Trainer and the Learner
#bensonmaremmastraining, String training is a concept presented to me by Steve Martin only six short months ago in a course I attended at...
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Cindy Benson
May 28, 20233 min read
Gate Training With Adolescent Dogs
#bensonmaremmastraining, This video shows the very beginning of gate training for Yukon, the orange pup, and Phoebe, the red pup. They...
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Cindy Benson
May 12, 20233 min read
Why Can’t I Just Say “No!”?
Well, you can, of course you can, but doing so comes at a cost to the dog and his relationship with you, even if you do it “nicely.” The...
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Cindy Benson
Jan 22, 20234 min read
Why Saying “Ah” Didn’t Work
When people come here to work with me to learn my training methods, they will sometimes hear me make a distinct but odd sound (in fact, I...
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Cindy Benson
Jan 22, 20233 min read
Positive Reinforcement Training – What It Is & Why It Matters
This term is not a value judgment. In some social circles, it generates a lot of energy: positive trainers are good, traditional trainers...
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Cindy Benson
Nov 10, 20227 min read
The Special Needs Pup - Learning to See Behavior In Pieces
#bensonmaremmastraining, I had the distinct privilege recently of working with the owner of a special needs pup. She came to me after...
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Cindy Benson
Feb 13, 20225 min read
Going From No and Wrong to Change and Create as a Trainer
#bensonmaremmastraining, #shaping, #Maremmasheepdogtraining, #positivereinforcementtrainingforlgds When I was a child, I heard "no" a...
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Cindy Benson
Feb 13, 20224 min read
That's a Redirect?! That's Easy!
#shaping, #Maremmasheepdogtraining, #positivereinforcementtrainingforlgds ****Interrupt - Redirect - Reinforce**** Those three words are...
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Cindy Benson
Dec 31, 202111 min read
New Home, New Cow - Managing the Introduction - Novice Owner
The backstory: The woman in the coveralls is Amber, the proud new owner of a pair of eleven-month-old Sarika pups. Her assistant is Anna,...
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Cindy Benson
Dec 29, 20215 min read
Raising Eevie & Banks - Environmental Confidence - Katie W.
These five-month-old pups belong to Katie W. Katie is a beginner LGD owner, sort of. For several months she lived with Rocco and Isla,...
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Cindy Benson
Sep 9, 20211 min read
Introducing Eight-Month-Old Maremmas to Goats
On this day, we introduced two of the Sarika pups to goats for the first time; it was a first for the goats too! We always do...
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Cindy Benson
Jun 27, 20211 min read
How to Teach a Dog to Touch a Hand Target
#bensonmaremmastraining, Hand targeting is a great skill to teach pups. It has many practical applications. Examples would be moving dogs...
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Cindy Benson
Apr 25, 20211 min read
Online Livestock Guardian Dog Training Course
In August 2020, I began requiring completion of the Karen Pryor Academy Dog Trainer Foundations Course as part of the criteria for...
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Cindy Benson
Apr 11, 20214 min read
Vinny Meets the Goats - Safety Line & Shaping
Vinny is a sixteen-month-old Cameo x Milan pup. He had never seen an adult goat until we brought him to this pair of retired dairy goat...
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