There are a lot of different strategies and approaches to training dogs and people. But one fairly consistent concept across them all is to tackle any problem as series of smaller problems, rather than trying to solve or train the entire thing in one go. You don’t teach agility by running a course on day […]
How do you react when someone calls your name? Do you immediately glance to see who spoke? Does your response vary depending on the context, such as who, where, when, and under what circumstances?Have you ever considered your dog’s reaction to their name? Take a moment to reflect on how your dog responds when their […]
I put out a good bit about my dogs, what all we do and their successes. I’ve realized I don’t share enough about our challenges and failures. Things don’t always go to plan and my dogs don’t always do what I expect or think they will do. We just completed a great road trip from […]
We live in a ‘Yes’ world. Everyone wants everything to be a ‘Yes’ all the time and when it isn’t there is a meltdown. We want positive affirmations through social media and we’re only happy when everything goes perfectly and to plan. We aren’t supposed to say no. We aren’t supposed to punish transgression. Somehow […]
One of my most frequent requests is help with flying with a dog. Any dog, given the proper education and time, can be a happy flyer. An unhappy flyer can be remedied, with the proper time and effort. Whether you are flying your dog in cabin with you or down below, your dog will need […]
I professionally teach people. I am a dog trainer/trainee with my dogs. Training is a funny topic. We have to start by asking a deceptively simple question – who is being trained? Ask the average sport dog owner and their focus will be on the training of the dog – regardless of whether they are […]
My dogs are not perfect. They do not come every time I ask them. My dogs sometimes bark annoyingly at every thing that walks past the front of our house. My dogs fence fight with the neighbor’s dog. My dogs bark at the neighbors when they start their truck. My dogs dig holes in the […]
In life you come up against a lot of challenges that require you to be patient and resilient. It seldom feels like we have much choice. We don’t seem to have any option other than patiently waiting. To survive, we have to be resilient and flexible. Sometimes it is hard to remember to bring both […]
The day will come for us all… that last day. Death is the one thing every living being is guaranteed. Humans spend the majority of their lives trying not to think about their mortality. I often wonder if dogs think about it at all. They live their lives so very much in the now, that […]
I stumped a student the other day. They were listing off all of their training challenges, the behavior problems they were having, their struggles with finding space that was safe to work with their dog. They had no answer when I asked them if they were having fun. They couldn’t answer the question, “What fun […]
