How to Prevent Your Dog From Begging at the Table

Do you feed your dog from the table? If you answered “yes,” you’re not alone. That act alone doesn’t necessarily mean your dog will beg for food while you’re eating.  With Thanksgiving around the corner, no one wants a begging dog at the table. It’s not the fact that you feed food from your plate that […]

Helping to Prevent Separation Anxiety in Our Dogs During Covid-19

It’s safe to say the current Covid-19 pandemic is a sudden and drastic change in all our lives and in our dogs’ lives as well. For some dogs, this strange, new (hopefully temporary) way of life will be taken in stride the same way they adjust to most things. However, there will be many dogs […]

Working with Fearful Dogs – Part One

Is your dog a scaredy cat? The majority of our work in shelter and rescue environments has been focused on fearful dogs. We have also been the owners of dogs with these struggles. We understand how draining, frustrating, and defeating life can be with a fearful dog. But working with fearful dogs has also been some […]

Creating Normalcy for Your Dog During COVID

It’s a fact: there is no normal right now. Not for you. Not for your dog.  Think about what you used to do with your dog. Think about what you’re doing now vs. before the stay at home requirements. How does that differ? How can you, with a little added time and attention, create opportunities […]

Virtual Dog Training During the Coronavirus Pandemic

virtual dog training session in progress

It takes a lot of focus to accept the uncertainty that abounds in our lives during this pandemic. We imagine that rings true for you, too. It’s normal to have fear and anxiety during this pandemic. An appropriate level of these can be productive – it keeps you as safe as possible.  Safety is our focus […]

The Poop Patrol. Steps for teaching your dog to help clean up.

Is your dog a member of The Poop Patrol? If you teach your dog to “find their poop” then it makes cleaning up much easier!  When we were on vacation visiting Bob and Susan Ryder of Pawsitive Transformations some time ago, I watched Daisy help Bob clean up. I thought it was so fun that […]

Looking at Life Changes Through Your Dog’s Eyes

On November 22nd of 2019, my husband and I moved our two cats and dog, Kirby, from Denver, Colorado to Portland, Maine. With me originally from New York, Luke from South Dakota, and all our pets adopted in Colorado, none of us had never lived in Maine. We had planned a seamless move and read […]

Why Am I Positive?

In July of 2016 I sat at a MaxFund Animal Shelter holding a tiny puppy in my arms. Eight pounds of wriggling love. Looking at that tiny motherless puppy, covered in her own poop, and shedding so much fur I thought she might be bald in a day, I knew I had found my dog. […]

Please Don’t Leave Me! Tackling Separation Anxiety

by Sandy Oelschlegel Today I walked into the bedroom and Taylor was in the center of the bed calmly looking at me. I gave him his goodbye dog cookie and turned around to leave. I knew he was aware that I was leaving the house because I had given him all the well-rehearsed departure cues. I […]

Tug of War, What is it Good For?

I actually prefer the term Tug of Love. It’s hard to imagine that it was once thought that playing tug with your dog would cause him to become aggressive. Thankfully, we now know that’s not true. What “is” true is the number of benefits derived from playing tug with your dog.  There are many! Let’s take […]