If I Could Teach Only ONE Thing to my Dog | National Train Your Dog Month

National Train Your Dog Month exists to promote training for the family dog, and the good news is that training can be FUN and BENEFICIAL for both you and your dog! Training doesn’t need to be long or complicated. In fact, studies have shown that your student’s learning actually benefits from shorter sessions, consistently sprinkled […]

Why Do We Train Our Dogs?| What to Consider

Here we are at the start of a new year. How did we get here so quickly? In this past year, I’ve had the privilege of working with some amazing people and their dogs. Sometimes, however, even with amazing people and amazing dogs, things don’t go as planned. Oftentimes a dog comes into the home […]

Dog Management & Training – The Dynamic Duo

Dog Management & Training | Oh those well-known duos we often speak about – peas and carrots, salt and pepper and wine and cheese just to name a few. I particularly love that wine and cheese duo! In the world of dog training “management and training” is the quintessential dynamic duo and I think most […]

Easily Train a Dog Trick | Capturing a Behavior

Not long ago, I wrote about how I was capturing a behavior that Willow, our 6 year old Australian Shepherd, frequently offers. She runs in our pasture, dipping her shoulder and then sliding some distance.  It’s a very cute dog trick. This video shows the slight progress we had made at the time: I’ve continued to […]

Dog Behavior Capturing & Putting it on Cue

Good news! There are so many different ways to teach a specific dog behavior. Thankfully, with positive training, you can quickly and easily guide your dog to the final goal behavior, all without the use of force, fear or intimidation. The most common methods are luring, capturing and shaping and your choice of which method […]

Tips to Help Your Dog Love Grooming – At Home or the Salon

I think we can all say that keeping on top of your dog’s grooming routine at home can some days feel a bit of a chore, especially if your dog isn’t so keen on the idea. But never fear – once you get started it can actually turn out to be quite a rewarding task and a positive one too! […]

Strange New Things Part 3 – Helping Mercy Love the Weave Poles

I’ve recently written about using classical conditioning to help your dog be comfortable around strange new things. The previous two articles were about helping my dog, Mercy, learn to interact with a big long blue tunnel. I’ve wanted to do Agility for Fun, so we’re training for that enjoyable activity. I’ve been successful in getting […]

Don’t Blame the Dog!

So often in training, when a dog doesn’t perform the desired behavior in response to the given cue, we blame the dog. I often hear, “He’s blowing me off!” or “She’s being stubborn!” However, in reality, the handler just didn’t make it clear enough for the dog to fully understand what the person was trying […]

Strange New Things – Helping Your Dog Learn to Love Them

When introducing new things into a dog’s environment it’s important to consider how a dog will perceive the new object.  Dogs, like people, learn through association (classical conditioning) and develop a positive, negative or neutral emotional response to new people, places or things. Any new first interaction and experience needs to be a positive one. […]

The Importance of Teaching Your Dog to “Wait”

As the guardian in a multi-dog household, the Wait cue is one of the most used in my training tool box. Once a wait behavior has been established, the cue can be incorporated in various situations to make daily life less hectic and more manageable. Once trained, when you cue Wait, there’s a pause in […]