This is such an important behavior to teach. Not only can it be a safety issue if you can’t teach your dog to stay, but it also helps your dog learn to be calmer, more relaxed, accepting, and more focused. It surprises people that the dogs we train all learn to stay yet we never even say the word ‘stay’. This is called the implied stay, and it’s beneficial in many ways. Believe it or not, it’s actually much easier

This is such a grave topic. I never like getting calls like this, but I’m so, so glad when I get the chance to have a conversation with anybody who is in a situation like this because I know how stressful and sad and alarming and scary it is. And I know how hard it is to know what to do or what to expect. Dogs and babies don’t mix! And it is so common to have issues blending the

One of the most irritating comments I see from other dog trainers are around “suppression”. That’s because when you punish or correct your dog’s behavior, that is suppression by definition. Suppression is putting a stop to something. So in reality if you stop any behavior from being displayed that is suppression. Does suppression mean that the behavior will regenerate or resurface? No. Does it mean that it won’t? No. Behavior is moving all the time! But knowing how to stop

The narrative on the internet, and pretty much everywhere, is that you should never make your dog uncomfortable. If you glance at FB you’ll find endless arguments and accusations. The common theme is that aversives are never necessary. Pain, fear, discomfort are all bad and trainers that incorporate any of that into their training are also bad. Those trainers are also made to sound as though that’s all they use. This has put those trainers in a position where many

Do you have an excitable dog that hangs up the phone? Or a nervous dog? All the information out there seems to say that during the training process you should keep your dog under threshold. Threshold refers to the point at which your dog starts to boil over and make the decisions that you are working hard to change. Keeping dogs under threshold may sound great, but unfortunately the real world will often throw a monkey wrench in that plan.

I’m a firm believer that heeling your dog can heal your dog. Whatever ails them, heel can help. No, it won’t “fix” all the behavioral issues, but we definitely use it as leverage to help with reactivity, anxiety, nervousness, and anything else you can think of.It can be quite meditative and help dogs really relax in a way that they never can when they are helpless to control arousal and impulses. It also is an amazing way to deepen your

There’s one in every family! That’s not always true..but a fair percentage of people struggle with properly disciplining their dog, and this often results in dogs being unruly, needy, anxious, not listening, or demanding, even to the point of aggression. Being too soft can create a spoiled pooch! We are going to talk about 5 things you can start doing to try to break out of that softy mindset and cultivate a little more respect. Do one thing at a

Dogs jump. Why? Why, why, why? It’s sooo frustrating, right? It might be the most common complaint we hear. Ironically it is also one of the easiest behaviors to stop. I know people are struggling with this. I know owners are trying “everything” and spending months or even years managing their dog (or worse yet paying trainers who don’t know how to stop it or won’t be honest about how to stop it) when we could stop this behavior in

This is probably the number one issue we see with the dogs that come to us for training. Almost everybody is dealing with this to some degree or another. Some dogs get mildly excited by other dogs while some are extremely over stimulated and some look like Cujo at the end of the leash, and we strongly suspect they may kill another dog if they were able to get to it. The thing is, all of these scenarios can result

We see different dogs everyday, and so we have witnessed a lot, but it seems like every day we still continue to encounter new and strange behaviors. I often get questions that start with “why does my dog..” And who knows! Dogs are just weird! Love the show? Sign up to access our new exciting Xtra content! This content is unique and is ONLY available to our paid subscribers. Subscriptions are only $3/month! You can also just sign up to