A lot of people will talk like the clicker is magic. It’s not. And this is coming from someone that loves the clicker. All the clicker does is link your dog’s behavior to a reward. And that’s the thing that is magic. It’s not that it’s a clicker, per se, it’s what you do with it. You can use a clicker very ineffectively, too. Understanding what a marker is, how to use it, and what exactly your sequence should be

We spend 2-3 weeks with most dogs. We spend 2-3 hours with you. It isn’t fair to think you will be confident after just a few hours with us. You need to go out into the real world and do stuff. Seeing is believing! But we have found that there are 5 specific things that really get in the way of results carrying over to the owners themselves. Those things are: Don’t tell yourself that your dog is scared, confused,

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