Conversations with a Dog Trainer

  Our dogs need physical exercise, we all know that. You hear all the time about how you should be taking your dog on walks every day to meet their exercise needs. Do you know though, that you need to meet their mental stimulation needs as well? A lot of our dogs stay home while we are at work or school during the day. When we do not meet our dog's energy outlet needs, they tend to find a way to get rid of that energy. Usually, it's by doing something we won't like, such as playing tug with the curtains, playing with the oversized stuffed toys on the sofa, (throw pillows) or scavenging for super yummy treats that were hidden in that tall can thing in the kitchen (trash can).   There are ways that we can help our dogs burn energy mentally just like we do physically. A lot of the time mental exercise can be even more exhausting than physical exercise. The following are interactive food toys that you can get on Amazon. Snuffle Mat These are used to feed your dog their ...

It takes time, patience and dedication to train your dog. Think of it as a journey.  When you go on a road trip, you need a plan and an idea of where you want to go and what you are going to do when you get there. You most likely would have planned out your route and got your map ready on your gps.  Granted there are some that just say "Let's get in the car and just drive".  I however, am NOT one of those people.  Dog training is also not one of the things that can fall under that free for all mindset either.  You need to know what it is you are going to be teaching over all so that you don't shoot yourself in the foot.  So I have two in-board service dogs that I am training.  They are both young retriever puppies and love having something in their mouth.  It's not always the things they are allowed to carry in their mouths.  I heard my husband saying to one of them Leave it. I looked and she had my slipper in her mouth.  My normal res...

This morning I had a plan.  I was going to take Kona to Hollywood Feed for some social interactions.  Since spending all this time at home with the COVID-19 Shutdown, she has regressed a lot on her social skills.  My intention was to do some filming of her while we were out, however that was quickly abandoned.  At first, she did pretty well, she walked with me and would every now and then forge ahead of me but would come back to heel when I asked.  Not once did she try to take anything off the shelves though.  I was very proud.  As we made a loop around to the front counter she caught sight of this sign spinning in the air and she just lost it.  She never once barked at it but she crouched down and her legs were shaking.  We have definitely had a setback.  After a nap to try and get some relief from a migraine that had started making me feel sick, I went out with the pups and found a huge blood smear on my patio at first I thought Ko...

I think the biggest thing I have noticed since being at home during this COVID Shutdown is how wonderful my dogs are, but also how far we still have to go.  I've always been big on my dogs being able to entertain themselves.  This is super important for helping with Separation Anxiety, as well as just boredom busters.  As the readers of my blog know, Kona my Standard Poodle has real problems being away from me.  One of the things I have noticed since being home with my dogs is how much they have chilled out.  Kona used to be very much a needy puppy that barked at me when I did not pay attention to her the second she thought I should.  Read she is a demand barker here.  She has gotten so much better about this, but when we are training she thinks I should be going at breakneck speed at popping treats in her mouth.  But also, that I have severely neglected their training.  I've tried to make up for some of that while being at home with them....

I wish there was one special quick to read book that told all the secrets that it takes dog trainers years to learn, and no I've not learned them all yet.  A store place of knowledge that tells us, humans, all the things we need to do in order to make our dogs happy, lazy (and by lazy I mean tired on a regular basis), and well-behaved pups.  Sadly there is not, maybe I'll write some of it one day, but for today I just want to talk about a few of the things that we SHOULD be doing on a regular basis for our pups.  Our dogs need a stable environment with boundaries and rules that they need to follow.  It makes their lives much easier.  If we as humans didn't have any rules or Laws that we needed to live our lives by, think of how much chaos we would be in.  Those boundaries should only be things to help improve their behavior.  Such as: If you are out walking your dog, and you know your dog is going to bark at a stranger that you pass along ...

This morning for the umpteenth time I called Yadi over to me to give him a treat in trade for whatever thing he had grabbed off the floor that belonged to one of my sons, it occurred to me that other people probably have the same thing going on in their house as well.  Yadi learned early on that if he grabbed something he wasn't supposed to have, one of the boys would get really excited about it (start yelling) and play chase with him (try to get the item back)  sometimes it was even me trying to get the item back.  Often it resulted in him bringing things to me to show me what treasure he had found in exchange for a treat if he would give it up without a chase.  So for him, this became one of the best games ever, and he loved to play it so much he trained my boys how to play it with him.  He would find something that they were repeatedly told not to leave on where he could get it and make sure they saw him with it.  Much like the pose in the picture....

It has been almost a month since I have been working from home.  My own pups have come a long way in their behavior at home.  We still have our challenges, don't get me wrong, they are in no way perfect and they never will be.  Yadi still barks at the neighbors and runs the fence with the neighbor's dog barking at her in a playful way thankfully.  I've tried to keep Kona from picking up that habit as well.  Kona has her bad habit of counter surfing that we are still working on, but all and all they are really great dogs.   I've been working on several things in my down time.  Most of it has been to make my training better for everyone else.  I have been wanting to make an online portion of training for a long time.  There are things I feel that are really important to teach that we just don't have time to go over when we are working with the dogs in a session.  So this gives us that chance to do it.  The problem ...

But my dogs still needed training!!! Within a couple weeks everything has ground to a halt and I went from doing 25-30 appointments a week, to not having left the house in two weeks. This time, it was not because of my depression or a mental breakdown it was because of a world wide virus that is spreading across the world like wild fire. So I jumped into to brining my students into online dog training but I failed to realize that this was going to showcase a big fear that I have been hiding. That I couldn’t do it anymore.  This pup right here was my soul pup.  Trainers often talk about that one dog that taught them so much about being a trainer.  Well that was Tazie for me. This little dog put me though the wringer of emotions and taught me everything from how to teach basics to how to care for a dog with a neurological problem.  We had a wild journey that took us from Atlanta, Ga to Rochester, Ny to Birmingham, Al and finally to Jonesboro, Ar.  He ...

I’m still working my way though the Click to Calm book but as I went back to reading it today something that I underlined the last time I had the book in my hands really hit me.  I’m not talking a little punch, I’m talking freight train that ran me down!!!! Emma says: In any healthy relationship between a handler and a dog, the human needs to be the one to make all the important decisions in her dogs life.  Most dogs will naturally assume the leadership role if there is no obvious hierarchy present. Do I not teach this to all of my students, do I not tell all my students that they are in control of all of the good things in their dog’s lives? Emma goes on to say: If the human allows this to happen, the dog feels that he is the one in charge and subsequently, that he has to discipline other members of the family.  Dogs are likely to discipline in the most direct way they know how: with their teeth! Oh My DOG!!!   Now we know from my last post that I al...

When I started the blog it was to share with you my friends what I do and how I train.  Over the years, that I've been writing I've changed why I wanted to write it, but it has always been about making sure that parents know they are not alone in the daily struggles they are facing.  This has been something that has really been on my mind lately.  Last year when Yadi began to have issues with his guarding me and barking at other larger dogs.  There had been links about a study linking Long-term human stress levels and dog stress levels, and though it set off huge bright Red warning flags, I thought I could get everything under control.  I mean come on I have a career I love, a decent training reputation that has allowed me to open my own business.  I got to start my writing career with Dogs Monthly, and have been working on putting together a training book.  I have a great husband who supports me at every turn and have been blessed with a son that I ne...

Today I was meeting with Rose and Gabe at Craighead Forrest to work on some social skills, and learning to calmly greet other dogs.  Kona tagged along to play demo dog.  This was actually her first visit out to Craighead.  Excuse her harness it’s falling off her shoulder as she sits there in the sunshine.  This girl has learned to bark at other dogs from her Corgi brother and sister who bark at our neighbor dog and that is something that I am now having to fix so that she can work with me out in public. Rose and Gabe did very well with learning to settle down and relax.  We were only looking for calm behaviors such as standing squarely on all 4 feet instead of pulling on the leash to get to the other dogs.  We did not expect them to get anywhere near each other and stayed a good 15 feet away but did move in closer than we started so we counted that as a success.   Miss Dolly Peanut is learning to walk on leash and was working on one of ...

I've always been a big fan of talking about training because when you talk about it, things come out that you wouldn't have thought about in the beginning.  Now this blog post has taken on a totally new light since I started writing it 20 minutes ago.  I'm leaving the original post below in italics. Riley - Black Standard Poodle I'm not talking a little, I'm talking completely flushed and sweating I was so embarrassed!!!  So Riley is my new prospect.  She will be 6 months old tomorrow, I quit working her out in public for more than a short period at a time because she was just not handling her food well, she was allergic to chicken and I didn't realize it at first.  I was having a hard time getting her potty trained at home because of it and didn't want to risk an accident out in public because she had already had one.   Kiera in the red vest, getting ready to do a recall past another dog (Riley) Well last night I took her to work with another ...

I have never been stopped so many times over a service dog as I have in the last week.  Everything from “oh my gosh your dog is so pretty” as they pass by which I honestly don’t mind.  To people wanting to take pictures of the dogs I’m working with, and one guy that interrupted a training session yesterday because “I could just tell he wanted to sniff me” as he leans down and puts the back of his hand right up to the dog’s nose as I’m saying “He is a Service Dog, you can’t pet him” he says “oh I’m not petting him”. I just blinked… Last week I was working with a client dog Leo, and while I must admit he is a very handsome boy I was constantly being hassled from people wanting to take his picture.  Early this week I got in a patch that I ordered for Riley that says, “I’m a Service Dog not a Magical Unicorn” and I feel it came at the perfect time.  It’s hard enough when we are working with a young service dog in training to keep their attention and ...