I am going to anger, frustrate, or alienate a lot of people with this post.

Some will be dog trainers.

Some will be dog owners.

Here's the thing: I don't care. What I say below needs to be said.

And more importantly, what I say below needs to be heard - by many dog owners, and not a few dog trainers as well.

Ready for it?

Here we go.

When was the last time you learned something new?

Welp, it happened…what started as a great trip, full of fun, opportunities to learn more about Nose Work and grow together as a team, has hit a snag. A snag that could have easily been avoided.

Ok, so maybe you don't care if your own dog wins any ribbons or trophies or titles...but do you care if your Dog Trainer has titles on his or her dogs?

You should.

Dear dog owners – you can’t have it both ways. 

You can’t have a dog with no boundaries or rules, who is ALSO well behaved.

If you’ve come to a dog trainer to be told you’re doing everything right, or that your dog itself will change…well, then I have a few bridges to sell you.

"Our old dog NEVER acted like this!"

I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard that sentence from a new puppy owner.

It's that time again - time for a post on a subject that comes up so often in our training sessions with our clients that it's worth an article:

The subject is: Keeping Dogs Crate Trained...

...or...

"Wait! Don't Ditch the Crate!"

So it happened… the moment every trainer who works with aggression cases dreads: the phone call, email, or tearful visit from an owner to tell you their aggressive dog had an “incident.”

Every year, we get a lot of questions about how to go about introducing two or more dogs to each other - especially this time of year, when a lot of folks are traveling with their dogs for the holidays.

As a pet dog owner, the idea of reward-based training is likely very appealing to you – after all, you love your dog and want her to be happy!

When we see a dog with laser focus and attentiveness to her handler, it looks awesome, right? She takes her treat eagerly and may even offer other behaviors in the hopes of keeping the game going. What could possibly be wrong with a training system that does that?

Most of my dog training clients know that I prefer to train WITHOUT the use of food as a reward for most dogs.

That doesn't mean food is a bad thing in training.

In fact, there are a lot of instances where food is very helpful! But as a 'non-foodie' trainer, treating a dog is not the first thing I reach for in my dog training toolbox.

I recently received an article from concerned relatives, regarding the dangers of feeding a raw diet to pets.

In dog training circles - perhaps more now than ever in history - there is a debate raging. The easiest way to boil down this debate is to say it's between the 'pure positive' (PP) trainers, and the 'balanced' trainers (BT).

“How long will my dog have to wear his training collar?”

During training (usually just after we've taught our clients how to teach their dogs to heel), we often get the questions:

"When can we go back to taking real walks?"

"When can we take regular walks again?"

"Will my dog always have to heel when we're on a walk?"

For years, I've been stunned by these questions - because to me, the answers are obvious.

Is there such a thing as “Bad Praise”???

We are losing a very important type of dog in this country. They used to be seen regularly - but they got a bad reputation somehow, it seems. And now they've all but disappeared.

I've recently had several families with children approach me with questions about kids and dogs, and how to keep their children from getting bitten by the family dog.

So, I figured it was time to pool all of my information and write about this oh-so-important topic!

Do you know your dog’s emotional age?