by Kate LaSala | May 26, 2025 | Dog Training, Dog Training Regulation, Puppy Training, Rescue Dogs
I often hear from potential clients who are torn between hiring a private trainer like me or sending their dog to a “boot camp.” Let me be clear: boot camp is not the answer. The term itself conjures images of military-style training—pre-dawn wake-ups, yelling, rigid...
by Kate LaSala | May 5, 2025 | Dog Training, Dog Training Regulation, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Puppy Training, Rescue Dogs
I’ve previously written about 5 Myths About Shock Collars and have my free download 3 Reasons Not To Use A Shock Collar where I talk more about why not to use these tools, take a deeper dive into regulation and give you citations to research if...
by Kate LaSala | Apr 28, 2025 | Dog Training, Puppy Training
“I don’t want to bribe my dog with food” or “When can I stop using food?” are two common things I hear from clients. For some reason, a lot of people see using food in training as some form of corruption, like if they use food the...
by Kate LaSala | Mar 24, 2025 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Puppy Training
Socialization is critical to a happy, behaviorally healthy dogs. Unfortunately there are a lot of mistruths, myths and bad information out there on socialization, including that puppies shouldn’t go out until they’re fully vaccinated. Socialization is not...
by Kate LaSala | Feb 17, 2025 | Dog Training, Puppy Training, Resource Guarding, Separation Anxiety
Technology is changing many industries and dog training is no exception. While it may seem counterintuitive to not have someone come to your home to train your dog, distance (or remote) dog training can be a very successful, cost-effective and convenient way to get...
by Kate LaSala | Jan 13, 2025 | Dog Training, Dog Training Regulation, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Puppy Training, Rescue Dogs, Resource Guarding
Here’s the situation: Your dog barks, growls or jumps on someone (or the counter in the kitchen). You respond with a sudden, unpleasant noise like “eh-eh!” Innocent right? Nope! Unfortunately, when people are frustrated or don’t know how...
by Kate LaSala | Oct 28, 2024 | Dog Training, Puppy Training, Resource Guarding
If your dog growls, freezes, eats faster or tries to bite if you approach him when he’s eating, then it’s possible he’s guarding his food. Food guarding is a completely normal and very common dog behavior but it understandably upsets owners...
by Kate LaSala | Sep 9, 2024 | Dog Training, Puppy Training, Rescue Dogs
Since BooBoo passed away 5 months ago, we’ve been dipping our toes back into fostering. When Barbo and BooBoo were both alive, we did a lot of fostering. As a family, we fostered over 50 dogs and puppies, many of which were fearful. It was early in my dog...
by Kate LaSala | May 13, 2024 | Dog Training, Dog Training Regulation, Dogs and Babies and Kids, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Puppy Training, Rescue Dogs, Resource Guarding, Separation Anxiety
I’ve previously written about the fallout effects specifically of shock collars. But I wanted to more broadly touch on our regular interactions with our dogs, especially puppies in their critical socialization window, and why things like clamping a...
by Kate LaSala | Feb 26, 2024 | Dog Training, Puppy Training, Rescue Dogs
Few things frustrate owners more than their dog pottying inside, whether they have a new puppy or a newly rescued adult dog. Housetraining issues can be super frustrating and really zap the joy out of having a new dog in your home. Nobody likes to clean up...
