It's that time of year again. School is out, kids want to earn a little money and community social media groups are filling with posts from parents offering their child as a dog walker. It makes me cringe honestly. So it's a great time to revisit this post. During...
One of the most common things I hear from new clients is some version of this: "My dog has separation anxiety. He freaks out every time I put him in his crate." I understand why those two things feel connected. In many homes, confinement and being left alone...
Feeling relieved after a behavioral euthanasia doesn't mean you didn't love your dog. It means you carried something heavy for a long time.
Three thousand clients. I've been eyeing that 3000 number for a while and when I updated my master client log earlier last month I sat trying to figure out how to write about it and commemorate it without it sounding like a humble brag. It's something I'm very...
Let me tell you about one of the most humbling (embarrassing?) moments of my dog training career. It involved a Halloween costume, a jack o'lantern, and Gertie making a break for it while I stood there in my front yard yelling something I thought I'd never...
We have a tendency to give puppies a pass. They're young, cute, still learning and "just being a puppy." And yes, some puppy behavior is completely normal and does settle with age, consistent training, and appropriate socialization. But some of it doesn't....
A while back I wrote about the importance of interval training in dog training. The idea of mixing higher-intensity practice with periods of rest is something I encourage all my clients to use, especially when working through separation anxiety or fear-based...
My pet loss grief journey, two years in, reflecting and sharing heartfelt lessons to help you heal.
Behavior is never random. It is also not a slippery slope. Dog-dog issues do not predict dog-human issues, and vice versa. There are plenty of dogs who are completely comfortable with other dogs but fearful of strangers. And there are plenty more who are...
If you are struggling with your dog’s behavior, I want you to hear this first. You are not failing. You are not behind. And you absolutely deserve qualified help. But I want you to also know that the quality of information you get and who you hire matters. A lot....
A little over a year ago, we adopted a new dog, Gertie. Full name: Gertrude Wigglebottom, because if you've seen some of my videos of her...well, it's obvious. If you’ve been here a while, you might remember that just four days after making her adoption official,...
Do you ever feel like your dog listens to you better than your spouse? Do you wonder if you're just lucky or maybe the dog "likes you better"? Sure, your dog might be more attached to one person over the other, but maybe instead of luck, it's the matching...