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 31, 2025 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Rescue Dogs
As someone who focuses on fear and aggression, a majority of my clients have fear of strangers, or “stranger danger.” This includes subsets of strangers, like fear of children, fear of men or fear of people who look or act a certain way. When your...
by Kate LaSala | Mar 3, 2025 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs, Resource Guarding, Separation Anxiety
Behavioral euthanasia is touchy topic and one that tends to bring out keyboard warriors. Euthanasia for any reason is a difficult decision but behavioral euthanasia is often not given the same understanding as a euthanasia for physical reasons like cancer or...
by Kate LaSala | Feb 21, 2025 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs
I was recently honored to be a guest on the The Pet Loss Companion podcast, talking about behavioral euthanasia and my death doula work. While behavioral euthanasia is touchy topic and one that tends to bring out the keyboard warriors, it’s an important...
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 | Feb 5, 2025 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs
I was recently honored to be a guest on Behavior Buzzzzzz with 2 Amys podcast, hosted by Dr. Pike and Dr. Learn, both board-certified veterinary behaviorists chatting about a variety of topics but most notably about my work as a companion animal death doula and...
by Kate LaSala | Jan 27, 2025 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Rescue Dogs
There’s a lot of euphemisms in dog training, mostly trying to smooth over things that don’t sit well with us. Words matter and how you talk about your dog matters and influences how you feel about your dog. Owners tend to sugarcoat things or...
by Kate LaSala | Jan 21, 2025 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs
I was recently honored to be a guest on the The Resilient Animal podcast and had a lovely discussion about my companion animal death doula work and other dog topics. This was a more personal conversation than some of my other podcast appearances, talking about...
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 | Jan 6, 2025 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Rescue Dogs, Separation Anxiety
Happy New Year! With the start of the new year, I thought it would be a good reminder to help get you started off with some things to implement for 2025 to set your dog (and you!) up for success. Stop using punishment based methods and aversive tools like...
