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 17, 2025 | Dog Training, Dogs and Babies and Kids, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Rescue Dogs
Today I’m thrilled to share that my new self-paced course, Introduction to Dog Body Language and Communication is now available! And, for a limited time, it’s FREE to access! This course is packed with quality content with 9 self-paced...
by Kate LaSala | Feb 17, 2025 | Dog Training, Dogs and Babies and Kids, 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 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...
by Kate LaSala | Nov 18, 2024 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Separation Anxiety
I get a lot of client inquiries with people concerned that their “Velcro dog” follows them room to room and they’re concerned their dog has separation anxiety (SA). Is there any evidence of this? Is your Velcro dog at risk for separation...
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 | Oct 21, 2024 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Rescue Dogs
Turid Rugaas, a Norwegian dog trainer, came up with the term “calming signals” to refer to the appeasement behaviors dogs do. People will often coin these as submissive or deference behaviors. Many dogs will use this body language signs to...
by Kate LaSala | Oct 7, 2024 | Dog Training, Dogs and Babies and Kids, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Rescue Dogs
Adopting a fearful dog from a puppy mill, hoarding situation or backyard breeder dog can be incredibly rewarding and very challenging. There’s something to helping a fearful dog blossom into a confident, non-fearful dog. But, I get a lot of clients who are not...
by Kate LaSala | Aug 19, 2024 | Dog Training, Dog Training Regulation, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Rescue Dogs, Separation Anxiety
Clients almost always ask “how long will this take to fix?” and I can never give them a concrete answer. I don’t have a crystal ball or a magic wand. I’m not hiding anything, in fact, I’m being completely transparent, unlike...
by Kate LaSala | Aug 5, 2024 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Rescue Dogs
Today I’m here to tell you, to give you permission, to not walk your dog. Wait, what? Don’t all dogs need walks? I’m here to say, no. We’ve been taught to believe that dogs need walks but many dogs don’t enjoy walks. For active,...
