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 24, 2025 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs, Resource Guarding
We recently adopted a new dog, Gertie, aka Gertrude Wigglebottom, a little over ten months after we said goodbye to our precious BooBoo. Surprisingly, adopting a new dog dredged up lots of grief feelings about Boo, which I’ll talk about another time. I wanted to...
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 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 | Dec 23, 2024 | Dog Training, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs, Resource Guarding, Separation Anxiety
I can hardly believe it but last month marked 5 years that I’ve been writing weekly blog content (except for the time I took off during the decline and death of BooBoo). Each year my alma mater, The Academy for Dog Trainers holds their annual Academy...
by Kate LaSala | Dec 3, 2024 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs
I was recently on the RISK! podcast talking about what else? Dogs! If you’re not familiar with Risk!, it’s a storytelling podcast (similar to The Moth, but not always PG!) and my husband is one of the audio editors and engineers. RISK! is weekly...
by Kate LaSala | Nov 27, 2024 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs
I was recently honored to be on the podcast, Good Grief with Nikki The Death Doula, talking about what a companion animal death doula does, how I help clients suffering from stigmatized losses like behavioral euthanasia, and how to best prepare for the death of...
by Kate LaSala | Nov 12, 2024 | Dog Training, Fear, Aggression and Reactivity, Pet Loss & Grieving, Rescue Dogs
I was recently honored to be a guest on the Starlight Pet Talk podcast, talking about where fear in dogs comes from, how trauma affects some dogs, while also emphasizing how resilient dogs can be and how we can help them adjust to their new lives. Amy, the...