A lot of dog owners forget that they need to train their little dogs to walk properly as well. Just because a little dog pulling on the leash might not be a hassle, it’s definitely not the way for a dog to be happiest when they walk. Structure and calmness while heeling or leash walking …
In this post, I’d like to talk about the role that exercise plays in making sure your dog is well-trained. This stems from a question that I’ve received a lot over the years, thanks to a certain dog trainer named Cesar Milan. Now, I’m not going to claim that I know much about Cesar Milan. …
Today I want to talk about dogs that take advantage of their owners. This has been on my mind because I’m working with an owner who has cancer and is physically weakened as a result. In a possible correlation, he’s seen behavior problems and boundary-pushing popping up in his dog. I’ve seen this phenomenon occur …
Today, I spent some time in my backyard with my dog Chocolate Chip and a Belgian Malamute who’s staying at my house to be trained as a personal protection dog. Needless to say, there was a lot of growling involved. So I thought I’d take a few minutes to talk about growling and what it …
Every dog trainer that has been in the business for a while has probably created their own “sandbox.” What on earth does that mean? Well, if you have your own sandbox, you get to determine how people can play with it. Perhaps you only play with one kind of toy in this sandbox, or have …
Lately I’ve been working a lot with Sword, a protection dog in training. Protection dogs are a big investment, usually around $20,000 to $50,000. Today we were working on Sword’s sit command. He often understands this command to mean sitting at someone’s side, but right now I want to train him to sit in front …
I want to talk to for a minute your about how your dog’s breed learns. Very frequently, dog owners will ask me, “Have you ever dealt with this breed before?” Sometimes I chuckle when it’s a very common breed. You’d be surprised at how many people have asked me if I’ve ever trained a German …
Today I want to tell you a humorous story that wasn’t very humorous at the time it was happening. (I told this story in my newsletter, so if you read that, this will be a repeat showing!) I flew back to Georgia last Thursday to buy some service and protection dogs for my clients. The …
In this post, I’d like to talk about components of who your dog is. Incorrect thinking on this topic is a trap that I fall into somewhat frequently, just because my overall job as a trainer is to modify a dog’s behavior to reflect what the customer is paying for and what I want for …