EDUCATE | ENGAGE | EMPOWER

If we are the leader (and we should be) in our relationship with our dog - we must learn how to properly advocate for their rights. And our rights as a dog owner. Your dog is not public property and having them in public does not give people the right to accost them. Dogs have individual personalities, likes and dislikes, genetics and preferences for behavior just like we do. There are definitely some dogs that are the life of the party, good-time, say hello to everyone, never met a stranger type dogs. But that is only a small handful of the dog population. There are many dogs that tolerate (I didn't say enjoy) strangers petting them or getting in their bubble and then there are dogs that hate it and the more it happens they begin to develop their own, unacceptable, coping mechanisms. Why? Because we are their leader and we aren't advocating for our rights as pet owners. This is going back a couple years, but I had the most unbelievable experience while at Lowe's with Waylon when he was about 6 months old. Waylon is a Great Pyrenees and it's pretty common in these large, livestock guardian breeds for them to be uninterested in the attention of strangers. I had popped in after work to get some lumber for a project at the house and as I am walking through the parking lot, Waylon is on a cross-body style leash, attached to me and walking on heel, while I push this cart loaded down with lumber toward the truck. As we both mind our own business, this woman begins walking toward us and I can already tell she is going to try and pet Waylon. I did a little side step and told her he doesn't like pets from strangers. She literally ignores me and reaches to pet him anyway. As I stepped forward and shifted the leash, Waylon moved behind me to create more distance from her. The woman then became increasingly heated, telling me that something is wrong with my dog and clearly I'm abusing him if he won't let her pet him. I was appalled! By the end of her rant she is quite literally yelling in the parking lot that I am a dog abuser. Staying calm I pointed out to her that if I was abusing my dog, he clearly wouldn't be hiding behind me to get away from her. She then tells me that I shouldn't have him in public if people can't pet him. I explained to her that he was there to be with me and that she didn't have anymore right to pet him than she would to touch my kid, if they were with me, and that she needed to learn some manners because you should never pet someone's dog without speaking with them first and receiving permission from the owner. She continued to rant about me abusing him and at that point I decided that her irrational behavior made it an unproductive conversation so I walked away with Waylon (who she tried to pet again from behind me). While I was loading the lumber into my truck she yelled across the parking lot that I needed to stop starving my dog and actually feed him. Although I continued to ignore her, inside I was seething. Most of us loving dog owners, that would do just about anything for our fur-kids, would be outraged. I called Mike and told him about it as soon as I got in the car and started home. He told me I did everything right and said you can't argue with crazy. So true! But that encounter and others (without the crazy) where people have zero acceptance when you tell them they can't pet your dog absolutely floor me. I have a dog that doesn't like pets from people he doesn't know. End of story. It's probably a personality trait he has emulated from his owner. I don't like pets from strangers either. The unfortunate thing is if I hadn't had a modicum of control over this situation and my dog bit this lady, he and I would have been the bad guys in the situation. Pay attention to your dog's behavior; it will clearly show how they feel about others approaching them. Be respectful of their feelings because that is what good leaders do. If you are mindful of this from the beginning you will save yourself a whole host of problems later. If you don't advocate for your dog, you are diminishing your role as their leader in their eyes. Once your dog feels you are not up to the task of leading them; they will begin trying to control situations and "bad", socially unacceptable behavior is inevitable. When someone wants to pet our three dogs, we give them their release command and tell them it's okay to say hi. If they want to they can say hello and if they don't then they don't. It's as easy as that. (**Note** That works for our particular dogs because they have all been well socialized and know how to behave with manners in a meet and greet.) Ultimately freedom and structure are up to us as the dog owner, but meetings shouldn't be forced. Otherwise your perfectly well-behaved dog that was seemingly harmless may be provoked to behavior that is completely unacceptable. To have and to hold your dog's trust, you need to continually advocate for your rights as a pet owner and remind people that just because your dog is in public; they are not public property. - Good vibes everyone

Today I had to run to the local nursery during lunch and took Higgins with me. About mid-way through our meandering we picked up a stalker. Our stalker's name was Vinnie and although he was incredibly interested in Higgins; Higgins had very little interest in him. Vinnie was next to a potted palm, curled up when we first spotted him. Higgins gave me a little look like "do you see that"? After that Vinnie followed us around the entire nursery and Higgins, glanced at him a few times, but mostly ignored him, choosing to give me his focus. We talk a lot about proper socialization in our videos and on the blog and this is a prime example of why having a dog that is properly socialized is so important. Higgins accepted the cat was there and continued to offer me the behavior he has been trained to give. He didn't need to investigate or make a fuss about the cat; he simple accepted it and moved on. I'd call that a win! - Good vibes everyone

It's become somewhat of an urban myth that if you exhaust your dog through exercise or play that they will be too tired for the bad behavior they are exhibiting. As an owner we may start feeling guilty that our dog's bad behavior is our fault because we simply don't have enough time to spend the hours our dog needs every day to feel fulfilled. I am imagining myself pushing a giant red buzzer that says Wrong! Exercise is not going to eliminate bad behavior, like barking, growling, lunging, pulling, etc. What is going to mitigate bad behavior is implementing structure and boundaries and then sticking to them. When you have a child who's acting out; you don't enroll them in more sports or arts programs to cure the problem. When working with a dog, it is the same. You must address the root of the problem and work from the bottom up. The goal is to do life with a calm and relaxed dog. At home, at work like Waylon, or wherever the day takes you. Then you can play with your dog and exercise with them free of unhealthy mindsets and for the right reasons. To have fun with your dog!! - Good vibes everyone!

Growing greatness is the recurring theme in Daniel Coyle's book The Talent Code. In the opening chapter, aptly called "The Sweet Spot" he discusses the work of Robert Bjork, the psychology chair at UCLA. He quotes Bjork as saying, "We tend to think of the memory as a tape recorder, but that's wrong. It's a living structure, a scaffold of nearly infinite size. The more we generate impulses, encountering and overcoming difficulties, the more scaffolding we build. The more scaffolding we build, the faster we learn." It's truly a fascinating idea and thought provoking in the context of training your dog. Scaffolding continuously builds on the parts that were laid down before, which is what we strive to achieve daily with lifestyle dog training. Encountering and overcoming difficulties, properly done, builds a dog's confidence and paves the way for them to have solid socialization skills. Many reactive dogs act from a place of fear and uncertainty so self-confidence is an important part of a dog's development. Their confidence in their owner / handler is paramount, but that's a whole separate post. ;) Start small, lay the foundation, and then continue to add pieces onto the solid structure you've built. The more scaffolding we build, the better and faster our dog will learn. When we focus on creating a healthy relationship with our dog we build engagement. The more engaged they are with us and the learning process; the easier it will become to lead them. As we layer our scaffolding we will eventually reach the sweet spot in dog training. Incorporating the needs of our dog into our daily lifestyle. - Good vibes everyone!

Working dogs minds and creating a valuable command for safety at the same time. Teaching a dog the "middle" command can far and away be one of your most valuable resources beyond just having people think you and your dog are mad impressive. If your dog goes places with you this can be a space command that puts them where you need them in a crowded or tight place. My favorite place to use middle is during check out at the store or in a public restroom. Waylon in particular doesn't like people in his personal space and hello! Big, white, fluffy beautiful, magnetic dog (biased, me? Never.) Everyone wants to pet him. Having a direction for him to follow that keeps him where I have control of him, I can see him and, he is focused on what I am doing allows me to manage a situation where I have no control over the external factors. If you teach the dog to sit in the middle position, which really comes most natural, make sure you are mindful of where the dogs tail is. We almost had a shopping cart roll over Waylon's once. You can also teach this as a stand, unfortunately, with Waylon's height I would be riding him like a pony if he stood between my legs. Teaching this command is pretty simple. If they love to learn, you can use one of your dogs meals to get some reps in each day or if they are a harder sell, use a higher value treat they will work for. When teaching this kind of behavior you don't want to use anything that makes your dog hyped up or over-aroused as dog trainer's like to say. One way to teach this command is to lure the dog with food to go between your legs from front to back. With the dog directly in front of you, lure them through your legs to get them to begin understanding what you want them to do. Once they grasp that you want them to go through your legs, begin to toss the food (from the front) between your legs and have them go get it. This puts them in the prime spot for beginning to teach them middle. Now you will bend over slightly and lure them with the food to come through your legs from behind. Depending on your desired end result of sit or stand, will depend on what you do next. If you want them to stay in a stand, make sure you keep your lure even and steady until their head and shoulders clear your legs then mark and reward. If you want to end in a sit, once their shoulders begin to clear your legs you will pull the food up slightly to continue to lure the through and then sit, then mark and reward. This should begin to happen in one fluid motion. Not asking for the sit during this command keeps the sit waters from becoming muddy. Our primary goal is to keep all our windows and commands clear for the dog. Practicing this and other tricks / commands for a few minutes every day is a great way to keep that working dog mind busy and satisfied. Side benefit - you now know an awesome way to feel confident your dog will stay safe and out of trouble while you check out at the pet store. - Good vibes everyone!

How much praise you should give your dog to reinforce and reward good behavior is a delicate balance. When you are giving praise to reward good behavior you want to use your higher pitch "happy" tone. The amount of praise completely depends on the dog and what you are trying to accomplish. When you are training you want to reinforce the good behavior, without elevating the dog's arousal. If you go to far the dog will become over-excited. If you are in the middle of a training session you will diminish that calm focus they are giving you. Also, when you are in the house, you want to be mindful of always offering positive reinforcement for the behavior that you want (hopefully calmness lol). When we train a Belgian Malinois, our level of praise will most likely be very short, just a simple "good girl" or "good dog"; when we train with a dog that is difficult to arouse we usually praise with more intensity because we try to keep him / her in a more motivated "working" state of mind. Be mindful of how your praise affects your dog when you are working with them and you should have better results with your dog's ability to learn. - Good vibes everyone

Don't just chose the first dog trainer that comes up when you search "dog trainer near me" and I'm not saying that because it probably isn't us ;) Dog training is a delicate balance of training the dog and educating the human. It should never be a process where you, the dog owner, are uninvolved and don't know what steps are being taken to help correct your furry friend's challenges. Especially because there are trainers out there that will use horrible methods to get quick results from your dog. You want to find someone who truly has a passion for helping dogs & people, understands how important behavior is for long-term success and can show you their own dog (or a client's) that they have trained. Training should deepen the strong bond you have with your dog. When possible it should be fun, out of the box, creative and customized. One of the perks of living with a dog trainer is that everything, even the box from a new chair that gets delivered, becomes a fun and entertaining game for the boys to play. They love to work and learn, whether they are "in the box" or out. - Good vibes everyone and happy Friday!

Creating structure and boundaries inside the home leads to success outside the home. So often we hear someone remark that they don't understand why their dog is behaving badly out and about, when they are always so good at home. When you pull back the curtains, the answer in most cases is lack of structure at home. I know! It's counterintuitive to most dog owners since the problems they notice manifest outside their home. The reality is your buddy seems like they are listening to you because when you are at home their interest and your interest align most of the time. It'd be like if, as a parent you spent the entire day telling your seven-year-old, I want to do nothing, but spend time with you. I want to do all your favorite things, take you to the places you love the most and give you all your favorite foods because it will make you happy. That would be the best behaved seven- year-old on the planet. FOR THAT DAY! The next day, when they go back to school, have homework they don't want to do and Brussel sprouts for dinner, they will not be smiling at you sweetly and being that ammenable child they were the day before. Because their interests no longer run parallel to yours. It's the same way with dogs. Whether we realize it or not we establish a routine with them in the home, they have tons of freedom, they follow us from room to room, we give them cookies for being cute, and we lavish attention on them with our words and our petting. Having healthy boundaries and creating structure for our four-legged family members is a must. They are very similar to young children; if we leave them to satisfy their own impulses every day at home, then they have no accountability to make good choices once we venture out in public. What are a few ways we can start creating structure and implementing boundaries at home? There are so many things you can do in these areas that promote strong mental health for the dog and hold them accountable to controlling their impulses. One way of beginning to implement structure is with crate training. When crate training, the key element is that the dog must fully settle in the crate. When the dog is displaying signs of anxiety (like whining or shifting constantly) then they have not relaxed their mental state. This is a crucial focus for creating the right mental framework for the dog to exist in. They need to learn to decompress and absorb or "soak" in their experiences. Once the crate becomes a new part of their everyday routine, you can begin to implement the "place" command. Teaching your dog how to stay in a set place / on a specific object can be great for establishing boundaries. If you have a dog that won't let you out of their sight, this is a great tool for beginning to cut the apron strings that create separation anxiety. Teaching your dog place is pretty simple. Just remember place is a specific location, not a position. Meaning don't make the dog "lay down" or "sit" in place because that muddies the water for the dog. Dogs are simple. Sit. Down. Place. These are all different commands for your dog. They will most likely lay down eventually and if it happens organically that's completely acceptable. Once you master place; you have a tool in your belt that has infinite possibilities. Have your dog place whenever you are in a specific room (like the kitchen or the bathroom) and be out of your sightline. With time and patience the dog will learn to chill out independent of you and your attention. Our guys place while we clean the house. It's a lot easier without everyone under foot. I've barely touched on the how to and reasons why you should, but there are many resources out there for teaching boundaries and creating structure. A good trainer will be able to break down the teaching steps for these processes so you can learn them along with your dog. - Good vibes everyone!

Recognizing freedom is a privilege and knowing which dogs are capable of redeeming it is critical. A few weeks ago we were at a park not far from our house, playing ball and having a good time with the big boys. Waylon, especially, likes to have a large space, clear of obstacles to run and chase the ball, so we were in the back corner of the park. We noticed a man arrive at the park with a small black dog and immediately upon entering the park, he took the dog's leash off. I wouldn't think anything of it, except I'd seen the man at the park before and noticed some alarming facts. The chief among them, his dog does not listen to him at all, therefore, every time he calls his dog to come back to him, the dog blows him off. This particular day, since there were lots of dogs at the park, we knew it was a recipe for disaster. Mike put Ahab back on a leash and I stayed back with our boys, while he started walking towards the other side of the park to try and help - already sensing trouble. Before he made it a quarter of the way across the park, the scene began unfolding like something out of my (personal) worst nightmare. A lady was at the park with her young female dog. She hadn't had the dog long and (we later found out) the dog was terrified of other dogs. When the unleashed dog started running towards her and her dog, she began screaming to the man "NO! NO! NO! GET YOUR DOG, PLEEEASE!" Her panic and desperation were palpable, unfortunately for all involved, it did not register with the man. Without even heading towards her, he simply yelled back "he's friendly". She continued to scream and finally the man called his dog, then repeatedly called him, but as I witnessed during his previous trips to the park, his dog did not listen. The lady picked up her dog and held it in the air, managing to get a hold of the black dogs leash, but the mans lackadaisical approach meant she was left dealing with the situation alone for longer than she needed to. When he finally got close and she handed him his dogs leash, she moved away from them and set her dog back on the ground. I have no idea whether it was on purpose or an accident, but the man dropped his leash and his dog bolted right towards them again. The lady freaked out, her dog freaked out and in the scuffle with the other dog she lost control of her dogs leash. Even as I type this it feels like I am describing events that transpired over the course of an hour, when realistically this all happened in less than a minute. Both dogs ran into the street and bolted. She eventually got hers to come back and continued to sob as she secured the little dog in her car. The mans dog just kept running down the block with the man chasing after it (angrily yelling at the dog) and being ignored. Has there ever been a one-minute block of time better suited to be a here's what NOT to do for a dog owner? Being off leash is a freedom and a privilege that must be earned by your dog. A dog must have a solid, fully vetted recall, first and foremost, to even be considered for such a privilege. Not only that but the dog must have socialization skills (see prior post - for the true meaning of socialization) that allow for that type of behavior in such a setting. In addition, your dog must be taught boundaries before being given that level of freedom. If your dog cannot be respectful of other people, their dogs, their kids, their food, and their space, then they should not be allowed off leash yet. My own ire was definitely raised when he started chasing his dog down the street; he was incredibly aggressive and calling the dog many names not fit for this post. Ironically, the person he should have been angry with was himself. He set the dog up to fail every step of the way and became angry when the dog did what came naturally. Even though I feel so much empathy for this woman; her choices made the situation infinitely worse. It can be difficult to keep your cool when rattled by a situation, but you must understand your dog looks to you to be their leader. If you panic and scream, and let your emotions rule the day; your dog will definitely feel all of your anxiety and it will ratchet up their own. Also, picking up a small dog and holding them in the air, when another dog is trying to get at them, spirals up the other dogs frustration and makes a bite much more likely to happen. Being a responsible dog owner means training your dog and then giving your dog the correct amount of freedom for what they can handle. There is no shame in that. For our boys, Waylon stays on a long leash line most of the time, because he has a tendency to get lost in smells - especially in new places - and sometimes its hard for him to break out of that focused mindset to hear us call him. Otherwise he has amazing recall, but he isn't quite ready for that level of freedom outside the house. Ahab is the total opposite and could be off-leash anywhere and still be one-hundred percent focused on us and what he is supposed to do. They are each different and it's okay to live where they are as we continue to train towards the future. Please don't let a situation like this happen to you. Invest in quality training, know your dog's level of capability, make good choices that set your dog up to be safe and successful and be respectful of others. - Good vibes everyone!

Keep in mind how hot asphalt gets in the summer or it will be your a$$es fault that your dog's paw pads are burned. Now that summer is in full swing, we are seeing temperatures here in the valley reach well over 100 degrees. And yet...I'm still seeing people walking their dogs in the afternoon. WTH??? I truly believe in my heart that they just don't realize how hot the asphalt is. When it's 75 degrees and sunny out, asphalt can reach 125 degrees. When it hits 85 degrees, asphalt in the sun can easily reach 140 degrees. With the heat wave we've been experiencing lately, the temperature of the asphalt is 160-170 degrees!! My tootsies have no desire to be outside walking on the ground in those kinds of temperatures and my four-legged friends don't want to be out there either. Dogs paw pads can burn even at 125 degrees. I know all of you love your buddy as much as I love mine. Let's do a better job of educating ourselves on what keeps our dog healthy and safe. Share the knowledge and the love.

We all want a "good" dog, right? Possibly have some bragging rights with the friends and family about our awesome dog? Of course we do!! But what about when we take our dog in public or have people over our house and our dog embarrasses us? In public especially people can make us feel very ashamed with their judgement and sometimes comments when our dog misbehaves. It's disheartening and oftentimes discouraging to dog owners and ultimately the one who pays the price is the dog; because now instead of going with you, they get left behind. Your confidence in your ability to lead your dog comes from a place of knowledge and your faith in your dog is paramount to their success. The best way to increase our knowledge and our faith in our dog is through owner education and training. Here are some simple tips that may assist you to begin shaping better behavior and confidence today. Tip #1 - Leaving the House - Don't do it with a HYPED UP CANINE! Seriously! Whether you are wearing your Nikes or not just don't do it! How likely would you be to tell your four-year old that you were going to see Mickey Mouse, right before a five-hour drive to Anaheim, to go to Disneyland the following day? Not likely or you are going to get asked 1,000 times over the course of the day "are we there yet". I'd call that setting yourself up for torture. In the same way, we make going on a walk or heading to the park to throw the ball around the equivalent of a Disneyland trip to our dog. We foster the hype that sets up the scenarios that make us feel like our dog is bad. So, when we walk out our front door and someone is walking a dog across the street, and our dog starts barking and jumping, we are discouraged and just want to go back in the house because our dog is already misbehaving and we haven't even made it past our lawn. If you had the knowledge to solve it; you'd do it today. Well, put on your fedora because you are about to play detective and investigate what is the trigger that causes your dogs excitement. Once you determine where the problem starts then you can work to normalize it so that your dog can walk out the door and go with you in the right frame of mind. If you get out the leash and your dog starts going full throttle excitement mode..then try getting the leash out numerous times throughout the day and leaving it where your dog can see it. Later get it out and put it on them throughout the day and just let the dog wear it and drag it around (with your supervision to make sure your buddy doesn't get caught on anything). Maybe their excitement ratchets up when you use a trigger word like "go". Try and break it down to a point of failure. Many times the effect is the result of a cause that happened several steps prior to the end result. Keep in mind dogs see things much simpler than we do and their ultimate goal is to please you. You can't just fix the picture; you must fix the problem. Tip #2 - Visitors at Home - Does anyone do that anymore? What about when a friend we don't see that often shows up for coffee? They ring our doorbell and our dog goes nuts, barking and jumping on them because they are so excited. Well, again let's go back to the mindset of the dog and the over-excitement they are dealing with. We need to normalize a visitor, which, in our still living in the pandemic world, can be difficult. We may not be able to simulate a visitor, but we can teach our buddy how to be relaxed at home. Crate time can have a huge impact on the mental well-being of your dog. Dogs are naturally den animals and once taught the importance of their crate; they crave the security and privacy of their own little space. We have three dogs and what we have found that works best is to have all our dogs either on their bed (place) or in a crate when visitors arrive. The visitors are usually in our home for at least an hour before the dogs are allowed to say hello. The dog gets to stay in a space they know is safe, because we've taught them that and re-affirmed it over and over, and once the visitor's presence in our home is normalized then the dog can say hi. There is training involved in all aspects of this method, but the end result is well worth it. It builds our dogs confidence in us - since we tell them where they are safe and then we don't let people mess with them in their space - and it builds our confidence in our dog. Dogs need to be crate trained. I heard this recently on a podcast and it's so accurate. "If you treat a dog like a human, they will treat you like a dog." – Not sure if it's an original, but I heard Jay Jack say it on the Dog Trainer's Podcast Hopefully these tips give you a starting point and provoke some ideas. These are not intended to be specific advice to your dogs and your home so seeking professional training advice for precarious situations is always your best course of action. Breakdown Steps to Make them Achievable The most important thing to remember when training a dog is consistency. The most effective training is the small, consistent messages you send your dog with accurate information. Keeping the steps small will encourage both you and your dog with wins along the way. The small wins stack up and before you know it we have a huge victory to celebrate! Feel free to leave a comment. We'd love to know your thoughts and anything you struggle with along these lines.

When you consider how isolating the last two plus years have been for all of us around the world; the question comes to mind - are dogs truly man's best friend now? In 2020, I had the misfortune of contracting COVID, and the 14 days of being quarantined at home were incredibly difficult in many ways. One of the most challenging aspects for me was that I felt fine, but I wasn't able to leave the house. When I got a call from the county and they went over Covid protocols with me; I was point blank told not to sleep in the same bed as my husband and to completely remove myself from any shared areas of the home. Anyone who knows Mike and I knows we did not quarantine from each other. I apologize if reading that makes you feel we are irresponsible, but we isolated from everyone else, just not each other. We are a pair, a true partnership, and we are in for a penny, in for a pound so to speak. The saving grace of our mental sanity during those two weeks was truly our two dogs, Ahab and Waylon. Life with them continued to be normal, training resumed, balls were thrown, dog food was delivered, groceries were left on the porch and life moved on. But the thing I most noticed in the months following, our social lives, as many others have, continued to dwindle until we see people in non-intimate settings, like Costco, but rarely entertain in our home or go over friends houses. Limiting exposure risk has seriously limited our ability to have socializing normalized. This seems to be true for many dogs as well. When you listen to dog owners and trainers, one of the most common topics being discussed, is the lack of socialization for dogs raised during the pandemic. How has this affected our furry friends? We see a lot more dogs with reactivity issues and nervousness or anxiety. Looking at how it's impacted our lives, of course it makes sense that it has impacted our dogs. As we become less social, our dependency on our dogs has increased, not necessarily in a healthy way. A dog is a companion, a best friend and oftentimes a helper, but in the course of history there has never been a time where people depended on dogs more than they do now. The total shift in the way we view dogs over the last 30-ish years has brought dogs into the home and made them part of the family. Of that, I'm 100% a fan. But as we become more isolated from truly intimate human-human relationships and our dogs place of importance in our lives continues to elevate we can forget that in a successful human-dog relationship, the dog is looking to us to be a leader and create clear pictures for them to peacefully exist with us in. It is more important than ever to understand dog socialization. So many people think it is simply letting your dog meet and play with every dog they come across, starting as young as safely possible, so the dog knows how to "properly" socialize. The definition of socialization is the process of learning to behave in a way that is acceptable to society. The result of teaching dog socialization means that the dog can go most anywhere with you, know how to behave in society, and trust in your leadership skill to guide situations in a way that won't harm the dog. It doesn't mean that every dog and every person should have the unearned freedom to be in your dogs personal space. MANY dogs, especially, younger dogs raised during the pandemic, find this type of behavior overwhelming and intolerable. It is not too late to get educated on proper socialization techniques and take back your right to be in public with your dog in a positive, enjoyable way. Let's take the best care of our best friends that we possibly can!