Blog — Health and Well-Being

Coming Soon! New online course is coming out in March. I will create an official course description soon, but in the meantime... This online, deep-dive into somatic technology will transform your relationship with your dog and yourself.The first module is five weeks long and focuses on YOU becoming more embodied. This is crucial to your relationship with your dog. The following modules will detail our dog training techniques which are based in trust, connection, and emotional resonance. Please join our Mighty Network, as this will keep you up to date on the latest course offerings. This is also where we...

Did you know that the most important thing about being a dog owner is being able to read their body language?  You can talk to your dog all day long, but do you also know how to listen? It seems many people do not. I have created this slideshow to give you some insight into your dog's only language: Body Language!!!  

"Dogs are very sensitive to body language, so the least little tense movement--a change of gait, a slight hunching of the shoulders--can be observed and interpreted as something being amiss. When we're upset, our voices can go up slightly in frequency as well. Dogs get these nuances in ways most people don't.  Masking strong feelings by acting like things are OK may not always work, either: It's quite likely that dogs can smell fear, anxiety, even sadness... The flight-or-fight hormone, adrenaline, is undetectable by our noses, but dogs can apparently smell it. In addition, fear or anxiety is often accompanied...

Because dogs are predatory by nature, their instincts dictate that they channel their energy (and built-up stress) into hunting activities. For different breeds, this means different things, such as eye-stalking, digging, tracking, etc. However, the culmination of every hunt is the bite, because the goal of hunting is killing the prey. So the act of biting, and specifically biting and carrying an object, represents a successful “hunt.” And then chewing and ingesting completes this cycle of emotional grounding. Try to keep this in mind when working, walking, and training your dogs. Keep their jaws busy and you will have a...

I don’t usually give prescriptions to “fix” a dog’s behavior because every dog is an individual and therefore should be treated as one. In addition, each and every moment is unique and may call for a different protocol. To this end, I ask that you ALWAYS use your gut feeling and intuition to do what is right for your dog in each present moment, no matter what I or anyone else has advised you. With that being said, I’ve come up with some guidelines, or let’s call them suggestions, for calming a hyperactive or anxious dog. 1. Reduce the amount...