Blog — training advice

As I’ve been reading Dr. Stephen Porges’ work on the autonomic nervous system, I’ve become increasingly interested in the relationship between behavioral medication and the nervous system of the dog. This is not an argument against medication. Behavioral medications can be extremely valuable, particularly when a dog is experiencing so much fear or anxiety that learning, rest, exploration, and relationship-building are difficult. Veterinary behavior medicine recognizes medications such as fluoxetine, trazodone, gabapentin, and clonidine as useful tools for different behavioral and situational problems in dogs. But medication does more than change what we can see on the outside. It changes...

When we talk about leadership in the human-dog relationship, the word can sometimes bring up outdated ideas about dominance, control, or being the “alpha.” For many years, dog owners were taught that they needed to establish themselves as the leader by controlling their dog's behavior, correcting unwanted behaviors, or making sure the dog understood who was in charge. Even as training philosophies have evolved, the idea of leadership is sometimes reduced to getting a dog to listen or comply.

A dog fight is one of the most frightening and emotionally overwhelming experiences that many of us dog lovers will experience. Even when the physical injuries are minor, the emotional impact can be significant. The sounds, the intensity, and shock of watching two dogs you love inflicting violence on each other can leave you feeling disheartened, scared, and uncertain about what to do next. Many people immediately want to solve the problem. They want to know why it happened, whether it will happen again, and how they can make sure their dogs are safe together in the future. Those questions...

When someone reaches out to me about their dog's behavior, they are usually looking for a training solution. They want to know how to stop the barking, the reactivity, the jumping, the pulling, or the anxiety. They are understandably focused on the behavior they can see because that is what is affecting their daily lives. However, behavior is rarely the first thing I look at. A dog's behavior is the outward expression of everything happening beneath the surface. It is influenced by their physical health, their nervous system, their emotional experiences, their daily lifestyle, and whether their biological needs are...

  When people seek help for a reactive dog, they often assume the solution is to spend more time working directly on the reactive behavior itself. More exposure. More training sessions. More opportunities to practice around triggers. But the truth is that your dog's reactivity isn't really changing during the outburst; the real work happens in all the moments in between. The nervous system that barks, lunges, panics, freezes, or explodes in a stressful situation was shaped by thousands of experiences that occurred long before that moment. And if we want lasting change, we have to stop focusing exclusively on...