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Photo by Justin Veenema  Expectation: Your dog will enjoy walking in a straight line at the exact same pace as you. Reality: Your dog wants to sniff, roll, dig, run, play, and zig-zag in 1,000 different directions.  Solution: Let your dog sniff! Let him orient to new environments, situations, and stimuli. Orienting is an important biological function of the nervous system, and your dog will often stop, freeze, and orient before feeling safe to move forward. Try not to interrupt this process.  Allow your dog to roll and have some fun on this walk. If you are on the beach or someplace where...

Follow these simple tips to see BIG changes in your dog's behavior The Energy Equation:  Don't add energy to a problem behavior which already represents an energy overload.  Examples of adding energy: "Positive punishment" (this means adding stimulus/punishment) of unwanted behavior, this never works! It may seem like it's working in the short term, but in the long term you are literally adding energy to the very problem you are trying to extinguish.  Another example of adding energy: puzzles and other games and toys that add "mental stimulation" to a dog who is already over-stimmed. If your dog is truly...

Are you bringing home a new dog? Here are few helpful tips to remember:  Have a cozy crate set up in a quiet area of the home. This is especially helpful for puppies and rescues. If they become stressed, they can retreat to the crate. If you’re bringing home a second dog, take the dogs for a walk together, and walk head-to-tail to let them sniff each other. A head-to-head introduction can be stressful, especially indoors! The best way to walk them is if one dog sniffs the other dog’s backside. Doing that gives them a lot of biological information,...

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!!!  

What does it mean to work with your dog's drive? First, you want to find the thing that most motivates your dog. Think of something that piques your dog's interest like food or prey. Arousal is the level of excitement they show when presented with that stimulus, and persistence is the annoying way they obsess over that thing! So when you think of different things that capture your dog's attention, take note of their level of arousal and the length of time they choose to stay engaged with that stimulus, which is their persistence.  Some dogs will have more food...