I see lots of different types of dogs in my training sessions. I often have a very brief window of time available to interact with and assess those dogs. The trick is to find a way to communicate effectively with each individual dog. Out of necessity, I have found an approach that works well...
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I often get questions about training older dogs- people wonder just how successful one might be trying to train an old dog? My experience has been that when you have lived with a dog, there comes a turning point. Yes, early on you are training the dog, but not too far down the road...
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I tend to be careful about the things I choose to react to…I once heard a line in a cowboy Western years ago, where the lead character admonished another person with the line, “I let people kill their own snakes.” I’ve tried to live by those words of wisdom, letting others fight their own...
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Drake, our yellow Lab, took a flyer yesterday. I had him out for pigeons the morning before. We were set up under a flight path of feral pigeons flying into a food source. I managed to scrape down a few for Drake and Scout to retrieve. He woke up the next morning figuring that...
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How many dogs? That’s a question folks need to ask themselves. I had a conversation the other day with a friend who just brought a second dog into his family. This was after an older dog had recently passed, bringing their family dog number back down to one. As parents, they were very careful...
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Recently we talked about rope, the primary and simplest tool a dog trainer needs. In this week’s blog we will explore the second essential training tool: your voice. It’s the one thing we all use to communicate, and yet we underestimate its power and potential peril when used to train our dogs. Since we...
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Nicole was unpacking her suitcase this morning and examining her new walking shoes that had just completed their first sojourn. We had just returned from a Thanksgiving trip to Kentucky. I spent mornings and afternoons in a deer stand while Nicole went for daily restorative walks along the narrow travel lanes in this picturesque...
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Anyone and everyone who has a dog is a dog trainer, whether you see yourself that way or not. As a dog trainer, your most important tool is your voice. It’s also the tool least likely to be used effectively or even recognized as a tool by most folks engaged in trying to communicate...
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A dog and a man walk into a bar. Both take seats side by side at the counter and the man begins a long one-sided conversation with the dog. He explores the meaning of life, the burdens of a mortal existence, and how lucky the dog is that he’s just a simple dog, uncluttered...
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It matters how you start a thing. This is particularly true when applied to starting a Free Range Dog from puppyhood. People often have a vision of life with their dog- things they would like to do with them and places they would like to go. In the case of the Free Range Dog,...
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