“Nice leather sofa you got there…would be a shame if something happened to it.” Their eyes carry the intensity of a protection racket courier picking up the weekly envelope of cash. We have rituals at our house. The day starts with the making of the oatmeal, which includes adding blueberries to the mix. Frozen...
READ MOREQuality Rattlesnake Aversion Training is NOT on the Fast Food Menu in Phoenix, AZ
There are practical things to consider when scheduling a rattlesnake aversion training session. A common question I hear is, “Why does the training take so long?” In our highly scheduled and demanding world in which people have jobs and appointments to get to, scratching this essential dog training session off the list is more...
READ MOREPerimeter Report from the Big Yellow Dog in Oracle, AZ
Today Morning Perimeter Report Good morning, Big Yellow Dog here reporting for perimeter duty. Both the girl dog and I were ready at dawn, but the humans lingered in their sleeping chamber. I suspect they may have been feigning sleep in an attempt to stall the important work of property patrol. I can not...
READ MORESharing the Same World as your Dog in St. Augustine, Florida
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...
READ MOREOld Dogs with New Tricks in Oracle, Arizona
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...
READ MOREHow to use E-Collars to Communicate with and Train your Dog in Destin Beach, Florida
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...
READ MOREWhat if your Free Range Dog in Garden Grove, CA decides to take a hike?
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...
READ MORESwimming with dogs in Honolulu, Hawaii
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...
READ MOREHere’s Looking at You, Kid, in Aspen, Colorado
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...
READ MOREA Community of Dogs in Kentucky
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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