Train the Dog in front of you, teach them skills for life

Whichever approach you choose follow: remember that the end goal is having a dog who can live comfortably, safely, predictably, and kindly in our human world.

To have a canine companion who can coexist and learn to live with the humans and animals, large vehicles, things that are dangerous to eat or approach, screaming kids, speeding bicycles, strangers, vacuum cleaners, dogs on walks, cats in driveways, squirrels in trees, and moments when you have to leave them home alone.

Have fun.
Teach cute tricks.
Set boundaries.
Love spending time with your dog.

Focus on things that move
your dog's behavior in the right direction.
Stay consistent in what you ask.
Don't just practice the easy stuff.
Challenge your dog while staying fair.
Adjust your training plan accordingly.
Explore new approaches and techniques.
This journey isn't always simple or the same.
Your dog will show you what they need you to change - more of something or less of another- based off of the behavior they are giving you right now.

Never forget, it's our responsibility to teach our dog to live harmoniously in this world. They are counting on you ❤

Daily Practice = Real Change

Do you remember learning a new skill when you were in school? Was it a foreign language or maybe complex math or science?

For those of us who didn't keep practicing those skills, if you were to be asked to have a conversation in another language or sovle a Calculus II equation... it shouldn't be a surprise that we struggle to do that! Just because we took the courses once doesn't mean we will retain the knowledge forever!

The same goes for your dogs! Their training is NOT over after coming home from a board and train, or you finish the last session of your private lessons. Your "training" is only beginning! Your dog needs you to practice your leadership and his training skills every day so that he can continue to be successful and improve in the real world.

If you only said "sit" to your dog twice a week, do you think he would ever learn the command? So why only practice place command once a week, when guests come over on Saturday night? That type of "it's time to train" pattern means your dog is going to struggle (and you're likely to get frustrated) all because you guys haven't been having "real training conversation" daily. It's one thing to tell your dog "place" once a day when you're making his food and then release him to eat; It's another thing to have your dog in a place command while you do chores and then recall him across the room to a down/stay while you carry groceries in and out of the front door.

Try taking your dog on a walk once a week, and see if your leash manners improve Instead take your dog on a daily walk and challenge him to hold a down/stay while other walkers and their dogs go by, or to heel without distraction in a busy grocery store parking lot.

Keep challenging your dog and keep practicing your stuff. Don't sweep obedience under the rug for only the days when you need major control of your dog - they will struggle, and so will you. Have your dog do some structured obedience work and calm on command behavior every day. EVERYDAY. You've invested in it this far - don't let it go! Keep this language fresh, so your dog can eventually offer good behaviors on his own, in real-life scenarios!

Breed Matters!

We want to help everyone achieve their training and behavior goals with their dogs - but even with all the work in the world, breed traits and genetics play a significant role in a dog's behavior as solid training. You can't train genetics out of a dog, but you can learn how to fulfill their breed(s) needs and have a better understanding of WHY your dog has certain tendencies that relate to their breed traits.

Breed is never an excuse for bad behavior! Learning about the breed(s) of your dog can help you in your training journey and understand how to set your dog and family up for success!

If you want your dog off leash, you must follow the rules!

If you're going to let your dog off leash, make sure of a couple things:

✅ It's an appropriate place to do so
✅ You have control of your dogs

Seems like an easy enough list, right?

But what if...

🚲 someone on a bicycle goes by?
🐕 someone walks their dog by?
🦨 a bird or other form of wildlife appears close by?
⚽️ someone is playing with a soccer ball or throwing a baseball?
🏃‍♀️ someone on a jog or walk crosses your path?
👪 a family with a baby stroller is coming your way?
🚗 a car is driving by near you?

Do you still have control of you dog?

Being a responsible pet owner means not only protecting your pet, but being a good member of your community and respecting the other people and animals in it.

Leashes are there to help you control your dog. If you are letting your dog off leash, you need to know that it is allowed where you are AND that you have absolute control and influence of your dogs while they are off leash.

✳ No one deserves to be bitten by an off leash dog.
✳ No one's pets, on a walk or otherwise, should be harassed or injured by an off leash dog.
✳ Unless you are hunting, your off leash dog should not be harassing or injuring wildlife.
✳ Your dog can easily get hit by a car if you have no off leash control.
✳ Even if your dog is friendly, they should not be approaching people or other dogs while they are off leash. (This is a good way for your dog to get hurt by another dog, and you will be at fault - not every dog likes other dogs, and that's why their owners keep them on a leash!)
✳ You need to have a reliable recall around high-levels of distractions with a long line before you ever consider going off leash.
✳ We e-collar train our dogs so we have a 1/2 mile invisible leash and influence at a distance if they don't hear or respond to verbal command.
✳ The keyword in all of this is TRAINING!

If you can't control your dog like that...that's ok! Just keep them on their leash :)

Even if you work from home, use your crate!

Just a friendly reminder to continue using your dog's crate every day, and to make sure you actually leave the house without them sometimes - even if you work or school from home!

There have been many families who have had someone home non-stop since the holidays or even before that (thanks to the pandemic )... meaning many of our dogs and puppies have never truly been alone for quite a while!

I hope that you've had your dog practicing some downtime in the crate during the day, so as not to lose their previous kennel up routine! Remember, our dogs used to spend a lot of the day in a quiet house while many owners were away working, schooling, or shopping.

Now, even if you've been good about having your dog inside their crate at times while you've been home, there is still an extremely important thing you still need to practice - leaving the house without them!

We can't underestimate how perceptive our dogs are! We may be giving ourselves a false sense of security that our dog won't have separation anxiety when we actually leave home, just because they've been settling well inside their crate while we are home. You see, dogs have a great nose and a keen ear for sounds - they know pretty easily if they are being left behind or not...and how will your dog handle that after months of having you so close?

To help your dog prepare for when the whole family walks out of the house and closes the door behind them, make sure to do a few things before you grab your keys and go:

1. Be sure your dog has eaten, gone potty, and had their minimum exercise needs met.

2. Put them into their crate calmly, 20-30 minutes prior to your departure so they can start to unwind and settle.

3. Quietly and unemotionally leave the house. Don't make a big deal about saying goodbye or disturbing them inside their crate to announce you're leaving - that will only work them up and disturb he wind down they'd been doing. If you make a big deal about your exit, your dog is going to strain to watch and hear you and what's going on, which can feed into separation anxiety. When you return home, do the same - ignore your dog when you arrive and give them 20-30 minutes to settle before you let them out.

4. Be aware of subtle cues your dog may notice that you are leaving: grabbing your purse, jingling your keys, putting on your thick coat, tying your exercise shoes, the kids all lining up at the door excited, the garage door opening or closing. If your dog has been taking lots of car rides and walks with you, they are becoming very knowledgeable of the signs leading up to that routine. Those kinds of things may cause excitement/stress in your dog if they can see or hear that going on from inside their kennel. Help dull the association of that stuff by randomly doing those things during the day and not going anywhere.

5. Consider having your dog's crate somewhere that they can't see you gather your things and leave. Nothing is more stressful to a dog than watching that door close behind you and not going with you, especially if that's what they've been doing lately.

6. Play soft music or have an air purifier or white noise machine running near their kennel to muffle some of the house sounds. This way they won't notice as much that the house is eerily quiet or that you opened the garage and they "know what that means."

7. Give them a nice chew bone or toy to fiddle with inside their kennel, when you tuck them in prior to leaving.

8. Start with easy exits first - getting the mail, taking the garbage can to the road, watching the kids play in the yard, gardening outside. Stay nearby so you can spy or hear how your dog is handling being alone in the house. If they are barking or crying, remember, you shouldn't ever let them out until they are calm. Soothing or negative attention from you during this can reinforce that getting worked up means they can get you back inside - and will try harder next time.

9. Remember having everyone home with them non-stop has been as much of a change of routine for your dog, as it has been for you. Be patient as they work through some anxiety about yet another change.

10. Be proactive to help your dog not develop separation anxiety by setting boundaries during the day when you are home! That means some crate rest during normal "office hours," not always laying at your feet or touching you by using place command, and discouraging constant "shadow like" behavior. Help them be somewhat independent so they won't fall apart when their human needs to leave the house very soon.

One of the best things you can do for your puppy or adult dog is to help them be comfortable being crated and left alone sometimes :)

Raising littermates is HARD!

Bonded relationships between dogs is special, and with littermates or puppies who are close in age growing up together, we often see that closeness! It's important to keep in mind that these guys need individual time, too!

Families often make the mistake of allowing the puppies to share the same crate, food bowls, and dog beds - allowing constant sharing of each other's space and being together ALL of the time. The downside to the inseparable and bonded relationship between littermates, is that they can easily grow to be very dependent on each other, instead of building strong individual relationships with their owners. This can make training each dog difficult, as well as just getting their attention when they are together! To the puppies, they are lost in their own world- we just happen to be people sharing the same roof. Puppies are instinctively very "dog centric" because they are coming from a litter full of playmates - puppies will always want to pick fun over listening, and will be looking to have fun with each other as often as they can!

In addition to having difficulty training and issues listening to their humans, these pups can often struggle emotionally in the future if they ever have to be seperated. For instance, if one pup has to leave the house for a vet visit and the other must stay home, or if something unforseen or tragic happens to one of them, these bonded pairs can really struggle being alone.

Often littermates, if unchecked, can also develop rivarly and even aggressive behavior towards each other as they start entering adolescence (around 8 months of age). Growing up, these duos often play frequently and ROUGH, and owners struggle to keep the play happening at appropriate times and at an appropriate levels of arousal - over time the constant rough housing and gladiator-like growing intensity can turn into scuffles and/or fights because the pups get SO intense and never learned how to regulate their play!

As they start to enter sexual maturity (even if they've been spayed or neutered) they may start trying to work out their "position" in the pack. If humans haven't managed to set believable boundaries and rules, due to the fact the dogs bonded more with each other than the people, it can be hard to represent a leadership role to influence calm and keep things peaceful...and the dogs will try to work it out themselves. 😬

So, what do we do?

To help prevent troubled waters with littermates, make sure to work on having lots of separation from each other - solo training and playing times with their humans and social experiences with other pets/people. Let them have "doses of togetherness" throughout the day - don't let them constantly be in cahoots with each other all of the time! Think of it as scheduled playtimes, instead of an all day puppy party!

Make sure you crate them separately! They each need their own kennel, and need to work on coming out at separate times. You want to work on creating patience and not create a stampede of two pups demanding to get out because their siblings is!

Help them become individuals! Make sure they each have their own food bowl, toys, and crates, as well as opportunities to create individual relationships with YOU without the other pup around. I can't stress how important it is to build individual relevance with each dog first, and then bring them together to listen as a team - not as a two-headed monster 😄

When there is a healthy balance of these things, the relationship between bonded pairs can be so amazing, because you are an important part of their relationship! You're creating a pair of pups who literally have their best friend on the same team 😊

That said, if you are looking at puppies and considering getting littermates so they have a "friend" - it is a TON of work. Remember, raising one puppy is time consuming, so raising two puppies and focusing on the delicate relationship dynamics to prevent problems in the future is EVEN MORE work!

Ask any dog trainer or breeder and most would highly recommend not having litter mates, and instead staggering puppy ownership so you can build a strong relationship with each! Kind of like when parents space out having kids, I find introducing a new puppy when your current pup is trained and well bonded to you (around a year and a half or so) is a good time - they'll still be puppies together, BUT you can have some influence to prevent the above mentioned "puppy problems" 😉

P.S. if you already have littermates (or two young puppies around the same age), I'm pretty sure you're already pretty aware of how much work two puppies at the same time is! I hope these tips help you build a routine to help you canine family dynamic move in a less chaotic, destructive, constant-play- all-the-time, and more listening direction!

Avoid Doggie Dependency: Crate Separately and Release Individually

One of the best days of a someone's life is the day they bring home a dog or puppy. The second best day is usually when they open their home and expand their pack to include a second doggie family member 😊

Something important to remember, especially with young dogs and puppies, is that while they love attention from you, most are going to gravitate socially to your other dog! The reason behind an interest and often infatuation with the other dogs in your house, is that these puppies (whether youngsters or adolescence) are looking for familiarity of their litter and pretty regularly have PLAY on the brain!

A common mistake families make when adding a second pup to their home is including that new dog, exclusively, in the routine of your first dog. Meaning, coming out of the crate at the same time, going in the yard at the same time, always taking walks as a pack, and always being together. While having goals of your pups being dog partners for life, it's important that, especially in the beginning of their journey in your family, that you have them spend plenty of time apart and - most importantly - working with you individually.

The double edged sword to having to young dogs who become best friends, is that you- as the owner - may not be as valuable to your new dog, because they are so "dog centric" - choosing their new pack member as priority for attention. This can make getting the dogs to listen to you when they are together quite challenging, but it can also make having the two out together a bit of a tornado in general!

Young dogs love to play, and if given the opportunity, will alternate between cuddly sleep and attempting tornado style play constantly with their new housemate! This may seem cute at first, but can develop into issues of trying to play on walks, getting into cahoots off leash and not listening in the back yard, as well as rough and rowdy play inside.

If we make the mistake of letting the new dog be included in everything our first dog is doing, we miss really important opportunities to bond with our new pup, personally. We miss moments on how to train them, show them a routine, and shape manners and taking guidance from us (instead of following our first dog's lead, constantly).

But, most importantly, is that our new pup misses an opportunity to develop some independence, and we often see younger dogs become very attached and dependent on the older dog in the house. The easiest example of this, is when you let your older dog out of their kennel or have them walking the house, and the newbie is having to stay in their crate or separated. A puppy who hasn't worked on "themselves" and built confidence away from your other dog, will display a lot of crying, anxiety, or hysterics from their crate when they can't go with. They may even display insecure behaviors and seem lost on days your older dog has to go the vet, or - worst of all - when your older dog is not around anymore.

It's important to help set your new dog (and really all your dogs), up for success and independence by practicing boundary setting behaviors and helping them get used to observing things without always having to be involved. Help them bond individually with you and the humans in the house, not just group love with the other pets always included.

One of the easiest ways to start this, is by making sure you take your puppy out to potty separately from your other dog pretty regularly. Not to say that they can't play together after, but taking a solo potty trip and then meeting your older dog after business is done allows them to focus on the potty routine you are trying to create- not on going outside and trying to play.

It's extremely important to practice staggering when you let the dogs out of their crates, and not creating an expectation that when one comes out, the other does too. In particular, if your puppy is young, they are going to need a lot more crate rest to help build a potty training routine, as well as more frequent bathroom breaks (especially in the middle of the night!) than your older dog. To help limit the fussy about being in the crate without their friend nearby, or to have a constant desire to play through the bars, having the crates near each other but visually blocked from view (whether with a blanket or divider of some sort). This way, when you go to let one dog out - without an obvious pass by in front of the other's door, it will be easy to release the dogs at separate times. This also means, each dog should have their own crate and their own "space" to sleep, eat, and rest- and if your puppy does need to see your older dog walk by without them, getting into the habit of covering their kennel may help with adjusting to this new routine.

These measures help us prevent doggie dependency, as well as creating valuable moments of patience for big rewards - when they do get to play together, walk together, and hang all over each other!

Teaching your puppy how to be great pals, but not extremely dependent on your other dog, is literally double the work initially. You'll be doing separate walks, separate training sessions, separate potty breaks, and even staggered trips to the back yard so they can meet up back there to play, instead of both coming out of the crate at the exact same time and rushing the door together. But, after you build a foundation of independence, spend time bonding with and training your puppy one on one for months, and allowing them to have plenty of time together and equal time apart, you'll be on your way to a great groove and healthy dynamic within your pack!

Separation Anxiety: An Addiction to Attention

So many families and dogs struggle with the effects of separation anxiety, and the symptoms that come along with it.

Many unwanted and dangerous behaviors that accompany separation anxiety are chewing up furniture, blinds, door frames, carpet, and crown molding. Often dogs are soiling in the house or their crate, and are often barking, crying, drooling, howling, and pacing frantically once left alone. Some dogs even bend the bars on a crate, break their teeth, or even escape their kennel.

So, what can we do to contain our dog it keep them and our home safe from injury or destruction? Addressing separation anxiety is a multipronged approach: using a crate, exercise, boundary setting in our day to day actions when we are with our dogs, and training.

If you're not crating your dog, that is usually the first step. If a dog is being crated and breaks out of their kennel, it might be time to invest in a new and stronger kennel. If a dog has escaped a kennel before, they remember the weakness points and will follow that same path again - with even more vigor because they've been successful in their efforts before.

Even with an "indestructible or heavy duty kennel," however, it's important that we do some training and lifestyle changes so our dog isn't just in the crate clawing like crazy, but contained. Keeping them in is a first step, but this common dog problem isn't just showing it's face the moment we put them away or leave.

Separation anxiety can easily lead to "addiction to attention" and we sometimes unintentionally reinforce a dog's dependency on us by the ways we interact with them.

It's extremely important to make the crate a positive place for our dogs by feeding all of their meals and best treats inside. It's also important that your dog has plenty of exercise before being put away, however, no matter how much you walk or run your pup, some of the more severe cases of separation anxiety require a behavior modification plan (and occasionally medication) in addition to physical exercise.

As you're building up your dog's crate tolerance, make sure you don't just put them inside their crate when you leave. Always "tuck" them in 20-30 minutes before you go, and make sure to work on some daily down time inside the kennel and behind bars when you are home, so they aren't always associating you leaving with them being put away. Sleeping inside of the crate is also good, because it allows them to settle and rest there - and prevents the fallout of attachment/dependency that the intimacy of sleeping in bed with you may be reinforcing.

In addition to building positive associations with the crate with their food, it's important to set some lifestyle boundaries with your dog. You can work on the Place Command in your day to day routine with your dog when they aren't in their crate. Place Command teaches impulse control and inclusion, without constantly being underfoot or involved in what you are doing. This allows our dogs how to observe without being your shadow, hopping up every time you move, or constantly being in your personal space.

It's extremely important to cut back on super cuddly/touchy affection with separation anxiety dogs for a while. We need to look at sharing affection and "love" in more structured/less intimate ways like activities (walks, structured play) and training exercises. Relationship based and teamwork building affection is much healthier for an attention dependent dog than canoodling and cuddling, unfortunately. I know we all get dogs to love on and cuddle, but right now, a dog with separation anxiety needs some clear boundaries so they can have "healthier" ways to be close and interact with you AND be comfortable and able to stand on their own 4 paws without you.

Also, remember not to make a big "to do" about coming and going from the house or when sending them into or releasing them from their crate. Non-eventful exits and arrivals back home help our dog have a smooth adjustment to our presence. When we do a bunch of big goodbyes and hellos we get our dogs all worked up about it! A hyped up dog has an easier time escalating their energy into a barking/crying/meltdown anxiety cycle.

Separation Anxiety is not an easy journey to be on with your dog, but the more comfortable you can get them in a kennel the less likely they will hurt themselves or your property. Working with a trainer to help develop more impulse control, an automatic down in the kennel, and to focus on your dog's specific needs will help you, as well! Hang in there ❤