Socializing puppies should begin in the breeders home. Even before a puppy can hear or see, "puppy enrichment" can begin by focusing on the fully developed senses the puppy does have (those of touch and smell). For any of you who are members of my "Puppy Peaks" community I have a [...]
As you may or may not know, last week I made my "big decision." I publicly announced which of my 7 then seven week old puppies I was going to keep for my own. Tomorrow night I will be hosting a "coaching call" for my "Puppy [...]
Recently while preparing for a video shoot, I put together a list of some of my most pivotal lessons I have learned from each puppy I have raised and trained over my 27 years as a dog trainer. The experience of putting this list was [...]
I am pretty sure C.S. Lewis wasn't referring to dog training when he said of experience that although it was a "brutal teacher" you still do learn from it! However, truthfully that is how not only people but puppies learn. It is through interacting with the environment, [...]
In my last blog post, I showed a treadmill routine I put together building on some cool ideas I got from Robert Porter at our Canine Fitness and Body Awareness Symposium. Since then we have gotten two main questions... First... what if I missed the [...]
Earlier in the month we hosted the Canine Fitness and Body Awareness Symposium here at Say Yes Dog Training. It was everything I had hoped it would be. Three days PACKED with amazing insight and research from Dr. Leslie Woodcock, Robby Porter and myself. The [...]
I am sooooo excited... Tomorrow, we start our three day Canine Fitness and Body Awareness Symposium. This is a topic that gets me cranked up! Putting in the time to work your dog’s flexibility, strength, conditioning, balance and proprioception is like the gift that keeps [...]
One of the most common faults on the agility field today is knocked bars. And it makes sense since....there are more jumps then any other obstacle out there. There are several “Jumping Gurus” out there with structured, methodical programs to help teach dogs to jump. I [...]
"Every step toward your dream is a step away from your regret tomorrow". ~Steve Maraboli After yesterday's blog post, people asked to see what kind of exercises I was referring to…things that I would do with a puppy "away from agility." So.... our friend Lynda [...]
Did you know that you can significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to train your agility dog based on what you teach him as a puppy? Not only that, but you can better prepare that dog to avoid injury over their 5-10 year career, [...]
You know that ageless debate…which came first the chicken to lay the egg or the egg that grew to be a chicken? Well I see a similar one in dog agility. Yesterday, I released the first video in my latest free online training series “Transforming [...]
Every so often on Facebook I see threads where one person posts an agility course they just ran and cries how “unfair” courses are getting today. The thread often goes on to question the sanity of the judge who designed the course, before deciding that [...]
