Rolling out a Big Adventure
17 years young but still loves a great game! As much as we would like to prevent it, our agility dogs do grow old. As a matter of fact all dogs grow old, even if they were not once agility dogs. :) If [...]
Your Dog Recovering From Severe Trauma . . . Is There A Baseline?
As many of you will know my then 8 year old Border Collie "Encore" suffered a major traumatic event 3 months ago when she collapsed seizing one morning which could not be stopped. With good medical care and the outpouring of prayers from this dog [...]
Dog Training and Attention
I have looked into your eyes with my eyes. I have put my heart near your heart. ~ Pope John XXIII A lot is made about "training" your dog's eyes to look into yours when you are working together. Some schools use force to demand [...]
Contact Training For Those With No Interest in Dog Agility
Weird eh?Why on earth would anyone who has no interest in dog agility want to know anything about how to train agility contact obstacles? To explain the reason let me share a story with you. Years ago John (my husband) used to travel to, and [...]
Improve Your Dog Training By Playing Like A Dog
Today, I feel like I am only barely scratching the surface on the topic of tugging :)). Why Does My Dog Need To Tug? You may be asking yourself why the heck is tugging so darned important anyway? Personally, I believe all dogs should learn [...]
Does Your Dog Training Need a Shot of Joy?
This week we are focusing on how to inject more joy into our dog training. I believe that all dogs start off with an innate joy to be around us. Our choices as dog trainers can either help to develop that joy, turning it into [...]
Is it Time To Clear Out Some Baggage?
If you are a newsletter subscriber then earlier today you would have received a post on evaluating and working towards eliminating "baggage" in your relationship with your dog. All of our dogs carry around some form of baggage from living with and learning from us. [...]
A Lack of Rules and Drive in Dog Training
John walking with the girls but who are the girls walking with? Where are you mom? While many of you are putting your life with your dogs under a microscope after my last two newsletters, I fear some of you may be [...]
Don’t Forget to Laugh!
Swagger "working it" with his toy while I pound away at my computer today. There have been some great reports written on my last blogpost after the last newsletter. I am happy to see so many of you are starting to exam the triggers [...]
Tugging With the Dog
There were some great comments on my tugging post yesterday as to why you thought long duration tugs had the potential for more focus for the environment while short bursts of tug games alternating with other responses created great attention for the handler. You pretty [...]
The Duration of The Tug Sessions
Tugging is a big part of my dog training, I hope it is also a big part of yours. It is a great reinforcer for most dogs. For those dogs that are not currently big fans of tugging, it is a skill that be cultivated [...]
Think Beyond Limits, Be A Difference Maker
I first posted this letter and video in one of my webinars last week. Since then I have received private emails and one on Facebook asking to see it again. Funny, at first I didn't know if I should even share it wondering if it would [...]
