The Mustard Game
"I wanna tell you sumpin’. . . you got a little mustard on yer face!" Today I'm sharing a game for keeping and building drive that I've played with every dog I've ever owned since the beginning of time. I call it "The [...]
How Do I Train My Dog NOT To Jump Up?
Initially, the title of this blog post was "how do I stop my dog jumping?" ... then I changed it to "how do I train my dog not to jump?" ... then I added "up" to the end. The changes were made because for agility, [...]
How Do I Train My Dog To Come When Called?
One of the most pressing questions for anyone who lives with a dog can be "how do I train my dog to come when called?". Often this is asked when there has been a recall collapse. It's also a question we see a lot in [...]
Bark, Lunge, Spin or Wait, Watch, Work?
One of the most frequent questions we see is how to play with multiple dogs, or how to wait turns with your dog at training. I put together a series of six tips previously for Facebook and am now sharing them here for quick reference [...]
Practical Videoing Tips
Last week I shared strategies to help become comfortable with videoing your dog training and reviewing video. It was a blog post that I hadn't planned on doing a follow up on, as the intention was just to help with ideas for you on how [...]
How To Embrace Videoing Your Dog Training
My mentor, the iconic Bob Bailey, once told me that he believes the most important advancement in the world of animal training during his illustrious career was the advancement of the simplicity of video. What do the words "video your training" mean for you? Are [...]
Vlog: Trying Something New (Games For You, Games For Your Dog)
For the past week or so I've been trying something new. It's no secret that I love playing games with my dogs and I love seeing dogs learn through games. There's a lot of dog training information that I've wanted to share with you that [...]
Vlog: Toning Up On Cue Clarity (Hearing The Sirens)
If you are doing dog sports, it is critical to review your cues to ensure they are distinct. Late last year I ran a ‘clarity check’ for Momentum and me as an agility team. You can read how I did this clarity check [...]
The Secret Sauce For Enthusiasm … Balance Breaks!
Fun is an essential ingredient to training success for you and your dog, and the secret sauce to maintaining enthusiasm and engagement in a training session is to take a break. We call these "balance breaks" and also use "reset cookies". It might seem counter-intuitive [...]
Positive Dog Training and the Difference in Shaping
Stoni & Shelby circa mid 1990's Last week we looked at luring vs shaping, so it's only fair that this week we are looking at shaping vs shaping. Recently in one of our Inner Circle coaching calls, we were discussing shaping, successive approximations, [...]
Lurers Anonymous (Luring vs Shaping)
When you are training your dog, it can seem easy to pull out a cookie and lure your dog to do something. But you need to ask yourself what learning will be taking place in the dog's mind. Generally, it is “do nothing and I [...]
Vlog: How to Teach a Puppy to Retrieve
A puppy's mind is fully capable of learning at an early age, so there is no need to consider putting off his or her education. What we do need to consider is how that education happens. My puppy controls when we move ahead to the [...]
