Off Leash And Unfiltered

Send us Fan Mail Here is a list of 5 rather random things that I hear people say they are doing VERY frequently. And they are things I wouldn’t recommend. These things are usually not helpful and often even make things much worse. 5-Tethering your puppy or dog to you all day This is supposed to strengthen your bond and “reduce freedom” but really it helps create a needy dog with potential separation issues. It also allows you to actually

Send us Fan Mail Puppies! We’ve been talking about them a lot lately. One thing I hear over and over again is people justifying behavior as “puppy” behavior. And although there might be some truth to that in a way, the dangerous part of that is attached to that statement, logically, would be that once the puppy isn’t a puppy anymore the behavior goes away naturally. And THAT couldn’t be farther from the truth in most cases. Puppies exhibit everything

Send us Fan Mail Food! Most dogs love it. But some dogs couldn’t care less about it. Some dogs are too reactive or too nervous to take it. So what do we do to motivate our dogs with food if they aren’t the most food motivated? There are ways to make food more desirable. One of which is to use it when the dog is hungry. This might mean training before a meal or it might mean skipping a meal

Send us Fan Mail I hear it all—the—time! You should never punish a growl because that’s how dogs communicate they are uncomfortable. This argument is complete nonsense, and in this episode I break down why and what we have seen with the hundreds of dogs we have addressed growling with. By putting more emphasis on why something is happening than on how to change what is happening, people stay stuck. The whole ‘root cause’ argument is generally not helpful and

Send us Fan Mail Everybody wants results, naturally. Does this training really get results? I’m talking with Joyce today about her journey through training her own dogs. We met when she needed help with her reactive labs. And now that she works here she gets to help clients through all of the trials and tribulations on the way to the finish line. And she’s living proof that it’s worth it! We also chat about some of the hardest parts of

Send us Fan Mail Today we are breaking down exactly what we recommend you do when your dog goes home after a board and train. It’s a lot of information covered at the go home lesson, and you’re not going to absorb it all. For that reason, we do send you home with a go home packet and respond as promptly as possible to texts and emails. But we thought it would be a good idea to have this very

Send us Fan Mail If you adopt a dog from a shelter you don’t know for sure what you are going to get. In this case the person ended up with an intense and drivey dog with clear hunting instincts. These were getting in the way of them ever having positive interactions and affecting their ability to bond and live life. The human is covered in bruises and is at a loss as to what to do. She can’t kennel

Send us Fan Mail A lot of folks get stuck in training “lessons” with their dog and they never graduate to just having a trained dog that can do the stuff in real life. There are a few reasons for that. The biggest thing is you can’t ask your dog to do things in real life and expect that to be easy until A-they’ve practiced and know it and B-there is real accountability for not doing what is expected. If

Send us Fan Mail Dogs don’t live that long. How many years do you want to struggle or have to manage your dog just to avoid a correction that is typically a split second? That’s what people do, though. And there’s a reason. It’s all the bologna that is out there on the internet. That’s why people are better at building behaviors (which is much more difficult) than stopping behaviors (which is SIMPLE). Why is it everyone I meet needs

Send us Fan Mail These are things we do with client dogs right off the bat. Sometimes we forget that it’s not just about teaching your dog words or commands. It’s about behavior. It’s about teaching your dog how to slow down, how to process, how to prioritize you, how to resist impulses, even if those impulses are out of fear, nervousness, anxiety, or extreme over stimulation. All dogs learn automatic kennel manners (going in and out-kennel drills) All dogs

Send us Fan Mail So common! Dogs are all individuals! But also, as a culture we seem to think that “normal” dogs like playing with other dogs. Nope. They often don’t. And If yours falls into that camp and they are forced to play with other dogs, how do you think that will turn out? If that is the case you have to recognize that your dog might not actually be the problem. No level of training will ever fix

“When can we take off the e-collar?” This is our favorite question. NOT! It is actually a very good question. And the answer is simple for most dog owners, especially since they aren’t dog trainers—you can take it off when you don’t want your dog to listen. Can you teach your dog to listen and behave all the time regardless of whether or not the ecollar is on? Sure. But most people aren’t going to have the skill or follow

I see it all the time. People are trying. The dog owners I meet are often trying very hard and are very committed. But! They are making a huge mistake. The mistake is that they believe they are holding their dog accountable for their behavior, but they are missing the things that truly need to be addressed because they are more subtle. By the time they are trying to hold their dog accountable, the dog is all ready off the

It is hard to argue that the process used should not be the one that gets the best results, yet here we are. In dog training today there is an immensely flawed philosophy that is fiercely promulgated by dog trainers and even “professional organizations” that are looked up to by the average pet owner, and many professionals in the field, today. The result is that people are brain washed before they have even sat down to think about it. They

Punishing a dog’s behavior is already a controversial topic. Not that it should be. Punishment is literally, by definition, the only way to eliminate behaviors. But what is even more controversial, and shrouded in mystery because nobody wants to talk about it, is punishing a puppy’s bad behaviors. The truth is we have a different set of rules we go by when it comes to puppies (which we are defining as dogs under 6 months of age). So I’m going

So many of the things that we do with other humans are counter productive with our dogs. While many of the basic principles are shared, we tend to use language in a way that our dogs don’t really understand and we also humanize them, applying what we THINK or what we FEEL as though it’s the same for our dogs. But it’s not!I am giving very specific examples of things that can really help propel your dog training into the