Kennel aggression can be a serious issue. This week I show you Diesel and the steps we took to curb his behavior. There wasn't a single event that created this behavior with Diesel. From what I could discover, it may have just been puberty. When this type of behavior starts a lot of people think they need to stay close or establish "dominance" when the dog begins to growl. This is the complete opposite of what needs to be done. The reason the dog growls is because they a

This week we introduce you to Oakley. He is a 4 month old pup learning polite behaviors using positive reinforcement. One of the advantages of positive reinforcement training is that you can start extremely early. Back when I utilized more traditional punishment based methods pups couldn't start until they were 6 or even 9 months old. This is because with punishment based methods there is a chance of "breaking" the dog, particularly if you start too early. With this meth

This week we will show you an example of station training with Walter. Stationing is when you teach an animal to go to a spot or location. This can be an extremely valuable tool to help guide your pup to appropriate and helpful behaviors. Simple behaviors like these can allow for easy weights at the vets office, staying away from guests on the couch while watching your shows, or be mixed with a stay for polite guest greetings at the door. #clickertraining #stationtraining

A lot of people have asked, “How do you get the dog to listen?” Well that is at the core of all training. The methodology I use is known as operant conditioning. This is a psychology term that basically says there are 4 ways to learn. Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Positive Punishment, and Negative Punishment. In operant conditioning there technically is not good or bad. Positive means you are adding something, negative means you are subtracting somethin