Happy Hounds Dog Training

06/20/2024

I got an amazing review on my leash training guide 🥰 Thank you SO much to everyone that takes the time to leave reviews! Guide linked here: https://e37240-61.myshopify.com/

06/17/2024

Wilderdog posted a funny reel today about spending your adult life fixing the leash when it tangles under your dogs legs on walks. It’s such a pet peeve of mine that I have a tutorial on YouTube showing how I train a dog to fix their own 👉😂 Teach Your Dog to Untangle Their OWN Leash On Walks!

►🙋‍♀️COMPLETE DOG TRAINING SOLUTIONS: •❓🤨 STRUGGLING WITH LEASH TRAINING? 👇 ✅ 6 Weeks to Dream Walks: Step-By-Step Leash Training Program: https://e...

06/10/2024

Amusing enough to share 😂 It’s rare for a troll comment to actually make me burst out laughing, but this one did. He really thinks he did a thing LOL. How ever will I sleep tonight knowing “my chance is up” with him? hahaha

“tormatson6357 • 7 minutes ago
Uh, what? I gave it a chance, endured the tone of voice, and waited patiently to see the results. Instead, I watched a person follow a dog around speaking nonstop and giving treats nonstop yet still being basically ignored by the dog. Then the video ended with excuses about how the non-results had taken "only" two hours, and an offer to watch another video. No thanks, you had your chance. "Force free" and also results-free; not my idea of dog training, let alone a complete guide to it, but good luck.”

The time & effort that people put into being internet trolls will always blow my mind.

06/10/2024

Little update about how baby will affect Happy Hounds!

06/07/2024

Dog Pulls Towards Other Dogs? Try THIS to Walk Past With a Loose Leash

If your dog can't walk past other dogs or people with a loose leash, watch this!

Rather than just demonstrating the training process with my dog, I decided to add an extra “challenge”: In this video Neirah is going to be the decoy dog as I teach this skill to one of my former reactivity clients.

I show you step by step how I taught Millie to walk right past my dog with a completely loose leash and no cueing or management.

If your dog can't walk past other dogs or people with a loose leash, watch this! ►🙋‍♀️COMPLETE DOG TRAINING SOLUTIONS: •❓🤨 STRUGGLING WITH LEASH TRAININ...

06/02/2024

My YouTube and Instagram were BUSY overnight. Rather than typing out my thoughts again, I’ll share screen shots of my Instagram stories. Again, as a personal rule, I don’t play fetch with trolls 😏
I’ll link my instagram here if you want to follow me there: https://www.instagram.com/happyhounds_dogtraining

05/30/2024

Filming a few last clips for my “How I’m preparing my dog for baby” YouTube video. Neirah has loved being the dog I’m recording with lately because it = extra treatos 😂

05/28/2024

I posted this comment on a reel I agree with from on Instagram.

There will always be people that twist what I’m saying, so to clarify:

Am I saying we should only show FF tutorials and never speak out about aversive training?

No.

My preference for the content I create is video tutorials, but top of my head I think two effective ways of discussing the risks of aversive training are:
1: For those that want to call out poor training: show break downs of dog body language during aversive training so dog guardians really understand what to look for.
2: Do breakdowns of the newest research and what it shows about fallout from aversive training & that FF is as (or more) effective

05/27/2024

In my life I’ve been both traditionally full time employed, and now self employed.
I’ll admit I typically work WAY more hours now that I work for myself (and I’m 100x happier).
One unplanned perk: being able to take morning naps while pregnant if I feel I need to.
My sleep has been sooo messed up during this pregnancy. I can’t fathom how traditionally employed women handle that! ❤️
Pregnancy has been so much harder than I expected. Respect to everyone that goes through this! 😂

05/24/2024

If you're struggling with leash reactivity, I think this video will help! I'm going to bring you along on a full, unedited reactivity training session with Millie. I'm going to show you everything that I do during this training session, and more importantly I'll explain WHY. There are no hidden parts; you're going to see it all!

Come along on a real, unedited training session with a leash reactive dog. ►🙋‍♀️COMPLETE DOG TRAINING SOLUTIONS: •❓🤨 STRUGGLING WITH LEASH TRAINING? 👇 ...

05/23/2024

🤰 Exercising my dog in third trimester 👇

Despite being 10 years old, my dog Neirah is incredibly active. She can easily hike for 4-6 hours still when we go to the mountains, and she is used to getting an hour+ city walk each day.

Therefore, it’s been tough with me being heavily pregnant and too sore to go for huge walks 😭

Here are a few things I’ve been doing to tire her out when I can’t walk her as much:

(🙋‍♀️I’m going to be sharing a few videos of how I’m prepping my dog for baby on my YouTube channel in upcoming months. Linked here to subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCWf8-W_3QUPRQR_WE5uG4g)

1. Frisbee or other play. Brief, high intensity exercise a few times a week where she runs and I stay still 😂
2. Treat hunts: On really rough days, I'll drive to a park and hide 10-20 treats in the grass. Then I'll put Neirah on her super long line and let her spend 20 minutes or so sniffing and finding them all.
3. Off leash parks: Neirah doesn’t enjoy confined play such as doggy daycare, but she’s always loved the dog park.
4. Walks in new locations= extra sniffs!
5. Extra enrichment: I’ve been giving Neirah one of her meals as enrichment each day (such as a kong, snuffle ball, treat dispenser, etc). I have a full video on my YouTube channel that covers my favourite food enrichment items: https://youtu.be/TKpYPApBcwk
6. Walking more hills: for whatever reason, my feet don’t hurt as much if I walk up a steep incline. It’s still fairly unenjoyable since it’s hard to breathe lol, but it’s good exercise for both of us.
7. Extra training: there’s a lot I’ve been doing to prep Neirah for the baby, and that means extra training. Don’t underestimate how much mental work tires them out.
8. Asking for help: my least favourite 😂 I’ve always been the one to walk Neirah, then my husband joins us on weekends sometimes. Lately if I don’t feel Neirah’s been exercised enough, I’ll ask him to take her out again on weekday evenings.

Any other ideas you can think of??

05/22/2024

My thoughts on the “dog training war”👇

Despite being a fairly outspoken force free trainer whose content has certainly triggered the compulsion crowd in the past, I’ve been quiet this with the newest so-called “dog trainer war”.

Why?
1. I’m pregnant and don’t need added stress. I suspect my thoughts will somehow upset both sides, and I can’t say I’m looking forward to reading the comments.😂
2. I’ve been trying to sort out my feelings about it this time, because it hasn’t felt as black & white to me as usual.

However, I’ve gotten many DM’s asking my opinion about the saga between Zak George, Denise Fenzi, and more. So, I’ll share my thoughts….

I want to start by saying I unequivocally feel aversive methods such as prong, shock, or choke collars have NO place in modern dog training. I’ve made my stance on that clear repeatedly in the past, and it has not changed.

There’s extensive research showing the harmful fallout that can occur. Zak has a great list of studies on his YouTube video as a place to start for anyone wanting to look into it.

For those unfamiliar with my account and perhaps finding me for the first time, I do not work with so-called “easy” dogs.

90% of my private training business is reactivity and aggression work. Ive never once needed aversive methods to get results, and I’ve slowly been showing some of that work on my YouTube channel. In the upcoming year I’ll be showing many videos working with highly reactive and aggressive dogs.

So, why do I have mixed feelings about the saga this week if I’m so adamantly pro force-free?? That’s what I needed time to ponder and figure out.

I think my answer is this: While I 100% believe professional dog trainers (which I’ll define as anyone that takes money in exchange for training advice) have a duty to use modern, up-to-date methods, I also often tend to focus on the dog GUARDIAN side. Why???

My focus is not on trying to change the mind of or regulate compulsion trainers; I want to help change dog GUARDIANS minds. If the public no longer tolerates or pursues hiring compulsion training, then compulsion trainers go away and this all becomes a moot point. Changing the public’s perception is where the true power lies.

As I’ve previously spoken about, I was raised in a pro-compulsion household by a mom who was a dog trainer. For awhile, I genuinely believed that corrections were NECESSARY to “fix bad dog behaviour”.

In my 20’s, I realized that was 💩.

I have never, ever charged a penny for anything EXCEPT force free advice since my stance luckily changed before becoming a dog trainer myself.

But, I can also be a heavily stubborn human 😉 If I, as a dog guardian, had seen these ongoing “battles” before doing my own research and internal searching, I personally would’ve been turned off force free training. I don’t like being told what to do; I never have. If I heard my way of thinking was problematic or wrong, I think I would’ve turned away. No one likes hearing that their beliefs or thoughts are “bad”, ESPECIALLY if they’re not being shown viable other options.

(I want to be clear that if you actually listen to Zak, he implores dog TRAINERS to hold themselves to a higher standard and does not come down on dog GUARDIANS for methods chosen. But I do also understand some of the criticism when people say it’s too much and can feel like it becomes judgmental).

There was a silly study I read long ago that measured the effectiveness at a pool when trying to get kids to walk safely on the wet pool deck. Saying “walk please” was WAY more effective than saying “don’t run”. For whatever reason, that has stuck in my brain all these years.

Our minds have a hard time processing “Don’t” unless we can visualize a substitute. For people already well-versed in force free training, hearing “don’t use a prong collar” makes sense to us…. We know other methods and ways of changing behaviours such as leash pulling or reactivity.

But what about those people currently using the compulsion method? If being told “don’t” they *genuinely* may not know another option for training. If we (IE force free) don’t seem approachable for asking questions because we appear too preachy, will that person consider switching? Or will they just shut off?

I feel it’s important to state the research and why aversive training is unnecessary and harmful. However, I think it’s even MORE important to show how ELSE to effectively train without resorting to aversives.

I won’t pretend that I don’t have strong beliefs. I want dogs treated kindly; that’s evident in my content. However, the reason 98%ish of my content simply shows me working with untrained dogs with force free methods is for the “please walk” concept of effectiveness. Showing viable, easy-to-follow examples is (I believe) much more effective for changing things than saying “don’t do that”.

When I was younger, I didn’t believe force free would work. If I can SHOW it working now, I feel like that’s much more likely to change the mindsets of people that still think the way I personally used to.

At the end of the day, I don’t want force free to be seen as an “alternative” to compulsion training. I want it to become THE way dogs are trained, because there really isn’t a need for anything else.

05/22/2024

🤰My feet have been killing me if I try to walk for long durations in 3rd trimester, so I've gotten creative about tiring Neirah out.

On really rough days, I'll drive to a park and hide 10-20 treats in the grass.

Then I'll put Neirah on her super long line and let her spend 20 minutes or so sniffing and finding them all.

Then we'll go for a brief walk to finish things off.

I've been filming a bit of what I've been doing to prep Neirah for the baby, and I think I'll release that as 3-4 YouTube videos.

Not the usual topic I cover (obviously), but I think it could be helpful?

YouTube channel linked here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCWf8-W_3QUPRQR_WE5uG4g

05/17/2024

NEW BLOG POST! Most people, myself included, start teaching “leave it” indoors by placing treat near our stationary dog while asking them to leave it alone.

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that “leave it” will work out on walks when your dog isn’t starting from a stationary position. I want to show you how to bridge that difficulty gap so that “leave it” solidly works on walks too.

This is REALLY helpful if you have a dog that’s always scavenging on walks!

Step-by-step guide to training an advanced leave it cue that works on dog walks. If your dog scavenges on walks, read this!

05/15/2024

This leash guide review from Linda is seriously one of the nicest things I’ve ever read 🥰🙏 Thank you so much to everyone that leaves reviews!!

Guide link: https://e37240-61.myshopify.com/products/6-weeks-to-dream-walks-step-by-step-leash-training-program

Review: The Most Comprehensive Guide to Positively Training Polite Leash Walking Available.
As a professional trainer and behaviour consultant, helping my clients achieve pleasant leash walks with their dogs is a bread-and-butter part of my job. Walking in a straight line at our incredibly slow human speed is actually a very unnatural and difficult skill for our dogs to learn, with many pieces that must be learned and then integrated. It takes dedicated time and lots of practice for dog and human to be able to move together as a team. Stephanie's course is the clearest, most concise and practical guide I have ever seen. She has deconstructed the individual skills that need to be learned and mastered and laid them out in step-by-step fashion, accompanied by beautiful video tutorials that demonstrate them clearly. The course carefully builds upon foundational skills systematically and each week's checklist ensures that dog and handler are ready before proceeding to the next level. Her writing style and examples are engaging and easy to understand. Not everyone has access to or can afford lessons with a private trainer. This course is priced so reasonably it will be accessible to everyone. I am absolutely impressed with this course and will be recommending it to all my clients. If I could give it 10 stars I would!

05/10/2024

Dogs are always so helpful 😂❤️
Every time I lay down to do my pregnancy stretches, Neirah assists.

05/10/2024

🐾STRUGGLING WITH LEASH TRAINING?

I created a 6 week program to walk you through (pun intended😏) my exact process for training incredible leash skills, completely force free.

►🙋‍♀️COMPLETE DOG TRAINING SOLUTIONS: •❓🤨 STRUGGLING WITH LEASH TRAINING? 👇 ✅ 6 Weeks to Dream Walks: Step-By-Step Leash Training Program: https://e...

05/03/2024

Quick 2 minute tutorial: Dog Pulls On Leash Towards Something & Ignores You? Try THIS!
In an ideal world, we would setup training so that our dog can walk without any leash tension. However, when we're out in the real world, we are going to encounter moments that our dog isn't ready for. I always suggest using a verbal leave it cue or calling the dog's name to get them back to you if they’re pulling, but what if that fails?? This video shows what I do!👇👇👇

Watch it here 👀: https://youtu.be/kHFRmaltJjc

04/28/2024

Does your dog hide from OR try to attack the vacuum? Then this tutorial is for you! I'll show you how I helped Enzo with his extreme fear of the vacuum in just three short sessions 🥰

It’s a fun video! 😁

👀Watch it here:

Does your dog hide from OR attack the vacuum? Then this tutorial is for you! I'll show you how I helped Enzo with his extreme fear of the vacuum in just thre...

04/27/2024

Oh internet. Such a helpful place, but also where some of the saddest people hang out spending their days trolling 🙄

04/26/2024

I KNOW that when force free trainers show success stories, the goal post just changes. I know 🤦‍♀️😂 But, I think there’s still a lot of value in showing it anyways 😊 Many of you have watched my Louie series on YouTube where I work with a very reactive dog that pulled on leash. I’ll link that below if interested in watching (series is only half uploaded! I’ll be showing the rest including how he progressed to being ok with dogs barking at him & being on the same sidewalk when he returns to YouTube). What I haven’t mentioned yet in that series is that Louie previously got in quite a horrible dog fight with Luna. They were 100% locked on, the guardians had to physically pull them apart, and there are scars from that dog fight. Welllllll, I’ve been filming a secondary aggression series with Louie and Luna. Today we had them fully off leash together, muzzle free, in a confined yard and Louie was a happy boy 😊 Force free works! ❤️

Louie reactivity series link 👉 Louie Series: Training Leash Skills & Reactivity
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiUh57UCWpFFC1h3Z4i-F0E7HtO7v051z

04/26/2024

Does your dog hide from OR attack the vacuum? Then this tutorial is for you! I'll show you how I helped Enzo with his extreme fear of the vacuum in just three short sessions 😊👇

Does your dog hide from OR attack the vacuum? Then this tutorial is for you! I'll show you how I helped Enzo with his extreme fear of the vacuum in just thre...

04/22/2024

Lol! The EXTREME irony of this company wanted to partner with me 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ Tell me you’ve watched NONE of my content 😂 That’s a haaaard pass, Holly.

04/21/2024

ON SALE FOR ONE WEEK FOR $4.99 & has a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ on Gumroad! 🐿️❓Dog chases squirrels, rabbits, cats, or more ? I created a step-by-step prey drive guide to help you out! In this guide I’ll teach you my EXACT method to stop unwanted animal chasing (outdoors AND in the home!). Learn more here:

Dog chases squirrels, rabbits, cats, or more ? I created a step-by-step prey drive guide to help you out! Grab it here 👇• Dog Prey Drive: How to STOP Animal...

04/20/2024

Working on some Louie video edits and this still of him getting a treat KILLS me 😂😂Wish I could use it as a thumbnail for something hahaha

04/19/2024

I received a particularly rude message from a fellow force free trainer stating that my free YouTube tutorials "cheapen the training industry". Their concern is that if advice is available for free, trainers won't get paid clients. I filmed a quick video addressing that & explaining WHY I make these tutorials. You can watch it here:

“Why do I do this?”. One of the most common questions I get, particularly from other force free dog trainers, is why the heck do I make so many free tutorial...

04/17/2024

Got a particularly rude message from a fellow FF trainer saying that my free tutorials "cheapen the training industry". I filmed a quick YouTube video addressing that. Stay tuned 😇

04/16/2024

⏰ TIME AWAY!
I won’t be posting or checking comments as much for the next 4-6 weeks. I’m realizing that I’m running out of time to wrap up some major projects before baby arrives, and I want those off my plate ⏳

I’m VERY excited to show you what I’ve been working on for a long time… you know, once I finally get them done 🤞🤦‍♀️

I do have a few YouTube tutorials scheduled in that time that I think will REALLY interest you (hint: Louie is returning to YouTube!). Links to those will be all I’ll post during this time.

🙋‍♀️ If you want to be the first to know when my projects are done, sign up for my free monthly newsletter 😁 Linked here: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/61898eeb3a0e5bcf6f5411ec

04/16/2024

I got a DM about training stay. Her dog would break the stay before she had time to step back & return to reward, so she felt like force free wouldn’t work. My advice: ONLY start with duration intitially. I have a complete (free!) tutorial for how I progress from a beginner to advanced stay on YouTube ☺️👉Train Your Dog to Stay: COMPLETE Beginner to Advanced Tutorial

Whether your dog is a complete beginner with the stay cue OR they’re struggling with a more advanced version, I want to show you how to train your dog to sta...

04/13/2024

Struggling with your dog pulling on leash? I have an entire YouTube playlist to help you! 😊 Leash Training Playlist: How to fix pulling on leash

Does your dog pull on leash? Let's change that! This playlist will teach you how to use force free methods to train your dog to loose leash walk.