DOGMA Moncton

02/04/2025

The first ever GRADS of the E-Collar Foundations Class!!!!!🎓🎉🎆

02/02/2025

Forgive my lack of presence over the weekend, the boys and I were practicing for our upcoming winter adventure race!

Ladies & Gentleman tonight is a special night! We have our very first group of graduates earing their certificates in the ECollar Foundations Class.

It's been a fantastic group to teach and every dog has done so well. I can't wait to see you all and celebrate your success tonight.

Classes are running as usual at the Coverdale Centre with
Puppy Kindergarten Lesson 2 @ 6 pm
The General Lesson 2 @ 7 pm
ECF Lesson 5 & Grad @ 8 pm

Please, friends, always remember your training equipment for class.

PLACE mats, Treats, A toy, a chew, Leashes, collar, training pouch. The whole shabang. Bring it every time.

See you all soon and I hope you have enjoyed your day

02/01/2025

😂

02/01/2025

People are always confused when I tell them to reward the dog for looking at the thing that is causing the problem.

They’re worried we’re rewarding them for “being bad.”

No.

That’s not the case when you condition at distance and keep the dog calm and under threshold.

You will not train the dog to stare at the thing that causes the problem.

They will learn to get food from YOU and will detach from staring on their own in time.

If a dog begins to stare and fixate, you correct, create space and redirect.

…Staring, unlike sharing, is not caring.

02/01/2025

Counter conditioning (changing how a dog feels about something from negative to positive) or even just straight up conditioning is an awesome way to garner great focus from your dog.

You just pay attention to what they are having issues with - maybe it’s a dog, or a man or a car or a noise or a garbage bin- and you create a strong association of rewards to that thing.

Every time that thing pops up they gon’ get paid.

Keep your distance and watch for signs of loading- loading is when your dog is getting overwhelmed and ready to have a stress response.

The goal is VERY SHORT glance, pay pay party time and leave. Repeat repeat repeat. Have fun

02/01/2025

Wallen meets Winnie. 🫶🐾

Wallen has been having trouble with other dogs.

He was / is very hard to manage and his owners have been struggling with his reactivity for a while.

He is not only reactive to dogs, but very much so men as well.

We have met twice to lay foundation work and I told them that their problems cannot be solved by staying home. We must increase exposures and do it with control and understanding of body language.

We met at Global on Mountain Rd and he blew his owners’ minds when we walked through the store, among the patrons and he didn’t make a peep.

He did so well I surprised them with my pretty girl here, Ms Winnifred Wilson and we worked on that for a while.

As you can see, it was a great session.

Next session I will create other scenarios and we will condition him what to do then.

For now, celebration! 🎉🐾❤️🤩

01/30/2025

Some dogs chase their tails. Sometimes it’s completely innocent and fine. Other times it’s not.

Ludo had a tail chasing habit from his previous life due to lack of stimulation in my opinion.

Dogs chase their tails because they are bored and have nothing to do and no one to play with so they just play with themselves.

They do it to expend energy.

They do it as a coping mechanism for stress (because it feels good).

I deter him from playing with his tail and view it as a communication signal that his needs are not being met.

He only ever does it when there is an excess of energy that needs to be released.

Today two of my boys aren’t feeling well so they stayed him from school. His routine has been thrown off and now here he is tail chasing.

Makes sense: It’s cold outside, he didn’t get his morning run and I haven’t trained him yet today.

Take it as you will, but let’s also learn from it.

This is a sure fire sign that shepherds and other energetic breeds go crazy when they’re not worked properly.

Could it be just he’s having fun and self soothing? Sure.

But I don’t want to reinforce old habits so I guess I better get up and get at it.

You know what they say: No rest for the wicked.

01/29/2025

Adopting out littermates or parents and offspring is a HUGE 🚩 so frustrating and irresponsible. Clearly shows where their motivations are and it ain’t the well being of you or the dogs.

01/29/2025

I had a client drop over right quick for a meeting. We discussed dog breeds and how to select good breeders. This little video does not include the conversation, but shows how dogs should behave when a guest comes. And again showing the true and imperfect nature of life, I will even show the little foul ups. Pure and unedited. I did turn of off it off for a second but then said, “hey! I should show them releasing individually. Why not!”

I, like you, just need to practice more. 😉

01/29/2025

01/29/2025

Inducing vomiting in a dog. Why not learn from my mistake

01/29/2025

Another long video. I keep trying to find segments to clip but then find it’s all good stuff. Watch it and see for yourself what a little positive conditioning to tools can do. This pup got kicked out of two groomers and is lucky to have a good one now; but we are working together to help him accept and tolerate handling better with minimal stress

01/29/2025

People asked….

I just happened to roll up to a client’s house today and found they were using a prong collar on their dog, which is fine with me, but it was not being used correctly and was in fact dangerous.

That’s unfortunately why this tool gets a lot of guff and negative feedback: Misuse and misunderstanding.

I’m not posting this here to have people come at me and post their hateful comments about training tools.

Curious questions, sure. By all means, but if you hate monger, i will block you.

My page is not a fighting forum and I will not tolerate rude comments toward the client or myself.

It is my job to teach people how to safely use tools.

Do I require every dog to wear one ? No!

Do I want your dog to be as safe as possible when wearing this tool? Yes! 

Maybe if you have been using the tool incorrectly, this video will help prevent injury and give you more control and confidence.

Don’t hate the tool.

Hate the fool that thinks ANY tool will just magically train the dog. There aren’t any. I’ve said it before I’ll say it again: The only tool that gets impeccable results at training a dog is YOU, ya fool. So get off your butt and make it happen.

And use whatever you want! And don’t judge others cuz you have no idea what they’re dealing with.

I will actually post more information about these tools and other tools coming soon. Why not!? We can do a video on every collar in the book and its performance. Sounds fun.

Hope it helps

01/29/2025

It’s a bit long but there is value in it so I will share.

Ludo has some issues with being left in the crate. After learning about where he came from, I can understand why he and all his littermates have issues with confinement. Very sad what some people do and call “breeding.” Shameful in fact.

Some might say he doesn’t need to be crated. I would disagree. Crating js a life skill and will necessary at times.

After a lot of work, he is great at it when I’m home or when he is waiting for his turn to be worked, but he does still show signs of stress when I “leave.”

Here I am working on some of the triggers that cause stress and indicate that I am leaving.

Keys are one. The sound of my engine being started from the keys. The footsteps. The squeaky hinge on my door. The darn bell on my Christmas wreath I forgot to take down lol

They are all triggers to be worked on. Increased exposure to them with increased return and not “actually leaving” will remove the association and extinguisn the stress. The time it takes to extinguish is different for every dog.

Check if out. Maybe give it a go if your dog also struggles with this.

01/27/2025

This group came in ready to earn their stripes in The General🫡 Excellent first class, y’all! We can’t wait to see the progress👌🏼