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The Pack Dog Training Reactivity Redefined! Creating calm for dogs & building confidence in humans - Vancouver BC 🐾🇨🇦

Everyone say hello to Fergus (right) and his sister who had his initial assessment with Kelly. Owner concerns: Dog react...
22/11/2025

Everyone say hello to Fergus (right) and his sister who had his initial assessment with Kelly.

Owner concerns: Dog reactivity, Leash manners, Socialization, Basic manners

My assessment: Fergus and his sister are overall very well behaved dogs. While his sister was socialized young at doggie daycare, Mom admits she dropped the ball with Fergus. Due to his lack of early socialization, he gets strong feelings about other dogs, all excitement, but being that he is an XL American bully, that does not come off well in public. Mom has been avoiding dogs on leash which is just causing the cycle to continue.
They were very excited to meet me when I came in the house and there was little to no boundaries or direction from Mom so once I sat down I had two chunky bullies in my lap giving me kisses - which I love, but not everybody does and that shouldn't be the acceptable standard upon entry inside the home with a stranger.
When we went outside, I actually saw decent leash manners and check-ins, but not a lot of leadership and direction from Mom.
When I brought out Cooper, he was very excited, and Cooper took some time before they had a somewhat proper introduction which jumped into play quite quickly. Mom was beside herself with happiness because it was the first time he had met a dog on leash in years. I followed up by bringing out Bogey, who he was interested in but not quite as much as Cooper and because Bogey is not as dog interested, there was a quick bum sniff but overall fairly neutral.
Mom said he acts very differently when he is walked with his sister, and that he has a tendency to redirect on her when excited. While standing in the driveway, he saw Pepper in the window of my van and did a little air snap at his sister. I was convinced I was going to see more of this when I brought out Scrappy but instead, I saw his sister hyper focus on Scrappy while Fergus was acting quite well and neutral.

Stay tuned: We are going to do a five package training program focusing on tightening up obedience, giving Mom some more leadership skills, creating more rules and boundaries inside and outside the home and then creating controlled scenarios to work on socialization.

Everyone say hello again to Pearl who had her fourth session out of her five package training program of Kelly. Owner co...
21/11/2025

Everyone say hello again to Pearl who had her fourth session out of her five package training program of Kelly.

Owner concerns: Dog reactivity, Leash manners, Socialization, Aggression (has the intention to harm)

How it started: Pearl is a very typical Rottweiler, a bit protective, lots and lots of feelings, stubborn and likes to test boundaries. At home she was being given little to no structure, rules and boundaries which then transferred outside. She was always so so excited to meet new people, but she was also so so nervous about new dogs which created leash reactivity.

What we did: implementing more structure in the home including a crate for neutral calm time, less freedom, a house leash and more rules and boundaries.
We helped Mom polish up her prong collar skills as she came into the program with one. We created more handler relevancy outside with leash manners and checking in.
We then started to create controlled scenarios with other dogs from Mom to practice, gain experience and therefore confidence in catching her loading cues, interrupting before reactive explosion and guiding her towards neutrality and calm.

How it's going: Today was all about e-collar conditioning. We started inside the home pairing low level stimulation (4/100) with known commands "sit, crate and mat".
The timing needed to be it perfect so I actually put the e-collar on myself first for Mom to get the timing down before using it on Pearl, by the way my working level is twice what Pearl's is 😆
We then headed outside to use low level stimulation as an interrupter during "leave it".

Stay tuned: Mom is going to practice and polish up her e-collar timing so next session we can use it more during socialization.

21/11/2025

BANE IS BACK WITH DAD!

It was such an emotional reunion yesterday, Bane was SO excited to see his dad and the feeling was absolutely mutual ❤️

Bane went home with a big crate, Costco bed, new dog bowls, new toys and a beef Better Bone, plus some Honest Kitchen dehydrated raw turkey food and some new equipment like a prong collar and martingale plus extra leashes and don't forget the p**p bags!

Thank you everyone for the donations and encouragement throughout the process of us helping Bane - We could not do this without the village of support behind us 🙏🏼

We will definitely be keeping in touch and we'll let you guys know updates from time to time.

Say hey to Miss Maggie again Pyrenees X Shepherd X Husky? 1y rescue Owner concerns: dog reactivity, leash, manners, reca...
20/11/2025

Say hey to Miss Maggie again Pyrenees X Shepherd X Husky? 1y rescue

Owner concerns: dog reactivity, leash, manners, recall, socialization, basic manners

Breakthrough session!!! Maggie has been very reactive to other dogs on leash, lunging barking, pulling, spooked at movement or unusual noises, sniffing the ground all time and didn’t know, her parents won the planet. Today, major shift she was attentive to them, enjoying some fun and engagement. We passed several dogs so that she didn’t care about and we even got to meet one 🙏⭐️. So happy for this little girl. She’s really beginning to shine, relax and show her personality.

What we did : we used CCBT to address the emotional reasons for the behavior, improving self regulation and lowering anxiety. With the emotions in a better place, we were able to do better leash work, and engagement handling games to make her parents, fun and important (positive reinforcement)

Gold star to her very dedicated mom and dad who or whatever it takes type people and only the best for Maggie 🧡

Say hello to Fletcher again, English pointer x Jindo - rescue from Korea 3.5y who just had his second CCBT combo positiv...
20/11/2025

Say hello to Fletcher again, English pointer x Jindo - rescue from Korea 3.5y who just had his second CCBT combo positive reinforcement session with Mais

Owner concerns: leach manners, recall anxiety

How’s it going? Fletcher is the perfect example of pet parents striving for better! He’s overall a pretty good boy, greets dogs well and is calm in the home. Spooks/shakes/barks/whines in busy places and will not recall when there are squirrels, rats birds. We started with CCBT to lower the anxiety. Tonight we move that forward to Brentwood center. BAM! 💥 Breakthrough moment the calmest he’s ever been in this place. Prior to that we began training whistle this was the very first session. In this session his leach got accidentally dropped and he was hunting rats. We use the whistle and he recalled immediately ⭐️ that’s faster than it usually goes, but we’ll take it.

So proud of him and his pet parents for wanting to give him an even better life. This dog has won the lottery. Something else to know I was the third trainer of this family has seen 🙏 They gave warm gratitude after the session for his progress.

TRUTH ❤️ 🐾
19/11/2025

TRUTH ❤️ 🐾

Say hello again to Olive and Brutus, one and a half year-old Scottish terriers who just had their third cognitive behavi...
18/11/2025

Say hello again to Olive and Brutus, one and a half year-old Scottish terriers who just had their third cognitive behavioural session with Mais

Owner concerns: barking, pulling on the leash, jumping, lack of impulse control, anxiety, nipping

How’s it going? Overall, the dogs have calmed down. Mom admitted she has been busy at work but she has done some work and it shows. Olive is the more timid of the two and was nervous going into HomeSense, but we did some CBT with her and she self regulated very quickly and began to enjoy the ride. Both used to be over greeters jumping scratching on legs for significant amount of time. We put big focus on proper greetings today and it shows if you watch stories they greet calmly and it’s lovely. In addition, we got them some new collars which show proper communication and the dog are responding very well to them with no pulling at all. Still more work to be done on timing and body disposition, but we’re definitely on our way.

Super proud of these little terriers!

Setbacks happen! It’s what you learn from them that helps you grow 🩵🌻🌱
18/11/2025

Setbacks happen! It’s what you learn from them that helps you grow 🩵🌻🌱

Everybody say hello to Phoebe who had her initial assessment with Kelly. Owner concerns: dog reactivity and recall My as...
17/11/2025

Everybody say hello to Phoebe who had her initial assessment with Kelly.

Owner concerns: dog reactivity and recall

My assessment: Phoebe is a big girl with lots of energy and a short attention span unless it comes to squirrels hahaha
She was adopted as a puppy from LAPs during covid so she was chosen for her parents because of their experience with dogs. As with most pandemic pups, she was socialized primarily off leash with other dogs, which initially didn't create leash reactivity until there were a handful of minor incidents. Over the last 6 months she has become more leash reactive, seemingly stemming from a bit of fear but also some dominance and brattiness.
When I met them in a neutral park, she excitedly pulled her mom over towards me, as the harness was giving them little control or communication.
As we walked around the park, she wasn't horrible on leash, but they're definitely wasn't any handler relevancy or direction from Mom. She was extremely interested in the squirrels, but seemingly ignored a couple of other dogs doing their own thing in the park.
When I brought over Cooper and then Bogey she was quite neutral with both of them, and Mom said she normally did well with male dogs that were balanced.

Although they had come from working positive only, mom was really struggling with controlling her and had actually bought a prong collar from PetSmart, although she had not used it at all due to wanting direction on fitment and usage. I grabbed a 3 mm prong collar and we did some conditioning and how I use it, which she responded brilliantly to. I recommended that they go to Dog Sport Langley to pick up a 3 mm short prong that they recently got in so we can work with that.

Stay tuned: We are going to do a five package training program, incorporate some new tools and techniques into their training toolbox and give Mom and Dad some more confidence and leadership skills to have her defer to them more often 🐾

17/11/2025

HAPPY COOPER GOTCHA DAY 🎊

6 years ago today, the man that would single pawedly (instead of single-handedly) carry the Pack Dog Training on his back, the top trainer of us all, the bestest babiest of all angels landed on Canadian soil 🇨🇦

These are the videos and pictures sent me and I was smitten immediately 🥰

Please wish Coops a Happy Gotcha Day below and let us know what you've learned from Cooper or how he's changed you and your dogs relationship - whether that be actually working with us in person or watching his videos. I promise I will read him all of the comments ❤️ 🐾

Everyone say hello again to Daphne who had her third session out of her five package training program with Kelly. Owner ...
17/11/2025

Everyone say hello again to Daphne who had her third session out of her five package training program with Kelly.

Owner concerns: Human reactivity, Dog reactivity, Socialization

How it started: Daphne is a young great Dane x mastiff mix that grew up being socialized in doggy day care and dog parks. This created leash reactivity and due to her size it became a real problem for her mom especially to handle her. When they came to the program they were using a head halti, that Daphne was not a huge fan of.

What we did: for our first session we tried out a number of pieces of equipment and while we did incorporate a few, the best option was the 2.25mm prong. We then practiced controlled pass bys and socialization with dogs from the pack while working around dog parks.

How it's going: unfortunately last week, Daphne had a big blow up at a dog and she broke her prong collar. We're using this opportunity to remind everybody that the prongs do have a weight limit and because she's almost 100 lb, the 2.25 mm prong collar is only made for up to 60 lb. Thankfully recently came out with the 3 mm short, so we switched her over and Mom says it is a godsend!
Today we met at Patterson Park and started with a walk around the track with Cooper, Bogey and Wall-E.
We then went into the off leash area for the boys and her to play, before some other dogs joined. This is where I got to see a whole different side of her as I had not had her off leash yet, and she's a totally different dog! Much more confident and playful, which isn't surprising as we knew her reactivity on leash stemmed from frustration and fear.
I wanted to use this opportunity of "happy Daphne" to look into e-collar conditioning. We used a mini educator and found her working level to be 8-10/100. We started using this for basic recall, which she picked up quickly, and then used it for some interrupting recall when she was playing with other dogs. It was a brilliant tool for her!

Stay tuned: Next time we are going to use the E-Collar and incorporate it into some passing by and proximity socialization to call her attention off hyperfixation and loading to explosion on other dogs.

Everyone say hello again to Chloe who had her second session out if her five package training program with Kelly.Owner c...
16/11/2025

Everyone say hello again to Chloe who had her second session out if her five package training program with Kelly.

Owner concerns: Leash manners, Dog reactivity, Human reactivity, Recall

How it started: Remember that Chloe is a mixed breed consisting of Dogo Argentino, Heeler, Lab, Great Pyrenees, St. Bernard, German Shepherd & Collie so she's got A LOT of working breeds in there! She wasn't being given enough jobs, so she was creating jobs like protecting her home from any people that walked within 100 yards or dared to come inside, protecting in warning her mom against other dogs that were within 100 yards of them on walks and alert barking to...well...everything.

What we did: We started by adding a 3 mm prong collar at the initial assessment which was, as usual, nothing short of game changing for mom's confidence.
We then added in a house leash and some protocols for guests so her and her sister Lucy no longer greeted them with a body slam at the front door - as fun as that was 😉
Mom is also working on keeping them off the couch, having them in a neutral place command more often and going to be adding in crates.

How it's going: Today we went outside to create controlled scenarios with other dogs and open up our toolbox of techniques so Mom could pivot in the moment depending on the other dog and how they triggered Chloe.
I brought out Milo the Shepherd, Ferris the demon Frenchie, Brody, Scrappy and finished with a walk around the block with Cooper.
Mom practiced stopping and distracting, using treats to lure attention away, powering through the situation with confidence and calm and just getting comfortable in close proximity to other dogs.

🐾

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How Kelly became the Crazy Dog Lady

Kelly has always had a love for dogs, and grew up in a household where she had four that were her best friends. After she graduated with a biochemistry degree from California State University at Fullerton, she moved to Washington state where her love for pitbulls began. She started PB and Chi Dog Rescue Society in 2012 and worked hands on with over 500 dogs and felt rescue dogs was her true calling. Seeing the issues the dogs coming out of the shelters had, she got her certification in dog training and started working hands on with the reactive and unsocialized ones in particular as there was so little training willing and able of working with them. Through the course of her rescue and training experience, she built a pack of her own dogs that she worked diligently to balance and work together in harmony. She now uses her own skills, along with those of her ten pack, to help dogs and families all over the lower mainland to find their family harmony too. She always says “whatever your issue, I have a dog for that!”