Lil' Rascals Dog Training

06/25/2025

Prudence reported for daycare, took in the heat, and declared it a day for spells, not sunshine.
We kept our coven activities indoors, practiced a little magic (aka training), and crept into the yard only when the shadows got long.
Harley tagged along like a loyal familiar, and they spent the rest of the afternoon plotting how to banish summer sun altogether.

06/25/2025

You know that feeling—having to pre-apologize before daycare?
“He’s a little reactive.”
“She barks at weird stuff.”
“He just doesn’t like being approached.”

At VIP Daycare, we don’t need the disclaimers.
We already expect that your dog has needs.
We’re built for that.

Your dog gets to show up exactly as they are.
And you get to hand them off without guilt, shame, or performance pressure.

If that sounds like the kind of drop-off you need… let’s talk.

06/25/2025

Living our best life with a morning swim in the lake. Gentle movement, fresh air, and a little time to care for our bodies and minds.

Harley is still unsure about the deep water and not being able to touch the ground, but we’ve been here before. She didn’t like the creek at first either, and now it’s her favorite place to frolic.

The lake will grow on her too. We’re just taking it one splash at a time.

06/24/2025

06/23/2025

Help us welcome Tullimore Fox and Little Bear Bojang to the Lil Rascals fam — two distinguished gentlemen with wildly different approaches to life.

Tully is blind, googly-eyed, recently grieving the loss of his sister, and currently deciding whether having a new little brother is healing... or deeply offensive.

Little Bear, on the other hand, is a respectful young gentleman who’s completely fallen for his new mom. And he does not handle goodbyes well. In just one week, he developed some pretty serious separation anxiety... and tried to cope by remodeling the bedroom doorframe. He also took a few bites out of the front door for good measure.

So now we’re working on sibling bonding, emotional regulation, and learning that love doesn’t require structural damage.

Stay tuned. These boys are complicated, but they’re very worth it.

06/23/2025

Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do…

Is stop.

Let your dog decompress.
Let the nervous system rest.
Let the experience integrate.

Rest is learning.
Stillness is progress.

Growth doesn’t always look like action.

It often looks like space.

06/22/2025

Bailey is here for the weekend while her parents are away. She’s deaf, reactive, and not exactly thrilled about sharing HER neighborhood with other dogs.

She’s settling in well, has accepted Harley’s presence without protest, and is showing up ready to work.

Tonight we walked through her neighborhood to practice loose leash walking and build engagement in the places that usually test her patience.

She doesn’t need the world to be different. She just needs a little support learning how to move through it. And that’s exactly what we’re here to do.

06/21/2025

She's beauty. She's grace.
She thinks strangers need personal space.

Meet Zita — a fiery little Stranger Danger queen who came all the way from West Virginia for an evaluation at our training studio after past trainers had given up.

We’re starting with an 8-week virtual program to help her feel safe, understood, and supported as we start unwinding those big “nope” feelings about new people.

Board & train may be in her future — but first, we’re laying the groundwork for trust, confidence, and some seriously empowered boundaries.

Welcome to the Lil Rascals fam, Zita. You’re in good hands.

06/20/2025

What’s one thing your dog has trained you to do?
We’re not proud of it. But we all have at least one.

Harley's is: Dinner is strictly at 6 pm. Not a moment later (but early is totally ok). She paces around and subtly herds me into the kitchen to remind me to prepare her meal.

06/19/2025

This is not just a dog on a stump.
This is the High Priestess of Pinecones, freshly anointed on her second day of daycare.
She hexes exes, channels ancient squirrel magic, and accepts tributes in the form of hot dogs.
Her name is Prudence—and this forest runs on her vibes now.

06/19/2025

If your dog always explodes at the same spot on your walk,
It’s not because they’re bad.
It’s because they’ve practiced.

The body memorizes.
The environment cues the response.
And repetition wires it in.

This is good news.
Because we can rehearse different patterns.
We just have to be intentional about what we let them practice.

06/19/2025

Last summer, Harley finally decided the creek wasn't trying to kill her and that playing in water is fun.

This summer? New body of water, new existential crisis.

She waded in, realized she couldn’t touch the bottom, and immediately began her Oscar-worthy performance of “Absolutely Not.”

She did swim. She did survive. But she will be writing a strongly worded Yelp review.