Monument City Dog

07/03/2025

Latest BT crew!

Reese - 2yo mix. New to her family and is here for basic obedience
Tegan - 2yo hound mix here for basic listening skills and some fear based reactivity
Nova - 5mo hound mix puppy here for fear, confidence building and basic obedience! Prior to training her fam wasn’t able to walk her.
Harper - 4yo boxer mix here for resource guarding, aggression and reactivity.

06/05/2025

Our latest training crew!

1 - Wolf: goldendoodle here for puppy basics
2 - Jessie: hound mix here for reactivity
3 - Monty: Pittie mix here for reactivity/aggression/stranger danger
4 - Benny: goldendoodle here for the basics
5 - Teddy: chocolate yorkie here for barking/anxiety/housebreaking.

05/21/2025

When I started out in the shelter world, I truly believed we could save them all. That with enough love, structure, and effort, any dog could become the perfect companion.

I carried that belief with me into training. But over the past 15 years, I’ve learned something important:

You can only reach the full potential of the dog in front of you.
And that potential is shaped by more than just training.
It’s shaped by genetics.

Training is powerful. It teaches skills, builds confidence, improves communication, and changes lives. But it doesn’t erase a dog’s biological blueprint.

Some dogs are born more sensitive. Some have higher arousal levels, lower frustration tolerance, stronger prey drive, or bigger social thresholds.

That’s not something you can “fix” because it was never broken to begin with.

It’s just who they are.

And the more we try to force dogs into a mold they weren’t designed for, the more frustrated we all become. humans and dogs alike.

Imagine trying to train a naturally introverted kid to love being the center of attention.
With guidance, they can build confidence and hold their own in social settings. But they’ll probably never love big crowds or being the loudest in the room.

And that’s okay.

Same goes for dogs. Training should bring out the best in them, not ask them to become something they’re not.

The shift for me came when I stopped asking, “How do I fix this?”
And started asking, “How can I support this dog in this body, with this brain, to thrive in the world we’ve brought them into?”

That mindset changes everything.

Because when we stop chasing perfection and start honoring who our dogs actually are, we unlock real progress.

Less stress
More clarity
Stronger connection
A dog who feels seen, safe, and supported.

And that, to me, is what training is all about.

05/13/2025

Bringing a baby into your home is a big change, and it’s important to set your dog up for success before the big day. I am about to become an aunt in a few days time, so this topic has been on my mind a lot lately! I’ve elaborated more on these points in a blog post on my website if you want to check it out!

🔹 Start Early – Reinforce foundational skills like “place” and impulse control to make life easier when your hands are full.

🔹 Create a Safe Space – Give your dog a calm retreat where they can decompress when things get busy.

🔹 Desensitize to New Noises – Play baby sounds and introduce new scents ahead of time to reduce stress.

🔹 Introduce Slowly – Use a leash for the first few interactions. Dogs have a powerful sense of smell, so they don’t need to get right up in the baby’s face to understand who they are.

🔹 Set Boundaries – Establish dog-free zones like the nursery now, so your dog is used to the rules before the baby arrives.

🔹 Always Supervise – Never leave your dog and baby alone, no matter how well they get along.

🔹 Keep Routines Consistent – Amid the chaos, stick to your dog’s regular walk, feeding, and play times to reduce anxiety.

With some thoughtful prep and clear boundaries, you’ll give your dog the best chance at a peaceful coexistence with your new baby.

📸

04/20/2025

This is a statement I see a lot in local groups and everyone has a strong opinion on it, so here’s my perspective:

It’s a fair question! You love your dog. You’re invested. And you want the relationship you build to be rooted in trust, respect, and real connection, not just obedience.

But here’s the truth:

You don’t have to be your dog’s trainer to build a deep, meaningful relationship with them.

Just like you don’t need to be your child’s teacher to raise a kind, capable human being.
We send our kids to school not because we don’t care, but because we do. We recognize the value of letting professionals handle the foundational teaching, so we can focus on everything else that truly matters: raising them with values, supporting them through life, and being their constant.

It’s the same when you send your dog to a board and train.

The training teaches your dog how to regulate their state of mind. How to respond to leash pressure. How to build impulse control, calmness, and confidence inside clear boundaries. It lays the groundwork.
But that’s not the relationship.

That’s what makes the relationship possible.

Because once your dog has that clarity, once the chaos starts to quiet down, your communication improves. They can hear you. They can follow you. They can trust you.

That trust doesn’t come from who teaches “Sit.” It comes from what you do every day after that:

– The walks you take where your dog checks in with you naturally
– The calm moments you share when your dog finally knows how to settle beside you
– The structure you reinforce with patience and consistency
– The clear “Yes” and “No” that help your dog feel safe and understood

These are the moments that matter.
These are the moments where connection grows.

You don’t need to be in the teaching phase to be central in your dog’s life.
You just need to be the one showing up with clarity, leadership, and care—long after the training ends.

Training builds the foundation.
You bring it to life.
And that’s where the real relationship begins.

01/13/2025

The face you make after mom makes you go back to school after a full week of snow ❄️

Please welcome Gavin, the 3yo Great Pyr mix for our three week program!

07/09/2024

Our very own Morgan’s dog Louie with the biggest distraction of them all - deer! If you have a dog with prey drive you KNOW how impressive this is. Louie graduated a few years ago and he is still out here making good choices! 💪🏻

07/09/2024

Meeka the 7yo cattle dog is about halfway through her behavior mod program for dog reactivity! Her dad has very realistic goals for her - like being able to walk her in the daylight 😄

We have worked really hard on building a solid foundation giving her access to lower arousal levels as well as trust & respect for her handler. What we’ve found is that Meeka is actually extremely uncomfortable with other dogs and has had limited exposure to other dogs prior to being adopted by her current family.

Having positive social interactions as well as regard for whoever is holding the leash has made her feel much more comfortable. We still have a lot of work to do but I’m really proud of how far she has come already!

01/30/2024

Our last post of Max on place was viewed over 2 million times and some of the commenters collectively lost their mind over the fact that he was leashed inside. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I thought that this would be a good opportunity to elaborate on why we utilize back-ties and suggest our clients do at home as well for the first few weeks.

The short answer is that we don’t want to allow our dogs to self-reward. I’ll use people coming over as an example because it’s quite a common problem with our clients! Our overexcited dogs loose their minds over visitors because it feels good - someone comes in, dogs adrenaline shoots up and the dog screams, jumps and generally just looses their mind. These behaviors are an adrenaline dump - it feels good to release all that stress.

So by the time the dogs get to us, it’s a pattern. The first thing we do is stop the freak out, but we are ALSO not allowing our dogs to even get to that person using a back tie. If our dogs are getting corrected and still make it to that person, whatever number they took was “worth” it because in the end, they still got what they wanted.

And this is a mindset that spills into your whole relationship. Dogs are constantly weighing their options to determine whether or not what they want is more valuable than what you want. So while the moment seems small and inconsequential, to the dog there is always a 20% chance that they can still get what they want.

Our job is to help the dog figure out what TO do once we stop the chaos. Dogs here aren’t weighing their options because they know that there isn’t a chance of it happening. This opens up space for the dog to really be using their mind to start patterning what they should be doing - keeping their emotions in check.

*it needs to be said that you should NEVER leave a dog back-tied when they are unsupervised. Our dogs are always monitored.*

01/14/2024

STRESS IN TRAINING

The most important goal of our training program is to teach our dogs how to better handle stress by developing their coping skills and teaching them how to regulate their nervous systems on their own. Sometimes in the process of working through their issues, dogs will look stressed… because they are.

Dogs come to us who have developed their own coping skills to deal with stress and often that looks like reactivity, spinning, biting, frantic movements, jumping, etc. These behaviors can look “cute” and look like the dog is having fun but if you really dig deep to what the dog is feeling on the inside, it’s anything but happy.

IMO working any animal through stress is an art and you can only really navigate it by having your hands on hundreds, if not thousands of dogs. We currently have four different dogs on each end of the spectrum of anxiety. Lulu the German shepherd is very stable and just needed more clarity on what was expected so she will move the quickest through her program. Our doodles, Royal and Max are somewhere in the middle and have very similar issues, but deal with them differently. They will be behind Lulu in terms of how quick they move and will need more help navigating more stressful situations. Charlie our schnauzer is on the far end of the anxiety spectrum and we won’t leave the house or yard for the first week because his stress level outside is so high. This is also why his program is the longest.

Being clear and fair is so important and something we take very seriously. We also take time to reassure, give breaks and have free time so the dog has time to blow off steam so we maintain a healthy balance. The goal is always to move the dog along at a pace they can handle while exposing them to stressful situations, because that is life.

Our program is meant for real dogs in the real world making them the best version of themselves ☺️

12/21/2023

Enjoying the sunshine In fells with our last two training dogs of 2023 - Soba and Astro! We have boarders over Christmas/New Years and then we are taking a week long break before our first round of training dogs in 2024. 🎉

11/29/2023