Donoghue Dog Training LLC

01/01/2025

Nick has tons of experience. If you are in Livingston and have a pup check out these classes.

🎉🐾 New Year, New Adventures for Your Puppy! 🐾🎉

Hey puppy parents! 🐶 Do you have an adorable fur baby between 8-16 weeks old? Now’s the perfect time to give them the paw-some start they deserve with our Early Learning Puppy Socialization Classes! 🐕✨

🗓 Starts: Wednesday, January 8th
⏰ Time: 5:00 - 6:00 PM
📆 Duration: 6 weeks of fun and learning
💰 Cost: Only $100 for the entire program!

🌟 Spots are limited—just 5 spots left! Act fast to secure your pup’s place in this engaging, supportive, and tail-wagging good time!

📩 Reach out to Nick, our amazing Canine Specialist, at [email protected] for the location and more details.

Let’s kick off 2025 with wagging tails, happy puppies, and a head start on building lifelong bonds. 🐾💙

Tag a friend with a new puppy, and let’s make this a class full of furry fun! 🐕✨

12/06/2024

Having a second thought. When your first thought is to react impulsively in an assertive or avoiding way or in a purely emotional fashion, can you compose yourself to control your actions in a thoughtful way. This is why everyone should train their dog, not only to make life easier living with us and within our community but also for your dogs sense of wellbeing and safety in our presence. This video is of a Guatemalan street dog, who I do not believe was "trained" to stay laying outside a busy cafe, but rather thru it's genetic make up and life experiences has learned to stay calm with strangers walking within inches of its face knowing that it may pay off in access to a possible resource(food,water,shady resting spot?). Every dog is an individual and thru their genetic make up and life experience will have their own unique abilities and personal threshold for resilience in the face of adversity. Give your dog structure and train them to better handle the changing environment by rewarding their composed second thoughts and consiquently strengthening their resilience.

10/30/2024

It takes a team! I’ve had the privilege to work with this team over the past two years and I am so proud of them! Their consistency and persistence has payed off getting them to their goal of service dog team!

07/10/2024

Stay cool my friends 4 legged and 2 legged.

03/21/2024

Dogs of Taganga and Cartagena Colombia

03/21/2024

La Vida es Bonita (Life is Beautiful)
I recently traveled to the country of Colombia with my family. It was a vibrant experience and of course I was fascinated by the behavior and lives of the dogs that live there. The majority of the dogs I observed would be considered free ranging or street dogs. The ways they wove their way into the fabric of human life left me with thoughts and a new perspective on the bond we share. Here are a few of my take aways-
The power of autonomy- The majority of dogs were off leash free to move and communicate with the world as they pleased. I observed limited aggressive behaviors directed towards other dogs and none towards humans. The dogs overall remained relaxed through out the day taking lots of naps in the shade. A recent study measured heart rate with dogs on a short leash, a long leash and off leash. Lower heart was associated with sniffing. Sniffing significantly increased with dogs on a long leash and off leash. Link to study-summhttps://www.dogfieldstudy.com/en/study/pulse-study-at-the-heart-of-the-
walk://www.dogfieldstudy.com/en/study/pulse-study-at-the-heart-of-the-walk

What's humane?- This is not an easy question and can be strongly formed by the culture and the history of dogs in that community. Many aboriginal communities have had free ranging dogs for centuries and would argue -why is it more humane to keep a dog locked in a house or crate when it can wander as it pleases. I would also say in general the level of human attention and care given to dogs in a particular community is directly related to the energy available from the humans to care beyond themselves. I saw a lot of dogs living a pretty good life with their freedom and choice to attach to the humans that treated them well.

Making a living- Like the people, the dogs scratched out their niches to maintain access to their basic necessities of food, drinkable water and a cool place to rest. I saw a number of dogs following homeless people as they where both seeking scraps or left over fresh small fish from the nets. Some dogs were good at identifying the tourist and would politely beg for a piece of food while you ate. Some dogs would run free all day, but had a home and would wag their tail at the front door waiting to get let in when their human came home. A mile or so walk from town we visited a smaller beach. This beach had a fishing net going out from shore and was pulled in when there was a school of fish in it. I got to witness the pulling in of the nets and was amazed to see five or six dogs come out of the jungle to see if any fish would be tossed aside. Being a hot climate shade and a place to cool off was a valuable resource. Dogs would hang out in the bus stations, the shade of a boat or shade tarp on the beach and one of my favorites was watching dogs wade into the ocean to cool off.
In summary, give your dog more freedom to sniff and explore their world- pay attention to what makes your dog comfortable or uncomfortable- observe how your dog makes a living and what behaviors get them stuff. Most of all get to know the people and their perspective before judging them on how they care for their dogs.

02/07/2024

Play with toys is one of my favorite ways to engage my dogs. Once you’ve established cooperative play at home bring it to new environments. Show your dog you like to have fun too when out and about.

02/06/2024

3 big drivers of your dog’s behavior

11/02/2023

Wonder and Contentment… two beautiful things in life that dogs remind me of daily.

10/25/2023

Sunny camping memories on this snowy Montana day.

10/11/2023

Does your dog(s) and/or cat love to follow you into the bathroom? It so happened that I had some kibble in my pocket on this occasion and I turned it into a short training opportunity. Slow, controlled, and a willing entrance to the bath tub is my goal. I’ll break the process into small short steps keeping it fun and positive. So the next time nature calls- train your dog or cat!

09/15/2023

Use what motivates your dog to reinforce training and focus.