05/30/2026
When you think dog training, you might assume teaching your dog commands. Which isn’t totally wrong! But if you were to ask us, dog training means much more than that. Obedience is just a small chip in the humongous complex block of learning.
Training a dog doesn’t mean telling them what to do and when to do it. No way! Imagine someone dictating what you can and can’t do on the daily, honestly how exhausting is that.
While there’s nothing wrong with teaching your dog how to sit, stay, and come, just know that there are deeper levels of training. Such as taking into account your dog’s emotions and perspective on life. It’s fun teaching a dog tricks and obedience skills, but what we really love is teaching an owner how to develop healthy boundaries and repair relationships with their dogs.
Meet our little tri-pod friend Tenny. He has come SO far in his training, with all the credit going to his very dedicated owners. They adopted this little guy after he was living off the streets in Portland, and while he’s learned to love his humans, trust wasn’t so easy to come by. Touch in particular was not very welcoming. With our training program, his owners have been able to bathe him, groom him, and even start guiding him in how to feel safe around new people.
What’s next to tackle on the list? The dreaded nail trims. There’s a reason why Tenny can’t go to a traditional groomer, this guy will strike you like a snake. Or really, anytime he feels uncomfortable with you touching him, his fight instincts activate.
We’ve come super far with counter-conditioning for Tennys training, which means re-introducing nail trims in a different way can help reset how Tenny feels about it.
It’ll take time, but his owners know and understand Tennys the tortoise in the race. We’ll just follow his pace. 🩷
