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Mariah Hinds Dog Training, 14812 Karina Falls Court, Charlotte, NC (2025)

05/29/2024

Our puppies in training today practiced drop it, come when called, walking on a loose leash near Home Depot, greeting people without jumping up and we worked on teaching them to tolerate toe nail trims. The Advanced dog training puppies got to practice place and stay on their dog beds, come when called in public, walk next to us on leash, and stopping when we say stop while out walking on the leash. The puppies all learned a ton!

05/22/2024

Our puppy training pupils practiced sit, down and come when called today and we worked on specifically on them not biting people’s hands while we pet them enthusiastically. Our dog training field trip to practice listening around distractions was to the water fountain. The Advanced puppies got to practice place and stay on their dog beds, come when called in public, walk next to us on leash, and stopping when we say stop while out walking on the leash. The puppies all learned a ton!

05/20/2024

Our dog training pupils for our Puppy School program today practiced kennel up, greeting politely without jumping up, greeting people politely on leash (no jumping up), and we worked on vet visit handling. The Advanced puppies got to practice leave it with household items such as shoes and cotton balls. They also practiced leave it with food in the kitchen. On our field trip the Advanced puppies practiced leave it when walking past other dogs who cannot say hi to them and leave it while walking past food on the ground on our field trip to Harris Teeter. Everyone had a great day!

12/20/2023

Our puppy training pupils practiced sit, down and come when called today and we worked on puppy biting as well. being able to pet them without getting bitten. Our field trip to practice listening around distractions was to the water fountain. The Advanced puppies got to practice place and stay on their dog beds, come when called in public, walk next to us on leash, and stopping when we say stop while out walking on the leash. The puppies all learned a ton!

11/08/2023

Today our Puppy School students worked on drop it. It's such an important skill for puppies to learn to spit things out that are not appropriate for them to have in their mouths. We also worked on come when called and greeting without jumping up or scratching people. Our activity today was toenail trims and everyone did an amazing job. For our advanced students, we worked on leave it with forbidden household items like toilet paper and paper towels, food that accidentally gets dropped on the floor, trash that we pass out on our walks and leave it with passing other dogs. On our field trip to work on walk nicely on leash, we went to Home Depot and all the puppies had a great time practicing their listening skills in public.

If you have a puppy who is in need of training, contact us right away or if you have an adult dog we also offer training programs for adult dogs as well.

11/06/2023

Our activity of the day was petting without biting. We practiced petting each puppy's head, ears and muzzle vigorously for five seconds before rewarding the puppies for not biting. If the puppies did bite, then we would give the puppy a 10-second timeout. A timeout means that we are turning away from the puppy looking at the sky and ignoring them for 10 seconds and then immediately we play the game again so that puppy has an opportunity to earn the food rewards. For the puppies who easily could keep their mouth from touching the trainers flesh for 5 seconds, we worked on the more advanced skill of petting for 7 seconds or 10 seconds before rewarding the puppy with food.

We worked on sit and down with the puppies during individual training. We meet each puppy where they are at, since some come to school with some degree of one or both of these skills. As soon as possible, we will graduate away from luring to using a hand signal. Once the puppy is responding to the hand signal without us needing to have food in the hand doing the hand signal, then we start pairing the word sit or down to the hand signal.

The more advanced puppies worked on stay on their bed while the handler walks around, distracts them with dropping food on the ground, moving random items around, and circling the puppy. The puppies get rewarded for remaining on their dog bed regardless of the distractions. This is a very useful skill while preparing food in the kitchen for people or for the dog, while having visitors over, or for teaching the puppy to relax during TV time.

All the puppies practiced come when called individually. We teach the puppies that their name means we are giving them a food reward. Once they are eager to look towards us for food when we say their name, then we practice having them “come touch”. Come touch is when the puppy comes directly to the trainer, touches their hand and then earns a reward for coming when called. Being able to come when called among lots of distractions such as during puppy play time is a valuable skill that one day might save these puppy's lives.

To practice "come touch", we throw a treat for the puppy to chase down and eat which causes the puppy to be away from us. Once the puppy has eaten the treat, then we call the puppies name, once the puppy looks at us, then we point and say come touch. When the puppy arrives and touches our hand with their nose, then we make sure that we are able to touch the puppy with our other hand before rewarding the puppy for coming when called.

Our field trip was to the water fountain, where we worked on walking nicely on leash around lots of people, cars, and other distractions. There is a loud water fountain there and we make sure that each puppy has a positive experience with the sound of the water fountain. If they are overwhelmed by the sound, then we stay at a bigger distance from it so they learn that they don’t need to worry about it. Dragging the puppy to the thing that they are worried about makes it worse so we take a don’t worry about it approach and let them see if from a distance where they feel safe.

11/01/2023

Today, our puppy School people's practiced kennel up, greeting politely without jumping up, creating people politely on leash, and we worked on ear cleaning. Got to practice leave it with household items and food. They also practiced leave it when walking past other dogs who cannot say hi to them and leave it walking past food on the ground on our field trip. Everyone had a great day!

10/30/2023

The puppies learned about “drop it” today. Most puppies will try to put everything in their mouths and this can include dangerous things like pieces of plastic or trash the puppy finds in the grass outside. The puppies get to practice drop it with long dog toys, balls and dog bones such as bully sticks, nylabones, fish chews and duck feet. Initially, we say the phrase and immediately offer food so the puppy decides to spit out the toy and with repetitions with the easier items (toys and nylabones, not bully sticks and duck feet), then we wait until the puppy spits out the item to reward them for dropping the item.

We did toe nail handling as our activity today. While one of the trainers feeds the puppy treats, the other trainer holds the puppy’s foot and touches each individual toe. We make sure to practice with all 4 feet- touching every single toe and the puppy getting great treats throughout this process. Most puppies are going to need a monthly toe nail trim for life and rewarding the puppies throughout their toe nails being handled teaches them to cooperate for this very necessary regular procedure.

We also practiced come when called. We teach the puppies that their name means we are giving them a food reward. Once they are eager to look towards us for food when we say their name, then we practice having them “come touch”. Come touch is when the puppy comes directly to the trainer, touches their hand and then earns a reward for coming when called. Being able to come when called among lots of distractions such as during puppy play time is a valuable skill that one day might save these puppy's lives. To reinforce this very important skill, we reward the puppies with a food reward after they come when called. At home, it is beneficial to practice the cookie toss, come touch game outside and on walks.

Today, with the advanced puppies, we practiced stays. Stay is a valuable skill that enables problem behaviors such as begging, counter surfing and door bolting to easily be addressed. The puppies start with learning stay while a food bowl with treats in it is put on the floor. The puppies stay in the sit stay until they are released with "go play" to go eat the food. We also worked on sit stay while the trainers moved distracting items like toys around on the floor. The puppies are learning that waiting earns them treats and waiting until "go play" gives them the thing that they want. The advanced puppies work up to practicing place (going to a dog bed), lying down and then staying while treats and toys are dropped on the floor. The puppies then work on staying while the trainer walks away and while the trainer walks through a doorway. These advanced stay games can easily be utilized so the puppies can practice how to lie on a mat instead of trying to knock food off of the table or counter during food preparation and instead of begging for food from the dinner table.

Our field trip to the greenway offered a lot of opportunities for the puppies to make good choices with walking next to us on leash and some of them got to practice being rewarded generously for passing other people on the greenway. We teach leash walking on the left so once your puppy is trained you can do important things with your right hand. We teach the puppies to walk next to us so if the puppy passes our left leg with their rear leg, we turn around (so the puppy is behind us) or we back up until the puppy returns to the trainer’s left side. We then encourage the puppy to catch up by saying "let's go". The most important thing with leash walking is to reward during nice leash walking... not exclusively for the puppy pulling and then catching up. We always reward the puppies for looking toward the trainer during leash walking to build amazing focus.

The puppies had a great day playing and learning all day long!

10/25/2023

Such a perfect fall day!!

Our activity today was grooming. We practiced brushing each puppy all over. One of the trainers brushed the puppy while the other trainer gave the puppy food to teach the puppy to cooperate for grooming. Even for short haired dogs, it is important to teach our puppies to be calm while being touched all over. To start teaching your puppy to cooperate for brushing, have one person feed your puppy while another person brushes the puppy. You can also use a licky mat to feed your puppy (and therefore teach your puppy to cooperate) while you are brushing your puppy.

For the bearded puppies, we also practiced holding the puppy’s beard in order to hold the puppy’s head still. Your puppy’s groomer will do this while brushing your puppy’s ears or trimming the hair on their face. It’s important that your puppy learns to hold still and cooperate while their beard is held. We teach your puppy to cooperate for this by feeding them treats and being patient and persistent when they get wiggly.

We worked on sit and down with the puppies during individual training. We meet each puppy where they are at, since some come to school with some degree of one or both of these skills. As soon as possible, we will graduate away from luring to using a hand signal. Once the puppy is responding to the hand signal without us needing to have food in the hand doing the hand signal, then we start pairing the word sit or down to the hand signal. Once the puppy is responding to sit, down and come touch, then we mix up the skills and help them learn to differentiate between each of the requests.

For our advanced puppies, we worked on leave it. Today the puppies practice leave it with a q-tip, a sock, and a paper towel. They also practiced leave it with treats on a footstool instead of the coffee table and on the floor. The advanced puppies got to practice their leave it while passing other dogs on the walk as well as practicing the countdown game and the stop game while passing other dogs on the leash

We also worked on come when called by name. We teach the puppies that their name means we are giving them a food reward. Once they are eager to look towards us for food when we say their name, then we practice having them “come touch”. Come touch is when the puppy comes directly to the trainer, touches their hand and then earns a reward for coming when called. Being able to come when called among lots of distractions such as during puppy play time is a valuable skill that one day might save these puppy's lives.

Our field trip was to Valvoline oil change. The puppies worked on their loose leash walking skills passing cars on the sidewalk and seeing the men working in the store across the street.

10/18/2023

Nugget graduated! We're going to miss him. LouLou started today and quickly built confidence!

We did toe nail trimming as our activity today. While one of the trainers feeds the puppy treats, the other trainer trims each of the toes on each of the puppy’s feet. For our puppies who were uncomfortable with their feet being handled, we worked on one of the trainers feeding the puppy treats while the other trainer holds the puppy’s foot and touches each individual toe. We make sure to practice with all 4 feet- touching every single toe and the puppy getting great treats throughout this process. Rewarding the puppies with high fat, high protein foods (the most exciting food for most puppies) such as boiled chicken, cheese or peanut butter during the toe nail trim is going to teach them to cooperate and not to worry and fight the toe nail trimming process. Most puppies are going to need a monthly toe nail trim for life and rewarding the puppies throughout their toe nails being handled teaches them to cooperate for this very necessary regular procedure.

We worked on the super important skill: coming when called. We teach the puppies that their name means we are giving them a food reward. Once they are eager to look towards us for food when we say their name, then we practice having them “come touch”. Come touch is when the puppy comes directly to the trainer, touches their hand and then earns a reward for coming when called. Being able to come when called among lots of distractions such as during puppy play time is a valuable skill that one day might save these puppy's lives.

The puppies learned about “drop it” today. Most puppies will try to put everything in their mouths and this can include dangerous things like pieces of plastic or trash the puppy finds in the grass outside. The puppies get to practice drop it with long dog toys, balls and dog bones such as bully sticks, nylabones, fish chews and duck feet.

For the Advanced puppies, we worked on leave it. We practiced leave it with typical stolen items in the house: shoes, toilet paper, and paper towels. The puppies also practticed leave it with food on the floor and coming when called away from the dropped food. On the field trip, they got to practice leave it while out on the walk. Each of the advanced puppies also got to practice their listening skills while passing another dog out on the walk and not being able to say hi. The puppies got to use their skill of leave it, stop or the countdown game in order to pass the dog with good manners.

Our field trip today was to Home Depot. Some of the puppies worked on their loose leash walking outside the store and some of the more advanced, confident walkers were able to venture into the store. There is a lot of activity at Home Depot and we want to make sure that each puppy has a positive experience with the sights of all the people and the loud noises. If the puppy is overwhelmed by the sights and sounds, then we stay at a bigger distance from it so they learn that they don’t need to worry about it. We can also play the find it game (tossing food to the puppy) when they look at things that they are worried about so they see people and then food falls from the sky. That’s a great way to build a happy and positive association between the thing they were looking at so they learn not to worry or bark at it. Dragging the puppy to the thing that they are worried about makes it worse so we take a don’t worry about it approach and let them see it from a distance where they feel safe.

The puppies had a great day playing and learning all day long!

10/11/2023

Brothers Rocco and Romeo graduated today! We are going to miss the sweet curly boys. Our other Puppy School pupils Luca, Lola, Bobby, Flynn, Nugget and Izzy continued to have so much fun learning and playing all day long.

Our activity of the day was petting without biting. We practiced petting each puppy's head, ears and muzzle vigorously for five seconds before rewarding the puppies for not biting. If the puppies did bite, then we would give the puppy a 10-second timeout. A timeout means that we are turning away from the puppy looking at the sky and ignoring them for 10 seconds and then immediately we play the game again so that puppy has an opportunity to earn the food rewards. For the puppies who easily could keep their mouth from touching the trainers flesh for 5 seconds, we worked on the more advanced skill of petting for 7 seconds or 10 seconds before rewarding the puppy with food.

We worked on sit and down with the puppies during individual training. We meet each puppy where they are at, since some come to school with some degree of one or both of these skills. As soon as possible, we will graduate away from luring to using a hand signal. Once the puppy is responding to the hand signal without us needing to have food in the hand doing the hand signal, then we start pairing the word sit or down to the hand signal.

The more advanced puppies worked on stay on their bed while the handler walks around, distracts them with dropping food on the ground, moving random items around, and circling the puppy. The puppies get rewarded for remaining on their dog bed regardless of the distractions. This is a very useful skill while preparing food in the kitchen for people or for the dog, while having visitors over, or for teaching the puppy to relax during TV time.

All the puppies practiced come when called individually. We teach the puppies that their name means we are giving them a food reward. Once they are eager to look towards us for food when we say their name, then we practice having them “come touch”. Come touch is when the puppy comes directly to the trainer, touches their hand and then earns a reward for coming when called. Being able to come when called among lots of distractions such as during puppy play time is a valuable skill that one day might save these puppy's lives.

To practice "come touch", we throw a treat for the puppy to chase down and eat which causes the puppy to be away from us. Once the puppy has eaten the treat, then we call the puppies name, once the puppy looks at us, then we point and say come touch. When the puppy arrives and touches our hand with their nose, then we make sure that we are able to touch the puppy with our other hand before rewarding the puppy for coming when called.

Our field trip was to the water fountain, where we worked on walking nicely on leash around lots of people, cars, and other distractions. There is a loud water fountain there and we make sure that each puppy has a positive experience with the sound of the water fountain. If they are overwhelmed by the sound, then we stay at a bigger distance from it so they learn that they don’t need to worry about it. Dragging the puppy to the thing that they are worried about makes it worse so we take a don’t worry about it approach and let them see if from a distance where they feel safe.

10/09/2023

Our Puppy School pupils Rocco, Romeo, Luca, Lola, Izzy, Flynn, Bobby and Nugget continue to have so much fun playing all day long.

Our activity today was to practice a vet visit exam as our handling activity. We look at each puppy’s teeth, feet, and tail. We want the puppies to have a positive experience being handled for the typical vet visit procedures. We work at each puppy’s comfort level and pair food with the activity to build even more confidence with the handling activity.

Our first training activity today was teaching the puppies to go into the crate when asked. Initially we drop treats into the crate and then once the puppy goes in the crate, we offer more treats to the puppy. Once they are responding to the hand signal to go into the crate then we start saying “kennel up” as the puppy walks into the crate. Gradually, we start delaying the food reward for the puppy going into the crate so we don’t have to show the puppy food to get them to cooperate and listen to what we ask the puppy to do.

For our Advanced Puppy School pupils, we practiced leave it with toilet paper, q-tips, and treats on the floor. The advanced puppies also got to practice passing another dog on leash and practicing leave it or stop and sit instead of greeting the other dog on the leash. Some dogs do not want to greet on leash and our dogs need the skill of being able to pass other dogs without saying hello. We teach three different options for passing other dogs on leash: the countdown game, stop and sit, and leave it and continuing walking past the dog.

Our big training activity today was practicing creating people out and about and choosing not to jump up on them when saying hello. Initially, we asked the puppies to sit before they say hello. If the puppy cannot sit or is slow to sit then we help the puppy calm down by adding more distance between the puppy and the new person and continuing to reward them for sitting and calming down. Once the person does greet the puppy then we immediately say good off and reward the puppy with food for choosing not to jump up. If the puppy ever jumps up on the visitor then we immediately take the puppy away from the visitor and give them a 5-second timeout for the jumping up and then we try again.

We also practiced appropriate door manners (waiting at an open doorway) and greeting without jumping. Initially we help the puppies greet by sitting instead of jumping. The more advanced puppies are rewarded for greeting appropriately without us telling them to fit first. The ultimate goal is to be able to get the puppies as excited as possible when we come in, pet the puppy, and the puppy chooses not to jump up and greets us appropriately. We encourage the puppy owners to practice this game daily (at the level the puppy is capable of) when they come home until the puppy no longer jumps up on anyone who lives there with the puppy. This understanding then makes it really easy for the puppy to learn not to jump up on new people.
With our door manners practice (teaching the puppies to wait at an open doorway), we teach the puppies that they should not go out the door when they hear the phrase “You’re not going”. For the beginner puppies, we start with teaching the puppy that food will be offered to them for remaining in a sit while the door is opened. The more advanced puppies learn that “You’re not going” means a treat is going to be tossed towards them as the trainer walks out the door so they wait and do not try to follow out the door.
The field trip was to the Harris Teeter where each puppy practiced walking past distractions. While the puppies are practicing walking next to the trainer through the plaza, we reward up to every other second to build the puppy's desire to cooperate with and focus on you around distractions. Initially, reward your puppy every 3-5 steps for walking at your side. We also always reward the puppies for offering to look at the trainer while out and among distractions. Gradually, you can wait for your puppy to walk next to you for more steps before rewarding. Whenever the puppy passes our left leg with their rear leg, then we back up or turn around so the puppy is next to us again. We reward them generously for remaining walking next to us on a loose leash. If your puppy is looking at you in response to you saying their name or in response to you saying let's go, reward your puppy.

09/27/2023

Our new puppy today is Izzy! She quickly showed us that she is small but mighty and had a great time playing with all the boys.

The puppy painting activity is a favorite! The puppies lick the outside of a plastic bag smeared with peanut butter. Inside the bag is a paint covered canvas. The puppies create their own unique design as they lick the food. The training skill that the puppies are practicing is “drop it”. The puppies learn to leave the high value food and are rewarded for doing so. It’s important that we can take high value items away from puppies because it can save their lives if they get access to something truly dangerous.

Our first training activity today was teaching the puppies to go into the crate when asked. Initially we drop treats into the crate and then once the puppy goes in the crate, we offer more treats to the puppy. Once they are responding to the hand signal to go into the crate then we start saying “kennel up” as the puppy walks into the crate. Gradually, we start delaying the food reward for the puppy going into the crate so we don’t have to show the puppy food to get them to cooperate and listen to what we ask the puppy to do.

We also worked on greeting without jumping. To start, the trainer will greet the puppy after walking in the door and will immediately tell the puppy to sit. The trainer then feeds the puppy treats while petting the puppy and saying “good off” while rewarding the puppy for not jumping up. If the puppy jumps up on the trainer, then the trainer immediately goes back out the door without looking at the puppy’s face so the puppy learns that people only say hi when the puppy greets without jumping up and they will leave if the puppy touches people with their front feet. The more advanced puppies are rewarded for greeting appropriately without us telling them to sit first. The ultimate goal is to be able to get the puppies as excited as possible when we come in, pet the puppy, and the puppy chooses not to jump up and greets us appropriately. We encourage the puppy owners to practice this game daily (at the level the puppy is capable of) when they come home until the puppy no longer jumps up on anyone.

With our door manners practice (teaching the puppies to wait at an open doorway), we teach the puppies that they should not go out the door when they hear the phrase “You’re not going”. For the beginner puppies, we start with teaching the puppy that food will be offered to them for remaining in a sit while the door is opened. The more advanced puppies learn that “You’re not going” means a treat is going to be tossed towards them as the trainer walks out the door so they wait and do not try to follow out the door.

Our GREAT Puppy School puppies practiced stay on your dog bed while the other dogs acted as distractions. They also practiced responding to stop while out walking. We teach that skill to enable things like bicyclists, barking dogs and other things that might startle that puppy to pass while out walking on the leash. The GREAT Puppy School puppies also practiced coming when called out in public.

For our field trip, we went to Petsmart. Each puppy practiced their individual leash walking time passing people and passing trash on the walk. The puppies also had the opportunity to see other dogs on the leash at a distance where they weren’t practicing undesirable behavior. All of the puppies were able to practice the Countdown game and respond to Easy if they are pulling too much on the leash.

A great day was had by everyone!

09/25/2023

All the puppies got to work on advanced skills today! Sawyer graduated and our other big boys Bobby and Flynn had a great day playing and learning too. Little boys Rocco, Romeo and Nugget played really well together all day.

For the Advanced puppies, we worked on leave it. We practiced leave it with typical stolen items in the house: shoes, toilet paper, and paper towels. The puppies also practiced leave it with food on the floor and coming when called away from the dropped food. On the field trip, they got to practice leave it while out on the walk. Each of the advanced puppies also got to practice their listening skills while passing another dog out on the walk and not being able to say hi. The puppies got to use their skill of leave it, stop or the countdown game in order to pass the dog with good manners.

We did toe nail trimming as our activity today. While one of the trainers feeds the puppy treats, the other trainer trims each of the toes on each of the puppy’s feet. For our puppies who were uncomfortable with their feet being handled, we worked on one of the trainers feeding the puppy treats while the other trainer holds the puppy’s foot and touches each individual toe. We make sure to practice with all 4 feet- touching every single toe and the puppy getting great treats throughout this process. Rewarding the puppies with high fat, high protein foods (the most exciting food for most puppies) such as boiled chicken, cheese or peanut butter during the toe nail trim is going to teach them to cooperate and not to worry and fight the toe nail trimming process. Most puppies are going to need a monthly toe nail trim for life and rewarding the puppies throughout their toe nails being handled teaches them to cooperate for this very necessary regular procedure.

We worked on the super important skill: coming when called. We teach the puppies that their name means we are giving them a food reward. Once they are eager to look towards us for food when we say their name, then we practice having them “come touch”. Come touch is when the puppy comes directly to the trainer, touches their hand and then earns a reward for coming when called. Being able to come when called among lots of distractions such as during puppy play time is a valuable skill that one day might save these puppy's lives.

The puppies learned about “drop it” today. Most puppies will try to put everything in their mouths and this can include dangerous things like pieces of plastic or trash the puppy finds in the grass outside. The puppies get to practice drop it with long dog toys, balls and dog bones such as bully sticks, nylabones, fish chews and duck feet.

Our field trip today was to Home Depot. Some of the puppies worked on their loose leash walking outside the store and some of the more advanced, confident walkers were able to venture into the store. There is a lot of activity at Home Depot and we want to make sure that each puppy has a positive experience with the sights of all the people and the loud noises. If the puppy is overwhelmed by the sights and sounds, then we stay at a bigger distance from it so they learn that they don’t need to worry about it. We can also play the find it game (tossing food to the puppy) when they look at things that they are worried about so they see people and then food falls from the sky. That’s a great way to build a happy and positive association between the thing they were looking at so they learn not to worry or bark at it. Dragging the puppy to the thing that they are worried about makes it worse so we take a don’t worry about it approach and let them see it from a distance where they feel safe.

The puppies had a great day playing and learning all day long!

Mariah Hinds Dog Training

05/29/2024

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05/20/2024

12/20/2023

11/08/2023

11/06/2023

11/01/2023

10/30/2023

10/25/2023

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