Canine Insight LLC

Hard work paying off these days. 4 big dogs just means bigger vehicles are a must 💅 It’s official and I’m so excited for this new business purchase, even after all the blood, sweat and tears I’ve poured into it already. We’re finally part of the dog van crew! Equipped with party lights and all 😂 Not only is it PACFA state certified and licensed to safely transport animals, you will also catch us traveling and camping with it this summer on our off time! It has a twin-sized camper bed conversion and electricity supply, and so many other neat features. I can’t wait for all the adventures and opportunities this will open up for us! #dogtrainer #dogtraining #dogvan #dogvanlife #campervan #travelcoloradosprings #travelcolorado #coloradocamping #coloradospringsdogs #coloradospringslife

(I try not to look like a creeper when we’re out at parks near playgrounds, so the video is cut a little shorter 😂) But look at Mr. Oscar man rocking his park lesson today! If anyone has ever met these kinds of dogs, you’ll know that they are wired, wound up and ready to go all the time. Oscar has always struggled with his containing his excitement levels around anything that remotely resembles fun. This was hard for him today no doubt, but was also huge step in his progress towards achieving their training goals! 🎉 So far we’ve tackled: Jumping on guests and family members ✅ Staying off furniture ✅ Bolting out the front door ✅ Leash reactivity/frustration ✅ Built attention and focus ✅ Excessive barking at people and dogs ✅ Gave appropriate energy outlets ✅ We still have more to work on, but dang this duo deserves some recognition! So happy with their progress and commitment to training! If your dog sounds anything like Oscar here, give us a call! We’re happy to help you and your dogs live the life you’ve always wanted with your furry friend and not stuck missing out on fun adventures in 2024. Call now for your free phone consultation! (734)-331-8656 #dogsofinstaworld #dogtraining #dogtrainer #lovemyjob #coloradosprings #coloradospringsdogs #coloradodogtraining

Happy Wednesday and Happy New Year everyone! Here’s your reminder for 2024 to prioritize challenging yourself to doing more with your dogs this year. Go for more adventures together, play more games with your dogs, and learn new things together! In order to be able to do all that, you need to challenge THEM more too! This is how you’re going to grow more with your dogs in 2024 🫶 This morning I asked my dogs to wait a little longer than usual before being released for their breakfast, and this is a small example of challenging yourself and your dogs to do more. You may be surprised at how many of your dogs can count in their head and know exactly what you’re gonna say before you even say it 😉😂 Even if that means you’ll have some gross slobber to clean up afterwards 🤢❤️ I’m going to challenge myself to post more videos and challenges for our community to motivate dog owners like you to prioritize their relationship with their dogs through easy steps. (I liberally dislike content creation, so this will be a challenge for me too LOL). Follow along to learn more ways in 2024 to get out of your normal, predictable routine with your dogs and start learning new ways to communicate, challenge, and celebrate your dogs! 🐶 #coloradosprings #coloradodogtraining #coloradodogs #coloradospringsdogslife #dogtraining #dogtrainer #communication #challenge #celebrate #motivate

Leash games

Welcome back Koda and Ryder! ❤️ They’re long time students of ours, working on refreshing their known skills. Long story short, Ryder needs an overhaul refresher to get him back on track. He’s a smart guy who loves training, but he is also is constantly looking to out smart everyone, and he really believes he’s quite good at it. Ryder finds the leash really frustrating. He’s independent. He’s a free thinker. He likes his own ideas, so staying stuck to a stupid leash naturally is frustrating for him; thus fueling his leash reactivity. Here I am reconditioning his response to leash pressure; meaning when he feels feedback on the leash, there is now an opportunity for reinforcements (treats and praise). It also gives me a chance to get him out of situations where I might have lost his attention (which happens a lot). So rather than leash pop = correction… leash pop = treats. In the video, you can see the moments I lose his attention on Moose and just a gentle tactile cue gives him the ability to re focus on me. I will continue to focus on fixing his relationship with the leash as well as sharpen thus response to all situations and environments.

The Power of High Value I wanted show a simple way to highly reinforce a behavior without needing to always up the value of the food to something crazy like filet mignon. Let’s be real, who can afford that in this economy?! Anyways, here is the simplest explanation to why this is so powerful: The act of foraging, searching and consuming is a biologically fulfilling activity. You can’t out train genetics, and all dogs do it. Thus teaching them that this surrogate activity is a fun and safe place to fulfill that genetic need. Putting that act “on cue”, means you can use it as a reinforcement. So in this video, I was able to use a dynamite-like reinforcement for the Down command, which right now seems to be Matilda’s least enjoyed behavior; and I’m still just using her kibble 🐾 Plus it’s just good ol’ fun for the dogs and gives them an extra 10 minutes or so to finish their meals, which is always a good thing too! #dogtraining #dogtrainingtips #dogsofinstagram

Huge shout out to these guys for all their incredibly hard work. Indie and Lucy live in a campground where their environment changes a lot. Sometimes they’re accompanied with well mannered dog guests, sometimes not so much. The consistently inconsistent environmental changes led to some major behavioral issues that needed addressed and some mending. With how much they adventure and travel, their owners needed to know how to keep their dogs under continuous control, on and off leash. No exceptions. This scenario just 2 months ago would have been a nightmare ending in frustration and lots of barking. Not a chance they’d have been able to handle new dogs this close to them, let alone ignore a barking dog behind them. So dang happy to see how far they’ve come in just a short amount of time! Next step and goal for them: complete off-leash communication and control. We’ve got a minute before we accomplish that, but we’re well on our way! AWESOME WORK!!! 📣

Leash Manners

Welcome to training Mocha! She’s a young 9 month old Schnauzer/Poodle mix and she lives life wild and a recklessly. Today was her first leash manners lesson and she KILLED it! This was within the first 10 minutes, and she picked up on it so quickly. Her sister Chara got the same session, just no video. We also worked them staying on their bed with some added distance and duration. I’ll have an update how they’re doing with that next week. What a great training day! . . . #dogsofinstagram #poodlemix #schnauzermix #dogsofcolorado #dogtraining #dogtrainersofinstagram #dogtrainercoloradosprings

These sweet girls are working hard and doing well in their training 💪Name recognition for multiple dogs in the same house (or same training session like this video), is very difficult for most dogs who struggle with impulse control. There will be failed repetitions that must lead to problem solving in the dogs brains, challenging them to really slow their thoughts down and listen clearly to instructions. Those successful repetitions must be HIGHLY reinforced, otherwise your dog is gonna say to themselves “What the heck was all that work for then?”

REMINDER NO GROUP CLASS 7/4!!!! If you forgot and show up to the park later anyways, here are some examples from last week of things you can practice on your own! But I will not be there to help 😂 This group of dogs is such a fun bunch, and I love how everyone wants their dog to succeed but HAS FUN DOING IT! We’re lighthearted but serious, laughing at our dogs all while encouraging them have fun with us. 🫶 Keep up the great work until next week guys!

Group class was tons of fun and challenge yesterday! Everyone did super well! Next weeks class is gonna be even more fun 🤩

Harley working for her food this morning while we watch the World Pet Games! She gets -very- worked up when she sees or even hears dogs on the tv, so she’s given a job during this instead of worrying about her nervous feelings. She LOVES this foraging activity, which provides her mental stimulation and inevitably helps teach a new CER: Conditioned Emotional Response. Right now her response is: PANIC AND ANXIETY! Which includes pacing, whining, and barking. She tries really hard and gives training her all 💜

Impulse Control group class # 2 last night - ✅ Food refusal is the hardest exercise, what dog DOESN’T love hot dogs and bread thrown to them?!? “This Oscar Meyer guy really knows what’s up!” - says the dog who couldn’t help themselves 😂 Everyone worked hard yesterday, nice work! Can’t wait for next class!

Post training update on Apollo 🫶 (He’s the dog with mostly white with a spot on his face in this video) A few years ago, Apollo was attacked a couple times at a dog park, and incidentally also had a bad encounter with a stranger there too. From then on, he had some serious bad feelings towards everything outside of their home. He also did NOT like me when we first started training. He went through tons of training with us via lessons, boarding, and group classes with us and came out on top. I’m so so happy to see him enjoying himself, just having a great time with their newest family addition, Missy! This is such a huge accomplishment for him, and even more for his owners. From day one they told me they wanted to get another dog, and then put in the hard work to get him to this point! Look at not only how much fun they’re having, but also his really great communication skills with her! 💙 Can anyone identify some of the de-escalation strategies he is using with her? Please comment your answers below! ⬇️ I love my job. I really do.

This is Valor! He’s a 1 year old reactive GSD who’s got some big, loud feelings about everything in life. We’re working together to perfect his off-leash reliability down the road, but first focusing on strengthening his relationship with his owners. This boy is crazy motivated for both food and toys, so we really gotta show him how and where to channel all his drive and frustrations through game play! Their homework for these next couple weeks is to just PLAY with him more! I guarantee his engagement and attention is going to greatly improve just making these small changes. First lesson we taught him how to stay committed to the game of tug and ignore distractions, which he would have exploded at these kids beforehand. I’m SO excited for this one! #germanshepherd #germanshepherdsofinstagram #gsd #gsdofinstagram #dogtraining #dogtrainer #dogsofcolorado #dogtrainersofinstagram #dogtrainerslife #coloradodogsofinstagram #coloradospringsdogs #coloradosprings

Having a reactive/aggressive dog takes tons of reinforcement training, and continual management to help guide your dog through uncomfortable situations. Banshee is no different here, and his owner has been working with him through his nervous reactivity for years. But today, B handled our hike with another dog like a champ! Zero problems on the hike even in tight spots on the trails, and even passed by other dogs no issues. He even tried to invite Riley (my dog) to play with him when the hike was over, which is a HUUUUGE step for him in his training process! Huge progress for Banshee today. Proud of you bud!

Welcome to training Bravo! 🎉 He is an adolescent Great Dane who has quickly learned how to use the size of his bark and body to demand his way to the world around him. First lesson was the Follow The Leader game! Here are the rules of the game: 1) Walk in the direction we choose 2) Don’t pull or argue with us through the leash 3) Visually check in with eye contact when we ask 4) Lots of reward and calm praise when the leash stays loose no matter where you go! That’s it! These 4 simple skills to your dogs leashed walks will change the tone and dynamic of walks with your dog entirely so that you will have much more enjoyable walks together 🐾 #dogsofinstagram #greatdanesofinstagram #greatdane #dogtraining #dogtrainer #obedience #obediencetraining #happydog

Lucca here is a 1 year old, reactive Border Collie working through his fear of people. In just a few short months, these guys have been working sooo hard at helping him become confident and neutral around strangers. Our primary focus has been to help him FEEL better around people, and I’m so thankful for the amount of hard work we’ve put in to make this happen. These videos might not look like much right off the bat, but just 3 months ago, these scenarios and encounters would not have been able to happen. No way we would have been able to even walk near a store front, let alone in a store! 🥲 These incredibly dedicated owners have taken every single piece of advice and implemented every new change I have thrown their way, and man is it paying off! 🔥 They now know exactly what it do in specific situations, how to communicate with him, and help show him how to get himself out of uncomfortable situations without a reaction. Watching them work and handle Lucca in the lesson today was a beautiful thing, looks like they’ve been doing it his whole life! Way to go guys. I’m so proud of your progress and teamwork with Lucca! 🐾

Puppy Ping Pong! One of our favorite ways to teach a recall! -Start with some high value treats, pick 2 players to play the game (can be more!) and head to the backyard. -Choose 2 spots opposite each other, and take turns calling your dog to you! Reward them when they get to you 🥰 Change spots in the yard often enough so that it changes the picture while the rules of the game stay the same. Super fun for everyone involved, and even dogs of all ages can play! ‼️When they start really catching on, you can make the game more challenging by having them hold a sit position for 10 seconds before the other person recalls them. That helps them become patient and furthers the clarity for your dog ‼️ Juno here is a younger Golden Retriever pup going through our Perfect Puppies program, learning alllll there is to know about how to be the best puppy on the block 🐾🎉

I get asked a lot “how long does it take to teach a dog to walk on a leash?” and the answer I always say is “it takes as long as your patience lasts.” When you become patient enough, you will get the desired results and expectations you want! All in all, a nice loose leash walks takes TIME. And you will only get the results you are patient for. Especially for young adolescents, like my puppy here. I’ve taken my time teaching her the language of the leash and rewarding her for the good habits I want to encourage. She’s only 11 months old and we are always working on the next step to advancing our skills. I also do not plan on fading a reward system out of her leash training for a long time. The longer that good habits are rewarded, the more consistently you will see them performed 😊

Can’t take your dog on a walk because of this stupid snow? Copper and I came up with some ideas to fix that! The privilege to take our dogs to pet friendly stores should never be misused, but here are a few ideas of things you can still work on during those snowy days! #snowdays #happytraining #dogtrainingtips