The WoofPack

In case you needed a Monday Pick me up 😭🥹 Thank you Sherman for bringing some light into this dark time 🤍 #bostonterrierpuppy #abostonandababy #bostonterrior #puppykisses

This applies to all dogs, but especially when dealing with reactivity, over excitement or lack of engagement in real world scenarios! Typical scenario: you do all the foundational training at home. You’ve even hired a trainer to come help you build skills with your dog. Your dog is KILLING it at home. So, the obvious next step is to take your new found skills and confidence out to the real world. But things don’t go as you planned. Your dog blows up or blows you off and you go home with your tail tucked. This is a demoralizing feeling. I get it! It leaves you wondering what you did wrong or if you and your dog are good enough. The fact is, you probably did nothing wrong! You just missed a critical step: Practicing your skills in a new BUT controlled environment. This gives you the ability to work through expanding your dog’s abilities with deliberate steps and with varied levels of difficulty. This time is invaluable for you and your dog’s training. You get to troubleshoot , build on their skills and practice in a safe place. Intentional situations can be set up to push a dog but not overwhelm them and their handler. Through exposure and trouble shooting, the handler and dog become progressively more fluid and in tune with each other. So by the time they step out into the real world, there isn’t much that they haven’t been able to practice. This is where my dogs and dogs who have been through training with us can be extremely useful. I can start with exposure to a very calm and stable personality and build up to more intense or higher energy dogs to help test my clients and their dogs who I’m currently training. Having a pack of dogs with varying temperaments, personalities and behavior traits is a training tool that I am lucky enough to have at my disposal and utilize with my clients to assist in their dog’s training! If you don’t have access to a trainer who can set up a situation like this then you can recruit some friends with dogs to c

Calm and Neutral states of minds is a huge focus at The WoofPack and our training programs. Without it, even the best obedience training can fail. Plus, meditation is good for all of us!! If you notice the unsettled or whining dogs, it’s because they are new to the pack. This kind of calm behavior is not learned overnight! Consistency and practice is the name of the game! Joining us and the other dogs will help teach them the WoofPack Way!

💥Dedication and consistency 👆🏼the big ingredients to having a well trained dog 🧠 a good trainer helps too 👀join our next group class if you need some accountability to stay consistent 🗣️ or reach out to us for some 1 on 1 training, so we can help!

🚨DOG FOOD DRIVE🚨

With so much devastation in the mountains, I can’t help to think about all the dogs that are affected. Farm dogs, family dogs, shelter dogs, foster dogs… So in effort to try to help, WoofPack will be hosting a dog food drive. Any and all unopened dog food will be accepted. We will also happily take donations of beds, blankets, cat food, and cat litter.I have a giant 12 passenger van, LETS FILL IT UP. WP clients, we hope we don’t see you show up empty handed when we see you next 😉We are located in Cornelius, but we can possibly coordinate drop off locations in charlotte!!

When you’ve been working on threshold manners with the dogs this month..and it is showing!!! Getting a whole pack of dogs to wait at a gate, with a simple “wait” command, is not easy. But after working with each of them one on one to solidify this behavior, it was a breeze!!!

No matter how eventful the adventure is, it’s always worth it and always a good time ☺️

Secret to success in dog training: practice consistently, change the picture(proof), and put in the reps. And I’m not just referring to training fancy agility things with your dog, this applies to it all, from the basics to more advanced concepts. So you practice with your dog going to place when the place bed is sitting next to the couch and you are pointing at it and standing by the door, and your dog nails it. Great! But does your dog actually fully understand the concept of place? Or just the context? Will your dog go to place when you walk in and your hands are full of groceries? Or what about with the added distraction of someone at the door? Or how about with you walking away from it to answer the door? We could get really crazy and MOVE the place bed outside and ask them to do it 🤪 Your dog needs to see different pictures, different scenarios, different movements by you, different locations. Can your dog sit while you’re facing them and holding your hand up? Probably! Now try turning your back to them…that’s a little more tricky, huh? People get frustrated when they say their dog “knows” something but won’t follow through. Or they insist the dog “knows” something and then I ask the dog to do it with slightly different body language and the dog struggles. Make sure your dog actually fully understands a command or behavior before you expect them to do it, consistently, in any situation. And don’t just practice once a month and expect that to be enough. Sure, that’s better than nothing but your dog isn’t realistically going to make steady progress in their understanding and clarity if you only do it every once and a while!!! Now grab some treats and get out there to train your dog 💪🏽🤗 #trainyourdog #dogtrainingtips #traindontcomplain #dogtraining #dogagility #runningcontactstraining

The new year is a perfect time for reflection. I looked back at where I was a year ago with my dogs and where I am now and asked myself, 1) did I reach my goals and 2) if not am I happy with the progress? Dog training takes time. Changing behavior takes practice. It can be overwhelming at times. But if you set a (realistic) goal, make a plan and dedicate time to it, good things will come. Shenzi’s leash reactivity/stranger danger was one of the things I really wanted to work on and I’d say we made incredible progress. Is this the end goal? No, we still have some improvements I would like to make but I am thrilled with her progress. To be able to see/walk by people with Shenzi not barking, being able to focus on me and being calm during it all is a huge improvement from where she was at. This took a year. A full year. So don’t give up on your dog too quickly, keep pushing, keep going. If you need some help to break down the steps to reach your goal, find a trainer (we’d love to help!). Take some time today to set some goals and intentions for this new year, for you and your dog!