North Star Canines / Take a Bow Wow

North Star Canines / Take a Bow Wow Dog training - Fairfield, Westchester, Putnam & Dutchess counties. Zoom consults anywhere in US.

Expert dog training and behavior services offered in NY/CT, including Fairfield, and areas of Putnam, Westchester, and Dutchess counties

DVDs for sale:
Fido Refined: Teaching impulse control to your excitable dog! The Shape of Bow Wow (how to shape behaviors via successive approximation)
The How of Bow Wow (obedience training, from foundation through fluency)

www.takeabowwow.com

Gigi, our devilishly adorable houseguest. 😍
01/09/2025

Gigi, our devilishly adorable houseguest. 😍

I've been seeing a lot of adolescent dogs lately, helping clients through this sometimes tumultuous time in their dogs' ...
01/08/2025

I've been seeing a lot of adolescent dogs lately, helping clients through this sometimes tumultuous time in their dogs' lives. Here's a blog post that sheds some light on the 'why' behind your teenage dog's behavior. It's a helpful read, too, for new puppy owners so you are prepared in advance for this upcoming stage.

Recently, I had a young adult dog stay at my home for a week, and she is truly a delightful guest. But I was remembering an earlier visit when she was knee-deep in adolescence and having a tough time knowing how to navigate interactions with four other dogs in the house. She seemed absolutely magnet...

Happy New Year from the wooly Didgeridoo!
01/01/2025

Happy New Year from the wooly Didgeridoo!

The wild and wooly Diggy, aka Didgeridoo, has bounced into our home to visit for a few days! 💜
12/30/2024

The wild and wooly Diggy, aka Didgeridoo, has bounced into our home to visit for a few days! 💜

12/26/2024

My lovely guest, Roo, is enjoying a food puzzle called a RUMBL. It's an easy dispenser, though you can increase the challenge a bit by mixing bigger treats inside.

Happy Holidays! 💜
12/20/2024

Happy Holidays! 💜

One of my recent puppy clients just posted a Google review and it made my day!"Virginia is the best. We got our first do...
12/15/2024

One of my recent puppy clients just posted a Google review and it made my day!

"Virginia is the best. We got our first dog and were clueless. She has a magic touch with the puppies and is so knowledgeable. She had great suggestions for every issue we had and focused on what worked for us and our family. I will continue to use her for sure. She is very professional, responsible, nice, and a great person to work with." ~ Jamie T., Armonk, NY

12/15/2024

I meet lots of puppies who have regular bouts of the zoomies to help shred some excess energy. Here's an example of Bishop, an adolescent standard schnauzer, burning off some steam. I love how he bolts through the tunnel as he makes his rounds!

Video thanks to Jodi and Ron A., New Milford, CT

Clients often ask about invisible fencing. This study looked into the escape rates of physical (23% escape) vs invisible...
12/13/2024

Clients often ask about invisible fencing. This study looked into the escape rates of physical (23% escape) vs invisible fencing (44% escape).

OBJECTIVE To determine escape rates for dogs confined to their owner's property by various containment methods and determine whether biting history was associated with containment method. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. SAMPLE 974 owners of 1,053 dogs. PROCEDURES Individuals patronizing pet stores in...

"Gimme the leftovers and no one gets hurt."
12/01/2024

"Gimme the leftovers and no one gets hurt."

Feedback/review from a client today -- absolutely made my whole weekend! ~ "I can’t say enough good things about Virgini...
12/01/2024

Feedback/review from a client today -- absolutely made my whole weekend! ~

"I can’t say enough good things about Virginia - I am so thankful for her. Not only is Virginia an incredibly talented trainer, but combined with her extensive experience, she’s so intuitive and so quick to recognize and comprehend situations that I wouldn’t have noticed at all without her.

For example, I hired Virginia to help train my French Bulldog puppy. During one of our sessions, another dog was around, and Virginia noticed the slightest change in behavior and suggested I watch out for guarding - my puppy may be starting to guard food, etc. and it could become an issue. And she was completely right, I found out — Virginia had recognized this before it even started, and the next time we met, we were able to work on it before it was a major problem.

She knows what to do in every situation, and she is so kind to every animal (even wild little puppies like mine). I was in over my head - and right away, I knew we were in good hands with Virginia. She has practical solutions that are easy to learn and practice and then miraculously, they work. She helped me so much.

I’m so, so grateful. I’m positive she can solve any problem - animal-related or not. I would recommend her to anyone, without hesitation."
Jamie H., Brookfield, CT (5-star review posted on Google)

[pic thanks to Jamie H.]

The Thanksgiving week motley crew!
11/26/2024

The Thanksgiving week motley crew!

Sweet Macey is visiting. She sure knows how to make herself at home. 💜
11/20/2024

Sweet Macey is visiting. She sure knows how to make herself at home. 💜

One of my clients just posted a Google review and it made my day. So pleased with their accomplishments with Junior -- i...
11/18/2024

One of my clients just posted a Google review and it made my day. So pleased with their accomplishments with Junior -- it's a testament to their dedication to help her be the very best dog she can be. Junior was even a part of their recent wedding and behaved beautifully!

"We cannot recommend Virginia enough! She has made such an impact on our day to day life with the skills and tips she taught us while working with us and our dog Junior. Junior struggled with resource guarding, which made certain situations stressful for all of us. Virginia worked closely with us to understand Junior's behavior and taught us effective strategies to handle it.

She also provided us with a wide range of tactics to keep Junior safe and to better manage her high energy levels. From day one, her guidance was practical, compassionate, and tailored specifically to Junior's needs.

Since working with Virginia, Junior is happier, more relaxed, and seems to understand what we are communicating to her. The changes have made our lives so much easier and more enjoyable. We’re incredibly grateful for the knowledge and tools Virginia gave us. Virginia is the best and we are so appreciative of everything she did for us and Junior!"

When dog-loving people want to pet your dog, please let them know *where* your dog prefers petting! So many people want ...
11/14/2024

When dog-loving people want to pet your dog, please let them know *where* your dog prefers petting! So many people want to pet a dog on top of their head, but lots of dogs don't enjoy this.

Check out today's blog post about this topic ~

When you greet your own dog, or someone else's, do you usually reach out to pat them on top of their head? Did you know that many dogs don't actually enjoy this? In our own joyful moment when greeting a dog, we may not notice the signs that indicate their discomfort with our head-patting behavior.He...

The Toppl is one of my favorite food puzzles. Our guest, Cooper the Cockapoo, just spent 15 minutes extracting some froz...
11/13/2024

The Toppl is one of my favorite food puzzles. Our guest, Cooper the Cockapoo, just spent 15 minutes extracting some frozen goodness from his. 😊

This week, I met a darling pup who gets very excited when her meal is being prepared, often jumping up and barking. And ...
11/13/2024

This week, I met a darling pup who gets very excited when her meal is being prepared, often jumping up and barking. And even though her mom waits to put down her bowl until the pup is calm, the whole chain of behaviors (including the less desirable ones!) is being rewarded when the bowl is put down.

I thought this blog post from last year would be helpful explain this concept. Please feel free to share!

Dogs are very clever and they quickly learn to repeat behaviors that have been rewarded, even behaviors we don't like. You might think to yourself: "How could this be? I don't reward my dog when he's doing something I don't like!" Read on to learn how this happens accidentally.Example 1: People are....

11/01/2024

This mama deer is the queen of my neighborhood, totally unruffled by the proximity of people and dogs! She regularly provides me with opportunities to practice my OFF (leave it) and COME cues with Bean and Bond.

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Danbury, CT
06811

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 6pm
Tuesday 10am - 6pm
Wednesday 10am - 6pm
Thursday 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 6pm

Telephone

+18047840120

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Videos

My lovely guest, Roo, is enjoying a food puzzle called a RUMBL. It's an easy dispenser, though you can increase the challenge a bit by mixing bigger treats inside.

I meet lots of puppies who have regular bouts of the zoomies to help shred some excess energy. Here's an example of Bishop, an adolescent standard schnauzer, burning off some steam. I love how he bolts through the tunnel as he makes his rounds! Video thanks to Jodi and Ron A., New Milford, CT

This mama deer is the queen of my neighborhood, totally unruffled by the proximity of people and dogs! She regularly provides me with opportunities to practice my OFF (leave it) and COME cues with Bean and Bond.

I met with a client today who is having some issues putting a harness on his dog, so I made this video to demonstrate one easy way to put a figure-8 style harness on a dog. For dogs who are sensitive to paw handling, work will have to be done on this first, pairing paw handling with treats, before progressing to the harness-donning.

Sweet Macey turns her nose up to her food when it’s in a bowl, but she enjoys working for the very same food in a puzzle toy. 😊

Last week, Sage's mom reported that Sage was playing 'hard to get' with her when inside. The root of the problem likely has to do with her associating being 'caught' with being put into her crate, so she cleverly learned to to avoid capture. On that same day, prior to hearing this back story, I noticed her dodging me, too, after first coming close to me outside, and this was a new behavior around me. Teaching GOTCHA is a wonderful antidote and an important safety measure. By combining collar grabs with treats, and repeating this exercise lots of times in many different contexts, we soon have a dog who eagerly accepts collar grabs rather than scooting out of reach.

Sometimes, irresistible training moments present themselves during the course of the day. Because Bond has shown some resource-guarding tendencies in the past, I like to practice his DROP skill regularly. Today, he was enjoying licking out an almond butter container so I worked on a couple of DROP reps. Each time, he earned a piece of hotdog for letting go, and then I returned the container right back to him. When we're able to regularly return the item to the dog, it shows them there's no real competition going on for the prize. Instead, it's just a fun couple of seconds of training, and then they can go right back to enjoying the prize. When we must take away an item for good, a string of several treats and/or providing them with something dog-approved that's fun or yummy can ease the blow of having to take away that prize.

Today, I was working outside on recalls with a darling little cavapoo named Sage. It's a hot day, so I made sure we spent plenty of time in the shade, she had icy cold water within easy reach, and I was using hotdog treats as extra motivation. While her coming to me in this video is straightforward (not far away, no big distractions), I want to point out that a tired or resting dog may find a recall quite challenging in the moment because their preference would be to rest. Thankfully, I know Sage is super-excited by treats so I felt confident she'd be eager to respond.

Cooper gets worried about thunder and tends to bark at it, but thankfully a stuffed Toppl helps him relax.

Here's a follow-up video to the one I posted last evening. When I originally adopted Bond, I couldn't even touch his paws. Now he appears quite relaxed about having his nails dremeled. I recall it taking two weeks to get him to cooperate -- time well spent when you think about the years of paw handling/wiping/clipping/dremeling he needs to experience all his life.

In this video, you'll see that Bond has a positive emotional response to the sound of the dremel, rousing from a dead sleep! He has learned that yummy stuff happens when his nails are filed. :-)

Little Linus is so fierce! He is also a bit protective of his favorite 'humpy puppy' toy and takes his tug game seriously. A high-octane tug game is just one of many reasons why it's so helpful to teach a strong DROP cue to your dogs. Using this cue helps Bond disengage from the game easily.

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Virginia Dare

Expert dog training and behavior services offered in NY/CT, including northern Fairfield, and areas of Putnam, northern Westchester, and southern Dutchess counties. Services include in-home private lessons and behavior consultations, as well as remote consultations geared toward all things puppy! Puppy services include: 1) help with breed and breeder selection, and making a wise adoption choice; 2) preparing for puppy’s arrival, including recommendations for equipment, containment, toys, etc.; 3) valuable training tips and socialization advice so pup gets off to a very positive start!

Teaching is based on positive reinforcement techniques.

www.northstarcanines.com DVDs for sale: Fido Refined: Teaching impulse control to your excitable dog! The Shape of Bow Wow (how to shape behaviors via successive approximation) The How of Bow Wow (obedience training, from foundation through fluency) www.takeabowwow.com