Some Minor Dog Training

Some Minor Dog Training Allen and Shalene Minor are dog trainers in Florida that do in-home training and board-and-trains.
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09/05/2025

Social comfort is a spectrum for dogs just as much as it is for people. We're not all social butterflies who want to interact with everyone we meet. And, even if we interact with them, most of us would probably rather get to know them BEFORE hugging them.

Dogs are the same. Some dogs ARE extremely social and love every dog they meet, but a large amount are not. "Dog selectivity" is far more common. If you're unfamiliar with that term, it just means that most dogs are fine with certain dogs, but don't get along with others. Just like with people.

Also, a lot of people tend to underestimate the mental effects that a tense leash can have on a dog. It can signal that something is about to happen, and they should be tense, too. So a dog that is already nervous about the interaction can easily get the wrong message from the human, accidentally causing a reaction. 🐶❤️

09/04/2025

Often, when adding a second dog to our household, the training of the first dog will drastically decrease. So, if the first dog were to stop progressing in their training, would you be happy? If the answer is no, then we should wait until it is before adding another. 🐶❤️

For a lot of people, there's this disconnect between having the leash on and being in the house. Which is understandable...
09/04/2025

For a lot of people, there's this disconnect between having the leash on and being in the house. Which is understandable, because this is their house and we want them to feel as comfortable as possible. But the example I always use with my clients is:

It's similar to a child in an amusement park. We wouldn't take an 8 year old to an amusement park and just let them go. They're going to make bad choices and likely get into trouble or even hurt. Instead, we'd take them by the hand and walk them through the park, showing them where everything is and how to behave. Then, by the time they're 16, we CAN just drop them off and trust that they'll make good decisions. But, oftentimes, that's the opposite of what we do with our dogs. We bring them home, and let them go to make their own choices and develop their own habits.

Having the leash on in the house, when someone comes through the front door, for example, gives us the opportunity to show them how we want them to behave BEFORE they develop those bad habits. And, if the dog already has bad habits, the leash allows us to prevent them from practicing them while we build up the good habits. 🐶❤️

This quote by Tom Davis is spot on!

A common mistake people make is trying to teach too much at once. If we do that, what often happens is that the humans d...
09/03/2025

A common mistake people make is trying to teach too much at once. If we do that, what often happens is that the humans don't put as much practice into an individual behavior. This can be confusing to the dog, making progress take longer. Another thing that often happens is that, because we're teaching multiple things at once, we don't find ways to incorporate all these things into our regular life, meaning that, after a while they don't get practiced very much at all, so the dog starts to forget about it.

Dog training is like building a house. We teach one behavior, and find ways to incorporate it into our everyday lives, and then do the same with another behavior, and another. In this way, we're building a life with our dogs, brick by brick. 🐶❤️

09/02/2025

Calm confidence is an essential part of working with a dog, because confidence allows for clarity of communication. A common struggle many dog owners have is communication during times of tension.

For example: The dog starts to bark at something on the walk, and the human has a short moment of panic. Their arms tense, they pull up on the leash, they quicken their pace, start looking around quickly, and all the other behaviors that go along with that tension. This is a completely natural, normal reaction. But, while this is happening, they're also trying to tell the dog to be calm.

Unfortunately, since dogs communicate primarily through body language, this physical tension sends a very different message to them than what the human is actually saying in that moment. And that's because their body language is telling the dog that they should be panicking, too. So what the human is trying to communicate verbally, or with the leash, is being muddied by their physical actions, causing confusion in the dog. This causes the dog to feel like they have to figure out how to handle the situation. Now both the human and the dog are panicking at the same time, despite the human's words.

Remaining calm and confident in a situation where you don't FEEL that way, however, can be very difficult. That's why we practice, though. The more we practice when things AREN'T tense, the more it becomes muscle memory; we don't have to think about it, we just do it. So when the real situations happen, we don't panic, we just follow the script. Now, even if the human doesn't FEEL confident, their calmness allows for their actions to APPEAR confident, thus creating a very clear, cohesive message with both their body language and their words/leash usage, and the dog will be far more responsive because they know what's expected of them. It's all about clarity of communication. So go practice, even if the dog already knows it. 🐶❤️

08/31/2025

I don't think we put enough emphasis on how important perceived confidence is to dog handling.

08/31/2025

We preach a lot about management being the other side of the dog training coin. But there does come a point when we have to ease up on that and trust them. The keys to this are:

(1) Don't start giving them that freedom until you see them performing the behavior on their own, without you prompting them.

(2) Perform proper experiments. Meaning that we don't want to do this with all behaviors at the same time. We want to test the dog by giving them a little more freedom with a certain behavior, and if they do well, great. But if they make the wrong decisions, then we'll tighten back up on the management for a little while, and try again in the future. Don't experiment with multiple factors at once, and don't give them too many opportunities to make the undesired decisions; if they can't do it, then stop and return to tighter structure.

(3) Don't forget about the basics. Even if the dog is doing great with the increased freedom, making great decisions, we still want to occasionally return to that structure, just to remind them or to test their reliability both on and off leash. 🐶❤️

08/30/2025

Dog training isn't magic, where we wave a wand and they now know these things, and dogs aren't robots that we can just put a chip in and download the information. It's more like math, where it takes practice and repetition, and if they don't use it, they'll lose it.

Even with a board-and-train program, once the dog comes home, the owners still have to figure out ways to incorporate those things into their everyday lives so they can practice them regularly. If they don't, then the dog will simply forget about it (that's why follow-up sessions are so important).

This especially holds true to behaviors that we're first introducing to a dog. Keep in mind that just because a dog can physically perform a task doesn't mean they KNOW IT yet. So we need to practice, because a behavior that isn't practiced is a behavior that doesn't exist. 🐶❤️

***This is also why we say management is the other side of the training coin, because if we allow them to practice the UNDESIRED behaviors, that's what they'll get better at doing. So the key is to prevent them from practicing the unwanted behaviors while we teach them the appropriate ones.

08/27/2025

The 3 D's of Dog Training: Duration, Distance, and Distraction.

This is the order that we want to teach anything to a dog. The biggest challenge for a lot of people is that they want to move to the Distraction phase way too soon. Perfect the behavior with no distractions, and then build up as the dog becomes more reliable. 🐶❤️

08/20/2025

Dog adolescence, often called the "teenage phase," is a period of significant physical and behavioral changes, typically occurring between 6 months and 2 years of age. This stage mirrors human puberty, with hormonal fluctuations impacting behavior. Understanding this phase is crucial for owners to provide appropriate support and training to help their dogs navigate this developmental stage successfully. During this time, we can expect:

- TESTING BOUNDARIES: Pushing limits, ignoring instructions, etc.

- INCREASED INDEPENDENCE: Going off on their own more

- HYPERACTIVITY AND (if not handled properly) DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR: Hormonal changes can lead to increased energy levels and potentially destructive behaviors if not managed properly.

- FEAR PERIODS: They suddenly become scared of things they previously tolerated.

- HORMONAL CHANGES: Hormones turn on and off to control growth and sexual maturity. Dogs may hump to release hormones and relieve stress.

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