Pupdates From Some Minor Dog Training

Pupdates From Some Minor Dog Training Updates for Some Minor Dog Training's Board-and-Train Program

Delilah went home today!We're definitely going to miss her goofy, fun energy around but she has all the skills she needs...
07/15/2025

Delilah went home today!

We're definitely going to miss her goofy, fun energy around but she has all the skills she needs to be successful at home. She's still a puppy, but now a puppy with manners that her devoted parents are going to refine over their many happy years together yet to come. Don't worry though, as with all our board and trains, we'll see them again as we help transition all her wonderful new skills to her parents!

Tucker and Coco are two fun loving Dauschunds coming to get their on and off leash obedience. Tucker is a little older a...
07/15/2025

Tucker and Coco are two fun loving Dauschunds coming to get their on and off leash obedience.

Tucker is a little older and a little bigger than his housemate but he also is a little more nervous and barks at things, dogs, people, etc

Coco is just an excited little girl who needs work on her attention span and listening to Mom and Dad, even when excited (which is a lot of the time lol).

Don't let those hound puppy eyes fool you, these two are about to be the life of the party for the upcoming weeks. 🎉

Welcome Tucker and Coco to the Minor Pack!

07/14/2025

ONLY FOR CURRENT AND PAST CLIENTS:
Even though we're still in summer, we fill up fast and are already booking our Board-and-Tunes for the holiday months (November, December, and January).

So if you need us to watch your pup during the holidays, reach out sooner rather than later because we have limited spots available. 🐶❤️

**If you are interested in boarding with us, your dog must be evaluated and trained by us before staying overnight.

07/13/2025

We introduced Delilah to the flirt pole today. In the beginning, she had no idea what to do with it, so this video shows the progression of her understanding in how to play.

As you can see, once she got the hang of it, then we started asking her to Sit and Wait before we played. This is something we recommend with all high drive toys, because it builds their obedience skills, their impulse control, their ability to go from a "Level 10" of excitement down to a "Level 0" in an instant, and their DESIRE to focus on us. For puppies, it's especially important because they have a tendency to get so fixated on the toy that they forget there's a person attached to it (meaning they could accidentally nip fingers, or jump on us). Periodically stopping and asking them to do some impulse control tasks will help them remember that this is a game between the human and the dog, and they're playing with a toy, NOT a game between the dog and the toy, with the human simply there. So the flirt pole is a great training tool, as well as an exercise option.

I love this video because it really shows her confidence grow, which is a great side effect of this situation. A confident puppy is a happy puppy! 🐶❤️

07/12/2025

It's important for dogs (especially puppies) to learn how to be calm around other dogs. We have been working with Delilah around Tucker. Delilah has a housemate who is also a small dog, so we're working on her impulse control around a high energy small dog.

Tucker is a runner. He will out-run most of our dogs haha. So we let them play, and then we ask Delilah to ignore Tucker and focus on us. We want to teach her to go from a "Level 10" of excitement, and then drop down to a "Level 0." So, after play, we worked on our loose leash walking, as well as simple engagement with us.

These exercises are SUPER hard for Delilah, because she's still got a lot of puppy energy, and because Tucker is a HUGE distraction (they love playing with each other). She's getting better everyday, though. We're extremely proud of her! 🐶❤️

Maya and Lia went home today. They were sent to us because they've been known to get into scuffles, and their owners wan...
07/12/2025

Maya and Lia went home today. They were sent to us because they've been known to get into scuffles, and their owners wanted them to be able to coexist without fighting.

They did great during their time with us, and when they got home they hung out in the house and in the yard together as we went over everything. We have high hopes for these two housemates.

Of course, we want them to do certain things at home to maintain and build this new foundation. And we'll be working with them during our follow-up sessions to ensure things progress smoothly. But, given the family's dedication to these dogs, we're confident in their future. We'll miss these two gorgeous ladies, but this is not goodbye! 🐶❤️

07/11/2025

This video has clips from two different sessions. In the first clip, Lia and Maya are both on leash, but the second half of the video, they're off-leash. Because they've had incidents in the past, we're helping them to understand each other's body language. But we want to be mindful of our own body language, as well. Starting on-leash, without play, gives us the opportunity to do both of those things (if two dogs haven't already been through the desensitization process, starting on-leash can cause issues, so be mindful).

We wanted to include the first clip to illustrate that we did structured, on-leash interactions BEFORE we did off-leash interactions. During the on-leash interactions, you'll notice that, when Lia (the Mastiff) tried to play, we separated them. That's because Maya was exhibiting body language that said she was nervous, which Lia mistook as a sign that she wanted to play. So, when Lia jumped, we removed her to show her how to appropriately respond when she sees that body language (give her space). This step is important for these two, because they need to learn how to understand and respect each other's signals.

In the second part of this video, we're letting them have unstructured off-leash interactions, but we're working on the recall (we are each calling one of the dogs to us). This is because, like many dogs, when you call one, the other wants to come, as well. For Maya, that intensity, along with being near face-to-face with Lia, can make her nervous. And, again, Lia easily misreads that body language as play. So we are practicing them being able to come while the other one doesn't.

Lia and Maya are doing great. They're being respectful of each other's space, and they're learning how to appropriately respond to each other's body language. We want to monitor their excitement levels for a while, because we see where the misunderstandings come in. But we'll be there with their owners to help with the transition process so they can continue to nurture this beautiful friendship. 🐶❤️

07/09/2025

There are photos mixed in with the clips in this video. Maya and Lia were originally sent to us because they had gotten into it a number of times, and their owners wanted us to help them get along. And they're doing so well!

We suspect that the issues were mainly due to the age/maturity difference, and how they were introduced. Puppies are rude. It's not their fault; it's the same reason that toddlers are rude: because they haven't learned the social etiquette to be polite. And, just like with toddlers, we have to teach them that. And it's not uncommon for dogs to reach a certain age and not have the patience any longer to deal with puppies (just like with people). In theory, the older dog can teach them that social etiquette, but then we can end up with dog fights.

So, we teach them to be neutral around each other. Then, we use structured interactions to teach them how to appropriately respond to the other dog's body language (if she does "this," that means leave her alone, for example). Then we allow for unstructured interactions (still supervised) after they've learned all that.

These two are doing great. They're very responsive to the training, and we're confident they will be happy, respectful housemates. But, when they go home, their owners will have to practice these things to help build on this new foundation. We'll be there with them every step of the way with our follow-up sessions, though, to ensure that everything transfers over smoothly. 🐶❤️

07/09/2025

We've been dealing with a lot of rain lately, and while we have been steadily training and going on inside adventures (into pet friendly stores), sometimes you just need to let out a little energy.

This morning we let Delilah meet Uma and get some running out. Uma, though very uncomfortable around people, LOVES other dogs, and while her puppy energy can be a lot sometimes, she is great about bringing dogs out of their shells.

Here, Delilah was a little nervous in the beginning of their play date, but finally she opened up and really enjoyed zooming around the yard. She's come such a long way, and her manners are increasing every day but she is a puppy and still needs structure and routine when she goes home to keep these beautiful manners:

But just like us, they need some time to decompress and have fun too. So this morning, we took a break to let the puppy just be a puppy. ❤️

07/08/2025

We introduced Lia to Uma today. Uma is a nervous, high energy dog, so she can be a trigger for a lot of dogs. Because Lia has been known to have tussles with her housemate, we want to generalize the idea of neutrality around other dogs, no matter how they behave.

We also introduced Lia to the prong collar. As is seen in previous posts, Lia is doing very well with her loose leash walking, but she's also a very large and strong dog who has gotten into altercations. So the prong collar adds an extra element of safety and control, as well as their ability to communicate with her with minimal force, if she's in a heightened state.

You'll note that we don't use prong collars with all of the dogs we work with. We base it on the individual dog and household. The prong collar is a fantastic tool when used properly. It offers a level of communication with the dog that a regular nylon collar doesn't.

The prong collar is a precision instrument. Meaning that it's not designed for heavy-handedness. We don't want to use it to physically restrain the dog. There IS a conditioning process that we want to do before using the prong. We don't just put it on and go, we want to show them how to respond properly when they feel that sensation. And, of course, we will be teaching the owners how to use it. We want a loose leash as often as possible, with tension only applied when directing the dog. The tension that IS applied is the minimal amount necessary to interrupt their focus, and it's quick, not sustained. You can see in this video how lightly I have to move it to get her to respond.

Of course, this is with minimal distractions, so we want to adjust our intensity to match theirs. We want to figure out what is the minimal amount of pressure necessary to break through that focus in different situations.

Lia is doing so well! She's learning how to be neutral around different dogs with different energy levels. We're very proud of her! 🐶❤️

07/06/2025

Delilah has been going on a lot of field trips recently, especially since the weather has been so crazy (it's either too hot, or it's raining, or both). So we've been utilizing a lot of pet stores to help socialize her to people, dogs, and other animals.

I love using pet stores because they don't move. Meaning if a dog is having a hard time controlling themselves, WE can move away while the triggers stay put.

One thing that we want to keep in mind about outings like this is that we're actively working on increasing our own value around the different distractions. Meaning that I'm not letting anyone pet her (though a lot of people want to). If we allow people to pet her while outside during this stage in training, she will start to find people more interesting and valuable than me (because they're new and exciting). This means that she may start pulling towards people when we're in public. At her size, that's not a big deal, because we can physically control her. But when she's full grown, that's when it becomes a big deal.

Another thing is, if she gets into the habit of pulling towards people, but we continuously stop her, then she can get frustrated. And frustration in dogs can look like barking, lunging, and other reactive behaviors. So we want her to learn to IGNORE other people before we start teaching her how to interact with them.

She's doing so well, too! She's still a puppy, so she's got a lot of energy, meaning that we're not waiting for her to make her own decisions because we know she'll lose some of her impulse control and stop focusing on what we're doing. So we're telling her when to start and stop, and we're telling her what to do when we stop (Sit). And she's doing great. We're so proud of her! 🐶❤️

07/06/2025

Lia is doing so well with her loose leash walking. She's a big girl, so it's important that she knows how to walk nicely on a leash. And when working with her and her housemate together, we need them both to be able to be easily guided with the leash.

One thing we always say about the leash is that it's a communication device, not a restraint tool. If we use it to physically control the dog, then the dog won't listen as well when it's off. So we want to use it to communicate with the dog, and the rest of the time it's nice and loose. As much as possible, we want everything to be her choice. That's how we're going to ensure that she listens whether it's on or off. 🐶❤️

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