Sarah and the Pack

02/16/2025

Leo turned 3 last week and I am so proud of the dog he is and the relationship we have. His behavior is consistent and appropriate and he is my verygoodboy!

02/16/2025

Leo turned 3 last week and I am so proud of the dog he is and the relationship we have.His behavior is stable, consistent, and appropriate 99% of the time and I don’t take that for granted.

02/15/2025

02/08/2025

Yesterday Bowie hung out with me in the kitchen while I did dinner prep which made me realize how far he has come… Here’s the story.Cynthia Valentine Healey

02/06/2025

Quiz! How many stress signs can you spot? Murphy was here for a board and train stay recently. She is a very shy and wary four month old Golden Doodle puppy so my first order of business was relationship building. Her humans asked that I clean her eye boogers daily and while I tried my best to do this non-intrusively Murphy clearly had some feelings about a stranger poking around in her eye.

01/25/2025

Big Murphy Meets Little Murphy: socialization 101

01/19/2025

01/14/2025

Living with a fearful dog is really hard. Right now ruby is stressed out by so many things that it’s overwhelming: loud noises, metal on metal noises, car noises, weather noise, rain, cooking, cleaning, squirrels, the car, Leo, Ella, me, dogs barking, dogs whining, fear of things falling, lamps, smells, roadkill, I can go on and on… I hate seeing her stressed. I want to do everything I can to minimize her stress, but I often don’t even know what she is stressed about. The good news is that our communication is getting better and better and now she asks me for help with stressors such as in this video:

01/11/2025

3 weeks ago I bought a dremel to add to my nail care kit. Leo was immediately very suspicious of this whirring apparatus and wanted to be at least 10 feet away from it at all times. Given this, I started a desensitization and counter conditioning plan to help Leo’s nails and dremel be friends. Tonight we had a break through and I was able to dremel ALL OF HIS NAILS and he looked pretty calm and relaxed about the whole thing!!! How did we get here? At Leo’s pace! If at any point I saw stress signs, I’d change something to make it easier. This meant that the dremel didn’t even touch Leo’s nails for the first 2.5 weeks. And look at him now. This feels like magic.

01/07/2025

I know you are probably bored of circle time videos, but it’s a big part of the program over here and in this one from back in December I describe some of the nuances involved in training and maintaining a solid ‘stay.’

‘Stationing’ is having a dog go to a specific place and stay there until released. It’s an incredibly useful behavior for any dog, but especially for any sort of multi dog situation. I love it because it’s very clear for the human and the dog when the dog is ‘right:’ are all 4 paws on the thing? If yes, then correct! I typically start with a raised platform to maximize clarity.

I aim to not use force (physically putting the dog on the station or guiding them by the collar or leash) because this doesn’t teach them to think and act on their own. Plus, using physical force can be scary and I never want fear to be part of training if I can help it. Also, I want dogs to be able to move their body as they want because their body language is a window into how they are thinking and feeling, and I need that information to adjust the training to fit their needs. Instead, I set up the environment to make the behavior I want easy and obvious.

I don’t like to use food lures (guiding the dog into the behavior I want via food in my hand) because often when a dog is just following food, they aren’t actually thinking about what they are doing. This was very true for Milo. In fact, any time I moved my hands, aka food delivery devices, his entire focus went to the hands, almost like he was transfixed and unable to think about anything else.

I don’t typically ‘correct’ mistakes. When I see them, I think about how I can change my behavior or the environment to prevent that mistake from occurring again. For example, Milo likes to jump up and if I fed him by leaning over and handing a treat to his mouth, he would naturally jump up to meet me half way. Delivering the treat low prevents jumping up.

12/28/2024

Lenny and Joey are here for their first overnight! Here’s what that looks like:

12/22/2024

The more dogs there are in a given social situation, the more likely inter-dog conflict occurs. Preventing conflict is very, very important to me, so when new dogs join the pack, I work really hard to help them acclimate and learn the structure and routines over here. Other pack members are also such amazing role models and are so patient. Here’s what bringing Milo into the pack has looked like:

12/19/2024

Dogs are incredible at picking up on patterns of behavior. This is why it sometimes feels like they know what are thinking. Here is an example:

12/19/2024

Quiz time! Can you tell what the most sensitive part of Leo’s body is based on his body language during this session?

12/18/2024

Cari Byrd Olsen Jean Gipple Eric Olsen

12/18/2024

Milo frolicking

12/12/2024

Your relationship with your dog matters.

Big time.

This goes for all dogs but especially dogs that struggle to manage big feelings.

Think of someone you trust. I’m guessing that person knows you well. They know what your strengths and your struggles are and they accept all of you. They can tell how you are feeling without you needing to say anything. They don’t try to convince you that you shouldn’t feel the way you do. Instead, they give you the support you need when you need it without needing to be asked.

The same goes for our dogs. Behavior is often a reflection of how they are feeling. Correcting or neglecting behavior that is based in emotions not only doesn’t work (the feelings are still there), it shows your dog that you don’t get it. If you want them to listen to you, to turn to you when they are having a hard time instead of trying to handle things on their own, you need to fully see them, accept them, and give them the support that makes sense to them.

12/11/2024