Companionshep

09/13/2025

09/11/2025

📚Last week a client shared that she was told she “was rude” to not let her (young) dog come over to meet this random persons dog at a local park.

Can we stop? 🛑

Please stop.

Dogs are not public property.

Dogs are not props for your public congeniality contest.

Dogs are not playthings for children.

Dogs are not responsible for your ego.

And dogs are definitely NOT at fault when you or your kid reaches over to invade their space and they bite.

✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️

FACT ✅ Dogs DO NOT and HAVE NOT EVER needed you or your kids to put their hand in their face for them to “MEET YOU” or SMELL YOU.

PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE, do you really think a creature that can smell your blood sugar change in real time, can smell when cancer starts creeping into your body, can smell the 1000x microscopic parts of a virus starting to colonize in your nostrils…need or want you or your kids looming over them, hands squeezing and patting them in their face? 👃

I talked to the dogs, they said STOP.

🛑 A boatload of the people who come in here have children.

IMAGINE 🎥 that when they walked in, I immediately started feverishly TOUCHING and KISSING their children in the face?

They would think I am a FREAK. 👽
They would be CORRECT.

That would be a freakish thing to do.
It is also a freakish thing to do to dogs.

I can guarantee you with absolute certainty that that dog, any dog, smelled everything it needed to know about you from across the parking lot. 🅿️

💭 Change the way you see that adorable, loving, amazing creature at the end of that leash that you want to squeeze they’re just so cute. 🐕‍🦺

Flip it and inject what you see at the end of the leash with more reverence, understanding and respect.

Picture your own or the daughter of someone you love on her wedding day, crisp white flowing train gathered around her dress. She’s all ready, zipped up, the guests have arrived, it’s almost time when BAM Chris Farley is back from the grave, down by the river, covered in mud and he’s headed straight for our precious bride. 👰

That is your sweet, nervous doggy in that white dress, having a great day on her walk, feeling confident — that random stranger who thinks they get to touch your dog at will is, Chris Farley. 🤪

Don’t be Chris Farley. ✋

Think Bison in Yellowstone, social distancing, contagious disease……give some space, guys 🦬 🦠

🪐 🪐🪐

09/09/2025

A little Tuesday reminder…. 💜

☝🏼You are not a bad pet owner if…..

You had a medical emergency and your dog did not get a walk for months.

You didn’t know how much grooming your dog would need when you got them and you struggle to keep up with it.

You had a child and your dog had to spend a lot more time in a crate.

You are in over your head, lost your job or anything else and you found a different home for your dog.

☝🏼just the same as you are not a bad person if…

You got fired from a job.

You have put yourself first for any reason.

You didn’t stick to your diet or fit into the dress.

Your child didn’t sleep at all last night and you couldn’t find your footing all day.

🔥📱We need to put down the torches we carry for ourselves and others and remember we are ALL just trying to do our best and figure this whole life thing out.

⚠️ We (must) forgive ourselves for the things we didn’t know then that we do know now.

🔮 So that next time……

We know we don’t have the time for that kind of dog.

We know we’re definitely not going to eat only lettuce for 3 months straight.

We know where to go for help now.

We know our own intuition better.

We learn, we grow, we progress and we’re that much better equipped to handle whatever is coming next for us or others with more wisdom, kindness and compassion.✌️

We know there’s always something coming next.

What you do now is all that matters. 🌱

09/05/2025

🚨🚨🚨TRAINING TIP INCOMING🚨🚨🚨

Do you have 10 minutes a day and want to change your dog’s life??

Great, listen up…

This is the most important, free, fun, effective dog training tool for anyone, anywhere, anytime, ever.

WORK YOUR DOG FOR THEIR MEALS / CONTROL THE FOOD

There’s an old phrase in dog training that says “There is no such thing as a suicidal rabbit”

Meaning nothing comes for free.

Dogs don’t understand just getting stuff for nothing, no effort.

Our pet dogs are megamillions lottery winners.

Food, shelter, affection, clean bed, leisure walks, unlimited naps. I mean, come on!

They should be grateful!
There’s starving kids in Afri— okay hold on.

That’s a human lens. 👀

These are dogs. 🐕

Dogs have no idea where this food in a bowl, this doorway, this bed, this leash came from.
It’s just been a part of things.

Dogs frequently act out simply out of boredom.

We met all their needs.

There’s nothing for them to do.

If you won the megamillions would you go back to work?

Maybe, but your relationship with work would change, no matter how fulfilling it may be, if you no longer had to do it to survive.

But is that a good thing?

We know for sure unlimited money doesn’t change who people are or how they feel on the inside.

If your dog is bored senseless from its posh, spoiled life, what real incentive do they really have to behave? Or come when you call? Or not chew the rug?

They don’t have to do anything for it.
So its value changes.

Yes, they are dogs. They live with us in our houses but that still doesn’t make them capable of thinking “whelp, my brain is melting from boredum but I’ve got it real good here so I’m going to make sure I do every single thing right so I don’t end up like ole Johnny 3 toes down at the shelter”

They understand having to do SOMETHING to get their food, to get their doggy “errands” done.

Performance.

If you’re spoiling your dog, it’s for you, not them.

Spoiling your dog is NOT HEALTHY for them.

The most ill-behaved dogs are the most spoiled dogs, 100% of the time. 🎤

That’s why so many dogs are overweight, the serving size on the bag is for dogs who are actively burning calories, not couch potato-ing.

People feel bad about not spending time with their dogs, long crate time, whatever it may be and they put all that guilt straight into the dog bowl.

Your dog is picky and not wanting their dinner because it’s BORING.

Rabbit su***de.

Wake it up!!! 💡 🏎️

Put your dog’s food in a bowl, pick it up and take it into the yard AND WORK THEM FOR IT.

Make them sit, stay, swirl, twirl and dance the night away to get that food from you.

Take the food bowl into the living room and practice going in and out of the crate nicely FOR THAT DINNER.

Take that dinner and put it in your lap while you’re on your zoom call and slowly, calmly dole it out to your dog as they lay calmly nearly you.

You WILL have an unrecognizably changed dog.

I can assure you, with a bomb proof 10000% guarantee your dog will become the most obedient, calm, attentive dog you’ll ever have if you hand feed / work them for their food.

And I can also assure you, it’s absolutely fantastic for them.

Your dog simply having to “down stay” calmly for 10 mins before eating their food IS GREAT FOR THEM.

🤔 You’re already buying them the food, I most certainly know it’s not cheap, so why not get as much value out of it as possible from that food???

You can fix any problem any dog pet dog could ever have, by working them for their food.

09/05/2025

Congratulations to Keanu on becoming our Companion of the Month for August 2025!!🐾🩵
Keanu is about as handsome a doggy can be and his sweet and playful inside is equally as eye-catching is his outside. All legs, sometimes he looks like a cartoon spider rolling around on his back and leaping over the playground! We all love him dearly!
Good boy, Keanu!! 🐶🐾💙

09/02/2025

🔔 A great phrase to keep in mind with your dog is..

👂 “What the dog knows least must come first”

Something extra relatable being that it’s back to school season!

There’s a reason our 5 year olds don’t start school in high school.

That wouldn’t be fair, they’d be lost, they haven’t learned what they need to know yet…… 🧮

There is so much to learn before getting there..

🤔👩‍🏫

Holidays coming? Has your dog ever experienced a dozen people coming through your door, staying for hours, high energy, lots of emotion? 🥘 🚗 🗣️

A high number of bites occur over the holidays!

It’s wise to practice some guest entries, Sunday dinners, extended crate times etc beforehand!

📝

Does your dog struggle to be composed on walks?

It’s very wise to practice some laps getting into the groove of walking calmly together inside the house and in your yard BEFORE the walk and/or for the entirety of the walk sometimes!

The dog should definitely learn about the sights, sounds and experience the action of people coming over prior to the whole family piling in the door on Christmas Eve. 🎄

A dog should have practice being calm and under control at home, inside and in the yard where maybe they don’t always have to be, so when we go out further into an unpredictable world, they are starting off on a better foot.

💭 The kids in their first week of school are not being handed their final exams right now!

They have to learn the material first. 🐕‍🦺

Some laps in the yard, playing the sounds of dinner parties on YouTube in your home while your dog has some crate time, doing some “place” practice inside, all of that stuff is like doing flash cards of value info for your dog to take their big tests in life!! ✍️ 📝

Think about your dog, find out where your dogs “elementary” foundations have holes and patch those up. 🔨 🏡

Think about something you’d like your dog to be able to do, now whittle it down to its most simple form.

The least of which the dog knows, the bare bones.

Example: Owner wants their dog who loses its mind on walks to be able to walk well with them. Break that down, peel all the barking and craziness away and the most simple form of what the owner wants “what the dog knows least” would be that dog being inside the home and on a leash in a calm state of mind. Working from there to maintaining that calm state of mind while going out the door as if beginning a walk, if the dog unhinges, you go back. More practice needed. Rinse and repeat.

What the dog knows least must come first.

08/29/2025

just hold still💋💋💋💋💋💋

08/28/2025

The behavior decision making matrix.

Is the behavior: Positive = Healthy, desired?
If yes, then allow/reward it.

Is the behavior: Negative = Unhealthy, undesired?
If yes, then don’t allow/punish it.

Whenever you’re faced with a decision about your dog’s behavior, and what response is best, apply the above.

It really is this simple, if you only let it be.