The Dog Nerd PA

05/16/2024

Canine nutrition classes are here! 🐕🥦🥕

Super excited to announce I am rolling out a few online canine nutrition classes starting next Tuesday 5/21 at 6p. We will meet on zoom, and there will be opportunities to ask questions during each class 🤓

Each class will be 60-90 minutes. Zoom links will be emailed out before each class. Recordings will be emailed afterwards.

Class 1: Overview
5/21 at 6p EST
- Learn not just what dogs need to eat but WHY from an evolutionary and biological standpoint. We will also discuss issues surrounding the commercial pet food industry and nutrition education programs in veterinary medicine.

Class 2: Microbiome
5/28 at 6p EST
- The key to wellness at every level is a balanced microbiome. The bacteria in your dog's gut play a significant role in regulating cellular function, immune response, brain chemicals like serotonin, even preventing cancer. If your dog has allergy/digestive issues the vets can't seem to solve, you don't want to miss this!

Class 3: Current Recommendations
6/4 at 6p EST
- How I structure nutrition programs, including current products I use and love, as well as how/why I chose them. Formulations are always changing so while I can't guarantee I'll stand by any of these products in the future, I can teach you how to evaluate labels and make your own informed choices.

Classes are $15 each or $40 for the series. Venmo payment to or contact [email protected] for more payment options.

SIGN UP link in comments-- hope to see you there! 🤓

Please share! I'm still in the middle of recovering from foot surgery and out of work for 3 months 🙏

12/12/2023

First snow at the new Dog Nerd HQ ❄️🐾 and we took full advantage! You can hear it melting from the tree tops 👂 while Clemmy runs and chases some of the drips 🤣

We recently relocated our HQ to Caroline County VA out in the country and are now seeing clients in VA, MD, DC, and still in PA 🚗 and have expanded capacity for boarding, as well as a beautiful private wooded property for working dogs 🌳🌲😍 the pack definitely approves!

The new dog room will be finished very shortly, and then I'll have lots of new cute faces to introduce you to 🐶🐩🐕

12/02/2023

Great video on ways to keep your dog from jumping on people!

Many dogs want to jump on other people. This can be unwelcome at the least and a safety issue for that other person at most. My dad lives in a mostly senio...

10/28/2023

Having a great time in VA learning how to be better partners for fearful dogs and to help them ground through their sense of smell with Julie Hart Rescue Dogs Responsibly Hart to Heart Canine Training, LLC

If you have a fearful dog or want to help fear cases and/or feral dogs, I HIGHLY recommend you follow Julie's work and catch a workshop if you can! Tons and tons of info here, and conversations that aren't happening in a lot of other circles.

Dogs are always communicating with us, but it's easy to miss if you don't know what you're looking for 🤓

10/22/2023

Dog parks are fight clubs for canines.

In the realm of totally inappropriate and ridiculous from a dog Trainer’s point of view is a dog park board game. I wonder what kind of encounters one has while playing this game? The aggressive dog brought in on a muzzle by the owner that wants to socialize him? The overbearing dog that is being rude? The clueless owner on their phone while their dog terrorizes the other dogs? The clueless owner that gets mad and yells at you when you try to stop their dog from terrorizing others? The dog that guards their owner and pops out from behind him every time a dog or person gets close? The constant humper? The potential fights that are brewing and how to stop them? Just say no to dog parks. They are dangerous & unnatural for dogs. Alot of what is going on is testing for who’s at the top of the ladder. There are so many vet ER visits from the dog park. What weird encounters have you experienced at dog parks?

10/17/2023

🌟 REAL CLIENT FEEDBACK 🌟

I helped this dog mom better understand the dynamics and communication going on in her pack of three dogs. 🐶🐶🐶 The dogs weren't playing-- they were practice fighting (and yes there is a HUGE difference). And they were seeking more leadership from her.

She reached out with this feedback just a few hours after we met! 💕🤓

When you learn how to listen to your dogs and communicate on their level, you can build a life of less conflict and more peace! ✌️ To get a fresh perspective on what your dogs are really "saying," book a Quickstart today and let me help you get on the right path together! 🩵

10/12/2023

👏👏 your example can either help or hurt your dog in learning not to react fearfully in new situations. Beautiful explanation of teamwork and cooperation!

09/21/2023

Finn is very scared of strangers and behaves aggressively when he feels threatened: barking, growling, lunging, posturing 😬

He goes home from boarding school soon, so check out this before and after to see his progress after 60 days! 🩵

Some programs will promise results that look similar in far less time, but true behavioral change takes at least 30 days to start to stick in the brain 🧠

I'm not telling Finn what to do in any of these after clips-- he's making these choices on his own, because he has learned new habits through long term behavioral rehabilitation 🤓 He will need support from his humans long term to manage his behavior, but it will be easier for them to maintain now that this calm state is his new norm 😊

My next opening for boarding school like this starts in November-- reach out today for more info and to book it!

09/16/2023

One thing I hear often from families of fear aggressive dogs is how their dog, as a young puppy, would always roll onto their back and ask strangers for belly rubs... how could they become so fearful later on when nothing bad happened to them? 🤔

The truth is, not all dogs showing their belly want it rubbed: many are actually asking for space. Rolling onto their back is a submissive posture and is often a fearful puppy trying to say, "I'm not a threat! Please leave me alone!"

But we as humans often misinterpret this as wanting affection, and over time, ignoring the low level signals a dog is sending about being uncomfortable can cause them to take matters into their own hands (paws? 😉) as they age and start advocating for their space with aggressive behavior like barking, lunging, growling, even biting.

Dogs don't speak English, but they're always communicating through body language. Learning to "hear" what they're telling us is necessary to build true partnerships with our dogs. Here are some signals you can watch for to tell if a dog is accepting or uncomfortable. 🩵🤓🐾🌈

09/01/2023

Nerd Nutrition: fresh veggies and fruits are super healthy for your dogs, like the wild dock pictured here. 🐕🥦

HOWEVER, dogs lack the digestive enzymes to break cellulose or plant cell walls, and they aren't biologically designed to do it manually (with flat molars or jaws that move side to side to enable chewing like humans), which means the nutrition packed inside those cells is only accessible to dogs on cut edges. 🗡✂️

Always cut their veggies into small pieces so they're able to absorb as much nutrition from them as possible! 🤓🩵🥕🌈

08/31/2023

Finn is one month into a two-ish month behavioral rehabilitation program for fear aggression and making great progress! This dog would've absolutely bit me the first time (and second and maybe even 3rd) we met if he'd gotten close enough, and he is just now about to turn one year old 😬 He bit his human mom a couple months ago when she tried to introduce him to a new person who was staying with them. They couldn't have people over, couldn't take him off their property, couldn't all vacation together and leave him with anyone outside the family... the sight of another dog 🐕 the sound of the UPS truck 🚚 the presence of a strange human 🙋 even the lawn mower 🚜 were HUGE sources of stress and triggered Finn to behave aggressively.

True behavioral rehabilitation like this takes time and requires a high level of trust, so while you do see some stress in this video, know this alone is enormous progress for this guy. Eustress is stress with a purpose or beneficial stress. Learning new habits is inherently stressful-- ask anyone who's ever tried to learn a new language or quit smoking or stop biting their nails 💅 But this stress is helping rewrite his neural pathways for problematic behavior and is going to help him live of a life of significantly less stress in the future 🥰

Lots more to come in month 2, so stay tuned for Finn's continued progress! 🩵🤓🐾

08/27/2023

Scenes from our pack walk today-- calm dogs are happy and content dogs! 😉 the first photo is an exercise where we asked that of the dogs; they are watching their humans at a little distance. The second photo is what the dogs chose to do after working together while the humans enjoyed a little socialization as well! 💕

A common misconception about dog socialization is that it needs to be a high energy event with dogs "playing" together or receiving lots of petting/affection from humans. THIS is what healthy socialization looks like-- dogs choosing to share space in a calm and relaxed manner 🩵🤓🐕

08/27/2023

Dogs' actions have meanings, and this is an important thing to be mindful of, ESPECIALLY for reactive/aggressive/protective dogs.

08/27/2023

Why I quit ecollars in a nutshell-- when you understand and learn to partner with your dogs naturally, there's no need for anything else. 🖤

08/24/2023

Good morning! Welcome to the rebrand! 🤓🐕 I've officially changed my business name to The Dog Nerd PA 🩵 new website coming soon!

08/20/2023

PSA: giving your dog treats while they are reacting/barking/lunging at other dogs on walks isn't "distracting" them. It's REWARDING the exact behavior you want to stop... especially when they're at the end of their leash on a harness standing on their back legs. You're doing more harm than good!

08/15/2023

Some shots from our pack walk this week 😎 it was a hot day and a small group, but we made the most of it!

08/05/2023

I was a guest on a podcast recently to talk about my journey with my difficult dog, Boone! Boone and I attended a workshop last October with some amazing trainers: Phyllis Smuland Canine Counselor, Inc and Julie Hart Rescue Dogs Responsibly & Fearful Feral Dog Task Force. I have had the privilege of working with them (especially Phyllis) on an ongoing basis after we struggled big time at the workshop on Boone's intense fear aggression with moving cars.

Hear about our journey and how Boone went from one of only 4 dogs in 40 years Phyllis ever put a muzzle on (he was that dangerous!) to now, we can walk by cars calmly without reaction, no muzzle or tools needed. This is Boone's story of recovery, and my story of how I quit training with ecollars and learned a more streamlined relationship based approach to working with dogs.

Listen to Becki and Boone - Can't Lead with Disagreement by Rescue Dogs Responsibly on

Boone is a good example of a car-reactive dog that redirected, but he really did not want to act that way. When I evaluated him, he seemed like a nice dog, so why was he reacting poorly around cars?

08/03/2023

Dogs are easy to train, but humans are often harder!

Just like us, dogs are a product of their environment. If you've ever had a job you hated, you understand how difficult it is to keep showing up as your best self every day in a toxic situation.

Dogs are no different and maybe even more sensitive to their environment than we are to ours.

Helping your dog long term means learning to do things differently to support them in the ways they need. If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got 😉🩵🐾

To truly help our dogs we must be willing to change as well.

We need to be open to changing our habits, how we communicate and what we allow, to give our dogs clarity in what is expected of them in our crazy human world.

Many times this may include lifestyle changes as well as our habits to make the difference we expect from our dogs.

It's all about Bark, Train and Love!!!

08/02/2023

Meet Finn! 🐕 Finn is a 10 month old rescue from the caribbean who was separated from his mom at two weeks of age. He is very fearful and defensively aggressive with new humans especially, but also reacts to dogs and trucks and other novelties. He's already had a level 2 bite (contact but no puncture) on his human a couple months ago when she tried to introduce him to a new person-- a sure sign of broken trust in the dog's eyes.

Finn is here for a couple months of long term behavioral rehabilitation. We are building a solid foundation of trust and partnership, so he can learn over time that following his human offers more safety and contentment than him taking the lead 👣🐾🐶

These clips are our first session doing some basic agility work in my yard. In the first part, my initial approach is too much pressure on this sensitive guy, and he moves away to avoid. So I try something different, and then we start syncing up. This dog wanted to bite me the first couple times we met, so it has already been a lot of relationship work getting to this point! I'm absolutely loving watching him start to relax and feel more comfortable in his own skin 🩵 welcome to the pack, Finn! 🖤

07/10/2023

New clients had their first session on Saturday and sent me this text not 48 hours later. This family has two reactive bull breed mix rescue dogs, both wanting to be in charge of each other as well as the humans, becoming increasingly competitive, one very wary of strangers in the home with a high prey drive and a few small animal kills under his belt already at 18 months of age... and a baby human on the way! 😍🎉

One thing we always discuss the first time we meet is elevation ⬆️🔝Since my goal in training is to tell a dog "no" as little as possible, I want to set the dogs up to understand their human's leadership as easily as possible 👣🐾

Elevation is an important consideration for all animals-- height is a natural advantage in the wild 🪜 How much this impacts your dog varies case to case, but in this family's case, these dogs need an adjustment in how they view their role in the pack, and they need it sooner than later 👶 less than 48 hours later with only these changes, they're already seeing a difference. NATURALLY! 🤯🩵

Really proud of their humans for setting their emotions aside and trying something new! Can't wait to see all their progress 🤩💕🐶

07/08/2023

Today's the last day of Willow's short-term board & train learning leash from , and she is celebrating with a well-deserved nap! The calming massage and relaxation time is undoubtedly her favorite part of this new system 😁💤 later today, I'll pass the leash back to her human, who is so excited to learn to lead with less conflict after a negative experience with high level ecollar training 👎 I am so grateful for the opportunity to bring more peace to both of their lives! ✌️☮️🩵

07/04/2023

Every year on this day, we rehash the same old sameold.

Make sure your dogs are tagged and/or microchipped.

Make sure your dogs have been aired sufficiently before the sun goes down. Be smart about this and have the dog on a leash attached to a collar that the dog cannot escape from.

GO OUTSIDE WITH YOUR DOG. It's not a lot to ask, and should be routine, anyway.

Holes in your fence won't matter tonight because you won't be foolish enough to leave your dog out by himself, right? RIGHT!?

Create a "safe space". An interior bathroom with deep bedding in the bath tub or shower stall with the fan on is helpful.

We used to put the stereo speakers against an interior wall and loop "Terminator" while the fireworks were being let off.

And prepare better for next year.

Yes, Virginia, you *can* train your dog to ignore fireworks.

07/02/2023

Meet Marlo! This hunky guy is reactive to dogs and humans on walks despite his overall sweet demeanor. Marlo is learning to access his calm 🧘‍♂️ mindset inside the house so we have an easier time calming him outside the house down the road 🩵

06/25/2023

Warm but beautiful morning for some pack time! We found a nice shady spot and even had a special guest 😉🐢🩵 thanks to everyone for coming out! It never gets old seeing you all committed and making so much progress with your pups, especially all our 🥰

06/19/2023

Pack time yesterday was fun-gility! It was a fun way to do something different and rewarding with the dogs and build those trusted partner relationships 🤓🐾🩵 Cocoa and Maverick also enjoyed doing some tracking work 👃

06/09/2023

Fear aggressive Cocoa isn't too sure about , which taps into a dog's natural instincts with calming muzzle pressure to demote them from their self appointed supervisory positions. Soon, she'll figure out that she is safer with her humans in the lead than leading herself (and making bad decisions along the way) 😉 in the meantime, she's definitely enjoying the calming massage at the end of her leash work sessions! 💆‍♀️🥰💤🩵