Naturally Canine - Behavior & Training

07/07/2024

Andddd just like that, Houston is prepping for another major storm event.🤞🏼Beryl is just a tropical storm, but always best to be prepared in case of emergency.

Here’s a few things I’ve done to prepare:
⭐️ Double check I have enough dog food to last through the week
⭐️ Prepare frozen meals in Toppls to feed while power lasts
⭐️ Stock up on extra enrichment items, like long lasting chews, for entertainment in case of power outages
⭐️ Prepare emergency kit items like water, medical supplies, battery operated fans, etc.

If your dog is storm phobic and has been prescribed medication to manage symptoms, don’t be afraid to lean on it this week to keep them as comfortable as possible. Remember to keep them leashed with ID tags on at all times outside the house, even in the backyard, in the event that they startle.

Stay safe and take care!

03/25/2024

06/25/2023

In fact, many dogs benefit from a quiet place to pass the time while humans celebrate.

If you haven’t already, make a plan for your dog this holiday season. This may involve a conversation with your vet about situational medications or your trusted pet sitter to care for your dog(s) while you celebrate. Be prepared to implement management strategies to help your dog feel as comfortable as possible, whether that’s prepping a quiet room for them, playing their preferred white noise or calming music, or use of doggy ear protection.

If you choose to participate in upcoming holidays, recognize the stressors that may be present for your dog. From fireworks to crowded parties, a multitude of stressors may exacerbate your dog’s typical response to stress.

You’ll catch us inside per usual, avoiding explosions and the Texas heat!

12/20/2022

I’m wishing all of my clients a happy, healthy holiday season! I'll be taking time away to enjoy the holidays and recharge until 12/31 and plan to disconnect from email and social media during that time. All correspondence, including email, text, and video review, will resume as soon as I return.

I appreciate all of you and look forward to resuming work with you in the New Year! 🥳⭐️

12/05/2022

It’s taken me awhile to get to this, but finally… WE HAVE MERCH! Just in time for the holidays!

Two logo options, plus your choice of shirts, hoodies, and more with lots of fun colors. Purchases support small business, and let you look cute doing it 😉

For friends of Naturally Canine - Behavior & Training. Merch to support small business and kind, science-based dog training.

11/24/2022

A lot of dog training content centers dogs who may be described as “difficult.” However, the holidays are a great time to remember that even the most easy going, tolerant dogs have their limits. All dogs benefit from thoughtful management strategies to minimize holiday stress.

For those who celebrate, enjoy a happy, safe holiday today with your loved ones!

11/21/2022

🗣 HOLIDAY REMINDER 🗣

Thoughtful management strategies are ESSENTIAL to the success of any training plan. Holidays are hard on humans and dogs, which is even more reason to lean on management to keep your dog comfortable and safe.

For some dogs, this may mean time spent behind a barrier with a Kong while they can’t be supervised, while others may be more comfortable completely removed in a separate area of the house or boarded until the festivities are over. It is NOT lazy training to limit your dog’s participation in holidays that pose potential risks to their safety.

11/17/2022

Texas friends, the Dog Aging Project is looking for more dogs from our state!

Can you help us recruit some very good doggos?

Our research is carefully designed to study the widest possible range of and dog experiences. This is why we work hard to make sure that we have dogs in the Pack from every part of the US as well as a wide range of ages, , and sizes. Gaps in data can lead to gaps in discovery, and at the Dog Aging Project, we strive toward excellence in all things—especially science!

Help ! We are still recruiting dogs of all ages, all breeds, all sizes, all across the United States (one per household)... but we would especially love to meet more dogs in these areas:
🐶 We need more young dogs, up to age 3
🐕 We need older dogs, age 7+
🐾 Dogs from key regions

! Have a friend in one of the purple areas on the map? Does your play with an older doggo? Know someone with ?

➡ Post about the Dog Aging Project on your social media with a link to dogagingproject.org.
➡ Share our posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn
➡Join the Dog Aging Pack if you haven’t already!

11/15/2022

“He knows this!”
“He does this all the time at home!”
“He’s just being stubborn!”

Have you caught yourself saying these phrases before? I certainly have. The truth is, we’re all guilty of expecting our dogs to know how to perform a behavior under conditions we haven’t taught them to.

Whether it’s basic obedience or a behavior chain in your sport of choice, it’s our responsibility to teach our dogs how to perform these behaviors under a variety of conditions. It is never the fault of the dog for being unable to perform a behavior they weren’t taught to do.

11/11/2022

Since Hari got her own throwback post last week, baby Habit deserves her own. Enjoy the fall foliage and baby puppy who hadn’t quite grown into her ears yet.

Habit has been practicing the skills most valuable to me since the day she came home. Although that list is long, she quickly learned about activities like hiking, traveling, camping - she was and is the best little travel companion. My puppy clients know how much I value thoughtful, appropriate involvement in the activities most important to your lifestyle!

11/04/2022

A wonderful example of positive reinforcement for humans 🥳

Client reviews like this make my day! I’m lucky to work with such amazing people and dogs. I truly appreciate all feedback that can help me improve as a behavior consultant.

11/03/2022

It may be 80 degrees in Houston, TX today, but mentally I’m here.

10/27/2022

For the first time in her life, Habit had an emergency vet visit this month. As is often the case, it was sudden, unexpected, and happened on a weekend evening. She’s thankfully totally fine and I’m incredibly grateful to the amazing veterinary team who cared for her.

So… what’s the catch? Well, prior to this trip, our vet visits have been pleasant, predictable, and consist of cooperative care behaviors that Habit has worked on since she came home at 8 weeks old. In stark contrast, emergency vet visits are urgent, unpredictable, and don’t allow me the opportunity to be involved in procedures.

I purposely train for this type of visit, evidenced by Habit happily leaving us to go with vet staff to be examined. However, despite our training and the positive conditioned emotional responsive to this setting, I understand that this is a significant withdrawal from the positive reinforcement history we’ve built. If I were to take no further action, the training and behaviors we’ve worked hard on would degrade over time.

So, how am I moving forward?
⭐️ Increase cooperative care training
⭐️ Increase rate of reinforcement in training
⭐️ Decrease difficulty of training

To maintain a positive conditioned emotional response and strong positive reinforcement history, we will be ramping up the cooperative care training at home. This means planning training sessions that provide ample opportunity to earn reinforcement in this context and maintain the desired emotional response.

I’m so thankful everything worked out as well as it did and am beyond grateful to Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists for their incredible care.

08/24/2022

A misconception in behavior modification cases is that they are solely focused on the behavior(s) of concern. However, before we can work with a given behavior and expect real behavior change, we have to zoom out and look at what other factors are contributing to the practice of that behavior.

This includes changes to:
⭐️ Environment
⭐️ Exercise routine
⭐️ Enrichment routine
⭐️ Prerequisite skills

Every dog and human has a different learning history that they bring to the case. Often these cases require we build a wider behavioral repertoire to pull from. Additionally, many behaviors require a stronger history of positive reinforcement before being put under stimulus control.

Every environment is slightly different, which will contribute to the management strategies implemented. The needs of clients who live downtown compared to rural areas often differ greatly.

Lastly, it must be stated that these strategies will not be effective if the dog is unwell. It’s important that all dogs be thoroughly examined by their veterinarian prior to working with a trainer or behavior consultant for behavior modification. I don’t hesitate to refer clients to their veterinarian before continuing our work if I suspect there may be a medical issue contributing to the behaviors of concern.

All this is to say there is no one-size-fits-all to behavior modification plans. Rather, there are many factors that contribute to the behavior of our dogs that must be considered. It’s important to me that my clients understand that this nonlinear approach to behavior modification is their most direct path to effective, sustainable behavior change.

08/19/2022

Excellent post by Megan Foster. As a positive reinforcement trainer, there are many behaviors I don’t allow to be practiced, and this is exactly how I go about it.

“I don’t allow that.”

What it means when a positive reinforcement based trainer says they don’t “allow” something:

✅ the environment is managed so that the dog can’t engage in the unwanted behavior

What does that look like? Mostly it depends on the behavior and situation but:

⭕️ tools like leashes, crates, barriers, harnesses, etc to manage the dog’s access to an unwanted behavior

⭕️ splitting the skill in a way that the dog only accesses the wanted behavior

⭕️ ending sessions early or before they begin to avoid rehearsal of unwanted behavior

💫 Any behavior that is repeated is getting stronger.

❓When you see “naughty” or unwanted behavior, ask yourself:

- Will this behavior cute when the dog is grown?
- Is this situation one in which my dog is going be in frequently?

👍🏻 if the behavior is cute, continue, let it be!

👎🏻 if it’s not cute long term, decide if it can be managed or if it needs training.

👍🏻 if the situation that produces unwanted behavior is a common one, make a training plan for long term, sustainable change!

👎🏻 if the situation is an uncommon one, it’s probably the best use of your time to manage it when it comes up and spend your precious training time on other things.

💫 Behavior is fluid and always changing and all behavior is information for us to use to setup situations for our dogs to be successful in.

08/15/2022

Be sure to catch this!

Calling all dog folks! If you only watch one of our free webinars this year, let it be this one.

When talking about dog training or living with dogs, we have to be mindful of the pervasive impact of race.

In this webinar on a August 18th, Kassidi Jones of will be talking to us about the history of race and dogs- as well as current issues and ways to be a better ally.

Everydogaustin.org/webinars to sign up

*the webinar will be recorded, so sign up even if you can’t make it live”

Image description:
Kassidi, a young black woman with two top buns, sits on a dark green couch with her tan dog, Ginger. The text reads “Allyship and anti-racist animal advocacy” followed by “free webinar August 18, 6pm CDT” and “featuring Kassidi Jones”

07/19/2022

Say hello to the new face of Naturally Canine!

I couldn’t be more thrilled with how this logo turned out, and am so grateful to the amazing artist Steffanie of Orange Eclipse Studio for making it happen. I’m so excited for updated business cards and social media, and especially branching out into merchandise in the coming weeks 👏🏼

06/16/2022

The girls, my partner, and I will be out of town for the next 2 weeks road tripping from Houston, Texas to Mexico City. I’m beyond excited to explore new parts of the world with my favorite people (yes, my dogs are referred to as people in this context). All texts, emails, and calls will be on hold until 6/30!