Syd’s Woof Pack

07/09/2023

Happy Dogs!! 💛

06/04/2023

This is what the end of the day looks like for the pups at Syd’s Woof Pack. They chill in the living room at our feet. Winding down by chewing on bones! 🦴

06/04/2023

Memorial day weekend was a blast!! it was a puppy pool party!! 🐶💦🥳

05/16/2023

Pups here at Syd’s Woof Pack are happy the pool is back open and are loving the dog floats! Don’t hesitate to book your dogs summer vacation now at only $40 a night!

05/10/2023

With summer approaching quickly, vacations are being planned. No more stressing and worrying about what to do with your fur babies while your gone. Send them on a vacation of their own!

Here at Syd’s Woof Pack everyday is like vacation for our boarding guest. Whether your pup is big or small, likes to play with friends or relax alone. We treat all dogs like our own and we can assure you they will be too busy having fun to notice your gone! So don’t wait, go ahead and book their stay now. Your pup will thank you! ❤️

04/16/2023

Syd’s Woof Pack was the place to be for spring break.

03/12/2023

It’s been a busy few weeks here at Syd’s Woof Pack! 🐾

03/01/2023

Okay, so forgive me for hi-jacking a well-known saying from the awesome Jocko Willink...but it was just too perfect to not use.

So many struggle imposing structure, rules, discipline, and accountability with their dogs. They feel badly. They feel guilty. They’re worried they’ll make their dogs sad, unhappy creatures, forced to “obey”.

What so many are missing is that it’s the exact opposite. By sharing a more disciplined life with your dog, you earn, and get to enjoy, a bigger, more fun, less stressed life together.

Through that discipline you can earn the freedom to take your dog to restaurants, parks, hikes, beaches. You can have them included in family gatherings, and perhaps even enjoy a simple, relaxing, connected, stress-free walk.

Of course, this is true in our own lives. The more we demand of ourselves, the more freedom, health, and depth of life we enjoy. But even here, with the obvious connection of benefits to our own selves, we still resist.

There’s no doubt that creating discipline, with you or your dog is no easy task - mentally or physically. If it was, everyone would do it. But there’s no getting around the fact that well-behaved dogs get to go a lot more places, and enjoy a lot more life than those who are a mess.

So the decision is up to you. Take the easy way, and endure the harder, smaller life, or take the harder way, and enjoy the bigger, better life.

01/15/2023

Meet Charlie and Annie! two new guest at the wolf pack! The had the week of their life playing with all the big dogs! ❤️

12/19/2022

Meet Henry, our newest guest in Training. He’s a big boy, but still only 11 months old. He did great learning so many new commands and learning how to exist in a chaotic environment. So proud of him!

12/12/2022

River is finally part of Syd’s Woof Pack! He did a few training days and did awesome! Can’t wait to see this pups transformation.

12/04/2022

Buddy’s favorite spot when he stays with us!

12/04/2022

Meet Wrigley and Toby! Two new boarding guests at Syd’s Woof Pack!

12/03/2022

Dog socialization tip! Simply teach them how to exist around other dogs! 🐶💚

11/13/2022

Free feeding doesn’t exist here at Syd’s Woof Pack, we eat as a family! Scheduled feedings are a great way to add structure to a dogs daily routine. Dogs crave structure!

11/13/2022

Meet Oreo a boarding guest here at The woof Pack! Oreo is an only dog and this was her first time away from her parents. She was very nervous at first but after only 2 days she was part of the pack. Being with the pack for a whole week has given ms. Oreo a ton of new confidence. She now walks with her chin high and her tail wagging!

11/01/2022

Davis finally boarded at the wolf pack for a weekend! To say he had a good time is an understatement! He definitely got some much needed dog socialization and loved it!

10/25/2022

I like to share this post every year or so. It always seems to be something folks are struggling with. SA is often unintentionally created, and often done so with good intentions but poor understanding.

•Pet your dog, all the time
•Talk to your dog, all the time
•Allow your dog to follow you, all the time
•Allow your dog to be on your lap or laying on your feet, all the time
•Pet, soothe, comfort your dog when it whines or barks for attention...or is simply anxious
•Allow your dog to demand affection/interactions
•Be emotionally dependent on your dog
•Allow your dog to do whatever it wants, whenever it wants
•Provide no structure or rules
•Refuse to crate train your dog
•Refuse to correct your dog when inappropriate behavior occurs
•Refuse to train your dog to be calm, relaxed, and independent by using a “Place” command, and/or “away” time in the crate
•Allow you and your home to be a free-for-all, where your dog has zero leadership and guidance
•Let your dog out of the crate when it whines or barks
•Avoid training or anything that makes your dog uncomfortable or unhappy
•And many, many more...

Basically, baby, soothe, allow, enable, lean on, and create a toxic dependency...so when you leave, your dog is a mess, because you haven’t prepared them to be strong, resilient, robust, independent, and alone.

10/25/2022

Here’s another post I share annually. Many, many owners (and trainers) have found life changing insight and value from this short read. I hope it’s helpful. 🙏
——
Okay, so this is a word that gets an awful lot of play in the training world, and it’s definition has come to mean an awful lot of things. Many of which, are incredibly counter-productive, if not downright dangerous.

So let’s see if we can’t clarify a few things.

Socialization isn’t:
-About letting your dog freely interact with dogs at the dog park, day care, or with friends dogs.
-About allowing your dog to meet other dogs on-leash.
-About allowing all manner of people, in all manner of mental/emotional states interact/pet/pressure your dog.
-About exposing your dog to the sights and sounds of cars, buses, motorcycles, bikes, skateboards, joggers...and allowing them to freak out, panic, aggress, hide, bark etc.
-About exposing your dog to the sights and sounds of dogs, cats, and other animals, and allowing them to freak out, aggress, lunge, bark, growl etc.

Socialization is:
-About teaching your dog the proper responses to dogs. What is and isn’t appropriate behavior, and correcting the unwanted when it appears.
-About teaching your dog to walk by the barking, lunging dog(s) on walks and ignore them, completely. Correcting if necessary to achieve this result.
-About advocating for your dog and ensuring people aren’t allowed to pressure your dog, by touching, crouching down, attempting “kisses” etc. That means being a big boy or girl, and stopping others from engaging in unwanted, uninvited interactions.
-About exposing your dog to all manner of daily life “things” and ensuring a proper response. If aggression/arousal is present, it’s corrected, if fear/arousal is present (and causes an overreaction/fleeing etc.) it’s corrected. Ask your dog to learn to ignore and not care about these “life” distractions/concerns/temptations. Teach them to listen to the training, not the world around them.
-About teaching your dog to leave other creatures alone. The cat, the bird, the cow, the goat, the other dog, is simply none of their business. If they decide those things are their business, it’s your job to correct and clarify what is and isn’t their business for them.

Socialization has become a ridiculously simplified, dumbed down, all-encompassing idea. Free interaction and exposure have been presented as a panacea, the magic gateway to a balanced dog. That’s a whole lot of B.S. you’ve been sold, by a lot of people full of B.S. 🙂

Socialization is all about teaching your dog how to behave and exist in the world...properly. People have a belief that only interactions create a well socialized dog. They don’t understand that existence is almost always preferable, and more valuable than actual interaction. Yes exposure is critical, but exposure without 100% clear guidance, and corrections for poor choices, isn’t socialization, it’s chaos, and it’s not teaching your dog what’s right, what’s wrong, and that you’ll keep them safe, so they don’t have to.

A well socialized dog isn’t fazed by the world around them. And that doesn’t come from simple exposure and interactions without guidance. Ironically, that’s precisely how you create anti-social dogs.

Think on that for a minute.

10/14/2022

Meet Millie, a boarding guest here at Syd’s Woof Pack! Millie is a curious and playful 8 month old golden doodle, she is a only dog and had never seen a cat before. She was also pretty intimidated by stairs when she arrived. After only one night with my pack she has gained the confidence to go up and down stairs by herself, she met two cats and ended up sleeping in the same bed as them. And even though my dogs are all well above her weight class and are hard core about Tuggawar. They were so sweet to be gentle with her and help her pull! 🥰

10/12/2022

Remember Davis!! Just last week he had his first walk with me. He was very excited and ready to take the lead. Today on his second walk with me he was much more relaxed and responsive to his commands. He had an idea of what we would be doing and he was prepared to please me by matching my calm energy and letting me take the lead to guide him.

*Refer back to my last video of Davis to see his improvements!*

10/11/2022

Meet River! This is his very first walk with me and he did great learning to ignore all of the distractions and to focus on the task I gave him.

10/11/2022

I've just reached 100 followers! Thank you for continuing support. I could never have made it without each one of you. 🙏🤗🎉

10/11/2022

Here is a sneak peak of Stella’s first training session with me!

Stella was specifically having trouble with her recall (come command), as she has a bit of selective hearing. Here I am practicing putting her in a Sit, Lay and Stay command so I can walk away and call her to me. Once reaching me she receives a variety of high and low value treats. Therefore i am teaching her that she never knows what reward comes with following a command but she must follow them all to have a chance at getting the high value treats!

10/11/2022

Meet Stella! She is a 10 month old Cane Corso. Today she had her first training session with me. We worked on commands Sit, Lay, Stay, Come and Leave It! She did fantastic and is learning so quickly.

*Watch for my next post to see a sneak peek video of Stella’s session.*

10/11/2022

Meet Kylo, a boarding guest here at Syd’s Woof Pack. Kylo is a only dog and huge mamas boy! He did fantastic here with the woof pack and didn’t have a chance to miss his mom at all! ❤️

10/11/2022

Meet Marko one of our boarding guest here at Syd’s Woof Pack! Marko is an only dog so he has quite enjoyed having friends to play with during his stay!

10/05/2022

Tott and I practicing some of his commands!

10/05/2022

Meet sweet Davis boo! He is a joyful ball of energy. Typically he likes to walk himself, but he did fantastic letting me take the lead. He’s a quick learner so I can’t wait to share all the things he will do. 🥰

10/05/2022