Blue Dog Training & Behavior

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Madison, WI
Blue Dog Training & Behavior

Science-based dog training and behavior services by a Certified Professional Trainer and Behaviorist

Internationally acclaimed Certified Dog Behaviorist, Trainer author & speaker Sarah Kalnajs provides in home behavior consultations, private training and specialty services such as "Bringing Home Baby" in Madison and seminar destination cities.

11/03/2024

Please take a look at the reel we just posted to see baseline video of a puppy showing “pink flag” behavior around the food bowl and how we start the process of preventing this from becoming a serious resource guarding issue!

(also, if anyone happens to know how I could get the post and the real to go together, this non-millennial trying to figure out the ins and outs of Instagram would be very appreciative indeed)!

10/26/2024

Something about fall makes me reminisce about my OG pack.

I can’t believe they’re all gone now. So many amazing memories, so many wonderful moments, so many heartbreaking losses.

Don’t get me wrong, I have six dogs now and I love each and every one of them but there’s something about the OG’s. The dogs in this photograph are the ones who taught me.

They taught me about communication, they taught me about training each dog as an individual and how different the motivators for dogs within a breed can be.

They showed me the lovely subtle dance that dogs do to resolve conflict when living in a group (and thanks to them what was once subtle to me is now obvious when I watch groups of dogs interacting).

They let me weep into their fur when I lost my parents and they let me share my deepest secrets without any fear or judgment.

I carry them in my heart every moment, but today is one of those days when so many things remind me of them. I’m so grateful.

I’d love for you to share a photo or a story about your OG dog(s) on this post!

10/23/2024

Blue Dog Puppy Stay & Train student Skye out for a socialization session on a gorgeous fall day at Hilldale Mall.

In Blue Dog’s puppy camp program it’s not just about skills training, it’s about teaching young puppies, how to navigate the world around them and while we’re at it, teaching humans while we are out and about how to interact appropriately with puppies!

No force, no fear, just fun and games that leads to a lifetime with a happy, well adjusted and properly socialized puppy.

10/21/2024

Attention dog lovers, trainers, rescue and shelter staff, veterinarians, and vet techs! Dr. Ian Dunbar, a leading figure in modern dog training, will be in Madison, WI this Friday and Saturday. We rarely get internationally reknowned speakers locally, and Dunbar, founder of Dunbar Academy, is one of the best. He'll address reactive dogs on Friday, a common issue that makes attendance highly recommended, even if only for a day. Ian Dunbar Dunbar Academy

09/26/2024

32 years of marriage
38 years together
18 dogs
6 cats
1 hedgehog
12 mice
1 chinchilla
1 bunny

It’s been a heck of a ride so far!

Happy Anniversary .research 💖

also, for anyone, wondering, this was our engagement photo, and my thick permed hair took up a third of the photo all on its own! You have to love early 90’s hairstyles!

09/15/2024

Between hateful political rhetoric and dog trainers arguing endlessly with each other on social media….my emotional tank is close to empty.

Our solution?

Take a long walk.
Take a deep breath
Listen to the “Footloose” soundtrack
Enjoy the crisp fall days (if they ever get here… It’s almost 90 today)!
Tell our friends how much we care about them.
Practice a random act of kindness every day.

HELP DOG OWNERS IN NEED - work that I feel privileged and lucky to be able to have as a full-time career for over 20 years now!

09/02/2024

Archer the Clumber Spaniel! This breed is not very common here but they are really interesting dogs. Medium size….sturdy….intelligent and adorable!

Archer visited Blue Dog to learn how to share his toys - a lesson all two year old mammals seem to need 😜! His people are really fantastic and willing to make the necessary adjustments so I see a bright future for this handsome fella (notice his little rascals hair sticking straight up from the center of his head 🥰).

Seeing a qualified, experienced behaviorist who avoids the unnecessary use of pain/fear to create the false illusion of modified behavior for any type of issue (including severe aggression) creates long lasting changes that strengthen relationships and avoid the inevitable behavioral fallout coercive methods risk.

07/28/2024

Oliver would like to remind you (and your fur kids) to stop and smell the flowers today!

06/30/2024

Training should be a family affair! We often start with the dogs and adult humans but I can say with utmost confidence that some of the very BEST students (besides the dogs, of course) are kids between the ages of 5 and 10 with an extra special something between 6 and 8.

They are like little sponges of the information, they tend not to get frustrated when they don’t do something exactly right and they make everything more enjoyable for all participants human and canine!

I’d like to shout out a huge thank you to all of the kids and I get to interact with in the process of training their dogs. You are a bunch of superstars.
😊⭐️😊

06/23/2024

This is Winston, a 6 month old Tibetan Terrier

Winston is the newest graduate of the Blue Dog Foundation Stay & Train program

One client dog at a time is trained and socialized and of course loved in our home.

Why in our home?

Dogs live in homes, not kennels.

If you want your dog to be a fantastic family pet in your home…to be calm when guests arrive, to play with appropriate items in a home setting (vs your favorite underwear), then a home is where your dog needs to learn.

Your dog isn’t the only one who needs training though! During our program you will receive training before during and after your dogs stay so that you can take the foundation behaviors we train and build them as well as half the knowledge and tools to teach new behaviors!

We want our clients to understand how their dogs think and learn so they can have the best possible relationship for many years to come.

There is never any force or pain or fear used in the name of training. It isn’t necessary and it certainly isn’t right.

If your family is taking a vacation this summer, why not give us a call to see if we can fit your dog in for training while you’re away?

06/04/2024

Birthday Girls Trip!

I am truly blessed to have been able to spend my second 24th birthday surrounded by this group of amazing women I am proud to call friends.

Sonia Fethering (owner of Best of Behavior in IL), Kim Brophy (queen of LEGS & author of “Meet Your Dog” one of my favorite books to be released in recent years) & Yujia Huo (training director of a large rescue group and amazing software developer who is bringing my website into the current decade)

These three women could not have made my birthday more special. From banners and balloons to hidden tiny rubber, dog scavenger hunts, to blueberry pancake, breakfast and amazing home-cooked dinners… They made my first ever girls trip birthday celebration into the most cherished adventure, wonderful memories, and so much laughter.

Puppy Francis made a short appearance at the start of the trip so he’s included in our group photo and then he took an Uber home (actually a nice afternoon drive with his dad).

Also a heartfelt thank you to amazing client and friend Melissa who is the owner of the Airbnb we stayed at on beautiful Crystal Lake in western Wisconsin. We were all beyond impressed by how amazingly equipped the property was, how inviting and comfortable… It had everything we could’ve wanted or needed

I’d love to share more pictures, but I’ve been sworn to silence visually and otherwise lol that’s how much fun we had !

Thank you, dear friends for the birthday of a lifetime !

05/27/2024

Do you think your dog is trying to be “alpha” and lead your pack?

One of the most pervasive (and most damaging) myths in relation to dogs is the concept of dominance and alpha dog.

“You have to be the “alpha” and show them who is boss” - this fallacy came from a misinterpreted piece of work published in 1970 by David Mech.

After his book’s publication, even the author (Mech) asked that the book be pulled from publication due to the misinterpretation and misuse of the information in the book.

““It turned out all that stuff was mostly wrong,” Mech said. In 2022, his publisher agreed to stop printing the book. Yet, although field biologists no longer use the terms “alpha” and “beta,” they have proved too useful for humans to drop—now we use them in relation to our own groupings and conflicts.”

If you’d like to read more, there is a wonderful article called “The Myth of the Alpha Wolf” which I will link here.

https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/the-myth-of-the-alpha-wolf

Your dog is not trying to be dominant over you any more than your toddler is.

Like with any other science, our understanding of animal behavior has grown exponentially in the past 25 years and yet there has been a resurgence in the popularity of training methods that rely on thinking about dogs in ways long disproven particularly in relationship to our pet dogs.

training

05/17/2024

Francis Alexander Hamilton Kalnajs joined our family in February at a mere 1.3 lbs at 8 weeks.

Francis and his 4 siblings were removed from a hoarding situation by animal control. His mother is a red haired mix about 12 lbs so his tiny size is a puzzle.

in this photograph, he is visiting Home Depot and checking out the Husky grill!

Sorry, I’ve been MIA for a while. Getting over the loss of Gidget last April was even harder than I imagined it could be.

I have trained so many wonderful dogs in the past year, I look forward to posting content regularly again to help everyone better understand how their dogs think and learn and to bust some of the harmful dog behavior, myths out there that I’ve been around for at least 50 years, even though science tells us they are not at all accurate.

04/24/2024

I’ve been a speaker and an attendee at just about every dog training and behavior conference there is over the years.

I have to say that the aggression and dogs conferences are very unique in that they bring together a variety of speakers around a specific topic so that you as an attendee leave with a deep understanding and immediately usable information in your day to day work with dogs.

I’ve also found that the attendees of these conferences are a wonderfully varied group of individuals who are so kind.

I’ve made more friends and professional connections as an attendee at an AID conference then at any other. Some sort of magic special sauce that Michael must sprinkle about….

Anyway, I very highly recommend this conference and I would love to meet you so please come up and say hello!

03/04/2024

It’s better when we’re together!

Join me as I speak on all things canine body language in relation to different types of aggression at the 2024 Aggression in Dogs Conference in Scottsdale this coming October!

It is an honor and a privilege to speak with this amazing line up hosted by the wonderfully talented and equally kind

Details and registration available now at aggressivedog.com

01/30/2024

Yep, Blue Dog has another teeny tiny addition from the Richland Center rescue. One of 5 puppies born to a mother the rescue saved from a puppy mill, the world gave us all those signs people talk about when something is meant to be.

11/17/2023

Recent Blue Dog stay & train graduate Ramona (AKA Mo better dog)!

A lab dachshund mix (yes, you read that right), Ramona is like a miniature lab in appearance.

A rescue dog, Mo is a “foster fail“ - she came to her family as a temporary foster, and they quickly realized they never wanted her to leave.

With a temperament that is a bit on the softer side, Mo is absolutely a poster child for why aversive training methods that utilize force or fear, are not only unnecessary, but can cause permanent damage to a dog’s behavior -creating fear, distrust and learned helplessness.

Instead…we focus on building trust, creating a common language in the form of a marker word that lets her know when she has made a choice that earns reinforcement.

We never put her in situations that would force her to do anything she wasn’t yet comfortable with & Mo flourished in our stay & train program.

She learned more cued behaviors than any dog before her, she overcame preexisting fears and blossomed into a social butterfly.

Her human family is doing an amazing job of continuing the training and building upon the foundation we laid for them.

Board and train/stay and train programs should always include training for both the dog and the human family as both need to learn how to understand one another and how to communicate with one another.

Force and fear do not facilitate learning and they do not solve behavior issues. I will be posting more about this next week, please keep an eye out.

Congratulations to Sarah, Drew and Mo. Thank you for trusting me with your precious pup.

10/28/2023

This adorable little man is Franklin the Tibetan Terrier currently here at Blue Dog’s puppy stay & train. (It’s like board & train but no force, no fear, home based and lots of fun)!

The easiest way to prevent behavior issues and manners problems in your dog is with early preventative training.

During a Stay & Train we teach both and human guardians and socialize pups to the specific contexts they are going to encounter in their individual lives. (camping, boating, airline flights, spending time in the office, etc.)

Give us a call if you have any questions about the program !

Address

1830 Helena Street
Madison, WI
53704

Telephone

(608) 213-5304

Website

http://www.bluedogtraining.com/

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Videos

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! It is so much easier to prevent behavior problems in puppies than to modify problem, behaviors in adult dogs . It is very common for puppies to have some degree of resource guarding, especially around the food bowl. Unfortunately, many people still believe that taking the puppies food or messing with it to “show the puppy who’s boss” is the way to deal with resource guarding when in reality that is the way to create a problem or worsen and already existing one ! In this video, you will see a 10 week old puppy who shows what I call a “pink flag “around the food bowl. He eats very quickly, puts his head deep into the bowl and is oblivious to anything and everything around him. The video shows you the first step in preventing this pink flag from becoming an actual resource guarding issue by simply approaching the Dog Food bowl and providing them with something that is better than what they have in the bowl without bothering them excessively while they are eating. By repeating this exercise over four or five meals, you should start to see your puppy happily disengage from the food bowl when they hear you coming in order to see what tasty tidbit you might have before they go back to eating. I will post follow up videos showing you the progress of this 10 week old Cocker puppy . #dogsofmadison #Puppytraining #resourceguarding #DogTrainingMadison #dogbehaviorist #boardandtrain #stayandtrain #puppyclass #bluedogtraining #cockerspaniel #cockerpuppy #cutepuppies

Teaching puppies about kids and kids about puppies in Blue Dog Training’s unique puppy stay & train program with Certified Professional Dog Trainer & Behaviorist, Sarah Kalnajs #dogsofmadison #puppytraining #puppyclass #puppysocialization #bluedogtraining

For those who have been asking how my summer has been going… It’s been the snow white summer of every little orphaned wild animal finding me and clinging on. Thankfully, for this little one, I have found a wonderful licensed Wildlife rehabilitator who can teach little Clover how to squirrel! I am certainly going to miss her though! #Orphansquirrel #Babysquirrel #WildlifeRehab #Cutebabyanimals #BlueDogtraining #Squirrels #squirrelsofmadison #downtownmadison #wildlife

Can you understand your dog’s communication? #dogbehaviorexpert #dogbehavior #dogbodylanguage #doginteraction #dogconflict #dogfight #animalbehavior #languageofdogs #caninebodylanguage #papillon #chihuahua #certifieddogbehaviorconsultant #madisonwidogtraining #madisonwidogboarding #dogtrainingcareer #sarahkalnajs #bluedogtraining #aggressionindogs

Just a reminder to my dog pro colleagues to take time daily to have fun & build memories with your own fur kids…tomorrow is never a guarantee. #dogs #dogtrainers #dogprofessionals #dogbehavior #dogbehaviorexpert #dogtraining

Foundation leash training for puppies - unedited, real life 5 min training walk with easy to follow tips!

One of my favorite things about training puppies is their endless curiosity and childlike acceptance of “self”…unembarrassed when they bonk into something and full of glee at their own reflection in a mirror. Today I am going to take myself less seriously and live my life in the moment just like Goose! #puppiesofinstagram #portuguesewaterdogpuppy #puppyjoy #dogsofmadison #liveeverymoment #simplejoy #puppytrainingmadison #stayandtrainmadison

How to remove inappropriate items from your puppy without creating competition and a potential for the development of future resource guarding issues!

REAL LIFE EMERGENCY RECALL! This was a set up (screened for safety just before filming & with 2 “spotters”) but even so, when I released her to go run, she went farther and faster than I ever expected! Only 4.5 months old when this was filmed, all that recall practice using reinforcement based training in our puppy stay & train program paid off. If you want your dog to excitedly come running to you doesn’t it only make sense that you need to equal fun and not fear? #dogtraining #reliablerecall #sheepdogpuppy #sheepadoodle #dogsofmadison #bluedogtrainingandbehavior #dogtrainingmadison