Smart Choice Canine Academy

04/01/2024

And we have a winner! From 32 treats down to one.
I encourage you to check out our winner and give them a try with your dog.
https://www.kodapet.com/papa-psuka

03/30/2024

Treat Madness The Final 4

03/29/2024

Treat Madness continues! The elite 8 compete for Hannah's vote to move on to the final 4.

03/23/2024

Treat Madness continues as we work from the sweet 16 down to the elite 8

03/16/2024

Round 1 of our Treat Madness contest. Get a quick over view of the 32 competing treats and see which ones Hannah chooses to move on to the sweet sixteen.
Due to FB cutting my first video at 15 minutes I had to speed it up so helium voice it is. 🤣🤣

03/04/2024

Treat Madness time is here. Which treat will take home the title? Pick the winner for your chance to win a Smart Choice Canine Academy treat bag and clicker. Pick all the winners and win a six week training package.
Bracket can be downloaded using the link below.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OOCBkM-39NAhrdQ7yn393xlHl6gSD5MC/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=116598968753646615336&rtpof=true&sd=true

10/05/2023

Powerful and so valid
Treat the cause not the symptom

08/17/2023

When we give choice and control to our dog, we gain so much control back. A cooperative relationship is a healthy one and everyone gets what they want.

01/27/2023

So much learning today and all weekend long! That means even more I can share with others. I ❤ Clicker Expo!

11/13/2022

Today a client made an observationthat made me 😁..He said "I notice you don't tell my dog No!". When I embarked on my first certification, I made a conscious decision to remove that word (along with eh eh, aht, and the ever tainted chsh) from my training vocabulary. This observation from him validated my efforts and sparked a good conversation.
Why not say No!? Because people say No! to tell their dog, don't jump, get off the counter, stop barking, don't pull, don't dig. If there is an unwanted behavior, No! is often the go to "command". The trouble with this is that No! does not tell your dog What to do. At best, it only serves as an interrupter. But given the large volume of potential meanings, No! has zero meaning. I used to say No correction without redirection. Meaning if you have to say No!, at least give your dog something to do that will make you happy. While I still say that on occasion, instead of correcting I just give a dog a known cue that can be reinforced. And because that can be a slippery slope on the way to creating an undesired behavior chain of You gotta be bad to be good, I focus a lot more on the environment to set a dog up to succeed. That, when paired with positive reinforcement, choice based training along with the occasional negative punishment, gets results. Wait...punishment? That is a deeper conversation into the quadrants of learning that I will save for my blog. You can subscribe at smartchoicecanineacademy.com Basically, negative punishment is the removal of something the learner desires in order to reduce and eliminate behavior. So a dog jumping on me because he wants my attention, instead gets my back as I step away. Giving him another chance to approach and make a different decision...one that can be rewarded.
I will write more on this in my blog, but am really pleased that I can so No! is officially out of my training vocabulary.

Positive Reinforcement Dog Training and Canine Behavioral Services based in Humboldt County California. Dog training videos and information. Pet dog owners and trainers will benefit from the information Smart Choice Canine Academy has to offer. Markus Milligan is a graduate of Animal Behavior Colleg

08/26/2022

Happy

08/03/2022

Klaus and Violet have quite a bit of land available to roam about, so we needed a recall sound that will carry the distance. They are picking it up quickly. Though Violet was pretty much velcroed to my hip and needed some food encouragement to stay back enough that we could practice her recall.

06/28/2022

06/27/2022

Such a great day of training today! Loose leash, heeling, and reactivity training with my friend Nova. A casual stroll with Growly to Great graduate, Toby. And a very nice update on Maverick who is no longer chasing the cats in his new home; peace and harmony have been restored. I love what I do!

06/18/2022

Tonight's Perch work session...minus the Perch. Raising criteria and moving into variable rate reinforcement schedule. And for me...working on my muscle memory to keep my treat hand in a neutral position. Can you catch the moment my hand placement threw him off?

06/10/2022

Perch Work Session 4...We're getting there!! Still stronger towards my right side, so we will continue to tighten that up. But...Oakley is now making it all the way around from left to right and back again!

06/09/2022

06/08/2022

Perch work progress. Oakley and I have spent about 15 minutes per day for the past 3 days and his pivot to my left is getting much stronger. Yesterday I made a conscious effort throughout the day to reinforce him only on my left side. Today we used a food lure to help get his butt from 8 o'clock all the way around to 6 o'clock. Then faded the lure and added a cue. Still work to be done to clean it all up...including my mechanics, but we are getting there.

06/06/2022

Working on backend awareness with Oakley. He has a strong rubberband pivot into a right-side heel. Our new goal is to get the same on my left side, so we started today with some perch work to strengthen his pivot in both directions.

04/27/2022

Robotic Cats...because teaching Fido to live with Fluffy should never come at the expense of Fluffy's emotional or physical state.
Katie the Kitty has joined Oreo - my stuffed distraction dog, Lil' Yapper - my minnie barking walking distraction dog, and Hannah - my real life dog and training partner, as my latest training assistant.

03/31/2022

Reminder: Practical Obedience class starts this Sunday at 2PM in the Mckinleyville Library Conference Room. Doors open at 2. Class starts at 2:15. This session is for humans only and we will be going over orientation paperwork and playing some games to develop handler mechanics.

03/17/2022

Group Class: Practical Obedience - Navigating Our Distracting World
This will be a games based series where we will practice skills and then apply them using games.
First Class-Orientation and Basics/Mechanics for Handlers (people only, no dogs) is free and will be held on 4/3 at 2PM in the Mckinleyville Library Conference Room. If you have not pre-registered, you will be able to enroll for the next 4 weeks during this session.
The next 4 Sundays we will be covering Loose Leash, Recall, Stay, Social Skills, and more.
Enrollment fee is $100 for the series of 1.5 hour sessions.
Class size is limited so, please call or message to pre-register.

01/29/2022

Tactics and thoughts for building and refining your recall. Don't be a boring tuna, considerations for the dog park, and pocket squeekers

01/29/2022

Such an amazing first day of !
Got to hear from Ken Ramirez, Dr. Susan Friedman, Emma Parsons and several more great speakers with fantastic presentations. Tomorrow and Sunday are packed full with more of the same. Looking forward to applying all this knowledge for my clients.

01/22/2022

Train your dog to come to a whistle. Some tips to help with the training using a cue transfer and pairing your whistle with everyday events that bring your dog joy.

01/14/2022

This week we are talking Emergency Recall.
In this video you will learn how to teach your dog an emergency recall. A bomb proof cue to get your dog back to you in every circumstance

01/07/2022

It's train your dog month. Here are some games you can play with your dog to help develop a strong recall. They are designed to make coming to you extremely valuable and rewarding, which is necessary when we are competing with exciting environments or squirrels.
Join us each Friday this month for more activities you can do to get that rock solid recall.

01/01/2022

Tune in each Friday in January for my recall series. Games, tips, discussion, and a whole lot of fun.