Keen Canine Dog Training

09/04/2023

For those in the Mobile area, MedVet has updated their hours. The closest after hours vet locations are now in Biloxi or Pensacola.

Effective Friday, September 1, MedVet Mobile is temporarily changing our ER hours. Weekdays (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) our ER will be available from 2:00 pm to midnight. Weekends (Saturday, Sunday), our ER will be available 8:00 am to 10:00 pm.

If your pet needs care outside of our operating hours, please contact your primary veterinarian for care options.

08/03/2023

It’s normal for dogs to not like everyone and everything and it doesn’t make your dog a bad dog. All dogs are good dogs regardless of their sociability.

DON’T FORCE ME TO BE SOCIAL!
Do we like everyone we meet? Do we all enjoy socialising and spending time with lots of different people? I certainly don’t and refer to myself as a “caninetrovert” – a person that much prefers to spend time with dogs rather than people. Maybe I’m a little different to the “norm”, but be that as it may, we are all individuals with different personality styles and social preferences.

Some of us are extroverts, gaining energy from interacting with people; some of us introverts, who find people draining and need alone time to recharge our social batteries and some of us are somewhere in between.

If we acknowledge that we are all different in this way, we also need to acknowledge and accept that our dogs are similar.

They could be overly affectionate or fiercely independent, approachable or nervous, energetic or laid back, confident or cautious, sociable, tolerant, selective or reactive.

We may be really disappointed when our dogs turn out not to be the socialite we expected them to be.

Some may even see this as a behaviour problem that needs to be “fixed”. Sometimes it can be improved, especially if the cause is from a negative experience, but genetics, breed tendencies, individual personalities, health and age all contribute to tolerance levels and sociability.

Accept your dog for who they are, allow them to choose whether they want to be sociable or not, respect their choices and never force an interaction that your dog is not comfortable with.

06/16/2023

Meet Chloe! She is a 4 month old toy poodle weighing in at 5 whole pounds. We’ve been working on common puppy problems like nipping and potty training.

She’s may be little, but she’s a whole lot of sass. Shes got a great temperament and has been great with my baby and one of my dogs.

She’s a quick learner so I’m excited to see how far she will get in the next week and a half!

06/10/2023

Little Man had his last follow up lesson from his Board and Train today. Today we focused on integrating him with his two house mates.

Before putting them all together, we did some exercise with the flirt pole to get some energy out.

Once the girls came out, there were a couple of stiff moments with him and one of the girls, but they sorted things out amongst themselves. Little Man has gotten better at reading and responding to her body language.

Mom will be doing a few individual lessons to help further integrate him to her pack and help her gain confidence in managing her crew. I think they will all do well!

05/05/2023

Met with one of my reoccurring clients today! She fosters puppies through Save A Stray. We worked with four of them today on their leash walking.

These guys are so sweet, very food motivated, and love people and dogs. If anyone is looking for a cute six month old lab mix puppy, check these guys out at Save A Stray. She also has two other litters of puppies, one being Rottweiler mixes, and the other ones are pitty mixes that are maybe 3 to 4 months of age. 

05/04/2023

Little Man working on his come and leave it with with the baby and hubby. Last week he would get too excited/ interested in the baby on his shoulders so he had to be on leash during interactions. He has now graduated to being off leash!

05/04/2023

Little Man has been with me since Monday and has been working hard. We’ve been focusing on advancing his behaviors around distractions and he has done very well! He still has a lot of puppy moments, but is able to recover and work through them better than last week.

I’ve also been working with his housemates this week. On Monday I mostly focused working with him with his housemates present. He struggled at times as he really wanted to play with them, but was able to respond to his cues relatively well.

He will be wrapping up the boarding portion of his program Friday, so we will be focusing our work around responding to cues with distractions until then.

05/03/2023

The results are back from the training contest and I placed 3rd in Alabama! Thank you to everyone who voted. I am so grateful to you all! Congratulations to Sunpaws and Mobile Dog Training for also making first and second place! I’m so thankful to have such great colleagues and clients! I wouldn’t be here without y’all’s support😊

04/29/2023

Little Man had his first transfer lesson today when I dropped him off for the weekend. We went over some homework for mom to work on with him while he is home. He did so well working for mom and around his house mates! He will be back with me on Monday to start back up his Board and Train!

Here are some photos from this week working with him and his house mates.

04/25/2023

Little Man started his Board and Train with me this week! He is a 7 month old pit mix and will be working on basic manners while he is with me.

We will be doing a modified version of the Board and Train where he will get to go home on the weekends. I will also be working with his two house mates a couple times at their home during the week while he is staying with me.

Mom’s goals are for Little Man to respond to basic cues and for him to be integrated into her pack. She currently rotates Little Man and the other two dogs since he is a bit much for them.

The modified program will allow everyone to get a bit of training they need to help mom achieve all her goals.

03/16/2023

Tuk Tuk has been with me a week as of yesterday. His potty training is still going really well with no accidents in the house🙌

He has learned several behaviors like go to your bed, come, drop, and waking on leash. He still will try to jump up when excited but is jumping up less frequently than when he first arrived.

We have figured about a good rhythm and he knows the routine pretty well. We have a nice balance of play, train and sleep for that works well for him!

03/16/2023

Took Koda out front of his house to work on his reactivity to cars and people as well as his walking on leash. He will bark and lunge when he sees cars, people, or dogs on leash. If he’s off leash, mom doesn’t see those behaviors.

I worked on seeing how close in proximity to the cars and people he needs to be before seeing early signs prior to the lunging/ barking. In each lesson going forward, I will try to focus on getting him more comfortable with each trigger individually at his pace.