Heather Pope Dog Training at the Wagology Institute

07/10/2025

Congratulations, Kaiser and Maple!!! Fantastic way to end your board and train stays!!! ❤️❤️❤️

07/10/2025

💯

Let’s set something straight, and I will die on this hill:
YOUR RESCUE WAS MOST LIKELY NOT ABUSED BY A SIX FOOT BEARDED MAN WITH A HAT AND SUNGLASSES ON.

I’m hearing this story more and more. It’s one that me, and almost every dog trainer on this planet hate. Not because of what it stands for, but because it stops the journey in its tracks.

Dog training is a lot like writing a book. The moment your dog joins your life, the story begins. It reads about how much you love your dog, all your adventures, and about the training it took to get your dog to their most perfect self. Now imagine putting in a chapter about their past, which most of the time through rescue is unknown, and explaining how that affects the outcome of the story for the worst. The dog can never trust men again, and we accept that because of a made up ideology. (Again, it’s not true in every case - I’m depicting the 95% of dogs I meet with this criteria)

The moment we write that narrative in our brains, emotion overrides logic. We don’t push our dogs to be better. We don’t put them in situations that make them uncomfortable just to teach them that they CAN fight through it, and become better for it. We don’t do it because our emotion made that decision for them.

We should always empower our dogs to be better. To make better choices. To understand and become more acceptant of what’s expected. We lose that when we throw human emotions into the equation.

Dogs live in the moment. Make that moment matter. If you won’t, your dog will never get to that beautiful chapter with you. Let me tell you, that beautiful chapter is worth some discomfort and having to work through situations that they don’t always love. Don’t let your emotions take that beautiful moment away from you and your dog.

I promise, it will be worth it. Stop talking about the past, and work toward the future.

07/10/2025

Please help us congratulate Kit and Caleb on successful graduations from their board and trains! We are super proud of these two kiddos!

I would also like to express my gratitude to these two ladies who have put their trust in me over the years with several of their dogs. I can't put into words what that means to me. Thank you both for your continued trust and support. ❤️

Stay tuned, I've been behind with editing photos. I have a couple more coming! 😉

07/08/2025

07/03/2025

It's that time again... Just some reminders to help keep your pets safe this July 4th. ❤️

06/29/2025

Anyone want to practice down/stays with distractions today?

Show me what ya got! 😊

06/29/2025

Please help us congratulate this team on earning their AKC Canine Good Citizen and Novice Trick Dog titles!!! Woohooo! We are so proud of these ladies!

Cheyenne initially came to us for dog reactivity. Our goal was to help her to understand that she did not need to react to other dogs - she is safe because mom has it - and eventually be able to test the team for their CGC title.

This team worked so hard for this, and it has paid off immensely! Huge congratulations to you both!!! ❤️❤️❤️

06/24/2025

Beautiful loose leash session with Caleb this morning! When this sweet pup came to us, he was a jumping bean and ping-ponged all over the leash. This is a huge improvement! 👏👏👏

06/19/2025

Training opportunities are everywhere.

I'm not entirely sure what they're doing, but this has been going on in front of our house all day. Phoenix was having a bit of a meltdown with all of the commotion, so I took her outside to help her through it.

It took maybe 5 minutes of acclimation and positive reinforcement for her to focus on me instead of the big scary equipment.

We worked through it together, then enjoyed the show! 😉

06/18/2025

I have to apologize to all of my recent graduates for not getting their photos up in a timely manner. My editing program was not cooperating (technology and I are not friends).

Please help us congratulate Blue for graduating from our board and train program. This puppy gained so much confidence while he was with us! He was a completely different dog when he left. Super proud of this sweet boy! ❤️

06/17/2025

Kaiser is really loving this "middle" position!

Since he will need to ride on elevators with other people, I thought this might be the best way to give him a safe zone to be in while doing so.

I can see now that he is cheating by not keeping his butt on the ground while in position. This is the beauty of videoing your training sessions. Without the benefit of the mirrors in the training room, it's difficult to see the details in our training sessions. Playing back the video gives me so much clarity on what exactly needs work to perfect the skill we are working on. From my end, it seemed like he was staying in the sit. Not so much, little cheater! 🤣