Katy's K-9 Training and Behavioral Services

10/10/2024

Reminder: Kids night at therapy dog training tonight in Paw Paw! Can’t wait to see everyone. If you want to come but didn’t rsvp yet message me.

10/06/2024

Kids needed to help train therapy dogs this Thursday from 6-7pm in Paw Paw! Will be paid in puppy snuggles and cookies. Message me or comment if your kiddos want to come.

09/20/2024

09/12/2024

😵‍💫Yes!! Healthy real world Stress and problem solving is GOOD for your dog!

How do you feel about exposing your dog to stress?

This young Weimaraner started a board and train recently. During the drop off, I informed his owner, he'd be living under some different rules at my house than what he'd been used to for the past few months of his life.

He would be subjected to some "healthy stress.”

Among other things, he would be sleeping in a crate at night, learning to walk nicely on a leash, and participate in proprioceptive exercises to build body awareness.

Essentially, he would be learning some problem solving skills and because of it, develop greater resilience.

The first day here he found himself stuck on the opposite side of a pole than the side I was on.

Can you guess what I did?

I did nothing. I stood there, not moving, not applying more pressure to the leash, not coochie-cooing him...I just waited.

It took him about 90 seconds of wiggling, and whining to figure out what to do to get himself free.

Once he did, he was darn proud of himself, prancing about for a few seconds and then we moved on and enjoyed a short game of fetch.

The stress was short lived. He learned how to relieve it and was proud of himself as he discovered his power to problem solve.

We do our dogs no favor by immediately bailing them out of every little problem or struggle they encounter.

So often I hear, "My dog doesn't like the crate,” or "My dog doesn't like to be brushed,” or "My dog won't potty while on leash.”

As a woman who has raised two (now grown) children, I could not have imagined saying to my kids dentist..."well, they don't like having their teeth brushed so we just gave up." 🤣

I have news for you, there are very few dogs that immediately enjoy their crate, or being brushed and bathed, or being restrained on a leash.

It's our job to teach them to tolerate the realities of life in the human world.

For most things the teaching recipe is simple:

A bit of skill, applied over time, mixed by a healthy dose of patient persistence.

If you don't have the skill, the time or the patience, you can pay people like me to do the foundation work for you. It is like having the dentist clean the kids teeth...but if you don't maintain what the professional did, it's not going to become good habits that serve for a lifetime.

The main thing to understand is that stress and learning will be part of life. There is no avoiding it. It is how we learn to work through it that makes the difference.

By taking time to teach your dog how to tolerate some stress and learn to problem solve, you set them up for increased confidence, improved manners and an overall healthier mindset.

09/01/2024

Interesting article about asking our dogs to “sit”.

http://www.turid-rugaas.no/sit.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR33sr-IPxBSTsSTwuS-AKpQ0nAq6lqlSHCkf1DZI-lbuLCN-7pSLpIcnHM_aem_SBCpgVEHM2YlHP_dkIcT4A

Sit is usually the first people teach their puppies, without thinking about the consequences or why they do it. We wanted to know more about the sit, so many years ago we started the sit study...

08/27/2024

🩵🐶Happy National Dog Day to my doggies and all the dogs I am training and have trained! It was the first day back to school for Loki and Trixie as therapy dogs and they were so happy to see all the kiddos again.

08/21/2024

Loki and I are having a great day presenting to educators about therapy dogs in school at the annual VBISD Mix and Mingle today. We love getting the chance to educate people about how therapy dogs can be properly trained, certified, and used in educational settings to engage student and staff.
He even has his little friend Mako here with him.

08/17/2024

🐕‍🦺🛁 Doggies are Ready for School✏️📚
Big thanks to Jessica and Ryan of Get Fluffed Dog Grooming! They did an awesome job grooming my Loki and Trixie so they are ready to head back to the schools this coming week. They can’t wait to greet the students and staff as they all return for the new school year and now they will have nice soft hair for everyone to pet.
😉Get Fluffed is offering and incredible deal of 50% off to therapy dogs right now so definitely don’t miss out if you need your therapy dogs groomed as well.

08/09/2024

🐾💙Newest High School Therapy Dog💙🐾

Big Shout out to Alaina and Quincy!! Quincy will be joining his handler Alaina in her classroom this coming school year to officially become a Lancer. I know he will bring lots of joy and smiles to the students and staff of Lakeshore High School. It was an honor getting to be a part of their journey to becoming a certified therapy dog team and helping them set up policies and procedures for their school district so they could start a therapy dog program at Lakeshore. It’s such a special thing to be the 1st dog team that officially starts a program and Alaina and Q are doing just that. Way to go you two!👏

07/21/2024

Happy to welcome these dogs and their handlers into Katy’s K9 Training!

Some I am working with to help diminish leash reactivity and the others are training to become certified therapy dogs. I love getting to work with all different kinds of breeds and temperaments. They are all amazing dogs with awesome owners who understand that putting in the work is how we get results to make a great life for their dogs and them.

07/18/2024

This is a thermal image of a dog with a portion of its body shaved and the other portion not shaved. The non-shaved portion is at 24°C and the shaved portion at 30°C. The hair is present for several reasons, mainly for thermal regulation ☀🌡

Stop shaving dogs you're not helping them.

07/05/2024

🙌 YES 👍
When you are ready I can help you and your dog overcome these things.👇

"My dog doesn't like car rides."

"My dog hates the vet."

"I can't cut my dog's nails."

"S(he) won't eat her food unless I add a little [human food] to it."

"My dog hates other dogs."

"S(he) will *be fine* once s(he) gets used to you."

"My dog is afraid of [thing/place/person/etc]."

"My dog hates the crate."

"My dog can't be left alone."

With precious few exceptions, all of these things are completely avoidable, so they never happen or can be fixed with appropriate effort.

The reason these behaviors appear is because owners never thought they needed to condition the dog to accept these things. At the very first sign of protest by the dog, the owner stops whatever they are doing and the dog registers that protest makes what the dog doesn't like, stop.

The next time the owner reenacts the same scenario, the dog doubles its effort, perhaps even quicker, and the owner stops again.

It doesn't matter what it is, what the dog's takeaway from each encounter, is when I fight, I win.

It could be as simple as holding a puppy, or putting equipment on the dog.

Owners make these things a struggle and heavily reinforce the dog every time they allow the dog to escape or avoid consequence for refusal or failure.

By the time the dog is a practiced adult, there will come a time where these things will need to be done, and either the owner, a veterinarian, some other caregiver, will be the recipient of a fair bit of fury when the dog exercises his memory of fast refusals at the first whiff of conflict, weighing in at adult weights, and having formed adult opinions.

It doesn't take much to prevent these things, but folks have their work cut out for them when they try to remediate these issues after they have been hardened by lack of conditioning.

Your dog is more than capable of learning how to be confined, restrained, groomed, approached safely by strangers, travel, etcetera.

What stands in the way of where you are now, and success, is knowing what to do, how to do it, and the effort necessary to get it all done.

I’m here when you're ready.



~Shared From Lionheart K9 Dog Training in Maryland

06/17/2024

Help me welcome all these dogs and their fabulous owner/handlers into the Katy’s K9 Training family! It is such a pleasure to help them all reach their goals on their training journey.

06/15/2024

🐕❓New Dog❓🐕

There's a useful bit of advice describing adjustment of a dog to a new home : 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months to adapt.

It's useful for understanding most adopted dogs and also new puppies.

I increasingly read people's posts asking for help with a really difficult dog, and being told to be patient and tolerate dangerous or difficult behavior for 3 months.

Here's a scenario that also happens:

3 Days: to be inhibited and appeasing, still in a little shock from the change to the adoptive home.

3 Weeks: to gain confidence from a predictable safe environment, start to bond with owners and other dogs in the home.

3 Months: to feel confident about owning a new territory, and realizing the difference between familiar people and strangers.

Guarding of territory, food, and owners increases.

Resource guarding owners from approach by the other dogs.

Resource guarding favorite owner from other family members.

Starts to show behavior to drive strangers away, using aggression in addition to threat displays.

Ditto to using aggression to drive away other dog housemates.

Fighting starts with other dog housemates.

Starts using aggression when with owner off the home territory, towards strangers and strange dogs.

If the new owner didn't start training in the 3-week "honeymoon" period, it's often too late after all the unwanted new behaviors show up later. The dog already has formed solid behavior patterns that are effective in getting what it wants.

There are many great methods to reduce the value of resources, divert to other behaviors, trade for better resources, and lessen the intensity of resource guarding.

⚠️But they don't address the bottom line: if a dog believes it owns nothing, it will guard nothing. Resources can then temporarily be given to the dog, if it understands that the resources must be given back on a cue. It is the reason I tell everyone with a new dog to start Nothing In Life Is Free right away. Do NOT wait for a problem to arrise bc you didn’t do the training you should have when you first got the dog. If you need help contact a trainer ASAP.

06/14/2024

Let's talk about this photo. It's cute, except it's not. I see a dog who cannot get up without telling the child to get off. How do you think a dog is going to do that?

The 7 Golden Toddler Dog Rules:
#1: If a dog walks away from you, you DO NOT FOLLOW.
#2: Always leave room for the dog to walk away from you.
---that right there is 90+% of dog bites eliminated---
#3: We do not climb on the dog.
#4: We do not grab or pull on the dog.
#5: We do not hit or throw anything at the dog.
#6: We do not touch the dog's food.
#7: We do not go into the dog's kennel.

I promise these are not overly difficult concepts for littles, nor will they rob a kid of their bond with the family dog. It will deepen that bond, while keeping everyone safe.

"Oh, it looks like Moose is walking away from you. She is saying she wants a break. Let's play with this instead!"

"It's Moose's dinner time! Let's give her space to enjoy her yummies."

"That is Moose's room(kennel) and only she is allowed to go in there."

"If Moose wanted a break, could she walk away from you right now? No she really couldn't. Let's move away from the play house. You can keep playing but now she can leave when she wants a break."

In conclusion, ***parent your child or your dog will do it for you, and you will not like how they do it.***

06/04/2024

What is a therapy dog? 🐕

A therapy dog is a dog that is trained to provide affection, comfort, and support to people, often in settings such as hospitals, retirement homes, nursing homes, schools, libraries, hospices, and more.

What to look for in a therapy dog? 🐕

A dog who would make a good therapy dog is:
- Obedience trained. They can walk nicely on leash next to their handler. They wait for their handler before going around corners and through doorways. They can greet a person standing, sitting, or lying down without jumping on them.
- They enjoy affection from people they do not know. Not every dog wants to interact with strangers, and that is okay. But they would not be a good candidate for a therapy dog.
- They have a handler who knows canine body language. Since dogs cannot speak, it is up to their handler to know when they are happy and comfortable, and when they need to get out of a situation. A handler who advocates for their dog's safety and happiness is key to being a good therapy dog.

Think you have what it takes or want to train your dog to have what it takes? Send me a message now to start the process!