Saige's Way Dog Training LLC

05/14/2024

05/10/2024

Courage is fear of a different sort. You can use your fear to defeat your fear, you just have to be afraid of the right things. The stoics talked about this a lot. It’s beneath human dignity to be afraid of things they shouldn’t be afraid of. It is a unique human failing to not be afraid of things that they should be. Most people are not afraid of the right things. -Orion Taraban

04/08/2024

We ready 😎

03/23/2024

Everyone who is thinking of getting dogs should read this because you need to understand this reality:

***I am a 21st century dog.***
-I'm a Malinois.
Overskilled among dogs, I excel in all disciplines and I'm always ready to work: I NEED to work.
But nowadays I get asked to chill on the couch all day everyday.

-I am an Akita Inu.
My ancestors were selected for fighting bears.
Today I get asked to be tolerant and I get scolded for my reactivity when another approaches me.

-I am a Beagle.
When I chase my prey, I raise my voice so the hunters could follow.
Today they put an electric collar on me to shut up, and you make me come back to you - no running - with a snap of your fingers.

-I am a Yorkshire Terrier.
I was a terrifying rat hunter in English mines.
Today they think I can't use my legs and they always hold me in their arms.

-I'm a Labrador Retriever.
My vision of happiness is a dive into a pond to bring back the duck he shot to my master.
Today you forget I'm a walking, running, swimming dog; as a result I'm fat, made to stay indoors, and to babysit.

-I am a Jack Russell.
I can take on a fox, a mean badger, and a rat bigger than me in his den.
Today I get scolded for my character and high energy, and forced to turn into a quiet living room dog.

-I am a Siberian Husky.
Experienced the great, wide open spaces of Northern Europe, where I could drag sleds for long distances at impressive speeds.
Today I only have the walls of the house or small garden as a horizon, and the holes I dig in the ground just to release energy and frustration, trying to stay sane.

-I am a border collie
I was made to work hours a day in partnershipwith my master, and I am an unmistakable artist of working with the herd.
Today they are mad at me because, for lack of sheep, I try to check bikes, cars, children in the house and everything in motion.

I am ...
I am a 21st century dog.
I'm pretty, I'm alert, I'm obedient, I stay in a bag...but I'm also an individual who, from centuries of training, needs to express my instincts, and I am *not* suited for the sedentary life you'd want me to lead.
Spending eight hours a day alone in the house or in the garden - with no work and no one to play or run with, seeing you for a short time in the evening when you get home, and only getting a small toilet walk will make me deeply unhappy.
I'll express it by barking all day, turning your yard into a minefield, doing my needs indoors, being unmanageable the rare times I'll find myself outside, and sometimes spending my days sunk, sad, lonely, and depressed, on my pillow.
You may think that I should be happy to be able to enjoy all this comfort while you go to work, but actually I’ll be exhausted and frustrated, because this is absolutely NOT what I'm meant to do, or what I need to be doing.
If you love me, if you've always dreamed of me, if my beautiful blue eyes or my athletic look make you want me, but you can't give me a real dog's life, a life that's really worth living according to my breed, and if you can't offer me the job that my genes are asking, DO NOT buy or adopt me!
If you like the way I look but aren't willing to accept my temperament, gifts, and traits derived from long genetic selection, and you think you can change them with only your good will, then DO NOT BUY OR ADOPT ME.
I’m a dog from the 21st century, yes, but deep inside me, the one who fought, the one who hunted, the one who pulled sleds, the one who guided and protected a herd still lives within.
So think **very** carefully before you choose your dog. And think about getting two, rather than one, so I won't be so very lonely waiting for you all day. Eight or ten hours is just a workday to you, but it's an eternity for me to be alone.
Like David Attenborough Fans for more:

01/31/2024

“All of a sudden my dog attacked my other dog”. The first thing I find myself asking that person is how old are they and what is the s*x of each dog. There are countless dogs I’ve known that were great with other dogs before the age of one or two and then they begin to change. The change typically starts happening around 1.5-2.5 years old. That’s when they’re reaching maturity; coming into who they are. Many of the “all of a sudden aggression” calls that I get from people tend to be two dogs of the same s*x and/or the aggressor is reaching maturity. We’re continually getting to know our dogs. Now it is also very common that signs go unnoticed at a young age but sometimes maturity really can just creep up on ya. It’s important to recognize that at a young age, your dog may be awesome with most dogs and by the time they reach maturity, they may become very dog selective. Every dog is dog selective regardless but the levels of selectiveness vary. Dog selective simply means that your dog doesn’t love every single dog, dogs have good matches and dogs have bad matches. If you’re getting a second dog, choose a dog of the opposite s*x. It’s natural for same s*x to butt heads. Yes, it works out fine sometimes but why chance it? Let’s also talk about a dog who is nervous of people. At a young age, they may not use their teeth to get people away but with maturity that could change. Dogs gain confidence with age. A nervous dog who’s gone unheard for too long may end up speaking with their teeth once they gain enough confidence to do it. What I mean by gone unheard is, biting can be prevented if you have a keen eye on how your dog feels about being touched. The dog that’s gone unheard is the dog who has been pushed past their limit too many times until they finally need to stand up for themselves. I would say this happens with children a lot. Dogs don’t tend to enjoy children as much as many people think. They just tolerate them and some can only tolerate them for so long. Do you have a story relating to this run on topic that I just blabbered about? I and I’m sure others would find value in hearing it :)

01/19/2024

Saige judges me for some of my bright ideas but she says that getting a malinois and moving to PA were two of my best ideas yet.

12/08/2023

Saige wanted to let everyone know that she thinks Lake Erie is pretty darn cool and that the water doesn’t even taste like nasty salt. Best beach ever.

10/24/2023

I got this boat for you Saige. You’re almost 12 young lady. Your age shows a little in this shot, it doesn’t show often. It’s my favorite photo from yesterday, it literally melts me. Your soft and sweet eyes were a constant on the boat. Not an inch of your usual sass even though I love that part too. I know one day that moving will be hard for you and I know you love the water. With this boat, you’ll always be able to be in the water. I’m glad you love it, seeing you happy is my favorite drug. I’ve never had a soul look at me with knowing eyes like yours do. I swear you know me better than I know me. God I love you, you crazy dog.

09/08/2023

When training a dog, we can't 100% avoid making them feel uncomfortable. Simply putting a leash on a dog can make them uncomfortable, it happens. Feeling stress/uncomfortable is inevitable in this life for all species. Instead of trying to avoid the inevitable, face it, little by little. Work WITH it not against it. There are so many things on the internet that say "avoid stress at all costs when training your dog". That is IMPOSSIBLE and since it is impossible, that mantra leads dog owners into feeling helpless and defeated. It is okay to feel stress, to feel uncomfortable. It is a part of the learning process. No goal was every reached without difficulty. 📸: Shaina Lynn

09/07/2023

If they’re happy, I’m happy. My 3 little life hacks ❤️

09/06/2023

It’s been a while guys! Hi 👋 **Forrest Gump wave** I think we took a long enough social media break during our move from Texas to Pennsylvania. I tell you what, I do believe this is the last cross country move for us! Moving sure has a lot of ‘moving’ parts 😆. Though it was filled with a ton of work to get here, it will still go down in the books as some of our most favorite memories along the way. I’m very happy to be up here in Pennsylvania. The weather is right, the nature is plentiful and I’m lucky enough to be a part of an awesome Mondioring dog sport club. We wanted to get up north and out of the heat regardless but the reason for landing specifically north of Pittsburgh was so that we could go to this wonderful club. Work officially started back up for me yesterday, got a pretty black shepherd in and more to come soon that I’ll be sharing with y’all soon. Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend!!

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07/19/2023

How’d the private lesson with Juneau the merle go this evening?
Well, it went pretty well if I do say so myself. -Javelin the

07/16/2023

He’s a poodle, a poodle that smiles and his name is Jack :)

05/28/2023

A young boy comes along sweeping the grumpy old dogs off their feet. Unexpectedly to them I’m sure. They love him more than he even knows how to love yet. How’d I get that damn lucky.

05/11/2023

Wish I loved to work as much as he does ;)

05/10/2023

Fog sets nicely on the young man. ⁣
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04/27/2023

I respect her for making this post! It’s hard for dog trainers to share this information because it’s often taken the wrong way.

Might get some hate for this one but here goes nothing…

We do not recommend EVER leaving power breeds home alone together.

I can’t even begin to count how many horror stories I’ve heard about people coming home to seriously injured or dead dogs.

I don’t care if your dogs are best friends, if their genetic make-up includes breeding for animal aggression, they should never be trusted alone together.

Don’t even come at me saying that “it’s all about how you raise them”. If that’s what you truly believe, you’ve just gotten lucky with dogs that were easy.

Most people have never witnessed a real dog fight and trust me when I say you don’t want to!

04/13/2023

You can’t not smile that whole day that you finally got to meet Michael Ellis and play some mondioring with him.

03/31/2023

Javelin wanted to remind y’all that we’re moving to Pittsburgh, PA. He’s a little excited as you can see 😉. We will be taking on clients in PA and surrounding areas starting this September!! See y’all there!!

03/18/2023

I thank him everyday for being the man he is. Every single day. Life is like a storm but he’s always the calm. A wise man. Angel ❤️

03/14/2023

So important for longevity and minimizing vet bills!!!

Many people think a chubby pet is cute and a lean pet is not being fed enough, but studies show that a pet with a healthy weight lives an average of 3 years longer than an overweight pet. Don't focus on weight - focus on body condition!

03/03/2023

Read this :)

Two days ago, on his 5th birthday, I took Manic into Lowe’s. It was going to be a quick trip. I’ve taken my own, and countless client dogs into stores like this a million times. I’ve encountered every possible issue, or so I thought…
While there, I saw a man talking to an employee and he had his FAKE service dog OFF LEASH, in a down, far away from him. I KNEW the dog wouldn’t stay there, so I paused for a second, and then continued walking by. The dog instantly got up and charged at Manic. I instantly lunged between them (Manic didn’t react, because he never does) and pushed the dog away with the side of my leg, while telling the owner to put his dog on a leash! He made one comment and instantly shut up because… CLEARLY, he was wrong. I go to Home Depot and Lowe’s more often than their employees and I have NEVER in my life been charged by an off leash dog in a store (it’s also against store policy AND illegal).
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The dog was wearing a service dog vest that it proved to be fake. A REAL service dog would never have done this and would’ve ignored myself and my dog completely. A REAL service dog also wouldn’t have been off leash, 15 feet away from their owner, for no reason. The point is: we need to STOP with this insane, horribly damaging trend of having and using FAKE SERVICE DOGS. A service dog is a piece of medical equipment. It is usually the most important piece of “equipment” the owner has and relies on. People bringing untrained, aggressive dogs into places they don’t belong, under the guise of a “service dog”, is absurdly damaging to the people who actually have, need, and rely on them. People like this lead to store policies no longer allowing dogs, hotels rewriting their rules about dog friendly rooms and rates, airlines no longer allowing dogs on the flight, etc.. this HAS to stop! Real service dogs are so important and the people who own and handle them properly should be given the respect the deserve.
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To all the REAL service dog owners out there: KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
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To all the people out there faking it and ruining it for the rest: F**K YOU.
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12/16/2022

Sometimes the things that may seem like useless tasks in dog training are actually going to directly impact the areas where you’re struggling with your dog. At the end of the day, the useless things are never useless! If the dogs mind is being challenged/worked then it will have loads of positive impact on their quality of life.

11/18/2022

We’re back home in Texas from our extended dog training trip to California! California was a lot of fun. We trained for a dog sport called Mondioring out in California. Met lots of cool people and saw lots of cool places. Time to get back to work. The dog featured in this video is a Belgian Malinois named Kai who’s been with me for almost two weeks now. He is enrolled in our 4 week board and train program. He’s already a great breakfast on the town buddy with just 2 weeks of training! Anyway, just wanted to check in and give y’all a little update since we disappeared for quite some time. Keep an eye out for more tips and videos to come soon. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving next week!!

08/25/2022

A little look back at some of our most recent board and train program students who are now graduated and back home with their families. With training comes a bigger life for dogs. Many of these dogs couldn’t go out into public or even on walks because their behaviors were too uncontrollable. Training isn’t to “be the boss”, it’s to give the dog a better quality life with bigger adventures.

Update on my pack (Saige, Angel & Javelin) and I: we just hit the road to Oceanside, CA from Texas to get some more in depth training from our most favorite Mondioring Dog Sport trainer Zack Kiser (American Dog Pro’s). Javelin and I will be playing that dog sport together. We’ll be out in CA for a month and a half or so. We’re excited to get out of this Texas heat! And to live in our new little camper for the first time. I sure love life on the road with dogs.

Anyway, on the road we go, hope everyone has a great day 🙂

07/07/2022

Saige says deer 🦌 make way better beds than humans do. Location: somewhere in Texas where the deer lay to rest.

06/25/2022

If you give your dog less options, they will value the things that they DO have. If your dog has 7 toys laying around the house/yard all day every day, they lose value. There are too many options and the more those toys lay around inactive, the more they lose value. “Whatever comes free loses value.” If instead you choose one toy to bring out and actively play with your dog once or twice a day for 5-10 minutes at a time. You will be building drive, motivation and value for that one toy. Same goes for food. If you leave food out all day long for your dog to graze on, it will lose value. If you continue to give too many options to “find what they’ll eat” you’ll likely be backpedaling and decreasing food drive due to too many options. Whether it be dog training methods, toys or food, at the end of the day, the best thing to do is stick to what you’re working with and let it work instead of continually switching things up and confusing the dog on what the goal is. *Angel’s face for the win 😆*

06/24/2022

Javelin doesn’t yet know that jumping off the dock is an option but he’s got the ‘go as fast as lightning’ part down 💨 lookin like a flyin’ squirrel or something 😂 📸: