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A Better Dog, Centre Avenue, Portage, MI (2025)

04/18/2025

When your new dog doesn’t care for your toddler…. Name withheld.

The client rescued this 4 year old dog about 2 months ago. During that time it’s nipped at their toddler.

The key to fixing this issue is looking for what is motivating the dog to make these choices. During our pre-training interview with the client we suggested they immediately stop allowing the dog on the furniture.

Fast forward to training day. One of the first things I’m told is how much better the dog is doing by not being allowed on the furniture. We were just getting started.

We went for a structured walk which helped to drain the dogs’ mental energy and gain leadership points for the client.

We set a new expectation of the dog being “calm at distance” while the child ate in her high chair. And we added Place training to aid in reducing the dog’s desire to guard mom.

While we have worked with dogs who are affraid or anxious around small children, that was not the case here. By addressing the guarding and over arousal that previously existed the dog was now able to relax around everyone, even the toddler.

04/11/2025

What’s your take on the crate?

We all know that using a crate for your puppy helps with arousal regulation and potty training.

Crating your dog when they are home alone means your house and your dog will be in the same condition when you return.

Having the ability to use a crate gives you and your dog flexibility to adapt to changes. In the pictures below the owners tried leaving their dog (A)in a room and (B) in a camper unattended and you see the result of that. When a situation is challenging or new for you or your dog (ie. you have a contractor over; your child has a play date; you add a new dog or person to your home; your kitchen gets remolded; etc) your dog will always have a consistant place that they can go to get away from it. All of the examples listed above come from our clients.

What we see with our clients…

Nervous or anxious dogs often struggle when left out of the crate when home alone. Crating the dog means they have less of a mental responsibility on them in your absence.

Dogs that are uncrated when home alone are often very reactive to passing dogs, kids, cars, deliveries etc. This behavior comes with them when they are out on leash as well.

We recognize that each dog is different and some dogs are great on their own sooner than others.

If you have a dog that doesn’t make good decisions on their own limiting their choices (crating) will help to curb the chance of them developing bad habits that will require your attention in the future.

04/05/2025

We recently wrapped up our Elementary school child safety classes. There were a couple of things that stood out that we wanted to share.

1. Statistically a child is more likely to be bitten by their own dog than one outside their home With our classes we found that from 1/3 to 1/2 of children living with a dog reported they had been nipped or bitten.

These incidents can happen for a number of reasons. If your dog is showing signs of over arousal, stress, fear or aggression around your child please consider professional assistance.

2. We also learned that a large number of the 3rd, 4th & 5th graders in our classes were allowed to walk their dog by themselves and nearly 50% of those kids reported a negative experience with either an off leash dog or another dog on leash.

Admittedly, I was surprised by this. I thought back to the number of off leash dogs that I’ve had to fend off while walking Emma as well as the countless, out of control, on leash dogs I’ve had to avoid. This would have been overwhelming, if not dangerous, for a school age child to handle.

No one wants a child’s life to be negatively affected by something so avoidable.

Walk with them instead!

04/02/2025

Guarding is a serious issue. While dogs can guard a variety of things, we’ve taken two calls this week from people whose dog is going after a small child in the home due to guarding.

Let’s talk about this case….
This is 1.5 yr old dog that the family got as a puppy. He aggressively guards different people in the home at different times. He will even guard visitors, his crate and his food.

Many of these guarding cases share common owner behaviors/choices like:
* no or limited crate use as a puppy
* allowing the dog on furniture early on
* dog sleeping with the owner early on
* limited structured walking
* free feeding
* no personal space boundaries from
owners

With this case we addressed Structured walking, Place work, and developing personal boundaries. More crate use was also added to the To-Do list especially preemptively in scenarios where the dog has made poor choices before.

Over the course of our visit a calmer, more engaged dog emerged. We all were able to sit in the living room while the dog laid on the floor by himself guarding no one!!

03/20/2025

We started something new this week!!

We regularly work with families who’ve had a child suffer a dog bite injury so we have taken advantage of an opportunity to partner with Amberly Elementary to improve child safety when it comes to dog interactions.

We discussed and demoed (with our dog Emma) how to safely interact with dogs they encounter in public. Since most dog bites happen in the home we made sure the children could recognize body language cues their dog may give when nervous, anxious or guarding as well as those times to avoid their dog all together like feeding time or when the dog is napping.

Each class gets their own presentation to limit distractions and increase participation. Super fun!!

03/19/2025

Here’s a quick client update but first, the backstory….
Chip is a 4 year old who is having accidents in the house. The family has tried securing the dog in a certain area of the home with no success so of course we recommend crating. The problem was Chip hasn’t seen a crate in years.
We worked on a variety of tasks like structured walking, recall and Place. With all that accomplished we introduced Chip to the crate. He was a natural. He easily got in and out of the crate and was calm and relaxed when shut in the crate.

This update, just a few days after training came in yesterday.

03/17/2025

Claim your space!!!

This is an important concept that goes a long way towards having a healthy relationship with your dog.

We have clients dealing with issues like guarding, separation anxieity and over arousal (which can itself lead to getting nipped and scratched). All of this from a lack of respect your dog has for personal boundaries.

Dogs can get very excited when they see you on the couch or in a chair because your lowered position is often seen as an invitation for the dog to engage you.

With four month old Riley we have a dog that is very fun loving, friendly and JUMPY. The client had additional concerns for her mother’s pending visit since she is slightly unsteady and a fall of any kind would be dangerous.

To get ahead of this problem we showed the client how to address the issue…before it started.

Every time mom who go to sit down Riley would excitedly come towards her. Each time this happened we had mom stand up and move towards the dog. This would cause Riley to stop advancing and eventually she chose to lay down a few feet from mom. Mission accomplished. This left mom free to invite the dog into her personal space when mom was ready. This keeps things like your coffee from getting spilled or your laptop from getting knocked over. The bigger picture is that this “permission only” set up can extend to other family and guests.

03/14/2025

A recent update from Penny illustrates something we talk with clients about regularly.

Prior to arriving with her forever family Penny was returned for herding animals and kids in the home. When it came to introducing Penny to their newly adopted cats the family followed the process. After our initial session they had Penny around the cats while on leash and muzzzle. Next, she was on leash only and finally completely off leash around them.

Training your dog involves a balance of challenging them while making sure to work at a pace that helps your dog be successful.

See comments for the progression videos.

03/12/2025

Progress in real time…

Roxy is a client we first worked with two years ago.

Recently we got this message from the owner.
“Roxy is very reactive to other dogs. She gets very upset and barks to the point she is huffing, I can tell it upsets her. She is also pulling on the leash when walking and we haven’t been able to correct that.”

During almost all of our sessions I will start on leash with the dog. The following video begins right after mom took over control of the leash. We had just passed a dog that was in its yard barking at us. Mom decided to challenge Roxy right away and went back past that same dog.

In the beginning you’ll see Roxy fixating on the other dog which mom addressed. Next, you see a moment where Roxy briefly bites the leash due to over arousal. Mom did a great job not adding any leash pressure at that time and the moment passed. Roxy then went back to walking nicely while continuing to check in with her mom. All of the barking you hear is from the other dog.
Quite an improvement for just one session!!

Good leash manners are about communication. Consider seeking assistsnce from a professional trainer if you are struggling.

03/10/2025

Reggie…part 2

Reggie needed a bit of help dealing with the two cats he lives with, Jenny and Lt. Dan. Reggie likes to stalk Jenny and has been injured by Lt. Dan duirng a couple of skirmishes. Just recently Reggie caught up to Lt. Dan and pinned him to the floor. The owners wanted a safer enviroment for all of their creatures.

Reggie (like all dogs) generally make better decisions when in a calmer state of mind. We introduced Reggie to Place which gives him “the job” of staying on his bed. We also worked on his recall, both with and without the cats around. This allows the owners to call the dog away from the cat(s) should it look like he’s not going to make good choices.

The more we challenged Reggie the better he behaved. By the end of the session Reggie was happy to put himself on Place leaving Lt. Dan to stretch his legs. Great work!

03/03/2025

Last summer Reggie had the misfortune of receiving a perimeter fence correction on leash. Ever since then he refused to go on leash past the driveway sign where the cable is buried. The family ended up having to load him in the car, drive him to the end of the driveway and walk from there. What a pain!!

To fix this issue it took a combination of building trust (w/ me), tapping into Reggie’s food drive, and clear leash communication. There was no room for comforting this behavior or assurances that “it’s ok”.

After about 10-15 minutes the problem was gone. We even had the clients take turns walking Reggie down the driveway. No problem at all.

If your dog is stuck in a cycle of fearful behavior(s) consult a professional who can help you successfully address these issues. Great job Reggie!!

02/27/2025

Dogs are very resilient…..

I wanted to use our session with Bella to illustrate this point. This 1.5 year old young lady spent her first 6 months living mostly on a tie out and the client we worked with had gotten Bella only 16 days earlier from the SECOND owner.

As our clients know, we have a brief conversation with them prior to training to make sure we get the most out of our session. After speaking with Bella’s parents I was expecting to get growled at when I showed up which we dealt with very easily. What I wasn’t expecting was the calmness that followed. Often dogs that get off to a rough start like Bella, come with some mental/emotional issues.

During our session we worked on a lot of the usual tasks like Place and recall. What wasn’t usual was Bella’s response. Bella was quick to learn and engage. She wasn’t worried about who was handling the leash or where her parents were. Bella was even calm enough to wait for permission to exit the crate, WITH EYE CONTACT! She just did what was asked of her in the most confident way. Bella truly wanted to please and proved to be super sweet.

Regardless of your new dogs’ background remember that they will thrive with structure and leadership.

02/22/2025

“Hello new big problem, almost emergency help”….

This was the start of a client message I received yesterday involving Tonka who is now a 7 month old Dane. We first worked with the client in December ‘24 (orig. post 12/8/24) to establish best practices for the dog to be with mom at the salon she owns. Mom was now messaging us from work because the dog refused to get in the car earlier to run an errand. With work wrapping up in a few hours mom was at a loss!

I got to the salon and worked on re-establishing a rapport with the dog. Luckily for me Tonka is a very sweet girl and loves affection. We moved to the parking lot and after some mild objections Tonka got in the car with me. The next step was to get her to go in on her own..✔️ and after that it was mom’s turn… Tonka got in the car each time for mom ✔️✔️.

Tonka is at a stage of development where some things that she was fine with are now scary (including her crate) so she has learned to object to doing them. It’s important during this time to not let this new found uncertainty or fear take hold.
This wasn’t time for soft talk or reassurances to the dog that “it’s ok”.
This problem was remedied in about 3 minutes using leadership and a leash.

The results speak for themselves.

02/21/2025

What to work on with your puppy?

Tripp is a 4 month old that is very confident and intelligent with high food drive. He’s also pushy and mouthy.

We started with the basics of body handling and grooming using food to keep him busy. We of course started on leash heeling, Place training , Recall and “ leave it”.

We also showed the client how to teach Tripp about personal boundaries. His lack of boundaries thus far had led to nipping and the start of some soft guarding behaviors. This is done primarily through non-verbal communication.

The more we asked of Tripp the more engaged he became. The pushy and mouthy behavior was no more.

02/18/2025

To get the most out of your leash walking you must understand the dog side AND the human side. It’s a team effort.

Pictured is a young (formerly) out of control Golden with our client. What isn’t obvious is our client is recovering from recent back surgery and she really wanted to “ get back out there” with her dog.

We started by increasing engagement before we even left the house. Once outside, we kept talking to a minimum to limit arousal and improved mom’s leash communication. It took just a few minutes, in the first session for these changes to make a difference.

Leash walking is good for your relationship in so many ways. If it’s something you’re struggling with, it usually gets done less often. Do not be afraid to reach out for help. One session could make all the difference for you too.

02/12/2025

Sometimes a refresher is in order…..

We have a working line GSD at home. As a puppy Emma learned to wait for permission to come out of her crate. She’s usually pretty good about it. HiRecently, however she has been less patient when the kids let her out so back to school she went.

You’ll see in the video how accountability leads to engagement.

Make yourself part of the transitions your dog goes through each day. On & off the leash, in & out of the crate, the car, the yard. Don’t just allow your dog to exist on auto-pilot. I

02/07/2025

Getting your puppy (or “new to you”dog) off to a good start is crucial. This puppy had only been with his family for a couple of weeks before training day.

Here we are working with 4 month old Scout. We used the dog’s high food drive to focus his attention on the task at hand.

We spent time introducing him to the crate, Place as well as one and two person recall.

We were also made aware of a small concern Scout had with the vacuum/carpet cleaner. Instead of verbally assuring the dog with “it’s ok” around those items we gave the dog a choice. Be afraid or get fed. Starting at a distance the dog could tolerate, we worked closer and closer to the cleaner until it didn’t matter how close we were. The food choice won out and the dog now had a better association with the cleaner.

Besides increased engagement and relationship building all of this mental work came with another benefit… one tired pup!

02/03/2025

What to do with Aussie doodle rowdiness?

The excitement of adding a new baby to the family unfortunately brought about some negative behavior changes in their dogs. The issues between these two began back during the pregnancy when Cannoli started to display more aggression and anxiety towards other dogs. That behavior grew into Cannoli pinning Mochi to the ground over clothing items Mochi would collect. Mochi also began repetitively barking.. a new behavior. Adding to the stress of this was the fact that Cannoli wanted to always be around the baby.

It was 8 legs of chaos when I arrived. Both dogs were behind a hallway gate frantically carrying on. One dog tried crawling under the gate while the other did their best to dislodge the gate from the wall. Obviously, this level of arousal is not great especially around a small child.

Each dog went on a structured walk where they learned to practice impulse control and increase their engagement with the owner.

Next, we re-introduced the dogs to the crate. Getting this important tool back in use would allow for greater control over the energy level in the home and provide the owner a way to mandate downtime for the dogs when needed.

Both dogs responded very well to the training, even choosing to calmly lay near each other on the bed and enter the crate on their own.

The goal for the next few weeks is to keep the engagement and structure high and develop a new expectation of behavior within the home that benefits everyone.

A Better Dog

04/18/2025

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