Midtown Mutts

11/21/2024

We will be participating this year in the Sparky Watt's "Toys For Tots". These gifts will be donated to the children that are at Shriner's Hospital for the holidays. We will have a donation/collection box here at our boutique/facility. Toys can be dropped off during any of our business hours through the 12th of December. Please donate only new and unwrapped gifts.

10/03/2024

Same leash, three different sizes. 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch and 1 inch. In house made. Custom colors, sizes and lengths.

09/26/2024

New Klimbs in, gotta stand on them

09/25/2024

So, you have a new puppy and you heard its really important to socialize them. But you also know your suppose to be super careful about where you take your puppy before they are fully vaccinated to help keep them safe and healthy.

What's a new puppy parent to do?!

Here are some tips to help give you puppy quality expose to novelty while also keeping them safe from surfaces that we don't know how safe they may be.

🐶 Drive to a park, stay in the car with the windows rolled down and let our puppy observe the comings and goings of the park from the safety of your car. They might see dogs, people, bikes, skateboards or whatever else might be at the park that day.

🐶Keep your puppy on a blanket, in a stroller, or a puppy sling to keep them off the floor for them to observe things in novel environments.

🐶 Attend a puppy class designed to keep under vaccinated puppies safe while also designed to expose your puppy to a wide variety of sights, sounds, textures and objects to help build their confidence around the world around them.

🐶Important! Socialization does not mean interaction. Your puppy is also getting a socialization activity and opportunity for simply observing things in the environment.

08/22/2024

07/25/2024

Have you seen our in house line of biothane leashes? Biothane often referred to as vegan leather is durable, water proof and doesn’t get stinky after getting wet or adventuring. Custom leashes and color combinations available too!

05/26/2024

Training client, Lucy, showing off her best “leave it” skills. She has been practicing to help keep her safe from food dropped by her human siblings during meal times.
Practicing “leave it” can be an important skill for our pups. You never know when you will need your dog to leave an item that is unsafe for them.

04/29/2024

Chewing on unwanted items is a common puppy "problem". But it's a normal, natural behavior for our dogs to chew. Giving our dogs plenty of appropriate things to chew on, can help by giving our dogs an appropriate outlet for a behavior they are likely to enjoy doing. It can be helpful to find chews that have a similar texture or feel as the type of things they like chewing on. Example- if they like chewing on the legs of your wooden coffee table, providing them a chew that is wood based like a coffee wood stick or a is more likely to keep their attention than someone that feels very different for them.

03/28/2024

Let's meet a Midtown Mutts trainer!

Joanne has always had a love for dogs and animals, but it was starting to volunteer at her local shelter while in high school that really sparked her passion to help improve the lives of dogs and their humans. She found she was especially fond of the shy dogs that needed a bit more help learning to trust others and the world. After working in the shelter environment off and on for many years and gaining skills in how to help enrich the lives of those staying in the shelter, she decided to turn her passion into her career when given the opportunity to become a dog trainer. Joanne is a graduate of Victoria Stillwell Academy. Since becoming a dog trainer, she has found true joy in teaching dogs and their human guardians how to learn and grow with each other.

03/24/2024

Training and management go together like peanut butter and jelly. They are most successful when we are utilizing both. If you are training your dog to greet guest with all 4 paws on the ground, but they get to practice jumping on them a bunch before they eventually get rewarded for all 4 on the floor, its going to take a lot longer to get to our end goals (if we ever get there!)

If your pup wins the jackpot and gets that fresh pie cooling on your counter, you best believe it's going to be even harder to train them to ignore the food on your kitchen counters moving forward.

When we manage the environment, we set our dogs up for success, while also preventing them from finding the reinforcement that the environment might provide them. Some of the many examples of management could be a crate, a baby gate, a leash, putting food away off of counters, using a trash can with a pet lock on it, using treat scatters to distract our dogs from distracting things they see on walks.

03/20/2024

Hazel would like you to know that she is happy about this weather situation. Have have you been spending this gorgeous week with your dogs?

03/16/2024

Isn't it amazing how some dogs can spend what seems like eternity sniffing a single blade of grass? A dog has around 300 million scent receptors as suppose to our human 6 million and their brain can analyze smells about 40x what we can! It's pretty amazing!

When our dogs stop to sniff a bush they are collecting important information about their environment. Sometimes it feels like they are being "stubborn" when they refuse to move along from a smell... but imagine watching a beautiful sunset only to have someone come up and put a blind fold on you. You probably wouldn't classify your self as pulling that blindfold off to take another glance as being stubborn.

So don't forget the next time you take your dog out for a walk, to let them take in the smells.