Frankie Berger Dog Training

01/11/2024

As a professional dog trainer I’ve had the privilege of working alongside a few expectant families to prepare their furry kiddos for the future arrival of a new human sibling (or siblings!). This is by no means an exhaustive list, but a great starting point for the biggest skills to have your dog master by the time the little one comes around! This post also briefly covers if your dog will be tagging along to a visit with postpartum friends!
What helped you prepare your dog for intros with a new baby? Leave your advice down in the comments! 🐕
Want to get your dog prepared before your baby comes home? Visit our website or DM to schedule a consultation!

01/10/2024

Kennel training! ✨
If you just got a new puppy, rescued a dog, or have a dog you’d like to buff up on their training, kennel or crate training has surely come across your path as a must-know topic. While kennel training is an incredibly versatile skill that can be very helpful for most dogs, some dogs either can’t tolerate it or have a hard time relaxing when in their kennel. Something that I find helpful when looking to teach your dog a new skill that you’re not sure will benefit them, especially a skill that involves lots of their time as the kennel does, is to make a list of pros and cons to weigh the options. Here are just a few that I’ve come across in my career!
Personally I LOVE kennel training for safety as Nymh is a German Shepherd Husky mix and frequently makes friends with the garbage can. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣 Any time Nymh is home alone or at night when I can’t supervise her she’s in her kennel, which is her safe space. This process took a long time, and it was difficult to master! If your dog is struggling, practice during times where you can very quickly release them from their kennel and have time to provide lots of rewards and decompression afterward. Starting slow is the key to positive association!
Want to work on your dog’s kennel skills? Visit our website or DM to schedule a consultation!

01/10/2024

Happy Blog Post Tuesday! 💫
Today’s blog post talks about one of the most common tools we use with our dogs—the leash! The leash is a simple tool that is a must have for everyone, but not everyone knows how to apply it in a meaningful way from a training perspective! Check it out on our website under the Continued Learning tab!
Want to work on your dogs leash manners? Visit our website or DM to schedule a consultation!

01/07/2024

Leash manners, the key to the outside world! 🐕
Nala and Kenai are demonstrating the very first step of leash manners training, which is practicing the foundational skills in an easy to predict environment, like right outside their house! With any skill that requires a lot of focus and attention on the handler it’s so much easier to get rewards in and successful repetitions when you’re in an environment your dog can better predict. I’ve even started folks on leash manners inside their house to drill the muscle memory and translated that outside their home, then to the outside world! Proofing behaviors is key to reliability, but starting somewhere simpler can help your dog fully understand what’s being asked of them!
Ready to dig into leash manners with your dog? Visit our website or DM to schedule a consultation!

01/05/2024

Vet visits can be really overwhelming if you’re new to dog ownership or getting back into the swing of routine check ups post-pandemic. These 5 things can all help make that process go by a little more smoothly! 🦮💫
Ready to level up your training game this year? Visit our website or DM to schedule a consultation!

01/02/2024

Blog post Tuesday! ✨
This is the first blog of the year and we’re starting off strong with a new series called Training Toolbox! This blog series is designed to be a quick access reference for info regarding tools, training aids, and training methods to help you further your knowledge. Check it out at our website under the Continued Learning tab!
Happy reading! ☕️🐶
Have more questions? Visit our website or DM to schedule a consultation!

12/31/2023

Swipe to tell Echo the year is almost over! 😳🤪✨

12/29/2023

💬How should you act around service dogs in public? Let’s talk about it!
Today Zoey joined me as she typically does twice weekly for sessions and I had a few interactions. Two were good, two were not, and the difference can be hard to spot if you don’t know what appropriate etiquette is around working dogs. Let’s start with the good. The first interaction was an older gentleman that paused with a smile, moved out of our way, and looked at me giving a quick “she’s so well behaved!” I said thank you, continued walking, and that was that! This interaction was amazing because it didn’t make me as the current handler feel like a circus act, and it didn’t distract Zoey as she wasn’t the one being addressed in a disruptive manner. The next was a mom of two little kids. Before the kiddos had time to think about it, she gave them clear instructions to not look at, touch, or talk to Zoey, as she’s a working dog. The kiddos made sweet comments and everyone moved by, again with minimal disruption to my shopping experience. Now the bad. The first negative was an elderly woman who gasped and smiled, but halted her momentum and in the process completely blocked me up against an aisle with nowhere to leave. She then spoke ONLY to Zoey, glancing up at me when I told Zoey to leave it. The other bad experience was a dad and his kiddo in a cart. I apologized for blocking the way, he said no worries and complimented Zoey, then turned around at the end of the aisle and took pictures of us without asking first.
The way that I described those situations makes it easy to tell why the good was good and bad was bad, but in the moment I genuinely believe the bad experiences were people without an understanding of social etiquette around service dogs trying to be nice. When in doubt, just ignore them! You are already a distraction all by yourself, there’s no need to “challenge” a dog or human when you come across an SD team. 🐕‍🦺
Curious about service dog training? Visit our website or DM to schedule a consultation!

12/05/2023

New blog post! ✨
Today’s blog talks about Cafe Manners, a topic I’ve covered on socials and always talk about with my clients! It’s a super important skill to learn for all dogs, and the faster they start the faster they’ll have it mastered! Give this post a read if you’d like an idea on where to start! 💕
Ready to work your dog’s Cafe Manners? Visit our website or DM to schedule a consultation!

12/03/2023

Self control work with Echo, Theo, Skye, and Nymh today!
Self control training is all about a dog being confident in the choices their handler makes regarding what they’re allowed to interact with, and having the mental fortitude to follow those guidelines. With Nymh and the poodle duo (Theo and Skye) they stuck closer to me and worked on holding a down/stay while Echo worked with his handler on down/stay with distance and duration. His handler cued him to stay and walked back away from him in multiple directions to reinforce that her moving did not indicate that he could break his down/stay. It’s hard work, but doing the hard stuff now means we’ll have a way easier time later! 🐕‍🦺✨
Ready to work your dog’s self control muscles? Visit our website or DM to schedule a consultation!

11/28/2023

Surprise! We have a blog on our website and our very first entry has just gone live! 🙌🏻✨
This week’s blog post is all about trick training and why it’s so important to the training process! If you go to our website and click the “Continued Learning” tab it’ll lead you straight to our blog!
If you have any topics you’d like covered in more detail I’d love to know in the comments!👇🏻🤘🏻

11/27/2023

11/27/2023

With rising cases of the mystery canine flu-like illness in Oregon, there are going to be some changes moving forward to hopefully prevent any of our dogs from getting sick!
If you’re a current client of mine I’ll be reaching out to get updated copies of your dog’s vaccine records. If you’re a potential client, please have that ready before our consultation!
Thank you for your continued support and cooperation!

11/21/2023

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it’s important to know what is safe to give your dog off your plate and what should be avoided. When in doubt, leave it out! The holidays are never a fun time for an emergency vet visit!
(Though, if you’re asking me, seek out another dog safe alternative in place of table scraps, like Turkey Dinner style food from pet food retailers or local companies!)
Visit our website or DM to schedule a consultation!

Infographic provided by

11/20/2023

💬Let’s talk about dog socialization!
The way that I tend to classify dogs is into one of 3 categories when it comes to their interactions with other dogs; dog friendly, dog tolerant, and dog avoidant. Dog friendly looks like excitement when greeting other dogs, proper social cues like play bows, taking turns “losing” in rowdy play, and frequent check-ins to the other dogs they’re playing with. Dog tolerant is a dog that can behave on a leash around other dogs and sometimes coexist in an off leash space with other dogs but prefers to be solo or left alone. Dog avoidant is expressed in dogs that generally do not prefer the company of other dogs, in an on leash or off leash capacity. Sometimes this can look like reactivity, but most of the time it looks like a dog that actively avoids interactions with other dogs consistently and will over correct in order to avoid interaction.
So is it your job to socialize dog tolerant or dog avoidant dogs into being dog friendly? The short answer is no.
The long answer is kind of; it’s important to practice proper obedience and manners skills on leash around any high value distraction, and this should include other dogs. If you go to a café or brewery with your dog there is a chance you’ll run into other dogs. Proper socialization and confidence will tell your dog to trust that you’ll control their environment so they don’t have to react. However, most dogs are NOT always dog friendly, most fall into the dog tolerant category (this is why dog parks are an issue)! So you can’t always change their opinions on other dogs, but you can teach them how to react to those opinions!
📸: (the BEST!!)
Check out our website or DM to schedule a consultation!

11/10/2023

🐶 My dog’s meal:
Wild caught kangaroo with organic vegetables, cold pressed hempseed oil, a fresh caught sardine, organic Greek style yoghurt with no added sugar, a single blueberry with a sprig of rosemary to garnish 👑

🙋‍♀️ My meal:
Yesterday’s leftover mediocre pizza which I didn’t wrap properly so it’s extra “crispy” 🥴

This is all to common in the raw feeding community, something of which even I am guilty of 🙈

Jokes aside. As much as it is such a beautiful thing putting 100% into our pets and to give them the best, if that means we are sacrificing our own health it is in fact harming them too.

Our dog is our mirror.

In a recent podcast with Griselda, animal communicator from Adelaide, she mentioned how dogs spiritually have the ability to carry disease on our behalf.

It’s scientifically proven that they have the ability to mirror our stress.

If your dog is experiencing any health issues, it might be a good time to simultaneously look at what this might be telling you about your own health.

Podcast with Griselda 👇

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4rVV1IUVUOeW5MOHfIh9kk?si=2v7hWe8qRoKQhwZd1QxSpA

Dogs mirroring our stress 👇

https://www.facebook.com/100062215736176/posts/pfbid0HAP7WGg94T8bBxQgFFgBwaJiQg7QstmEceXBEYUCMWVYV4WkhGsYwhjftHoQRfdNl/?mibextid=cr9u03

How owner anxiety impacts our pets 👇

https://www.facebook.com/100062215736176/posts/pfbid02QM1ySE6BMjc7ECitx4Eqp1SWUuX9PBPw8h9VPb6kV9HTBhE2UtEK65B7dRvGDyfKl/?mibextid=cr9u03

11/10/2023

Welcome to the pack, Nala and Kenai! 💕
These two bullies have grown so much over the last two weeks we’ve been training, they’re still working on some foundational skills like leave it and focus but we’re marking great strides! I can’t wait to show you their progress as we work towards off leash obedience and great manners out in public!
Ready to take the next step in your dog’s training? DM or visit our website to schedule a consultation!

11/08/2023

I’ve had quite a few exceptional service dog candidates join my books the last couple months! 😍 Zoey is kicking butt on her public access training and I couldn’t be more proud of this girl! 👊🏻💕
Curious about service dog training? DM or check out our website to schedule a consultation!

11/07/2023

Dog socialization isn’t just about how they interact with other dogs, but how well they DON’T interact, how they process frustration in a constructive manner, and how they handle new or weird environments. Echo’s first time meeting horses was an interesting time, to say the least! Horses are large, loud, and move in a way that can freak a lot of dogs out. Due to their size and prey nature it’s not appropriate to let every dog greet every horse in close proximity; because of this, Echo hung out on the sidelines and observed. He got treats or verbal praise when he didn’t react, which was the duration of our practice with these horses. There was a time in Echo’s training where this wasn’t possible as he was a very timid and nervous puppy, so we started in his front yard with dogs and people passing by his house. We set in these observation foundational skills that have bloomed into an ability to process most new environments in a productive manner!
Ready to socialize your new puppy? DM or check out our website to schedule a consultation!

10/21/2023

One of Luke’s owners, Mac, said it best during our session today; Luke is becoming a dog. No longer a puppy, this big boy is maturing into such a wonderful, intelligent, loving dog, and I couldn’t be more proud of him and his owners. They’ve put so much work into Luke and stuck with it even when he was mouthy, jumpy, bored, frustrated, the list goes on. Now, we get to see him bloom into the dog we all knew he could be.
Good job, Luke!! 💕
Want to work on your pup’s obedience? DM to schedule a consultation!

10/14/2023

The Shepherd Crew strutting their stuff at Bauman’s Harvest Festival! 🎃
The harvest festival is one of the most difficult and exciting locations I’ve trained at, as it includes big crowds, food, and farm animals, just to name a few of the high value distractions. It’s the perfect place to train service dogs as it’s dog friendly but high intensity. From left to right we have 7 month old Echo, 4 year old Nymh, 1.5 year old Zelda, and 3 year old Rainy Moon. Such an awesome mix of dogs to ring in this spooky season!
Curious about bringing your pup along to outings like this? DM to schedule a consultation!

09/16/2023

I almost got this great photo except I was tripped by another puppy that tagged along with us over a giant box, so this is the evidence that Echo survived his first trip to !!
Spirit Halloween can be really challenging for many service dogs as the animatronics, noises, smells, and people are in full force with the intent to scare. Training in these environments focuses almost exclusively on confidence and teaching the dog how to navigate loud, scary, and unfamiliar territory confidently.
Good job, Echo! 🎃👻
Curious about service dog training? DM to schedule a consultation!

08/18/2023

The 3 C’s! This is a big one and one I focus on with all of my clients, especially those with reactive dogs or are new to having dogs at all. Feeling comfortable, calm, and in control can be the defining factor between a good, productive session and a frustrating session. When you’re working with your dog it’s completely okay to pause and process your situation and environment. It also gives you the ability to look at your dog as a whole instead of whatever pieces you’re working on in that session!
Next time you train your pup, try pausing and asking yourself if you and your dog feel the 3 C’s!
Ready to work on your dog’s confidence? DM to schedule a consultation!

08/12/2023

to when we did the Bauman’s Harvest Festival day trains 🎃 Speaking of, we’re just about coming up on autumn again, aren’t we….. 👀🤭

08/10/2023

Littermate syndrome is a term that covers a few different behaviors that puppies of the same or similar age growing up in the same house may experience. It’s a misconception that they have to be biological siblings for this to effect them, it can be any set of dogs of similar age! So what IS littermate syndrome? According to article titled ‘Littermate Syndrome in Dogs,’ “Littermate syndrome is an unscientific term that describes unwanted behaviors among sibling dogs, including aggression and intense attachment.” This can manifest in intense sibling reactivity and aggression, codependency, resource guarding, and host of other issues. Even though many trainers have anecdotal evidence of Littermate syndrome, there’s currently limited research on the subject and no scientific conclusions have been drawn yet. The most effective way, in my experience, to combat Littermate syndrome is proper and consistent socialization at a young age! Puppies are in a key socialization period for the first 3 months of their life, and go through multiple stages of mental expansion throughout puppyhood. If multiple puppies only experience each other during their key socialization periods it can be very difficult for them to acclimate to novel situations without the other dog(s), if at all. If you have adult dogs with Littermate syndrome the best practice currently is to work through each dogs’ behaviors and focus on socialization separate of each other, helping the dogs to “unstick” themselves from each other. As a trainer I tend to focus heavily on independent thought and choices a puppy makes and prioritize confidence over obedience; this is even more important with multiple dogs. As many of my clients know I tend to have my multi-pup houses handle one dog at a time, that way not only does the working dog get to experience working alone, but the waiting dog gets to practice their café manners and we can work out any FOMO symptoms they might be having!
Ready to tackle Littermate Syndrome in your pups? DM to schedule a consultation!

08/04/2023

🐕‍🦺💬What exactly does a demo dog do?
A demo dog is a dog that knows close to everything you’re trying to teach, has an even temperament, and can work well within a variety of environments to help teach clients what an end result of a behavior will look like or help break down a more complex behavior into easy to understand elements. Another benefit of a solid demo dog is to provide a stable dog with which the client dog can “norm” their behavior against, if the demo dog and the client dog click. On the right is my demo dog and full time service dog Nymh, on the left is my beautiful client miss Rainy Moon. Rainy struggles with almost everything social, but we’ve found that training alongside Nymh has really helped her slow down and process her environment without panicking like she used to. Have you worked with a trainer who uses a demo dog?
Curious about socialization training? DM for a consultation!

07/21/2023

What do car manners look like? 🚗
The term “car manners” refers to a set of skills that specifically matter in the car, both moving and not moving. This includes things like settling down in the car, knowing where they’re supposed to lay/sit, and not hopping out or rushing any door when it opens. A couple weeks ago I had a tire blow in a populated area and had to call roadside assistance to help install the temp tire. Because Nymh knows that she’s not supposed to exit the car without being invited she was able to hold a stay while the car was hoisted and the back hatch was open. The roadside assistance guy invited her out multiple times with whistles and coos but she wasn’t released by me so she stayed where she knew she was supposed to be.
Working your dog is more than just your living room, and the car is an often overlooked location! Practice loading them in and out of the car on cue, and work their stays inside the house, outside the house, AND in the car! Practicing in non emergencies makes real emergencies so much easier to navigate.
Ready to work your pup’s car manners? DM for a consult!