Canine Counselor, Inc

12/10/2024

We are thrilled to announce Phyllis Smuland has been invited to speak at the 2025 IACP conference in Savannah! 😁🎉 hope to see you there in July!

Introducing the next 2025 IACP Annual Conference speaker...🥁

🎉Phyllis Smuland 🎉

Phyllis Smuland, owner of Canine Counselor, Inc. has been training dogs since 1985. She is known for rehabilitating severe aggression, anxiety, resource guarding, and dog to dog problems by using her pack of dogs and focusing on building a trusting relationship with each dog. She has an open approach to dog training, meaning that she does not subscribe to a one-program-fits-all training style. Her training methods involve establishing leadership, achieving a relaxed state of mind, and using the right techniques for the right dog at the right time. She uses tools and methods to successfully train and rehabilitate a dog. She has a savant like, instinctive ability to read dogs from over 35 years of observing and training dogs.

Early Bird registration for the 2025 IACP Annual Conference is now open for IACP Members! Join us in Savannah, Georgia on July 28-31 to see our incredible lineup of speakers! Non-Member registration will open to the public soon—hang tight!

12/03/2024

Why genetic temperament is so important to training– extinguishing reactivity in one session

We recently had a new client reach out who was experiencing reactivity on walks, with her dog standing on her back legs and barking at the end of the leash at the sight of other dogs.

Three days after we did one session with them, we got this update:

“No reaction to other dogs as of yet, and we have had a few walks and passed a number of dogs.”

Our biggest question going into the session was the motivation behind the behavior, as there are a number of different reasons a dog might display reactivity towards other dogs, and this helps determine how we handle the case.

We knew ahead of time the dog was a brindle “hound mix” from a rescue with loud dog reactivity. Plott hounds are pretty rare so while one option was an excited hound dog baying to regroup with other dogs (a genetic hound behavior), another option was an often misidentified breed with a similar muzzle shape that can be brindle and quite noisy on leash around other dogs: the American Pit Bull Terrier. In the case of an APBT, the “yodel” has a very different motivation, as they have a genetic predisposition for dog aggression. The best way to handle each of those cases would look very different due to the differences in the dog’s genetic motivations.

One look at her long pendulous ears when we arrived, and we knew she was a Plott hound, but investigated further to confirm the motivation in her behavior just in case. When we tested her with nonreactive dogs and gave her space on a long to make her own choice, she ignored them and moved away to sniff instead with no reaction.

So, how did we coach the owner to resolve the reactivity immediately after they’d been struggling for months?

We agreed with the behavior she wanted to choose on her own. We took tension off the leash (tension is often the cause of dog reactivity), used food to create paths for her to sniff, and helped the owner create a cooperative routine of doing it together when other dogs pass by.

So much of the dog training industry these days seems focused on forcing dogs to comply and perform obedience and listen to us at all costs no matter what regardless of why they’re doing something or how they feel about it. What if, instead of all that correction and punishment and micromanagement, we could build lifestyles with our dogs that encourage the behavior we want from them naturally? Where we’re always on the same page but not because we’re holding an ecollar remote? Because we understand each other and being a team is the most rewarding thing.

Not that we don’t say no when we need to. Of course some things are nonnegotiable. But what those things are and what that looks like needs to be specific to each dog and each situation. Just like humans, dogs are individuals who need different things at different times and different supports to make their best decisions.

Understanding temperament and genetic motivations for behavior is the first step on that path.

09/26/2024

Some insight into why and how we do what we do from our owner Phyllis Smuland, shared by a fellow dog trainer.

This advice is GOLDEN from my mentor Phyllis Smuland. So many times people try to “train” a dog whose nervous system cannot deal with the training with food, exposure to the triggers, and more activity. However Lowering the nervous system is the first step. Phyllis offers shadow programs but I was lucky enough to learn from her for 15 years and counting. She has been doing this before any of us even heard about the vagus nervous system. The dog she is talking about is a reactive GSD that can’t settle down. (Shocking I know)

“I love these types of cases. The dog needs to be detoxed from everything including medication. Some drugs can take months. I've taken more dogs off medication than I've put dogs on medication in 4 decades. The cases I used medications for were all due to self-mutilation. They were also weaned off of it after training. Or as part of training.

The training isn't obedience training-- training is proper leadership always, which is what we're teaching our clients and is what really works vs force based compliance. Obedience helps our clients be able to ask the dog to do something and they do it, but it doesn't address the root of the behavioral issues, which is the emotional state.

In order to detox the mind and allow the brain to learn a new pattern of behavior, the dog cannot be under that stressor at all for at least 60 days, because every time the dog is put back into that headspace, he or she is never able to get away from it. That can be very difficult. It takes at least a quarter of the time to eliminate behaviors as it took to develop them so the timeline will vary in each case.

This is why my training programs are lengthy-- because it takes 30 days to change the patterns in the brain. I will not keep dogs less than 32 days for any form of training.

Often times dogs revert in behavior because when they go back home, not only are they going back into the same environment where the stressors were happening, the client has to learn and change their behavior as well. So for reactivity, you would stop things like letting the dog look out the window, letting the dog react out the door as things go by the house, being out in the backyard unsupervised... if you're redirecting, youre too late-- the cycle has to be prevented entirely for a long period of time so the brain can change.

I agree that the dog needs to down, but the down does not work if the dog's mind is not calm, and so I do not put a dog into a down position. When a dog is calm, laying down is a natural behavior and they will choose it on their own. If you teach the down before the mind is ready, the down will work and the dog will stay, but the mind will not. It happens a lot faster if the human is calm and the dog gets super calm and puts their head down on their own, but it only works if you detox the dog first. It can take a long time for dogs with genetic anxiety.

Anything that creates excitement or puts the dog into prey drive, such as food, we also stop during detox. Excitement will keep the brain primed for reactivity and not allow the cycle to fully end. You can't wear out the mind, you will only adrenalize the anxiety. Later on, these things can be reintroduced when a calm state of mind is the new normal and the dog returns to it easily when the excitement is stopped.”

08/27/2024

Our hearts are heavy today at CCI, as we have had to say goodbye 💔 to one of the most perfect dogs to ever exist and co-matriarch to our pack for the last 15 years.

This is a tribute to Darla, aka D: the blue eyed red nose American Pit Bull Terrier icon with half a jaw and the world's biggest heart 💙

A dog so iconic that her name has become synonymous with a perfect soft and stable temperament: being "a Darla dog" is the highest compliment a canine companion can achieve and requires an exceedingly rare set of traits found together in less than 5% of today's canine population.

Darla was a natural born helper in every sense of the word and copiloted the CCI pack along with Tuffy for the last 15 years. A therapy dog from birth, Phyllis would always know who in a room of people was having the hardest day, because Darla would plant herself right in front of them and help them feel better just by sharing her beautiful calm spirit. 🥹 She loved to be pet, adored humans (especially children), and would lower her head to soak up every second, then look up with those gorgeous blue eyes to ask for more when you stopped. 💕

But her real "job" was always helping dogs. Thousands of them over her lifetime. Darla was the perfect neutral tester/training dog for new dogs, especially dog aggressive dogs. If she wouldn't engage with a new dog, there was always a reason why and she was always correct in her behavior. We learned so much about new dogs through watching how she interacted with them. And she taught new dogs how to be calm in the house, laying by their crate or sometimes even in it along with them to show them it was safe and they could relax.

To know Darla was to love her... 💖 it was impossible to not adore her perfectly sweet and adorable self. If you were really lucky, you'd get slimed by the tongue always hanging out the side of her mouth 😜 She was obsessed with bully sticks and passed peacefully holding one in her mouth.

She will be deeply missed by all the lives she touched-- Phyllis, Matt, and their son Philip's most of all, as well as Tuffy. If we are delayed in responding to you this week, please be patient with us as we grieve this catastrophic loss and help the pack rebalance without her.

Thank you to the lovely Dr Emily and team at Spotswood Veterinary Services LLC for helping her pass peacefully at home 💗

08/12/2024

🗣 The trainers are coming, the trainers are coming...

For Canine Counselor Inc's first official shadow program! 🎉

We have been hard at work developing this customized program with a primary focus on practical application and tons of hands on time with dogs for two talented trainers we've been mentoring and coaching for months. We specially invited them for this unique opportunity, including their personal dogs, as well as their own client dogs.

In addition to getting practical solutions on some of their toughest cases, bringing client dogs along also allows the trainers to continue getting paid while they're learning 🤓

We custom designed this program around their personal interests and goals, combined with our temperament based behavioral training methodology, and think we've come up with what will be a super unique and really valuable learning experience for these trainers!

We're considering opening up this type of opportunity to more dog pros who are ready for an in depth and hands on look at canine behavior and want to better understand how to tailor training for temperament.

Let us know if you know anyone who fits that bill 👀 and stay tuned all week to get some sneak peeks into what we're up to 😉

08/02/2024

Temperament done right-- some dogs don't need training.

This is Tuffy, 15 year old matriarch of the CCI pack. She's braced herself under trainer Becki's injured foot (which is already being braced on a device designed for that) while Becki washes dog bowls. She's been blocking and protecting Becki's right side consistently since she had foot surgery a few months ago.

She wasn't taught to do this. She wasn't actually ever taught or trained to do much of anything. She's never been in a crate. She has no obedience commands. She's lived with Phyllis her entire life and has helped train and rehabilitate probably thousands of dogs 🤔

Because she's perfect without any of those things. A natural leader, calm and confident, always looking out for the best interest of the pack... even at 15 on a not great day for her mobility wise. She is a helper instinctually and seeks opportunities to cooperate with the human leadership, because she has a perfect temperament and was genetically designed to be this way and do those things without ever needing to be told or taught how.

Dogs like this are rare gems. The "Lassie" type dogs saving kids from wells are becoming seemingly more rare as time goes on and breeding practices focus more on profit than temperament. If you've been lucky enough to know a dog like this, you'll never forget them.

Have you known a Tuffy type of dog? We'd love to hear about them in the comments 💖

07/28/2024

🎉 Exciting news: Canine Counselor Inc is accepting new clients!

We are building a team of dog trainers and want to help you resolve your dog's behavioral issues through developing a balanced relationship. No gimmicks, complicated practices, drugs, or buttons necessary 😁

Based in Spotsylvania County, we serve the DMV to RVA and everywhere in between... we also travel to clients all over the country.

With over 50 years of combined experience working with difficult dogs, we are experts in canine behavior, pack dynamics, pit bulls, fear aggression, puppy raising, and so much more.

Contact us today for more info on how we can help you and your dog! 🐾