Crimson Hound Training

09/21/2025

From festive treats to yard surprises, autumn brings extra risks for pets. 🐶🐱
Read our blog on how to keep them safe this fall: https://aercmn.com/4-pet-toxins-to-watch-out-for-this-fall/

09/21/2025

Categories of Enrichment: Foraging - Freework

Developed in the UK by Sarah Fisher, freework has been used to help anxious and reactive dogs find calm and to help shy dogs build confidence.

Set up a freework course inside or outside to create another way for your dog to meet his need to forage.

Whether you need advice on how to help your fearful dog, have concerns about aggressive behavior, are struggling with puppy issues, or just want to set your dog or puppy up for success, I can help. Contact me today at [email protected] or visit my website at https://www.crimsonhound.com .

09/20/2025

Punishment can come with fallout. Unfortunately, you don’t know if there will be fallout until after it happens. Why take the risk of fracturing your relationship with your dog? Choose rewards-based training instead.

I want to start by saying this very clearly: I would never physically hit a dog. But I know some people do, and many argue that punishment “works.” And in one sense, they’re right punishment can stop a behaviour in the moment.

The real question isn’t does it work but what does it actually teach?

For punishment to genuinely teach anything, two things must happen:

1. Your timing has to be absolutely perfect.
2. Your dog has to clearly understand what behaviour is being punished.

That’s an extremely high bar. Most of the time, people don’t meet it. Instead of learning “the rule,” the dog learns fear, confusion, or mistrust.

But owners will often say “I only had to slap him once and he never did it again.”

That might seem true but unless you can read canine body language fluently, you may miss the subtle signs of anxiety or stress your dog is carrying. And even if your dog seems fine with you, that doesn’t mean the same “lesson” will make sense in every other situation.

Dogs don’t think in right and wrong, they make associations.

Imagine this:

- You slap your dog for jumping up.
- Later, a child reaches out to stroke them.
- To your dog, that hand coming towards them feels just like the moment before they were slapped.

In that split second, your dog may think: “Not again.” Instead of tolerating it, they defend themselves. And that’s when bites happen.

Once a dog bites, there’s no taking it back. The dog can’t explain they were confused or scared. To the dog, a hand reaching towards them feels the same whether it’s to slap or to pet. In that split second before it happens, those experiences are identical.

The outcome is that the dog loses their home or even their life. But the real cause wasn’t the dog’s choice. It was the punishment that created fear and defensive reactions in the first place. Owners may believe they “corrected” their dog, when in reality they set them up for a tragic mistake.

In short: Punishment might look like it works, but the risks are enormous. You can’t control what your dog has actually learned, or how they’ll respond in another context. And when confusion turns into a bite, it’s always the dog who pays the price.

09/20/2025

Categories of Enrichment: Foraging - Scatter feeding

The simplest way to meet your dog’s need to forage is to toss food out into your yard and let him search.

Whether you need advice on how to help your fearful dog, have concerns about aggressive behavior, are struggling with puppy issues, or just want to set your dog or puppy up for success, I can help. Contact me today at [email protected] or visit my website at https://www.crimsonhound.com .

09/20/2025

09/19/2025

Categories of Enrichment: Foraging

The feral, stray, village and free-living dogs that make up 80% of the dogs in the world find their food in the same fashion as their ancestors ... by foraging and scavenging.

It turns out that our pet dogs still enjoy and have an instinctual NEED to forage.

Whether you need advice on how to help your fearful dog, have concerns about aggressive behavior, are struggling with puppy issues, or just want to set your dog or puppy up for success, I can help. Contact me today at [email protected] or visit my website at https://www.crimsonhound.com .

09/18/2025

09/18/2025

Categories of Enrichment: Sensory Garden

This project can be as simple or as complicated as you wish.

Add a few (or many) items to your yard and let your dog explore.
-surfaces and textures
- climbing items
- herbs, grasses and plants
- bring in new odors
- add a water feature

This is a great article on how to create a sensory garden: https://www.rufflesnuffle.co.uk/creating-a-sensory-garden-for-your-dog-step-by-step-guide/

Whether you need advice on how to help your fearful dog, have concerns about aggressive behavior, are struggling with puppy issues, or just want to set your dog or puppy up for success, I can help. Contact me today at [email protected] or visit my website at https://www.crimsonhound.com .

09/17/2025

Categories of Enrichment: Sensory Stimulation - Scent

Scent enrichment includes:
-sniff walks
- sniffing your clothing, hair, shoes, etc. when you have been away from home
- sniffing packages, boxes and bags that arrive
- ask friends for bits of hair from other animals (guinea pig, cat, rat, etc.)
- bring some leaves in from the neighbor’s yard
- go to a parking lot to sniff tires

Whether you need advice on how to help your fearful dog, have concerns about aggressive behavior, are struggling with puppy issues, or just want to set your dog or puppy up for success, I can help. Contact me today at [email protected] or visit my website at https://www.crimsonhound.com .

09/16/2025

Categories of Enrichment: Sensory Stimulation - Tactile and Taste

Tactile enrichment includes:
-exploring new surfaces - with his toes and his nose
- introducing massage
- grooming can be included in this category as some dogs find the feel of the brush to be quite pleasant
- letting your dog explore novel things with his mouth

Stop taking absolutely everything out of your dog’s mouths the second he picks something up. Unless it is toxic or poisonous, there is not immediate need to grab things out of our dogs' mouths. Yes, he might eat something gross … but if it is not poisonous/toxic, what is the big deal?

Taste enrichment includes:
-introducing new food tastes and textures.
- taste can also be tactile when you work with changing textures in your dog’s food - use canned, dry, fresh, frozen … crunchy, soft, sticky, sweet, sour, salty, etc.
Be sure that you use only dog safe objects and foods.

Whether you need advice on how to help your fearful dog, have concerns about aggressive behavior, are struggling with puppy issues, or just want to set your dog or puppy up for success, I can help. Contact me today at [email protected] or visit my website at https://www.crimsonhound.com .