Your Dog’s Other BFF

30/01/2025

Check out the new website one of my students created! How awesome is this?! 👏😎
www.YourDogsOtherBFF.com

28/01/2025

🐶🐾❤️GOT PUPPY?❤️🐾🐶

Your Dog’s Other BFF is offering a limited time puppy special to kickstart your new best friend’s training this year! All puppies of any breed, 6 months or younger.

🗓️This is a 2 week program in a home setting, not a kennel facility.

The program includes:

🏠An in-home consultation and evaluation. I come to you and sit down with the family to get to know you and your dog, talk about what goals and expectations we should have for your pup, and put together a custom program that fits your needs.

🍪 14 days of intensive training at my place

🐶 2 hour private lesson on the return home to demonstrate everything they have learned, and teach the humans how to continue working with them.

🐾 Follow up private lesson, scheduled for two weeks after coming home.

❤️ Lifetime support after Board & Train session ends, so that you can reach out anytime for questions on how to keep your pup on track.

The package described above is currently $1500.

$175 is due at time of scheduling the consult/eval portion, $500 is due to reserve the desired dates for your puppy’s visit to my place, and the remainder balance of $825 is due by the start date of their session.

Reach out to get started on your journey to having the best dog ever!
🐶❤️🐾 256.694.6860

23/01/2025

🐶❤️🐾

10/01/2025

Jane Goodall..

05/01/2025

Sad to hear of the passing of one of the greatest role models of my training career.

Rest in peace, Karen Pryor.

Pryor pioneered the positive reinforcement movement for animal training. The culture of dog training experienced a drastic shift due to her influence. Animal welfare was drastically improved from her work. If you use a clicker, it is because of her.

05/01/2025

What’s your New Years resolution with your dogs? 🐶❤️🐾

Bring it on, 2025😋

27/11/2024

26/11/2024

Morning run with the puppies! 🐶❤️🐾

Adoptable through Notorious D.O.G Dog Rescue.

19/11/2024

Happy to offer training help to anyone able to foster a puppy for Notorious D.O.G Dog Rescue! 🐶❤️🐾

10/11/2024

🤷🏻‍♀️

all I do is take dog pictures 🤠

21/10/2024

Rattle cans or bottles filled with stones or coins or 'dog discs' designed to be thrown down near the dog to startle them are things we see relatively often being used. Because they do not have to make contact with the dog to 'work' it can mistakenly be thought that they are not doing any damage to the dog.

Startling a dog to stop ‘bad behaviour’ is a bad idea for a number of reasons.

Simply aiming to stop the behaviour does not show the dog what we would like them to do instead. If we concentrate on teaching the dog the things we’d like to see then there is less likelihood they are going to show behaviours we find problematic.

Focusing on stopping a behaviour doesn’t look at the reason the behaviour is occurring in the first place. What is the emotion that is underlying the behaviour? Why is the behaviour being shown in that moment? Is the dog scared, stressed, under stimulated? What is the need that is driving the behaviour (safety, mental or physical stimulation, carrying out natural behaviours, hungry etc)?

Startling a dog in this way can cause them to become stressed and anxious. Their hearing is very sensitive and the noise that may not seem so bad to us is likely more intense and highly unpleasant to them (if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t ‘work’). Doing things that cause our dogs to feel stress and become anxious means that the people that dog should most be able to trust is no longer as trustworthy, and so the relationship and bond between dog and human can be damaged.

What we can do to replace the need for startling the dog is work on getting our cues really strong and showing the dog the behaviours we’d like to see in different situations.

Make sure that our dogs are allowed to be dogs and can safely carry out those natural behaviours in ways that are not problematic. Let them sniff when out in the world. Find a safe spot for them to dig, such as a sand pit. Let them dissect their toys (under supervision for safety) – soft toys can be restuffed and sewn up so this can happen multiple times and avoid needing to spend a lot of money.

Work on a ‘positive interrupter’, a cue that means stop what you’re and come to us (and really make this worth their while – an example of this would be a cue that means ‘come with me’ where we run to spot where the absolute best rewards for that dog are kept, so really tasty treats, favourite toy etc).

Most importantly, don’t try methods that involve startling or scaring your dog. There is always a better way than one involving fear.

10/10/2024

Where’s the lie? 🐶❤️🐾

I’m a professional dog trainer of 23 years, so here’s a list of things I can guarantee you my dogs are better at than most -

1. Begging for food. That’s right. My dogs 100% know how to turn on the drool and charm when I’m eating or cooking. Does it work? Maybe. Do I always pay cheese tax? Absolutely.

2. Taking over my furniture and bed. Yes. My dogs sleep with me, lay on me, take up real estate on the couch, my lap and anywhere else they find comfort.

3. Getting super excited at greetings. My dogs jump up and hug me all the time. In fact, I don’t ever wear anything I care about. It’s super fun in summertime when I’m in shorts.

4. Chewing stuff that isn’t theirs. Shoes, the corner of a rug, we’ve even lost a chair leg to adolescent teething. Toys? Oh sure they have TONS of them, that I rotate and fill with food and freeze and hide - but what are toys compared to a family heirloom?

5. Ignoring me when it’s really important. Why come back when I’m calling them when it matters most? Why not make me stand in my underwear at 5am for a few minutes. They sure do love to keep me on my toes. It’s even better when it’s in public and I’ve just told people I’m a dog trainer!

6. Getting sick at the worst possible times. It’s not a vacation if someone doesn’t start pooping water or ingest something unknown while I’m gone. Or when I’ve just finished putting the kids to bed and cleaning the house, they are SO good at vomiting right at the bottom stair so I can step in it barefoot on my way downstairs to “relax”.

7. Barking at nothing, and everything, at all times. Leaf fall? Vacuum going? Small creak in floor? We could all die and they keep me safe. Without them, I may fall into the awful spiral of having peace and quiet, and who wants that?

8. Pointing out my flaws. Nothing like an adolescent dog or a drivey shepherd to make you recognize you need more work on your patience, timing and delivery. If it weren’t for them, I’d never have to really work on myself!

9. Leaving too soon. Just as we’ve figured out all of each other’s idiosyncrasies and habits and settle into a friendship of a lifetime, they have to go. We get a few amazing years together, and then my heart gets absolutely shattered, yet I still wouldn’t have it any other way. And THEN, I choose to take the journey all over again.

10. Being my best friends. Long day, feeling gloomy, struggling to see a bright side? They are there through all of it. Making me laugh, keeping me grounded, never taking things too seriously and always ready to try again for me. At my best and my worst they adore me, what better friends can you get than that.

I’m a dog trainer, but I still have dogs. They are not perfect, neither am I. My dogs are still allowed to be dogs as they accept that I’m still allowed to be a human. They are gonna dig a hole in my favorite spot of the yard and I’m going to take away the soggy tennis ball they found in the swamp. They will shred a new bed I bought for them and I’ll ask them to walk politely next to me instead of dragging me down. They will bark at a suspicious plastic bag and I will ask them to perform silly behaviors in front of people. They need to smell a tree branch for 10 minutes and I want to watch this new Netflix documentary. It’s a two way street and I’ve learned to embrace it instead of try to control it. That’s the only way I’ve found for it to be truly fair to them and to myself.

If you want a dog trainer who doesn’t advocate for allowing dogs to be dogs, and humans to be humans, and finding a compromise that’s fair and humane, I’m not your trainer, and that’s okay with me. They aren’t here long enough to make such big deals out of such little things for the level of friendship and devotion we get in return with them. Love your dogs everyone. For them, and for you.

- Helen St. Pierre

02/10/2024

🐾🍁🍂FALL BREAK TRAINING!🍂🍁🐾
2 spots left for a comprehensive Schoolcation for your Best Friend. Book now! Txt 256.694.6860

02/10/2024

🐁❤️🐀

A new highlights the growing recognition of the complex cognitive capacities of rats and its implications for how they are treated in scientific contexts.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/3zGlGME