Camp Peggy Posts for Pets

08/09/2024

Which puppy are you raising? Teaching them to think on their own is the greatest thing we can teach them.

07/05/2024

It’s rare that you will see a calm dog make truly terrible choices. The “out of the blue” dog fight, the jumping on and knocking down of a child, the exploding at a dog on the walk, the frenzied bite on a guest as they enter the house, the streaking/sneaking out the front door as you attempt enter/exit, the ignoring of known commands in dicey situations… and on and on.

Does this mean your dog always needs to be calm and laid back? Of course not. There’s absolutely a time and place for some crazy—but for most owners they have little to no say about when the crazy happens and to what extent and for how long it goes on.

Our dog’s factory settings are set to crazy, chaotic, and overly-aroused. Which means, if we want to see our dogs at their very best, WE have to take responsibility for training calmness, patience, impulse control, and an “off-switch”. Because if we don’t, the factory setting will not only be all that’s listened to, but it will actually increase in severity and frequency the more it’s allowed to be practiced and patterned.

Which means, it’s up to us to lead and guide and teach the other stuff—if we want our dog’s most polite, most reliable, most clear-headed, and safest behavior… when desired.

The beauty of it all is that you CAN have it all. You CAN have the crazy and you CAN have the calm. It’s not an either/or equation—and it shouldn’t be. Life is about balance. No dog’s life should only be one of calm, controlled, robot-like “goodness”, because that’s not goodness, it’s an out of balance hyper-fixation on suppression of behavior. But could your dog use a bit (or quite a bit) more calm, polite, impulse-control-rich behavior? Chances are very good that the answer is yes.

And if you’re struggling with behavior issues, the answer is an absolute, 100%, resounding yes.

My advice? Get both, and enjoy both—just remember one comes naturally and one requires help—your help, and lots of it.

07/03/2024

Owners and trainers both need to better understand this dynamic.

Without clarity on this, owners develop unrealistic expectations, and trainers take on unhealthy responsibility.

Dogs only change when their environment changes—and only when it changes longterm.

Good trainers coach their clients on how to best change the environment their dogs live in by changing how their clients interact with their dogs daily, moment to moment.

Thus the only way you “fix” dogs is by “fixing” their owners through competent coaching and education. Any other expectation or promise is a guaranteed trip to disappointment-land, for both parties.

05/25/2024

05/25/2024

😳🙄😆🤣

Photo credit shared from : notenoughbulldogs

05/02/2024

Over and over I’ve seen owners struggling with the same issue. The early phases of the reactivity sequence seem benign, or at the very least so mild that it would be unfair to correct them for it.

Unfortunately, these early phases or stages are anything but benign. They’re the required initial steps your dog must go through to get to the dreaded big stuff that all of you struggling with seriously reactive dogs know so well.

Which is why if you your dog has reactivity issues, the very best practice you can get into is requiring your dog to simply keep their mind—and eyes—on their own business. Scanning for trouble and “mad-dogging” other dogs has to be removed from the menu.

If you learn to correct your dog for any untoward looking, and you do so with tools your dog cares enough about to actually stop the looking, you can actually stop this terribly predictable reactivity sequence in its tracks.

After all, that’s what most great dog trainers do, and it’s what most amazed owners think of as “magical” timing. Alas, there is no magic, just a keen awareness of how all this plays out.

04/02/2024

Owners, once you truly get that nothing changes with your dog until you change, you’ll be prepared for reality. Whether that be transforming yourself and your dog, or settling for the status quo with both of you—at least you will know precisely where you stand and also precisely what to expect.

Trainers, once you truly get that nothing you can do with a dog will actually change the dog unless its owners change, you’ll also be prepared for reality. Whether that be letting go of unrealistic expectations (and the frustration/resentment that goes with) for the undetermined, or falsely feeling like Superman/Superwoman because of what you’re capable of achieving with the dog—at least you’ll know precisely where you stand and what to expect.

If both owners and trainers agree to work within the framework of reality and the obviously observable dynamics between owner and dog—or environment and dog—then both parties can approach this dog training enterprise with clarity and healthy expectations. Which would save much disappointment, resentment, and heartache on both sides.

The upshot? Owners, unless you’re truly prepared to change whatever is required to change your dog, it’s best that you save your time, money, and hopes. Trainers, unless your owners are truly prepared to change whatever is required to change their dog (this is your job to suss out), then please save them their time, money, and hopes—and on the way you’ll save your well-being and avoid much of the emotional burnout that derails so many.

03/31/2024

If you have a dog biting your kids or fighting with your other dogs, and you’re not walking around like Rip Wheeler… well, that’s a damn good place to start.

03/17/2024

So many owners who “let things go” convince themselves they’re simply being kind and loving, when in reality they’re being terribly unkind and selfish.

Is it kind and loving to not provide your dog with clear feedback about what is right or wrong, what is good or bad for them? Of course not, but it sure beats the heck out of having to do the “dirty work” of disciplining your dog.

And if you sell yourself on the right rationalization for why you allow what you allow and why you turn a blind eye to the stuff you see and know you should address—but don’t—you can convince yourself that all the difficult “dog parenting” you’re skipping is actually the decisions of the kinder, more caring, more virtuous, and of course more loving dog owner.

But the truth is, that stuff you allow and ignore isn’t actually for your dog, and it’s certainly not virtuous. How could it be? Allowing your dog to misbehave, to have a smaller micro-managed life, to needlessly struggle with anxiety and stress, to put themselves or others in danger… couldn’t be for them.

No. We all know that stuff is for you.

You avoid the structure, the rules, the enforcement… the discipline… for you, because it feels better than the alternative.

02/06/2024

One of my philosophies as a teacher is to give the solution with the greatest outcome that does the least harm. I say least because horses are inherently dangerous and nothing is without it’s risk.

This means in a group clinic, for example, I am looking to give folks something that helps them and their horse as soon and as simply as possible, with as little chance of it being misinterpreted or doing harm. It might mean I leave my original plan for teaching, or teach two people in a group very differently, or have them work at something very differently than I would myself. This is because I am assessing pitfalls they may encounter, and without the appropriate skill set they could get into more trouble than the exercise is intended to bring. I want students at a clinic to go home with actionable, understandable skills to work on without being able to be supervised, and my first goal is to not get them hurt. To do the most good for the least risk.

This is different than I might teach a regular student of mine who is following a more strict program to a desired outcome. In this case, I will hold them to steps in their order and they will master them before moving on. The supervision and accountability makes this more possible.

Teaching is a dynamic conversation between teacher and student, and is fluid, changing, and artful. To truly help people you have to read the situation, the student, and think ahead to where it may take them.

This is one of the reasons it can be hard to pin down a “step by step” program responsibly - because if my goal is to do the least harm, someone somewhere, or potentially many someone’s, will fall by the wayside of a rigid program without adequate help.