Lionheart K9, Dog Training in Maryland

09/15/2025

Nobody wants to think about it, but it's time. School has started, pools are being closed as the days get shorter and the air gets cooler. It can only mean one thing...

Holiday Season!

Dogs don't 'holiday' well. This is the time of year owners start making arrangements to board their dogs instead of have them 'home for the holiday', and the chaos and the noise and the... you get it.

Folks planning on trips to grandma's house over Thanksgiving or maybe for Christmas and New Years may be dreading the thought of including the family dog because their past experiences haven't been very holiday friendly, but maybe this year can be different!

Halloween is a month and a half away. Thanksgiving is two months and two weeks, Hanukkah is just over three months, and Christmas is three months and 11 days as of this publication. Plenty of time to prepare!

Read more in the comments!

09/14/2025

When folks use the term "socialization," what do they really mean? The definition from the Encyclopedia Brittanica for "Socialization" is this:

"The process whereby an individual learns to adjust to a group (or society) and behave in a manner approved by the group (or society). According to most social scientists, socialization essentially represents the whole process of learning throughout the life course and is a central influence on the behavior, beliefs, and actions of adults as well as of children."

Applied to dogs, what does this mean to you?

09/13/2025

Dear dog owners,

There is no advantage to engaging a service that advertises as "no cages" when it comes to your dog.

"Cage free" grooming or boarding may sound romantic, and absolve you of your guilt for having to confine your dog, but I'll be honest; as a care provider, crates are used to maintain a level of safety for your dog from potential risk of injury or escape.

Although it would be wonderful for every dog to experience a stress-free, enjoyable experience, reality shows many dogs are uncomfortable in certain high-stress situations like grooming, boarding, or vet visits.

You would be surprised how many animals are injured, lost, or killed while in the care of "cage free" care providers.

It only takes once.

Would you really like that 'once' to be your dog?

It's not an advantage or a 'benefit'. Trust me.

Also, if you think these services exonerate you from having to teach your dog to accommodate a crate, it doesn't.

That surgery it needs from having eaten a pair of underwear or your granny's dentures is going to require a vet visit.

Guess what?

The dog will have to be crated.

Guess what else?

Unless you can provide around-the-clock concierge care, your dog will need to be crated during recovery as well.

"Crate Free" is a great marketing tool, but it's such a risky proposition.

It's your dog. It's your choice, but just remember- actions have consequences, and these fly-by-night 'gig' hucksters aren't as skilled, knowledgeable, or prepared as they would have you believe

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

09/10/2025

Several years ago I had an 'episode' with a client that had sent a really nice, young Welsh terrier to me for training.

She misunderstood me when I told her that we occasionally post video and stills to our social media channels. She erroneously thought that I was going to post stuff every day, on every outlet, and call her routinely, as if she were our only client.

She was away for world travel adventures for the first four weeks of the training, and when she returned, she pulled the dog from training.

Because I didn't feed her neurosis.

She was angry that I didn't post pictures/serve her 24/7/365.

Before she made the decision to pull the dog- we had an exhaustive hour of me working with her on the skills the dog had already been taught.

I requested one answer to one question, before she marched out my door, and I erased any memory of her from my mind or my social media, "Is the dog better off now than when you left her?"

"I wouldn't know. She has been living with my housekeeper since she was 4 months old!"

I had a similar experience with another 1%er client recently. They didn't pull the dog, but whisked her away after training and never called/emailed with questions/whatever serves in the way of making ignorance flourish, and only contacted me many months later to complain that the dog "almost bit" wait staff at some posh restaurant in the Hamptons.

Several other incidents had surfaced as well- all because the dog was tossed into defense through the inappropriate behavior of stupid humans.

At our consult, the man suggested that since she was a dog, she should tolerate these things.

I wanted to walk over and 'pat' his bald pate and ruffle his ears to see how he would react, but instead I asked him if it was OK for perfect strangers to fo**le his trophy wife.

Insulted, he insisted "of course not!"

"So, then, you understand the basic concept of personal space?"

"Of course I do!"

"So does your dog. As her custodian, it's important for you to respect that she has boundaries also."

We spend more than an hour reviewing the things he never did, but complained about anyway, until he was well rehearsed in what to do the right way, every time.

"Is it possible for you to bring your wife at the next visit?"

"We'll have to do it through ZOOM. We're leaving for the shore on Thursday and won't be back til Christmas."

"Oh! A piece of advice before you go. As a lawyer, you understand liability, yes?"

He nods in affirmation.

"You are liable for everything your dog does, even though humans are usually to blame. Do yourself a favor. Don't let absolute strangers mo**st your dog. It's ok to say NO. I'm pretty sure you've heard the word before. Your entitlement ends when your dog starts biting people."

Let's see what today brings, shall we?

09/08/2025

I say this all the time- having that discussion with a puppy is far better than to wait and have it when the dog is throwing hands at 6-8-10 months of age and has already been red-penned at the vets, the groomer, and every boarding kennel in the area.

This youngster is a 12 week old hound mix who promises to weigh in around 70 pounds or more as an adult.

He has had a rough beginning, but that doesn't mean he can't learn to regulate his emotions and learn to tolerate restraint and handling without protest.

Young dogs who have never experienced this before tend to be surprised that escape is not an option and fighting their way free isn't either.

Once they get it, they *get it*.

This lad and his brother's videos are available to folks who follow the link in the comments.

09/07/2025

Back-to-School Blues: Helping Your Dog Adjust to New Routines

Once the long days of summer retreat to the back-to-school routine, the quality of sunlight isn’t the only thing that changes. As the days get shorter and the weeks get longer, the entire household begins the shift from the carefree summertime to the Sturm und Drang of return to obligations and time limitations. What often gets overlooked, though, is how dramatically this shift affects the family dog. For several months now, our dogs have played a central role in our activities. They are with us daily, often accompanying us on vacations to the mountains or the beach. They have spent weeks surrounded by constant activity and companionship and suddenly find themselves alone for hours. The omnipresent stillness of a now-empty home, absence of interaction, and lack of stimulation can encourage behaviors many owners thought they had already conquered.

Accidents in the house, destructive chewing, barking, or clinginess aren’t signs of a “bad dog.” They are signals that your dog needs structure and guidance to adapt. If you catch yourself wondering why your once-well-trained dog seems to have gone mental, addressing these little things now, before they become big things, will go a long way in retaining harmony and clean floors now that the kids are back in school, and your schedule is tighter.

Read the whole schlemiel at the link in the comments or if you are finding us through Insty, at the link in the bio.

09/06/2025

This is coming to Maine with me. He will be appropriately mo**sted by all of the seminar guests!

09/05/2025

It is not very bright to walk 2 ginormous dogs without decent training. I didn't screenshot of the handler, but suffice it to say they were probably about 1/3 the entire mass of these behemoths.

The imbicile in the car *could* have simplified matters by rolling up their window before the dog stuck its head out, but no, why do that? It's better to show the world your ignorance by exacerbating the problem and not controlling your own dog more efficiently.

And this is why we can't have anything nice.

This is why dogs are being shut out of public spaces.

People have absolutely no idea of how their behavior impacts others.

Now, if this had gotten out of hand, there would have been a lot more bloodshed than just the dog.

These bungholes thought they had control of their animals. What would the likelihood have been for calling them off each other if those two mastiffs had made it to the dog hanging out of the car?

Do better.

Or just stop making yourself look like an idiot in public.

09/02/2025

Wow this hits so close to home. This is the primary driver to my current state of unrest over my career, this trade, and the last 50 plus years of my life.

Sometimes one of the hardest lessons to learn and to accept is that nobody can make some other person want something.

Through reward and punishment, the saying goes, you can often make someone DO something, but the wanting comes from within, and it is either there or it isn’t there.

Riding teachers, among others, have struggled with this, often when real talent is shining through, but the possessor of that talent is indifferent.

At some point, for everyone’s sake, probably best to quietly walk away.

09/02/2025

I get a lot of folks who "mail it in" when it comes to actually doing the work, getting in the reps, and practicing for improvement.

There are legitimate reasons. Life happens. Everybody has their share of pitfalls that derail their plans, but that doesn't mean you can't do the work. It just means that you have to roll the work into the time you have, which is something you should be doing anyway.

Practice heeling in the house, around the kids, the cat, food or toys. Practice stays the same way.

You don't have to go into the wilderness to teach your dog to ignore temptations, you just have to learn how to use what you have available.

"Perfect" isn't what we're after.

"Improvement" is.

It's also much more achievable.

09/01/2025

Sometimes, it is that simple. Training never ends. Reinforcement never ends. Consistency never ends.

If you marginalize any one of these three things, your work suffers, your progress suffers, and your goals are harder to obtain.

Introducing a behavior is the part of the pyramid that affords the most help and the least consequences for failure of refusal.

In the teaching phase, we offer equal shares of help, but we introduce a consequence for failure or refusal. Remember, each command we teach is on its own separate 'timeline'.

In the final 'proofing' phase, we offer very little help, and the dog is held responsible for the knowledge. Now, that doesn't mean we tar him for his failure, but if he has successfully navigated the first two tiers, we have a valid reason to add a punishment for that refusal or failure.

Punishment doesn't mean lighting him up like a Christmas tree, or banging on the leash, it's just adding something the dog dislikes to discourage a behavior, or removing something the dog likes to encourage a behavior.

And then spend more time back at previous levels of instruction to ensure it's not a failure of teaching.

For the folks that think *training* is measured in weeks as opposed to reflecting on their own experience of years, you have a lot to learn about patience.

You understand human learning is ongoing, but expect dogs to learn something in a hot minute.

It's neither realistic nor fair.

Carry on.

08/31/2025

It's not rocket surgery.

If you are inconsistent, don't blame your dog for the mistakes you made.

The visual cues you use during the teaching phase of any behavior is *as important* as the audible cue.

Be sloppy in your delivery, be inconsistent in your delivery, and create a dog who performs the same way.