Lionheart K9, Dog Training in Maryland

11/29/2025

VMF Laurel is super social. Here we are simply using her forward, impulsive behavior against her.

She lovesLovesLOVES people and tends towards extreme enthusiasm when she is around them.

If you're gonna have an issue, I guess enthusiasm would be a great issue to have.

Anyway. She lacks self control, so we are reminding her how to get what she wants faster.

We disable her ability to access what she wants (limiting options), and reinforcing only for calm, quiet attentiveness.

It takes less than 5 minutes, and looks the same whether she is tethered, or on a leash with a handler and facing a total stranger.

Watch the dog. Watch her learn.

11/27/2025

Many thanks to all of our friends and followers!

I am thankful! I give thanks!

Enjoy a gustatorial celebration with family and friends and we'll be back on Friday.

11/24/2025

It's that time of year, folks. Thanksgiving is just a couple days away and if you're expecting guests, there's still time to practice how your dog handles their arrival.

Baby Eris demonstrates how to accommodate guests in this timeless rerun of managing greeting behavior.
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Thanksgiving is a few days away. Is your dog a nuisance when guests arrive? Does your dog like to take chances and try to bolt out the door every time you open it?

This works. Each and every time. Why? Because I do not leave anything to chance. The dog is on a leash and collar, and the same three axioms that all of our foundational training relies on are in place here;

Limit Options,

Guide Choices,

Control Outcomes.

It is not that difficult to teach your dog better manners. It takes a little planning and a little self-awareness, but you can practice this well before guests arrive on Thursday afternoon!

When you are ready, we are here.

11/23/2025

I trot this out every year, because come January or February I am getting calls from folks with puppies they were wholly unprepared for.

Don't get a dog over the holidays. Period.

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Do you really know where that puppy comes from?

If you are planning to acquire a dog this year, do us both a favor and don't succumb to the impulse buy of the cute puppies you see advertised online or because they are advertised locally at a budget price.

If you must have a dog, or are planning on giving one as a gift, here's a few questions to ask the breeder, especially if the dog is advertised as a pure breed or 'designer' dog-

Have the parents been screened for the genetic diseases the breed is prone to develop?

If so, MAY I SEE PROOF?

If the puppy ends up with a physical/temperament issue as an adult, what protections do I have as a consumer?

If so, CAN I HAVE THAT IN WRITING?

What is the name of your veterinarian?

And then CALL THE VET, TO SEE IF THE BREEDER IS HONEST IN THEIR REPRESENTATION OF THE CARE THE PUPS HAVE RECEIVED.

Oh yeah, AKC Registered (or 'papers' in general, regardless of the registry, can easily be forged) don't mean squat. If that is all the breeder has to offer, run, don't walk.

Do they hunt over their sporting breeds? Participate in hunt tests? Field trial? Do they engage in performance tests for their herding breeds?

Do their working breeds?

Are there any testing criterion to measure breeding suitability?

Do you really want a dog that can do those things? Are you going to participate in activities that fulfil your new dog's genetic potential, or are your aims more along the lines of household companion and jogging buddy?

If not, then consider that in your decision. Having a dog with high drive requires a considerable amount of effort.

This is a VERY SHORT LIST.

This is a VERY BASIC LIST.

If the person you are researching can't answer these questions, it's a small matter to wait a little longer for the dog you will spend conceivably a decade or longer with...

If this animal is being considered as a gift for someone, are they prepared for the responsibility? Do they really want a dog? Do they meet any of the above criterion? If not, get a toy instead.

Impulse purchases of pets are rarely successful and are fraught with difficulty.

Don't do it.

Just.
Don't.
Do.
It.

Discourage your friends from doing it, too.

11/21/2025

I was scrolling through some other social media outlet and a patron happened to mention that their dog refused to go outside to eliminate in inclement weather.

I LOL'd their post and sent them a link for a post I had prepared waaaaaaay back in the early 20 aughts. I have had occasion for it to resurface strategically since then, and a link will be provided in the comments here, since we are moving into the season where housebreaking issues surface in conjunction with the cold weather.

On the OP's post, I told a story of a dog I owned a billion years ago. He was a fall puppy, co-bred by a friend of mine, and had the misfortune of being born in a temperate rainforest, where climate was cool, but not offensive.

When he shipped to me the following spring, he shipped on the day we received record snowfall in the Mid Atlantic. Depending on where you were, it was between about 30 to 36 inches in less than 24 hours.

I was being chased by the storm when I went to pick up my pup, and was being pummeled by it head-on, on the way back.

By the time we got home, there was almost 3 feet of snow on the ground, and my pup was bewildered, cold, and a little scared.

"What fresh hell is this? I will not! I SIMPLY WILL NOT!"

Yeah, little buddy, you will.

I shoveled a walkway around my house so he had a place to go as soon as we stepped off the back porch. He looked so pathetic, standing there, lifting one leg after the other off of the harsh, cold ground.

"I hate it here! I wanna go home!"

I swear that little dog held it for a good 36 hours.

But he went.

He went because I wouldn't allow him the access to my light carpets, soft furniture and warm comfort until the deed was done.

The look of relief on that animal's face when he finally grokked that outside meant inside faster, because comfort beats discomfort every time. He was housebroken in less than 5 days.

Until his dying day, he was a weather we**ie. Put him in front of birds and he did't care if there was hail, but in the commission of his daily duty, he would scurry to the nearest tree with an overhang and do the deed under cover before racing back to the house and it's sweet, dry embrace.

Anyway, I told the poster to save her daily allocation of Starby's and buy herself a set of Wellies and an good overcoat and git'er'dun.

Cotton would not have approved.

11/18/2025

I talk a lot about the division between *correcting* a dog and *punishing*.

Spider provides an excellent opportunity to demonstrate how to prepare for either, and what it looks like for both.

Pay attention, or you'll miss it!

11/17/2025

🤣🤣🤣🤣 Couldn't have said it better...

11/16/2025

I posted video of this dog a while ago; young intact German Shepherd Dog owned by a lovely woman. Compared to me, most gals are petite, but in this case- her dog Finn could easily overpower her, and often did.

She had trained elsewhere for a while, and realized that Finn's arousal around other dogs was getting worse, not better.

We had worked hard on Valerie's confidence, and I was able to surprise her with a nice little "challenge" of her ability to take control of Finn's behavior before he exploded all over the decoy dogs. If you look close, there are more than the two sitting there.

My friend Dave Cochran had come up to hang out and was kind enough to supply a variety of dogs that we planted at strategic places throughout our training area.

Until recently, Finn and his owner would not have been able to do this, despite the many months and dollars she had wasted elsewhere.

Anything is possible if you want it bad enough. Valerie wanted it bad enough for Finn, and now she understands that she is capable of working him through even the most compelling of circumstances.

This is what success looks like.

Colin Powell said "A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work."

When you are ready, we are here.

11/15/2025

Yup.

11/14/2025

Sent to me by a friend. Not linking to the story because FB hates links.

You can find the whole story for yourselves by using the image I have provided, and yes, I left a comment using this profile on the OP.

Two CHILDREN pulled this animal off of her without risk?

Calling bu****it here.

Also also, who lets someone else's dog crawl in bed with them?

Fuuuuuuuh.

Something ain't lining up.

It's a shame that this person was injured. It was a shame that allegedly her children witnessed it.

What's more of a shame is that this 'mastiff' is unidentified, ownership is still in question, and so many other red flags are screaming for attention- dog ownership takes a blow because of ignorance and media hysteria.

This "he just turned" bu****it doesn't fly with me. The dog had a reason. The dogs always have a reason. We may not agree with it, but it is always there.

11/14/2025

I have often said there is a difference between correction and punishment. A correction isn't punishing- it needn't be, anyway. A correction is helping the dog *be right*. Punishment assumes deliberation on the dog's part. It knows better and chooses not to do better. Timing matters more than volume. Now fight me. I'm sure someone out there is happy to tell me how wrong they think I am.

11/13/2025

Aaaaaand another one...

A horse handleable by all?

I believe all horses, as much as possible, should be safe to handle in an emergency or in our absence. Someone should be able to go in and halter them, lead them out, put them on a trailer, or some simple thing.

I have helped teach horse handling to first responders in classes of large animal rescue (the rescue of large animals in emergencies) and quite often these first responders - the ones who will be leading your horse out of a barn fire or trailer accident - are not horse people. It's imperative that your horse be safe to handle in these situations, and that their training is not so complicated that an unrefined tug forward of a halter cannot be understood. A firefighter is not going to understand or even think about some complicated system of targets and pulleys and buttons -

BUT

Does this mean your horse needs to tolerate, on a regular basis, poor feel or rude handling? No, I do not think so. And in fact, I think this makes them harder to handle.

I am extremely protective of who handles my young stallion and how. I do not run a petting zoo, and so he (and my other horses) are not available for public entertainment. People have a way of approaching very rudely and for their own needs to be met and creating behaviors out of a horse who objects, which they then punish. I can remember a time a woman, who was asked to not pet my one eyed horse, approached him on his right (eyeless) side and poked him right in the mouth. He opened his mouth in alarm, and she immediately said "oh, what a nasty boy, he bites!" --This is why I do not allow the public to smear themselves rudely over my horses. I don't need them to have to defend themselves from rude touch, and I don't need them to learn how to avoid or go after people (even if those people deserve it).

I'm quite confident my young stallion would be easily haltered and loaded by a stranger. In fact, I have proven this by having him transported across the country by someone I had never met, who had never met him, when I was unable to be present. He got nothing but good reports for behavior. This was not created by a million sloppy and rude interactions with strangers - but quite the opposite.

He never learned how to nibble on people, push on people, or use his strength against people because there never was a necessity for it. And so it was not in his vocabulary - Could it be pulled out? Absolutely. But we don't need to do that. It's not fair to him.

I think it's very fair to expect your horse to be handled on a basic level by most. I do not think it's fair to expect your horse to tolerate ALL handling, especially when it is not necessary.

Think about it: there are levels of relationship. A basic handshake (halter and leading), all the way up to marriage. I can ride and produce from my own horses a certain level of feeling we have developed TOGETHER, like a marriage. I do not expect them to be robots for any and all people, just like I would not expect some sort of wife swapping to produce emotional intimacy. They are gentle enough that someone could ride them without being tossed, and get in the general direction they want - but the rest you have to earn. And I think that's more than fair, its their right.