North Star Canine Connection

01/09/2025

Group classes start September 20th. There is still room in the Young Puppy Play and Learn, and the Your Goals, Your Pace classes. More classes will be offered in the winter.
https://www.northstarcanineconnection.com/groupclass

26/08/2025

Great post from The Timeless Dog. I couldn’t have said this better myself. When speaking with prospective clients, I explain that my goal isn’t to create a robotic dog in just a few sessions (or at all!) My training approach is gentle and methodical, helping dogs learn to meet our expectations while still respecting their natural canine behaviors. Our dogs deserve some amount of autonomy.

Feeling stuck in your dog training journey?

You might need to shift your mindset.

When we focus on all the things that are "wrong" with our dog, those become the only things we can see when we look at our dog or try to work with them.

A popular saying in the dog training community is "you dog isn't giving you a hard time, they are having a hard time."

We are expecting dogs to live in a world where they are not allowed to do any normal dog behaviors. We want them to wait patiently for us to come home, but then cuddle up on the sofa with us when they have been laying around all day. Then we get mad when they want to play. We want our dogs to never bark, except when it might benefit us. We buy dog toys, but then don't let our dogs play with them how they want because "we spent good money on that for them to not destroy it."

We ask SO much of our dogs, but when they get it "wrong" we label them the problem.

If we want to change our dog's behavior, we have to change ours first.

This week, when your dog does something you don't like try looking at it from their prospective. Did they pull you down the street on your walk and you didn't like that? Think about what you did before you left the house... was that the first time they have been outside all day after you being at work for 8 hours and they are well rested and excited? They were not trying to make the walk unpleasant for you. They were most likely just excited to be out and about with their favorite person. Did you try to set them up for success or did you just head out without thinking about bringing the treats?

Your dog is NOT trying to be difficult, but if you view them in that lens, you will only see them as difficult. Shift your mindset and shift your relationship with your dog.

23/08/2025

This handsome fellow earned both his advanced CGC and Urban CGC today at the Moose Festival! Special thanks to the Alice M. Ward Memorial Library for providing a building to demonstrate some of the necessary skills.

22/08/2025

Come join us at the Moose Festival tomorrow!
I’ll be there judging the dog show and also offering the Advanced Canine Good Citizen (AKC Community Canine, CGCA) test for some of my clients.

👉 If your dog has already passed the standard CGC and is ready to move up, I’d be happy to test your dog for free at the event (as long as I can fit you in). Advance notice is required, so please send me a message if you’d like to participate.

The CGCA builds on the standard CGC but must be done in a public setting rather than a classroom. Here are the 10 test items:
1. Accepting a friendly stranger
2. Walking through a crowd
3. Loose-leash walking through real-world distractions
4. Walking politely past distractions (dogs, people, etc.)
5. Sit–stay in a group with other dogs
6. Down–stay in a group
7. Recall with distractions
8. Polite behavior around food and tables
9. Manners entering/exiting doors and public buildings
10. Supervised separation (3 minutes with owner out of sight)

Hope to see you there!

22/08/2025

If anyone has been considering a Fi GPS collar or a DNA test for their dog, this current deal ends today.

For DNA testing, I usually recommend Embark. They use over 200,000 genetic markers—more than twice as many as the next closest company. (I’m not affiliated with them, I just love genetics and appreciate good science.)

21/08/2025

Got a little riding in with my kids while I had some time off from dog training. Most people know me for the dogs these days, but before that I worked with horses - mostly retired racehorses. 🏇 I’d love to get back into it at some point.

15/08/2025

Jolene did as well as can be expected at the vet’s today. Dr. Arion was incredibly patient with her, and it helped to have her support dog, Bowie! She is a huge flight risk, hence the two leashes and GPS tracker. But I’m very proud of how she handled this. Unfortunately she isn’t a good candidate for the “victory visits” that I recommend for dogs who are afraid of the vet. She will always be feral. But she has continued to show slow progress at home. And I was honestly shocked that she took cheese from me. 🧀

15/08/2025

Congratulations to the following summer group class graduates!
Aspiring Therapy Dog: Bow (In loving memory), Starla, Finn, Solly, Callum, and Maui
Canine Good Citizen: Harriet, George, Paxton, Rayna, Pomona, Banjo, and Sage
Puppy Play and Learn: Winifred, Vector, Finn, Ru, Cody, Hena, and Miley
Puppy Essentials: Stella, Mardi, Riley, Tucker, Aurora, Kaos, and Draco
Open Skills 101: Luke Skywalker, Otis #1, Otis #2, Annie, Sully, and Hugo
Confident Canine: Hope, Stanley, Echo, and Greylin

07/08/2025

The “valepuptorian” of my Confident Canine class was on WMUR! Doesn’t she look cute in her pink cap and gown and honors sash? Thanks to Judy for sending this to me!

07/08/2025

This is a very special photo. As many of you know, my daughter is a brain cancer survivor, born with an aggressive tumor that left us with little hope. The incredible woman in this photo, Nancy, is a miracle worker - she's the only phlebotomist in NH or MA, even among the amazing team at Boston Children's, who could reliably draw blood from Ari. Given her condition, constant blood draws were essential, and I always requested Nancy whenever lab work was needed.

Imagine my surprise and joy when I spotted her at one of my dog classes! My heart nearly burst with happiness as I watched Ari and Nancy reunite after 12 years, all by pure chance. Nancy - if you’re reading this, I hope you know the difference you made in our lives, and I’m sure the lives of many others. Thank you.

05/08/2025

Have you heard of contra freeloading? This is a behavior in which dogs (and other animals) choose to work for a resource rather than receive it with no effort. It is very common in dogs, as they enjoy foraging. Scatter feeding is just about the easiest and cheapest form of enrichment you can provide your dog. I feed about half my dogs’ meals this way. I’m lucky that none of them show resource guarding tendencies, so use your best judgement with multiple dogs.