DoggEd

22/09/2025

Talk about a sea change.

The video is Goober and his guardian playing a fun game that helps him learn that being close to people is safe. From his enthusiasm, you would never guess where we started.

Goober was found living as a stray in South Korea. He then got adopted and now lives in the busy city of San Francisco. I've lived with and worked in ad hoc rescue of village dogs in India for decades and it has deeply informed my understanding how free roaming dogs think and function.

It all boils down to trust or the lack of it.

Goober struggled with urban life, it was all alien for him:
👾 He worried about new noises and smells which caused him to freeze on walks, reluctant to go any further or he would pull like crazy the other way
👾He was reactive to people and dogs on walks, lunging and barking, because being attached by a leash to his human was new and worried him when strange dogs or people got closer
👾 Anything that was even slightly out of place according to him, would set him off barking. So a traffic cone that wasn't on the street yesterday would cause him to worry and bark his head off
👾 He could not handle any restraint or handling, which meant grooming like bathing and nail trims were impossible
👾 Vet visits were absolute nightmares... he screamed, cried, and emptied his bowels out of the extreme fear he felt around strangers, unfamiliar sounds and smells, being touched, pricked and prodded. Nothing was possible without sedation
👾 This also meant he was aloof with his guardian. While he tolerated being touched, cuddling wasn't something he wanted. In fact, some days, he growled even when being pet
👾 While his guardian wanted to give him off-leash freedom, he did not want to go back on leash again and was very unpredictable around other dogs and people creating safety concerns
👾 Worst of all, he has started showing signs of resource guarding his food and was threatening to bite his guardians

There was no trust, in his guardians, in his environment, in himself.

Over the last few months, Goober has come a long way -
💟 He no longer resource guards
💟He now walks beautifully on a leash and can ignore other dogs and people. No more freezing or pulling away on walks
💟 He's learned to self-regulate and calm himself down without help from his guardian when the world feels stressful
💟 He's doing so much better with handling and we are working on getting him comfortable with restraint
💟 He used to start panicking 3 blocks from the vet office, now he's able to come within 10 feet of the front door and stay calm
💟 He now wears a muzzle happily so the vet team can stay safe
💟 He is an ace cuddler now and was recently spotted cuddling even with a new visitor to the house
💟 He happily runs around off leash because he has a solid recall and ignores strange dogs and people
💟 He tolerates baths and enjoys using a scratch board for his nails
💟 He is comfortable even in strange environments without feeling the need to loudly comment on them

His guardians are now able to take Goober to many new places and his world is now so much bigger!

More importantly, he's learned to trust himself, his environment, and most of all, his guardians. They share a deeper relationship and everyone is happier!

None of this would have been possible without the dedication and love his guardians have. He continues to improve every day and I am so grateful that his guardians trusted me to guide them.

All of this was achieved with food, toys, fun and play. No prong/pinch/choke/electronic/vibration collars, slip leads or techniques and methods that cause fear or intimidation were used. Play is a catalyst for massive changes. Games change lives!

20/09/2025

I teach dogs to make better choices and demonstrating that this week, is Leo.

This is Leo, he's 5 years old. Since he was adopted at 8 months old, his family noticed he was a very fearful, shutdown dog. Noises, cars, people , dogs, everything overwhelmed him.

He was afraid of tall people and other dogs and recently, his fear has been escalating his responses to aggression. After he attacked a dog and bit a neighbor, his family contacted me.

We've just started working together and just a few sessions in, his guardian is reporting a huge win:

"Happy Friday Mayuri,
I just wanted to share that Leo had such a big win today! I was so proud of him, and I think he was proud of himself too! 🥹

So, we were on our little walk and I was trying to avoid him barking at 2 little dogs. He was doing well distracted by treats and just smelling their presence (I had his vision of them blocked). But at some point I had to walk by the 2 dogs and they were barking at Leo. As we did, he kept taking my treats and it seemed he actually wanted to run away from them, almost like he didn’t want to get in trouble by barking! He made the choice to not bark at all! I was so happy and praised him like crazy, and he was wagging his tail in happiness. I truly think he understood and was proud of himself ❤️❤️❤️"

After years of struggling with his dog reactivity and seeing no hope with any training, Leo is finally breaking through and beginning to think through the choices he has and picking appropriate behaviors.

I'm beyond proud of the work this guardian has done with Leo and I told her, this is just the first win of many!

23/07/2025

This is Goober in what looks like a completely ordinary picture of a dog wearing a muzzle and going on a walk. But this picture is anything but ordinary, it's a breakthrough!

He lived on the streets of Korea and now lives in an apartment in San Francisco. The change in his life was drastic and he's learning to adapt to city life.

I grew up with free-ranging street dogs in India and am acutely aware of the struggles they face when their living conditions change and they go from making their own decisions about where to go and what to do, to being tethered to a human every time they are out.

Goober, like most street dogs, also struggled with handling, restraint and proximity to people. His vet visits were traumatic and grooming at home was difficult. We have started working on all these aspects and the first step was to get him comfortable with a muzzle.

We don't know what happened in Goober's past but it took us many weeks to go from just looking at the muzzle, doing microsecond touches to what you see in the picture.

Goober and his dedicated guardians have shown again that time, patience and kindness go a long way in helping dogs, no matter the fears they come to me with.

03/07/2025

27/06/2025

LESS THAN 24 hours to go!!!

If you have always wondered "why does my dog guard tissue paper? That's of no value!"

"Is my dog broken?"

"Can resource guarding be resolved?"

Join me on a live webinar that looks at what resource guarding is and is not; what to do and what to stop doing RIGHT NOW to help your dog and prevent incidents; and how to once again create a trusting relationship.

Pay what you can. All webinar registrants get access to a replay. Live attendees get to participate in a Q&A session after the webinar. Bring ALL your questions!!

rgw.dogged.courses

25/06/2025

I'm super excited to host a live webinar on Understanding Resource Guarding in dogs on Saturday, June 28th at 9 am Pacific, 11 am Central and 12 pm Eastern time.

Please use this link to register! https://rgw.dogged.courses/

Join me as I dive into the causes of resource guarding, what you might be doing right now that is making things worse and how to help your pup who just has to guard that chew / food bowl / toy / bed / space / stolen object.

I'll be answering all your questions after!

Picture with my OG resource guarder!

"We started looking for a dog trainer after our 1 year old (at the time) Husky puppy was showing worse and worse signs of resource guarding, reactivity, and crate training. Although we had tried an e-collar, watched as many YouTube training videos as possible, and talked to many of our friends it ju...

15/06/2025

(2/2) See part 1 for where we started

We started working together to help Kitana, Buddy, Elsa and Sugar, and in a few months, the picture is completely different

💚 The dogs happily coexist together
💚 No more resource guarding and snapping
💚 The cat has started moving around the house again. Elsa is now fine if the cat is still. We're still working through her urge to chase when Kitana runs through the hallway
💚 Elsa can settle and chill inside the house and her and Buddy have even learned to ignore the sounds of people outside
💚 Walking all 3 dogs together is easy now because Elsa's reactivity has gone down and Buddy is hesitating less
💚 Elsa and Sugar have warmed up to Dad. Elsa is now lap queen 👑 and demands attention from Dad when all she did in the past was run up to him to threaten or actually bite him
💚 Sugar has learned to navigate the inside and no longer has spats with the little dogs

All of this was possible because Stuart, their dedicated dad, who has a full-time job and a side gig as DJ and many other endeavors consistently made the time to work with the dogs and play games. Cheers to all Dog dads today!

15/06/2025

Happy Father's Day to all Dog Dad's. Here's a Father's Day story and shout-out to one such amazing dad. 

Ms. Elsa, light colored Chihuahua mix joined darker boy, Buddy, and cat, Kitana in Andi and Stuart's household. She had her issues and then they had to take on another older dog in need, Sugar, and everything in the family dynamics just exploded. Let's talk about Elsa first.

She came from a dodgy rescue with a range of issues. 

🚨 She was reactive on walks towards dogs and people and pulled and lunged

🚨 She was afraid of people and had already landed a few bites. One of the people she had bitten and continued to threaten to bite was her new dad. 

🚨 She terrorized Kitana, the cat, and chased her around the house every time she saw her

🚨 She resource guarded her food and spaces from Buddy and Sugar

🚨 She also was extremely noise-sensitive and barked at every little noise, especially people walking past their house 

🚨 She could not settle inside the house, was constantly anxious and vigilant 

🚨 She had medical issues contributing to her discomfort and overall crankiness 

Sugar is an older shepherd mix and towers over the two little Chihuahua mixes. Her previous guardian passed away and Andi struggled to find a good rescue to take her and after one more disreputable rescue experience, they decided to take her in.

🚨 She was mostly an outdoor dog and had very little understanding of personal space 

🚨 Was overly attached to Andi and scared of Stuart

🚨 Would attack Elsa if she started chasing the cat or barking at the door or reacting on walks

In the midst of all of this, longtime residents Kitana and Buddy were struggling too. 

🚨 Buddy started resource guarding from Sugar and snapping at Elsa

🚨 Buddy started hesitating on walks with Elsa

🚨 They could no longer have the dogs and the cat together on the bed at night because of squabbling and the potential for more serious fights. Andi and Stuart had to sleep in different rooms with separate sets of animals to keep the peace 

🚨 Kitana started hiding in the closet and not eating because of stress

We started working together and in a few months, the picture is completely different (1/2)

06/06/2025

Mango came to me very fearful of car rides, people and other dogs.

🚨 She could not ride in cars because she refused to get in and once she was in, she would be an anxious, panting mess and would throw up a lot during the ride

🚨 She would run up and bark at people, jump on them and if they were sitting, snap at them half an inch away from their face

🚨 With dogs, she would get very upset, whine, bark, show her teeth and snap if any dog came close. If she had her precious ball with her, she was louder, meaner and hotly contested proximity to her and the ball

🚨 Because of all these issues she could never be let off-leash

Using games and play, we worked on helping Mango to self-regulate in stressful situations, we taught her to relax in the presence of strange dogs and people and we helped her relax in the car.

These days, Mango is doing amazing.

💚 She can calmly hang around other dogs and people even in the thick of action and play with her ball and not be upset with those around her

💚 She has started playing with other dogs and actually enjoying their company

💚 She loves going on car rides, even with dog friends and has not thrown up again. It turned out that all the throwing up was happening because of anxiety

💚 She goes on fun off-leash walks with her guardians and other dogs

💚💚💚 And not to brag but this is Mango during her downtime. She has a full-time job as her guardian's service dog which she does beautifully.

These pictures and videos fill my heart with joy because even I did not think so much progress was possible when we first started. Her world has expanded so much and she gets to be a dog. All of this was achieved with kindness, fun, games and play. No prong/shock/choke/electronic collars or other tools or techniques that cause pain and intimidation were used to train her.

My learning in working with Mango and her family is that a solid training plan that takes into account the individual dog, dedicated guardians and lot of fun and play can create miracles.

31/05/2025

Dottie's guardian came to me for help with her fear with strangers, some dogs and walks that were no fun at all. She'd been to other training classes where she was recommended to be on a prong collar but her guardian did not want to use it for obvious reasons.

With her guardian's diligent efforts and some fun games, Dottie soon blossomed into a confident girl who now does international trips and meets new people with no fear and walks like a dream.

Dottie's guardian just shared this amazing news with me, "Hi Mayuri! I took Dottie to do an evaluation for recreational agility class. She passed and the trainer there said Dottie is so well trained! I’m so happy and proud of her progress and wanna share the happiness with you 🥳"

Helping Dottie overcome her fears has helped her expand her and her guardian's world so they can do many fun things together.

All this was achieved with food, toys, fun and games. I am beyond proud of Team Dottie!

16/05/2025

Fun, play and games change lives, no pain and hurt needed.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1266415628388633?mibextid=9drbnH&s=yWDuG2&fs=e

15/03/2025

People often wonder if an old dog that's beginning to have mobility, hearing and eyesight issues is worth expending training efforts over.

Thirteen year old Gerdy's brother came to me with human aggressive behaviors that were very concerning to his guardians. As we worked on his issues, I taught them games to teach Gerdy to resolve her very high prey drive and unreliable recall.

Gerdy not only got great about checking in frequently on off leash walks and stayed closer to her guardians which is great for a dog that cannot hear very well. She is also learning to temper and think through her prey drive.

In fact, she's become so good at it, that she recently encountered a cat (!) on her on leash walk and the cat was just 4 feet away! In the past, this would have meant her lunging and chasing until she reached the end of the leash and trying to drag her guardian after the cat.

She looked at the cat and got excited but then remembered to think through it and turned to her guardians for a treat instead! My mind was just as blown as her guardians.

All this was accomplished with food, toys and play. No choke/pinch/prong/electronic collars or techniques which cause fear or intimidation were used.

Gerdy is a happy puppy at the grand age of 13 and her dedicated guardians have shown that anything is possible regardless of the age of the dog.