Problem Solved, LLC

Puppy BITING!!!!!!!

Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? Puppy BITING like jumping is another very normal (but often very frustrating) puppy reality all new puppy owners live with. Did you know that HOW you react to behaviors like biting and nipping can REALLY influence how likely your puppy is to nip in the future? Without meaning too we often REALLY amp our puppies up in this moment - making episodes of jumping, biting, sleeve tugging etc. REALLY FUN for our puppies, which will make them want to do it MORE. Controlling our own reactions and emotional responses is just as, if not more, important than actually training the puppy. It can be tempting to automatically react out of surprise, frustration or even pain. Crying out, yelling, scolding the puppy, running away, pushing them off, pulling your shirt sleeve away - any of these actions, while completely understandable, are actually going to fire your puppy up more and make them think the whole thing is a game. You try to pull the sleeve out of their mouth, they pull harder - it’s a game of tug! You scream and scurry away from biting puppy teeth, they chase - it’s a game of chase and bite. Any of these scenarios might lead your puppy thinking it’s a fun game to chase, jump on or bite people. So what do we do when our puppy is over stimulated and starts grabbing and biting at our hands, our legs, our shirt sleeves or pant legs? Well, as with all things dog training there’s no ONE answer but there are plenty of great things you can do that WILL help: 1. stay CALM. Getting amped up NEVER helps. 2. Stay still. And remove easy targets. Puppy biting your legs, stop walking. Puppy biting your hands, cross your arms and get your hands out of the way. Puppy leaping all over you biting you while you sit on the floor, stand up and stand still. Puppy biting your sweatshirt sleeve, stand still. Don’t become part of a game. give it a second, see if your puppy lets go and moves away on their own, if so mark “

Puppy jumping?? No problem!!

Jumping is a totally normal behavior, it’s a way puppies try to get closer to things they want to reach as they explore the world. It’s not a “bad” behavior it’s just a puppy behavior and it’s our jobs as owners to help teach our puppies that jumping on people doesn’t get them the things they want, but keeping their four paws on the floor means they win BIG TIME. Cooper, my day training puppy, is a friendly, social pup and as a result he is a BIG jumper, chaser, and biter of clothes. We got right to work teaching Cooper how much it pays to keep his paws on the floor, and how little it pays to jump. Teaching Cooper that walking along side me while I move is rewardable, or landing in a polite sit is a GAME CHANGER. Our puppies need our help learning what we DO want them to do, not to be scolded for the behaviors we don’t want. In this little video clip you can see three different practice sessions with Cooper, the first clip shows him learning the game and you can see there’s still a fair amount of jumping and excitement, but he is starting to get the idea that landing in a SIT gets him the thing he wants (treats and attention) In the second two clips, just a couple days later, you can see how well Cooper is learning not to jump no matter HOW exciting and silly I am, even if I run, even if I jump, even if I dance and clap my hands and pet him all over - he knows to follow along with four on the floor or offer a sit His mom has been practicing too and is starting to notice a decrease in this jumping as well. Now, change doesn’t happen over night and it takes time to learn new behaviors. Coopers mom will have to play this game A LOT, as well as gets some friends and family to play as well (easy enough, who doesn’t want to help play and train the puppy!!) and will have to continue to teach Cooper he doesn’t “win” by jumping up. Day Training is a great new service I am offering for those who are looking for a nice jumpstart on their tr

Found a new use for the magic square today - one of Maddie’s new rehab excersizes is doing some “bows”. She knows this trick but is a little rusty and when I asked her to “bow” I only got a half bow, not a nice deep stretch. If I tried to use a food lure, we got a down. Hmmmmmm how can we solve this problem? I grabbed our square (used for fronts, various awareness games, securing a fitness peanut) and asked Maddie to walk into it so that I could lure her down into position but the cross-bar prevents her from dropping all the way down, creating that lovely deep stretch we were looking for. Props are so helpful!

Family Dog Boone Rocking Its Yer Choice

Family Dog manners student Boone ROCKED his patience game “It’s Yer Choice” tonight in class. This game is an excellent foundation for leave it, helps control arousal around food, is great brain work and so much more. Boone is learning important concepts such as patience, and that good things come to dogs who wait, and it doesn’t pay to be pushy. For a HIGHLY food motivated dog this is a big challenge. Good job Boone!!!!!!! Are you ready to get to work having fun training with your dog? September, October AND November classes are open for enrollment at www.problemsolvedtrainingmaine.com/classes

Congratulations graduates!!!!!

It’s been a super busy week and I have SO MANY posts to make but I can’t find the time. But I couldn’t let this opportunity pass to shout out and highlight the amazing hardworking teams that just graduated the Rally Intermediate class. It’s been an absolute pleasure to watch these dogs and their owners grow and improve over the last 6 weeks session. These dogs are all relatively new to rally - and have completed the Novice class and now the Intermediate class as well, the improvements they have made from week to week are just tremendous! The jump from novice to intermediate can be a challenging one - we add some new challenging skills such as pivots (turning in place without stepping while your dog moves with you), stands/stand stay walk arounds, side steps and more. They have the added challenge of remembering their novice signs and skills while adding the new challenges of the intermediate signs. The criteria is higher and the signs are more complicated. My classes ALWAYS focus on progress NOT perfection, and the main goal is always to have fun with your dog over anything else and these four teams really embody that spirit. They work hard, they play hard, they laugh hard. They train and take it seriously but make sure to keep things fun and light for their dogs, and as a result we’ve seen immense increase in connection and precision all around! Stay tuned, these four teams are coming back for another round of intermediate rally where we will be focusing on some more advanced concepts - getting ready for trial environments, handling distractions, breaking down challenging signs and increasing our criteria!!!! Interested in trying out a fun dog sport? Rally is AWESOME! There’s an Intro to Rally class starting in November, come see how fun dog sports can be!

Maisie settles - AGAIN.

Remember Maisie? Here’s another clip showing her settling skills just four sessions later (2-3 days) practicing settling in the same area at her house. You can see a huge improvement already: ✅ she auto-settles, offering to lie on her own rather than needing to be lured every time l. ✅ she stays down longer and in a more relaxed position ✅ we are reducing the speed of reinforcement, as the skill increases Check the comments for the original video of this bouncy girl. Teaching your dog to just SETTLE is one of THE most important things you can ever teach them ❤️

Maisie settles!

Here’s a little settling video for you all. This one’s for all of my students out there working on teaching settling as a new skill! Unlike most of my settling videos; this one shows you what the process looks like with a total newbie settler and a very bouncy little dog. As an added bonus we are training in REAL LIFE not a training room, not a distraction free environment. In fact you’ll see a few moments in this clip when distractions (chickens!!! Maisie is learning how to be calm and not chase the chickens) appear that are too close for Maisie to handle, and how we work through that. Important things to note: ✅ it’s NOT perfect. And that’s OKAY! Because we are all about PROGRESS not perfection. ✅ Some distractions are too close, and too many distractions appear for a “newbie” dog - but hey, chickens are unpredictable and we work with what we’ve got. We will make some changes next time, to be further away from where the chickens tend to be, but it was not worth throwing in the towel on the whole thing just because it wasn’t ideal. Especially with this particular dog, who is sweet, biddable and not strongly prey driven. ✅ in the beginning I am using fair amount of food to help Maisie lie down and remain lying down, she isn’t really “settling” she is “lying down to get treats”. And that’s OKAY because she doesn’t know the game well, and she’s a bouncy little girl. Sitting and just waiting for her to “figure it out” would create a lot of frustration for my learner, which is never my goal. ✅ I’m using a release cue. I don’t always do this with settling but with my really bouncy pups I do, because it allows us to start with a REALLY short REALLY easy pattern where they can be successful (lie down, earn 2-3 treats a few seconds apart then be released!) and we can build from there ✅ I’m using the marker word “good”. This is a calm marker I use to help dogs learn to settle. Maisie gets marked for: du

Guinness leaving class!

Family dog student Guinness is a hard working boy. Not only does he work hard all through class he LOVES to carry his bed out to the car after! How friggen cute is he. P.s he is also a pro at bringing cardboard to the recycling bin! What a boy

Enrichment Yard

There are big exciting things happening at our house. We are building up the enrichment area in our yard working towards building a sensory garden/enrichment area. Our final plans will include, different textures and surfaces to walk on and lie on, climbing structures, shade spots, splash pools and dog spots, different edible plants, sniffy plants and more. For now, we are still collecting the raw materials and planning out how we are going to build it all out. But, even in its incomplete state it’s providing some awesome enrichment because it’s an amazing area for noseworks. Check out Maddie playing Noseworks yesterday. I can see how beautiful and fun the yard will be when it’s finished and I can’t wait!!! Our dream is to create a heaven for our dogs to play in, plus friends and family dogs, and provide a safe play area for reactive dogs as well. Can’t you just see it??? I can ❤️❤️❤️ Anyone who has any pallets, plywood or other scrap wood they want to donate to the cause - let me know! Right now we are just searching for enough wood to build out climbing structures!

Community Canine fun!

This week community canine met out at the navy base in Brunswick. One of our focuses this week was on proofing behaviors - or what I like to call the “Dr. Seuss Training” as in….can you do it on a table? In a stable? Next to a dog named Mable? Proofing and generalizing behaviors is an important step if you want them to work in real life. Students worked on practicing behaviors in a new environment, then increasing the challenge by adding distance or distractions, asking the dog to perform the behavior in a strange place (on a table, in a gazebo, on a big rock). Not only did our dogs do awesome at this - check out Hank doing a down stay on a table! It is a super fun training game. We also worked on calm behavior around other dogs while owners have a conversation. This is a skill MANY people wished their dogs had and it’s a hard one, asking our dogs to sit quietly and ignore each other while we boring humans yammer on. Our class divided into teams to practice and helped our dogs work through their emotions until it was easier to sit and wait politely. We also practiced additional distractions and proofing in teams - learning how to work collaboratively with another handler and dog team to create set ups to proof specific behaviors. students LOVED this and many traded details so they can meet up outside of class and keep training. Community canine is a GREAT way to get your dogs classroom skills to work in the real world, find other dedicated owners and dogs to train with, and keep having fun with your dog. Class runs all season - come join us!

More hardworking students!!

Time to highlight another hard working team who has been taking the time to practice their skills and work with their dog regularly. Chase is one of my rally students - we’ve been working on the DREADED sit- stand-stay-walk around a particularly challenging sign for many dogs. We started with teaching stand, building duration, adding the moving to stand from different positions (sit and down) and then the walk around. Look at Chase and his mama just CRUSHING it! Anyone else working on their homework? Show us in the comments ⬇️⬇️

Sumi does her homework!!

I love how hard working my students are. Nothing makes me smile like getting photos or videos of owners putting in the work and practicing - and getting to share in their excitement as they succeed is a great added bonus! This video brought me lots of smiles! Rally Intermediate/Advanced students homework this week was really working on their dogs “get ins” (moving your hind end around to the left to pivot/turn with the handler) focusing on reducing the need to use a lot of leg and foot pressure to get the move, transitioning instead to reliable verbal cues and hand signals and being able to simply pivot in place. In the higher levels of rally it becomes more and more important that our dogs have a really good awareness of their hind end and their ability to move it independently from their front end. Having good foundations in hind end awareness makes the more advanced signs a lot easier. Last week this was REALLY hard for Sumi and without lots of help from mom’s body she was unable to move her hind end. They’ve been practicing hard this week on and off the pivot bowl and it’s already paying off, Sumi is starting to really understand hind end awareness and I can’t wait to see how she does in class this week. Are YOU a training student (of mine or anyone else’s) and have you been working on your homework? Tell us - or show us 📸 what you’re working on below ⬇️

More brags, continuing on yesterday’s theme! I want to take a minute to highlight a ROCKSTAR hardworking team. Meet Marigold and Family. marigold is a highly spirited doodle with a LOT to say. Her owners started in my teenage program and the dog I met was a WILD CHILD. Sweet as can be but boy was she a ball of chaos - excitable, social, a pogo stick with fur and oh the barking. Dogs with big personalities can be a LOT for owners, but not Marogolds family - rather than getting frustrated and fed up with her exuberant behavior, her family buckled down and started training. Marigold has now taken 3-4 classes and she definitely has earned the most improved student badge. She has learned how to settle and focus, how to greet without jumping, and that barking incessantly does NOT get you the things she wants. These days she’s one of my BEST students and she tackles every challenge we throw at her with the same spirit and zest she’s always had, just a little more self control. In class this week we were practicing using “place” to keep our dogs out of the way while we practiced picking things up - as if cleaning up the house at home. And Marigold totally nailed it. This is the result of being consistent, sticking with the training and making the training fun for the dog. When we do this, there’s no end to the great things are dogs can do!

Target Bowls!

Teaching a shelter dog how to use target bowls to move calmly from A to B. He struggles BIG TIME with overarousal leaving his kennel and walking outside and disengagement from the handler - target bowls can be used to reduce arousal/leash pulling/barking etc. or just teach good leash manners with a predictable calm pattern of moving from bowl to bowl and expecting a reward at each “stations”. Bowls can be moved further apart as needed and reduced overtime, eventually removed completely. These videos show one short session teaching this pup the game with me insteucting a shelter employee. Starting with the bowls closer together and with treats in each bowl, progressing to further distance between the bowls and then transitioning to empty bowls where the human delivers the treats at each station. I’m not sure why the quality is so bad, it was filmed on the same phone as the other clips just a few minutes later, but in the comments you can see a final video of me working with the dog. Despite the poor video quality but you can still see the dramatic progression and transition - from frantic and straining on the leash to a calmer loose leash walk and defer to the human for a reward at each station. Hoping this game will be helpful in managing his behavior in the shelter environment as he learns to walk from his kennel to the outside calmly. Sometimes training doesn’t have to be complicated or take a long time - simple patterns are powerful. 👌 Think this sort of thing is cool but doesn’t apply to you and your pet dog? Think again! Games using predictable patterns and treat placement are HUGE for solving all sorts of tricky challenges with arousal - not to mention this game can be helpful for leash walking. Have a dog who BARRELS out of his crate after you’ve been at work and can’t handle calmly moving to the door to go potty? Try target bowls or other form of predicable reward stations. Have a dog who DRAGS out of the door and down the drive

Puppy 3: Taming the Teenage Tyrant

I still have a few spots open in my upcoming session of Puppy 3, which starts Wednesday June 19th at 3:50pm. This 6 week course is geared specifically towards the ADOLESCENT dog, we all know this can be a very challenging time of life and this class will give you all the skills you need to navigate it with ease! Puppy 3 curriculum includes things such as: 🐾 Learning how to get (and keep) your teenagers FOCUS. 🐾 Lots and lots of work learning not to jump on owners, or other people 🐾Learning polite greetings (greeting without jumping) and how to handle your adolescent when you have guests in the house. 🐾 Settling skills, patience, and focus around distractions 🐾 Foundation skills such as sit, down, stay, loose leash walking and place! The teenage months can be a challenge, but they don't HAVE to be, come join Puppy 3 and learn how to manage that teenage chaos! Sign up at www.problemsolvedtrainingmaine.com/classes

So excited to announce the return of Community Canine for the summer and fall seasons! Each week in Community Canine we meet at different local parks, trails or other locations where we practice real life training skills, we cover all KINDS of different topics including (but not limited to): ✅ Relaxing in public spaces ✅ Relaxing in public spaces around distractions such as dogs, people, cars, bikes, and more! ✅ Loose leash walking in public spaces and around distraction ✅ Recall training and "off-leash skills" ✅ Trail manners and long line handling! ✅ Polite skills for passbys with dogs and people ✅ Taking basic skills such as mat work, sit, down, stay and leave it and getting them functional in the real world. And so, so SO much more! Check out the video to get just a taste of some of the things we have done with past CC classes. Want to sign up? Head on over to www.problemsolvedtrainingmaine.com/classes !

Community Canine is BACK for the Season!!!!

So excited to announce the return of Community Canine for the summer and fall seasons! Not sure what Community Canine is all about? This is a class for dogs who already have the "classroom skills" but are looking to get some REAL LIFE practice. Each week in Community Canine we meet at different local parks, trails or other locations where we practice real life training skills, we cover all KINDS of different topics including (but not limited to): ✅ Relaxing in public spaces ✅ Relaxing in public spaces around distractions such as dogs, people, cars, bikes, and more! ✅ Loose leash walking in public spaces and around distraction ✅ Recall training and "off-leash skills" ✅ Trail manners and long line handling! ✅ Polite skills for passbys with dogs and people ✅ Taking basic skills such as mat work, sit, down, stay and leave it and getting them functional in the real world. And so, so SO much more! Community Canine is available as a full class (5 week session) OR can be done as a drop in, just sign up for the drop in list and you will get an email each week letting you know where class is meeting, and you can tell me if you are coming and simply bring $40 cash or check. Community Canine is reserved for: 🐾 Existing Problem Solved Training students - we are working in public spaces and these must be dogs I know and trust. Interested in this type of class but have not worked with me before? Sign up first for another group class or private session. 🐾 Dogs who are nonreactive and non-aggressive towards dogs and people as we are working in public spaces where off-leash dog encounters and human encounters are always a possibility Check out the video to get just a taste of some of the things we have done with past CC classes. Want to sign up? Head on over to www.problemsolvedtrainingmaine.com/classes !

Drop the leash students rocking their mat work!

In last nights drop the leash class, we challenged our students to come up with their own creative advanced ways to proof their dogs “place” cue. These dogs are all pretty advanced, no simple distance or distraction patterns for this group, we had to think outside the box! Students did a GREAT job thinking up fun ideas including: - running and skipping around the dogs -throwing handfuls of treats into the air all around - walking out of the room (even with piles of treats scattered on the floor - as shown in the video!) and back into the room - giving “false” release cues to proof release cues - having someone come up and pet the dog and interact with them while they are on their mats - having someone try to call or distract the dog Our behaviors our only as strong as we proof them to be. Solid proofing is FUN, takes creativity and a little bit of team work but is DEFINITELY worth the effort!

The nose KNOWS

Ever doubt that your dogs most POWERFUL sense is their sense of smell? It’s not exaggerating when we saw dogs really SEE the world through their nose. Dogs are surprisingly adaptable and as long as that nose is working they can make it up for a lot. Don’t believe me? Ask ANY owner of a blind, deaf or blind AND deaf dog! Or just check out this amazing video of my friends foster dog playing fetch. This dog is completely deaf and almost completely blind, she can see some movement and some shadows close to her face. Does that slow her down at ALL playing fetch? A game we often consider a very visual one? Not really!! You can see her use her nose to find her way to the ball and keep the game going. Our dogs noses are truly amazing!