Mecca Canine

09/03/2024

If you love them, lead them!
Gamora, Slovak lines
Gambit, Apbt

Gambit and Gamora just got into a little fight.
Nothing crazy enough to warrant me coming out of my toasty bed. But just as soon as they stopped they ran to the door to see if I was making my way out 😂😂. Both looking at each other like “is he coming out”? They’re back to playing and having fun now but best believe dogs know there are consequences when they f*k up. They’re smarter than you think. I punish my dogs when it’s necessary and enforce rules which is why I get to enjoy my dogs in public and they serve as amazing helper dogs. Y’all let your dogs get away with too much which is why they don’t respect you and you can’t live the life you envisioned with them. If you love them, lead them.

Any breed! Any age! 🐺🐕‍🦺🦮🐶
Sorry! We don’t train kids😂

A TRANSFORMATION YOU CAN SEE IN YOUR DOG AND FEEL IN YOURSELF.

📍Serving the North Dallas, TX Community.

Send a DM or call today!

📞Text/Call: (972) 534-8449

🌐MeccaCanine.com

We don’t just train your dog. That’s too easy. We put the focus on you! We teach human empowerment, presence and leadership - All things your dog naturally responds to in order to facilitate the learning process and a healthy relationship.

This is 100% handler-focused coaching.

We put you in the driver’s seat- Not waiting around while someone else trains your dog. We transform the dynamic of your relationship with your dog and create real, lasting obedience in the process.

08/03/2024

The secret sauce.
Just doing it. Don’t overthink. Just do it. Even when you suck, keep practicing. Fail forward. Fail until the pieces come together. Until it clicks and It will, I promise. Set the intention and execute. Visualize how you want your walk or session to go and execute. But whatever you do, DO NOT GIVE UP.

Any breed! Any age! 🐺🐕‍🦺🦮🐶
Sorry! We don’t train kids😂

A TRANSFORMATION YOU CAN SEE IN YOUR DOG AND FEEL IN YOURSELF.

📍Serving the North Dallas, TX Community.

Send a DM or call today!

📞Text/Call: (972) 534-8449

🌐MeccaCanine.com

We don’t just train your dog. That’s too easy. We put the focus on you! We teach human empowerment, presence and leadership - All things your dog naturally responds to in order to facilitate the learning process and a healthy relationship.

This is 100% handler-focused coaching.

We put you in the driver’s seat- Not waiting around while someone else trains your dog. We transform the dynamic of your relationship with your dog and create real, lasting obedience in the process.

08/03/2024

The secret sauce. Just doing it. Don’t overthink. Just do it, even when you suck, just practice. Fail forward. Fail until the pieces come together. Until it clicks and It will, I promise. Set the intention and execute. Visualize how you want your walk or session to go and execute.

Any breed! Any age! 🐺🐕‍🦺🦮🐶
Sorry! We don’t train kids😂

A TRANSFORMATION YOU CAN SEE IN YOUR DOG AND FEEL IN YOURSELF.

📍Serving the North Dallas, TX Community.

Send a DM or call today!

📞Text/Call: (972) 534-8449

🌐MeccaCanine.com

We don’t just train your dog. That’s too easy. We put the focus on you! We teach human empowerment, presence and leadership - All things your dog naturally responds to in order to facilitate the learning process and a healthy relationship.

This is 100% handler-focused coaching.

We put you in the driver’s seat- Not waiting around while someone else trains your dog. We transform the dynamic of your relationship with your dog and create real, lasting obedience in the process.

07/03/2024

You can still put fantastic obedience on dogs with severe behavior problems. You can teach calmness and neutrality in public around people and dogs. It’s possible, we do it everyday. But here’s the reality. There are some dogs everyone can own and be happy with. Some dogs a few people can own and manage. Then there are dogs that are a complete liability and danger to the public no one can own. Genetics matter. That’s why I don’t discourage purchasing from experienced breeders. Your paying for predictability and stability in a dogs temperament and that you can’t put a price on.
This movement towards shaming people that buy from responsible breeders is idiotic and just another attempt at virtue signaling and selective outrage. Do your research and make good decisions that compliment your lifestyle. Not add stress to it.

Any breed! Any age! 🐺🐕‍🦺🦮🐶
Sorry! We don’t train kids😂

A TRANSFORMATION YOU CAN SEE IN YOUR DOG AND FEEL IN YOURSELF.
📍Serving the North Dallas, TX Community.
Send a DM or call today!

📞Text/Call: (972) 534-8449

🌐MeccaCanine.com

We don’t just train your dog. That’s too easy. We put the focus on you! We teach human empowerment, presence and leadership - All things your dog naturally responds to in order to facilitate the learning process and a healthy relationship.

This is 100% handler-focused coaching.

We put you in the driver’s seat- Not waiting around while someone else trains your dog. We transform the dynamic of your relationship with your dog and create real, lasting obedience in the process.

12/11/2023

17/10/2023

Early puppy hood. Take advantage of this time. You have a small window of opportunity to make the best of it. Keeping your dogs at home and not exposing them to the outside world that’s completely foreign to them and sometimes frightening is a mistake. You want your dog to be a great family dog. A take everywhere type of dog with great balance and stability in public. Get outside with your dogs as often as possible between eight weeks old and ten months. You’ll be in a better position to identify strengths and weaknesses that need to be addressed. There’s also a right and wrong way to expose and socialize them with people and dogs. Advocate for them. Do not force them into situations with people and dogs they’re not prepared for. And only socialize them with dogs that are dog friendly or dog neutral. One bad incident with a dog that’s softer and timid by nature can cause a serious fear response and fear based reactivity that intensifies with time. But get out and get to work with your puppies and dogs if you want to have the lifestyle you envision with them.

Any breed! Any age! 🐺🐕‍🦺🦮🐶
📍Serving the North Dallas, TX Community.

We have one mission!
Build healthy relationships with our canine companions through education and human empowerment. We train you! We’ll give you the knowledge and tools to eliminate problem behaviors and train the dog you have to be the dog you always wanted.

It’s 100% Handler-focused coaching.

Send a DM or call today!

📞Text/Call: (972) 534-8449

🌐MeccaCanine.com

23/08/2023

Some of you will remember Shir Khan if you’ve followed me long enough. I purchased Shir Khan with high hopes he would excel at protection. At four months old Shir Khan began to show signs of a fear period and at 5 months old it became clear he didn’t have the genetics for protection. I decided to give him a chance to mature a bit but I knew the dog didn’t have it. Some puppies inherit desirable traits from the parents and some simply do not. It’s always a gamble with puppies. Two exceptional parents can yield a litter of puppies that don’t have great working ability or stable temperaments. Often two mediocre parents can produce exceptional working dogs. Genetics is funny that way. Breeders with enough experience will attest to this. It takes a certain type of character, mental strength, and nerve to excel at protection training. This year so many have reached out saying they’re getting a Malinois or Dutch Shepherd as their first dog. They intend for them to be protection dogs. I can tell you the vast, VAST majority of Malinois, Dutchies will not make for good protection dogs. A deterrent, sure. A true protection dog, most likely not. The breeds have been watered down, the gene pools have been filled with dogs that are weak in character and have poor mental stability. They jump at sudden, loud sounds and in a moment of stress and duress they retreat and crumble. Just because you have a Malinois does not mean it will be a good protection dog. So here’s my advice. If your truly set on getting a working breed and you want a good prospect for protection SPEND THE MONEY and get an older puppy. 10 months to a year old from a reputable breeder. One that actually raises dogs for protection and trains them in protection. A breeder that’s been around for a minimum of ten years and guarantees the puppy’s ability to excel at protection TRAINING. You still have to train the dog. But if you’re going to spend $1500 and think you’re getting a good dog your going to be seriously disappointed. Do the research. Find a reputable breeder that guarantees the health and working ability of the puppy.

Thanks for these photos🙏

18/08/2023

Last year I wanted another puppy but I knew I needed a break from herders. Many of my German Shepherds and Dutch Shepherds have been phenomenal protection and family dogs but it was time for something different. My intentions with Gambit were to turn him into a nice competition dog and if that civil side started to surface I’d be pretty happy. But I had zero expectations. I just knew I was going to raise a balanced puppy and hope he’d make for a great family dog and helper dog. All my dogs have always been great helper dogs. So far he’s on track and it’s been an awesome ride owning an American Pit bull Terrier. He’s smart, super affectionate with my kids and so far he’s dog friendly. I hope he stays dog friendly but we’ve seen too many APBT’s mature and become dog aggressive over the years. Dogs that were heavily socialized as puppies can still become dog aggressive. It’s genetic, it will always be there. Having said that he’s just a super cool dog and we’re going to turn him into something special.

Any breed! Any age! 🐺🐕‍🦺🦮🐶
📍Serving the North Dallas, TX Community.

We have one mission!
Build healthy relationships with our canine companions through education and human empowerment. We train you! We’ll give you the knowledge and tools to eliminate problem behaviors and train the dog you have to be the dog you always wanted.

It’s 100% Handler-focused coaching.

Send a DM or call today!

📞Text/Call: (972) 534-8449

🌐MeccaCanine.com

03/08/2023

23/05/2023

A woman from Sussex, who had her left arm amputated following a dog attack, has taken the RSPCA to High Court over the life-changing incident.

17/05/2023

❗ TIME SENSITIVE! ❗

Fellow Dog Enthusiasts, we need your help. The UK Government is planning to establish a ban on the use of all e-collars. 🐕 Time is of the essence to persuade British MPs to block the proposed ban which would be implemented by Defra in February 2024. 🙅‍♀️🙅‍♂️

Save dogs from future abuse, displacement, and euthanasia. 🙏🐾 Please rise together and make your voice heard on behalf of all dog lovers and e-collar users.

Find out what you and your family and friends can do to help: from sending an email to your MP to signing the petition. & PLEASE SHARE the info!!! https://www.ecollar.com/good-dog-blog/show/uk-ecollar-ban



Dog image: thank you

16/05/2023

**Please READ AND SHARE THIS FAR AND WIDE!!**

Today's Daily Telegraph: Duchess of Rutland says "Thérèse Coffey... has some explaining to do" Below is an extract from the Daily Telegraph 9 May 2023

“Westminster must listen to farmers, not armchair experts”

By Rachel Emma Manners, the Duchess of Rutland


"… Modern Wales has a huge problem with dog attacks. The Telegraph has reported that Welsh sheep farmers suffer four times more attacks and shoot three times more dogs than their counterparts in the rest of the UK.

Why is there such a huge problem in Wales? Last year, 100 farmers, including Gareth Wyn Jones, suggested it was because the country banned the training of dogs with e-collars in 2010. They pointed to the large volume of research showing these collars are very effective at making dogs wary of approaching sheep. That is important because dogs are forever escaping from their owners.

In Scotland, they recently raised the fine for owners who do not keep their dogs on leads to £40,000 and that has not solved the problem. Why? Because the biggest problem is training the dogs, not the owners.

The National Sheep Association says bans on e-collar training are “utterly irresponsible”, so guess what the environment department in England has just promised to do? Ban them as well.

Hundreds of thousands of responsible owners use these devices to train their dogs because they do not want farmers shooting them. They believe a short startle is far better than being shot. And, for the record, the shock from e-collars is 3,000 times less powerful than some livestock fences.

Yet the most shocking thing about this matter is that Thérèse Coffey, the Environment Secretary behind this latest attempt to ban e-collar training, used one on her own dog. She has some explaining to do.

Westminster has to stop ignoring farmers. We are custodians - practical people who have managed the balance of nature over the centuries. Both sides of my family have been farming the Welsh Marches since the time of Charles I. It is in our DNA.

We respect the role of all species, yet the armchair experts of London cannot stop interfering. They lack knowledge, they lack science, and they are creating impossible pressures on country people and animals."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/09/hunting-ban-has-caused-catastrophic-decline-of-foxes/

Unleashed - Danny Wells Dog Training Southend Dog Training Obsidian K9 Academy

15/05/2023

Having a blast working with these two.

12/05/2023

**LEGISLATION ALERT: NEW JERSEY**

New Jersey has introduced a Dog Trainer Licensure Bill almost identical to the bill introduced in Illinois, which is on hold pending input from the IACP, AKC, and NADOI.

This bill has not yet been assigned to any committee, but New Jersey constituents should begin to write their opposition to the bill’s sponsors, Assemblywoman CAROL A. MURPHY, District 7 (Burlington), via fax at (856) 499-2187 and Assemblyman KEVIN J. ROONEY, District 40 (Bergen, Essex, Morris and Passaic), via fax at (973) 237-1367. You should also click on the sponsor’s name to access an online contact page for written submissions.

Specifically, your opposition should include the fact that the ADPT’s version of LIMA does not align with that of its author and creator, Steven Lindsay, and the proposed bill focuses on education and certification testing by the CCPDT and IAABC but fails to acknowledge certifications by professional organizations, such as IACP and NADOI, whose certification exams require and evaluate hands-on knowledge of dog training techniques and abilities, not simply answering multiple-choice questions. ADPT, CCPDT, and IAABC will only acknowledge organizations that defer "testing & certifications" to CCPDT, but as we all know, that's a monopoly.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please reach out to the IACP Legislative Committee directly at [email protected].

Link to Bill: https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/2022/A5364

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International Association of Canine Professionals
In Safe Hands
www.canineprofessionals.com

09/05/2023

And I didn’t even mention the dog. More on that in a second.

But first, I see so many owners trying to push the envelope with their dogs in regards to off-leash work, and especially with the more risky and more challenging off-leash work in areas with an abundance of high-level distractions and no containment safety net.

Here’s the thing—if you’re not so deeply practiced on how to use the e-collar that it’s unconscious, if you’re not able to problem solve effectively without panicking, and if you’re not keenly aware of how your dog does and doesn’t react in various situations and around various triggers, you have no business having your dog off-leash anywhere that is potentially unsafe for them or other people’s dogs or animals.

Regardless how badly you want to explore and enjoy the greater off-leash life, you have to be 100% honest with yourself about your personal skills. I can do things with dogs that their owners can’t, simply because my skill set and knowledge are deeper and more developed. Even highly trained dogs will only be as reliable as their owners are skilled. Period.

So get those skills and gather that knowledge in the safety of your home and backyard, and once you and your dog are rock solid, you can then look at the next steps.

And when you’re at this stage, remember that changing the environment changes everything. Dogs are keenly aware of walls and restrictions (and leashes/longlines), and will often give very different responses when they’re contained rather than when they realize they have other options. Not to mention, with new environments the distraction/trigger game changes massively—which can present challenges you’ve as yet not encountered.

So, first be deeply skilled, and also ensure your dog is deeply responsive/reliable in less challenging environments (home/yard), before upping the challenge. And then once you do move to the more challenging, do so in baby steps of risk and trust. That means, start in less overwhelming environments, and slowly build up. (Don’t go where there are dogs, kids, and wildlife running everywhere.) It also means it’s absolutely non-negotiable to have a long line on your dog that you are holding—in case things goes south—which they’re likely to do as your dog feels out what they can and can’t get away with. This long line is your new safety net as you remove other safety barriers. (Walls and such.) Start by allowing your dog to wander short distances and call them back, then release them again. Slowly increase the distance allowed. Once you’re getting reliable responses over an extended period of time (many days, if not weeks) in varied environments with varied triggers, you can let the dog drag the line. This gives you the ability to grab it if needed, and also causes your dog to realize it’s still on a leash, and so will pattern the dog to properly respond—even though the leash isn’t actually being held.

As for removing the line altogether, only you can decide when the time is right. I encourage owners to err on the side of over-caution, over-patterning, and over-proofing. This can be life and death stuff. Treat it as such. This entire post is about slow and comprehensive skill acquisition, slow and patient increases in freedom/challenges, tons of incremental baby steps, and an intense focus on safety.

But going back to the original idea being shared: regardless of your dog’s degree of training, your dog will only be as reliable as you are skilled. Don’t forget that and assume a trained dog will make up for your inadequacies. They won’t. Instead, they’ll likely see even more clearly your gaps—compared to the trainer—and see those gaps as an invitation to exploit them.

07/05/2023

In this video, Ivan discusses a huge problem facing present day dog training.The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behaviorists along with the "Positive ...

07/05/2023

In this short post below, you’ll find the answers for 99% of behavior and relationship issues. But sadly, in this time of all-consuming political correctness—especially in dog training—simple, irrefutable, and we’ll known until 5 minutes ago truths are largely unsayable heretical utterings.

Ask any dog trainer who actually knows what they’re doing, and who is couragous enough to tell you the truth, and they would be able to walk you through both the process, and the explain the “why” of its impact.

Sadly, far too many trainers have no idea how to successfully address arousal, or why properly administered punishment creates balanced dogs and healthy relationships.

And even more sad is that so many of them don’t want to know about either of the above because this inconvenient reality doesn’t align with their ideology or emotions. And so owners and their dogs will pay.

PS, owners, if you’re struggling with your dog, and if you *truly* want help, try this when interviewing potential dog trainers. Ask them directly: “How would you address arousal?”, and “What are the positive benefits of proper punishment?” If you get a song and dance about “keeping them under threshold”, and “punishment is dangerous to your relationship”, run. Go find someone who actually knows what they’re doing and is courageous enough to tell you the truth. This is simple, un-complicated stuff—unless your potential trainer is inept, or ideologically consumed.

05/05/2023

One mission! Make your dog an active part of your lifestyle. Any breed. Any age. This is a handler focused program. You’ll get effective coaching to eliminate pulling and create calmness in public. Real world training for real world situations so you can enjoy your dog in public! Let’s give you the leash kills and confidence to handle your dog anywhere. Dm for details. Spots available as they open.

02/05/2023

Any breed! Any age! Let’s give you the knowledge and confidence to eliminate problem behaviors once and for all. This program has one goal, make your dog an active part of your lifestyle. Together we’ll improve your dogs quality of life and your own. It’s not fun being forced to keep your dog at home because of excessive pulling or leash reactivity. We’ll teach a calm, relaxed heel and stability in public around people and dogs. Limited spots available. Dm for details.

29/04/2023

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10161646259898825&id=143027413824

29/04/2023

This is an easy mistake for owners to make. Your vet is the educated expert you trust your dog’s physical well-being with. And so when questions about training or behavior issues arise, it’s only natural that you turn to the very expert you most trust to keep your dog healthy and safe.

But there’s a problem. Most vets will have zero actual real world training experience, and thus will have zero trustworthy training advice. That doesn’t mean they haven’t had some superficial, and often dubious, training courses—many have—but what it does mean is that it’s the extremely rare vet who has actually gone out and trained numerous dogs with numerous training goals/issues, and found real world answers/solutions.

Think about that for a moment. You’re taking training advice from someone who almost certainly has never engaged in any deep, ongoing, varied training work. They’ve almost certainly never worked with a large sample of clients, and a large sample of dogs, and had to find training/behavioral answers for them.

What they have done is studied extremely deeply the medical side of helping animals. And that’s why the easy-to-miss overlap, and the easy-to-miss overstep, is so easy to miss. Vets are so closely tied to your dog’s well-being, and so knowledgeable in one facet of their well-being—and likely the most trusted expert you have for your dog in general—that it’s easy to assume they actually know what’s best for your dog when it comes to training and behavior issues.

And so, because of this misplaced trust, and misbegotten authority, many owners find themselves being recommended purely positive trainers, and/or tools which align with the purely positive training agenda, medications like Prozac when these approaches inevitably don’t work—and with the current ridiculously silly fad of the fear-free movement…being told (often in a condescendingly chastising tone) that they cannot use certain tools with their dogs at their facilities.

Just to be clear, this isn’t a vet-trashing post. I’ve had many cherished vets who’ve guided me through some of the most difficult, worrisome, and painful moments of life with my dogs. I’ll always be deeply thankful for their kindness and medical expertise. But I never once turned to them for training advice, and they never once were so presumptuous as to offer it…or worse, attempt to enforce some version of it.

For all of you owners out there, I urge you to step back and think about what I said above. Think about the fact that your vet has almost certainly NOT ever functioned in any real capacity as a trainer. They’ve never had to find solutions which their livelihoods and career reputations depended on. What they have been are animal medical doctors, who because of this one area of expertise have been viewed—or far worse—have placed themselves in the position of being training/behavioral experts. But the one field of expertise has nothing to do with the other.

I would never think to offer any serious medical advice, which could have serious ramifications on a dog’s health—because I have no true expertise in that field. And yet, we find many veterinarians who will happily make training/behavioral recommendations—which will be imbued with their medical expert status—which therefore owners will take as gospel, and which could, and often do have seriously deleterious effects.

Owners, it’s up to you to be the most informed consumers possible. You can’t offload the responsibility to anyone. Not your vet, not your trainer, not your friends or family. Do your own research and your own critical thinking. Then, make your own decisions about what you think is best, and who you think is best. And take anyone attempting to occupy that place of responsibility, and looking to remove your agency/ability to explore and discern and decide on your own, as someone to be highly suspicious of. Only you stand between what’s best and something possibly very different for your dog. The only defense against poor information is you becoming more knowledgeable.

PS, And don’t get me started on veterinary behaviorists. There’s very little that’s worse, or more dangerous than someone leveraging the status of medical and behavior “expert”, but who’s almost certainly been indoctrinated and consumed by the purely positive ideology which has completely indoctrinated and consumed their industry. If you can find one who has a collection of video evidence of their work with many, many serious dogs—video evidence as impressive as their credentials—then by all means dive in. But if all you find are credentials, this is one field where sadly, the credentials aren’t nearly enough to trust. In fact, if that’s all they have, I’d run the other way. This is an industry infamous for its ineptitude, exorbitant prices, and terribly disappointing results. Approach with appropriately extreme caution.

PPS, Are there exceptions to the above? Of course. There’s always exceptions. But there’s a reason they’re called exceptions.

24/04/2023

Group classes are back! Spots available as they open. Make your puppy or young dog an active part of your lifestyle. It isn’t fair to keep them at home all the time while your out having a good time. Let’s give you the knowledge and confidence to better handle your puppy in public. This is training for the real world around real distractions. You’ll find out exactly what that means and how it will improve your puppy’s on-leash obedience and stability in public. Dm for details. Limited spots available. 🐶

12/04/2023

Probably the most common issue(s) owners battle and lose with—and can’t figure out why. Also one of the most common stories/lies told by ignorant or deceitful dog trainers which contribute to struggling owners…continuing to struggle and not finding the answers they need. Let’s take a look.

1) Almost every owner I’ve worked with waits far too long to correct/punish/address reactivity on walks or in the house. It’s an easy mistake to make. The early signs are subtle to the untrained eye, and no one wants to unfairly correct their dogs. So folks wait too long, arousal builds, and then when they finally do address the issue the dog is too far gone (too deep in the escalation sequence) and the correction actually exacerbates the reaction, making it *appear* as if the correction was the problem/trigger, but it’s not the correction, it’s the timing. If owners would learn to see the very first signs of the problem (fixation, ears pricked up, closed mouth, breathing changes, stiffness/stillness of body, tail flagging etc.) and correct at this early stage firmly, most reactivity issues would simply disappear. The other option is to wait, and then correct once the reactivity sequence is in full swing which guarantees an explosion and possibly the bonus of a redirect bite.

2) You have an unhealthy relationship dynamic devoid of proper respect. This means that if you go to correct your dog your dog objects (often with their teeth) because you haven’t earned the position to be able to correct them. People want to make dogs out to be these simple creatures which respond to your inputs without any consideration for the primal aspects of hierarchy and earned position. That’s a good one. And it’s one propagated most by PP/FF trainers who are desperate to debunk/dismiss/deride observable reality as old school nonsense. They want to interact/train in a completely intellectual fashion—because the primal aspects of our relationship dynamics don’t fit well within the intellectual landscape/narrative/culture—or the preferred, but laughably ignorant reality where hierarchies simply aren’t a thing.

And if you’re really lucky, you’ve got both of these in play. Which means you have to fundamentally change your relationship in all the other moments where you can create positive relationship leverage and cause your dog to take you seriously and respect you. And you also have to start going after the tiniest moments of escalation far sooner and often far firmer.

It’s not the tools (unless you’re using ineffective tools) or the corrections which are the issue—we use them successfully every day with extremely challenging dogs—it’s the timing and the relationship that are the cause of the continuing issues. Fix these and you’re on your way to a completely different life with your dog.