Dog Days Pet Services

15/08/2024

BEX, Black Lab/Boxer mix on her 2nd Day of learning to exist with others. Wonderful breakthroughs today! We just had to have the right dog, at the right time and Ro is always a stellar helper. My hopes are to have her 100% off leash with other, and not making everyone else mad, within the next couple of visits. She's absolutely on the right path now.

Bex was recently adopted, and while she needs some good training, she needs to learn to relax around new people and dogs. She really made a big change today,...

03/08/2024

Most of you have heard about this from me. I always talk about this photo or another like it, and how, in what the dog feels might be a chaotic situation, or just to feel calmer, clenching something in the mouth can help relieve some of that stress. In dogs that might be all over the place with stress and exhibiting anxiety, and/or even holding the leash in their mouth, having a toy, a tug rope or pouch, or even a stick, can make the dog much calmer in a strange or chaotic space.

03/08/2024

Is your Labrador a little in the tubby side? It might not be their fault. A new study shows that 1 in 4 Labradors have a genetic mutation that not only makes them think that they are hungry more, but also want less exercise, because "I'm hungry."

Be sure to share this with all of your Labrador friends!

One in four Labrador retrievers carries a gene that tricks their brain into thinking they’re starving

02/08/2024

Fun week with lots of new friends in Training, Boarding and Drop-in Services. ❤️

22/07/2024

Maggie was such a sweet and fun Boarder. Here are some clips of our last Hurrah, playing with new friends and enjoying the Puppy Pool.

We had an amazing time with young Miss Maggie and she did so well with other dogs and not reacting to stimuli. She had one last Hurrah! with the new friends ...

10/07/2024

Ask Me Anything: #1

"What's are some ways we can entertain our GSD when it's too hot to be running around outside? 😊"

Several ways to keep your dog entertained, provide exercise and mental stimulation and building a stronger relationship with your dog, when it is too hot to ...

07/07/2024

What a nice long 4th weekend with these three. We had a great time during their stay, getting to meet some of our dogs and enjoying the pool at every opportunity.

We now have open space for Boarding and Board &Train clients.

*Please be aware that all Boarding dogs will require a copy of vaccine records and a prior Meet & Greet with us, before Boarding.

05/07/2024

Gotta love these two. I love seeing them relaxed and happy after some fun games I've shown them. Not to mention the total transformation in how they are during our visits. No more anxiety or stress. Just excited to get outside and run and think, and grateful for the opportunity. ❤️

02/07/2024

I'm working on the first "Ask Me Anything" video. Apologies for the delay. It's been hectic, with getting the new Dog Boarding and Board &Train space finished. We're at the finish line and a couple of days from being done, if all goes to plan. Then, I lost all of my data that I had put away and subsequently all of the work I had done in my draft save. So, I am restarting today. I just wanted those who asked a question to not feel ghosted. I appreciate your patience!

21/06/2024

Such a wonderful 2 weeks with this beautiful young lady.

She learned how to navigate stairs and how to play with others. She did so well and fit right in with our house boys, the Pug and even another female Spaniel who was not only also boarding, but took it upon herself to be Ellie's moral support while she was learning to navigate stairs.

She really lit up the whole house with her wonderful, sweet personality.

19/06/2024

Let's do something fun!

Ask me anything related to dogs, and every week, I'll choose a couple of questions to answer, in video form. Ask away! If you have a question, I'm sure others also have that same question.

Ask away!

19/06/2024

I couldn't be happier for this big guy. Just a couple of months ago, he was a hot mess. Confused, sad and full of antidepressants. His new family has done such amazing work with the life skills we taught them, to be able to move him into a new family and be at peace. He's now 100% drug free and so much happier and comfortable compared to Day 1 & 2 where he postured and yelled at me to leave.

He's such a good guy and I'm so proud of his new parents and all the hard work they put in to get him to this place. ❤️

18/06/2024

14/06/2024

Wonderful experience today with a "reactive" Giant Schnuazer. His human gave subtle, but still sharp leash corrections, when we started the session. I quickly moved him to a 30 foot long leash and asked him to give the dog 10-15 feet. Now the dog can make decisions where he can learn and not be corrected for being interested in the other dog 40 feet away.

The dog was able to move freely and respond to the stimuli as he wished. He was quickly able to figure out that our good desired responses were full of love, praise and rewards, if he chose to take that route, and that we simply ignored him, when he made decisions that were less than desirable.

In the end, he walked a couple of hundred feet of fence line, with the other dog on the other side, with grace, calm, respect for the other dog and my leash, with a few feet of said leash dragging on the ground between and behind us.

Force teaches nothing. Only allowing the dog to figure out on his own what needs to happen and rewarding big for making those decisions on his own, will he learn. Punishment only makes it not worth trying to figure it out out of fear of more punishment. Dogs, just as we do, will learn more from their failures than their simple wins if we learn to let them fail without retribution.

It is often, as in this case, that our own fears and anxiety about what the dog 'might' do, will be prophetic and actually cause the dog to act in a way that we find undesirable. If we empty ourselves of all emotion outside of the joy of being able to spend time with the dog, we can also change the entire dynamic of not only the dog and ourselves, but also the dog and the rest of the world.

11/06/2024

What a wild week with some new and old friends boarding, training and checking in. Lots of new changes going on to be able to Board and Board & Train more, more comfortably.

Ellie the Cavalier King Charles learned how to do stairs with the help of our old friend Keeva by her side.
Winston the Mini Schnauser made friends and won hearts with everyone.
Gus is working on some of his anxiety problems.
Winnie and Teddy are making friends.
My new buddy Milo the Golden is watching squirrels run about without chasing them. ..and so many other wonderful adventures last week and more this week.

31/05/2024

Sweet little man Winston is boarding for the next week. We just finished his basic Puppy Program, so it's nice to be able to give some extra reinforcement and maybe some new skills too. Such a sweet young man. He's been meeting the other dogs, slowly today, and doing very well.

26/05/2024

My newest friend Milo did quite well today, not only simply watching a squirrel but a squirrel in motion, with a loose leash. Well done, young man.

21/05/2024

COMING IN HOT!

12/05/2024

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mothers and Dog Moms!

11/05/2024

Himzagoodboy!

09/05/2024

I bought some video editing software and enjoying playing with it, to try to make some better content.

This is Corduroy, one of our Board & Train dogs at the moment, learning to Dog with Arwen. She's a good teacher of fair play, cut off signals and not afraid to gently correct rude behaviors.

Enjoy! There are some really sweet moments.

02/05/2024

Elrohir working hard with the new Board & Train.

19/04/2024

A huge "Thank You!" to you all. El Taco came home early this morning. I caught him kissing the nurses before we left. He's feeling better and so much more like himself. Last night was horrible without him.

He has a slew of meds for the Edema and his Heart. If I didn't spoil him enough before, he's going to be spoiled rotten now. We have some follow up next week, but the Doc seems to think he will do well with the meds and taking it easy.

18/04/2024

I don't normally request this sort of thing, but my little man, my best friend, El Taco was just rushed to Emergency Care in early stages Heart Failure. He's staying overnight on oxygen to help his lungs, as there is an edema around his heart and lungs.

This all came on suddenly. It's not uncommon for the little guys and the breed, but the stress of Vaccinations yesterday seemed to have triggered a horrible response.

I can't. I just lost Nicky. The past 2 years have been littered with loss, as I have been running a veritable old folks home for the past few years, but Taco is too young. It's too much.

If you have it in you to send some Juju, love, care, prayers to your particular deity of choice....I'll take anything right now. My heart isn't breaking; it's in shreds.

15/04/2024

PRACTICING UNWANTED BEHAVIORS REINFORCES UNWANTED BEHAVIORS.

14/04/2024

Certain types of Trainers will state that using food is a bribe. NO. Food is a Lure and a Reward, in Reward based Training. A Lure goes away almost instantly, as soon as the dog gets the picture. A Reward can be given at any time, for any reason, but we also fade out those rewards when the dog knows the skill. At that point, they can get a treat simply for being cute, or good. Who doesn't want their dog to have a treat now and then?

What Reward Based Trainers get accused of is moot, as the dogs trained with an eCollar require that "Tool", veritably forever. Is that Tool actually teaching the dog something, or is the dog simply suffering from Stockholm Syndrome? Are they simply not willing to do the wrong thing out of fear of the repercussions? What is "No!", discomfort or even pain telling your dog? Would there be useful information to you, if someone randomly walked up and pinched you for simply being you or for trying to figure out what someone who is speaking another language is trying to tell you?

We welcome and encourage doing the wrong thing. How else will you learn, if you don't have choices, if you aren't allowed to make the wrong choice without punishment? We learn more from making the wrong choice, than we do from making the right choices. The right choices are easy. Wrong ones force us to reevaluate, think, learn. Why would that be any different for a dog. (CLUE: It isn't)

Pushing a button is easy, but doesn't leave a lot of room for communication, relationship building, learning, experimenting, sentience. Why continue training and building, if all you have to do is push a button? Many of you have heard me equate training to Algebra. We all took it at some point, in school. How many of us can still even attempt it, if the last time we practiced it was 2, 5, 10, 20 or 40 years ago? Every moment you spend with the dog, is an opportunity to use those skills they have learned, every outing is a learning experience, every door, every walk, meal, interaction with others, car ride, greeting and new experience is an opportunity not only to use those skills you have learned, but to build a better relationship with your dog and level up your communication skills with your dog, so that you don't have to resort to using tools of objectionable gratification that have no place in modern dog training, for any reason. Period.

*Good boys picture for attention.

06/04/2024

What a wonderful couple of days!

We have 2 Boarders this weekend.

The little Poodle has made good friends with our Ro.

The Aussie and Arwen can run together for hours and will, if I let them.

Our Puppy Program Lab is probably one of the most aware and smart 10 month old dogs I've ever met and his Mom was doing amazing work with him, even before I got there.

The Shepard has had a rough time losing his forever human and now in wonderfully capable hands, but nervous and overly protective, so he has a hard time relaxing. Today was our 3rd meeting and 2nd session and the first time he has not challenged me. The changes in him from last week to today are amazing. His parents took my protocols for attention and calming and ran with it and he's a completely different dog. I showed him some wonderful recall games with a ton of mental stimulation today and he was a natural. Stalking, tracking, chasing, scavenging, recalling, recalling off food, breaking away from external stimuli....he blew my mind. I'm so happy he is relaxed and finally at home. He even approached me and rested his head on me at the end of the session. It broke my heart, hearing the high pitched barks when I had to leave. We'll make sure we can work on separation issues as well as all of the other wonderful skills he will be learning.

Corgi is doing wonderful with all of his new skills and today we did exercises for Leave It and Drop It, while I included his Boxer/Bulldog sister and 15 year old brother. They all did amazingly wonderful and we had so much fun. I'm still wiping all the kisses off my glasses.

Couldn't ask for a better ending to the week. ❤️