Marquardt K9 Behavior Training

28/07/2024

Awwww, Jade is a beautiful 17 week old Doberman puppy. The owners called because she was overly rambunctious with their 4 year old daughter, but perfect with their 14 year old daughter. Their veterinarian had suggested they call because she had growled when the Vet came into the exam room. She is somewhat of a timid, shy dog with strangers and I'm sure she was scared of the Vet. This is unusual for a puppy this age, so it is good that the owners called for help. They also needed to get a bit more focus from Jade and they needed help with potty training. Once we started using canine communication with Jade, she perked up right away and responded beautifully. The owners learned about canine leadership and were already doing some things right like keeping her off the furniture and beds. Jade settled down quickly and the owners were surprised at the quick changes in their pup. They will continue to work with her and we will do a follow up session in a few weeks. Jade is a beautiful pup, don't you think?

28/07/2024

Asher is an Australian Cattle Dog who is somewhat of a nervous dog. The owner called because after July 4th and the fireworks this year, she had trouble getting Asher to go outside at night. He was also afraid of loud noises and he barked when people came into the house. He barked at other dogs when on the leash too. During the session I found that he also had gotten very afraid of thunderstorms to the point that even if it started sprinkling out, he would not stay outside and wanted to go into the basement. That was his safe spot during storms (probably because there is only one small window and he can't see the lightning flashes very well). I found we really needed to work on canine leadership with his owner. Asher thought he was the leader, and his owner said that probably they had not required a lot of him. When a timid dog or a nervous dog feels like he needs to be the lead dog, it can make him extra nervous. So we had to put several things into place to show Asher that he was not the leader. This will in turn make him feel more comfortable and not so nervous. His owners have to initiate all the attention and not Asher, he needs to stay off the furniture and beds, and they will give him his safe spot during thunderstorms, but when it's just raining they will try to initiate some type of game with him like fetch or another game that he enjoys to get his mind off of the rain. There are some other things they will do as well. Asher above all needs to feel safe, and safety comes with knowing he has a good canine leader. His owners are learning good canine leadership.

Blue is a purebred German Shepherd who is also a dog who feels he is the leader, and whose owners need to step up and become the leaders in the household. Blue had been basically bossing them around, telling them when to play and when to pet him and so forth and if they didn't do it, he would do something naughty like take the cushions off the couch or something like that. Getting in trouble was better than being ignored in his opinion. One of his owners had a little more control than the other, because he had Blue since he was a puppy, but they both agreed that they hadn't asked a lot of Blue. German Shepherds are a rather confident breed and if you don't take control of them, they will take control of you. They also have some homework to do to get good leadership of Blue. Blue has to live on a leash for several days until they get better voice control, and when he earns it, he can lose the leash in the house. He has been quite anxious thinking he has to be the leader, so taking the leadership away from him will make him much more comfortable and happy. Dogs who don't have the temperament to be the pack leader but feel they have to be the pack leader become very anxious for it.

And finally we come to Joey, the Cavapoo. He is King Charles Cavalier and Poodle. Joey is typically quite wonderful to strangers, but has been bossing his family around to the hilt! He has been growling at them, grabbing their pants legs with his teeth, he has been very naughty. He also has been one who has tried to be the leader of the household but really did not have the temperament to do so. Again we used Joey's own language to let him know what we expected of him and that his behavior was not acceptable. Things did begin to change that first day. I won't say everything was perfect from then on, but things did begin to change. Joey had things his way for 3 years, and consistency is what makes training work. Joey can be a good little dog, and he can be so sweet at times. He has those times when he is not sweet that sours everything, but I know he can change and I know his owners can do this. They do love Joey and if they are consistent they can help him make the necessary changes.

28/07/2024

Hello everyone, I am going to add a few dogs to each post to try to catch up on my postings! There have been some wonderful dogs that have crossed my path and I can't wait to tell you about them! Dixon is an adorable Lab/Basset Hound/ maybe something else mix who had recently developed a bit of a prey drive. The family owned cats and he had been chasing them, had grabbed a goat, and was very interested in the small animals they had in the house. They definitely needed better voice control with him. They needed him to focus better and he had a habit of constant jumping which was a little concerning to visitors. Dixon proved to be very suitable for training, and took to it very well! The family was very happy to see how quickly he settled down and became focused without using any physical techniques. They were very surprised, but happy too! Using Dixon's own communication methods helped him to understand what his owners wanted of him very quickly.

Snoopy is a Cane Corso, and had lived with another dog and gone happily to the dog park, but when his housemate found another home, he somehow lost his desire to get along with other dogs. He had a less than desirable living arrangement and went into foster care. His rescue person wanted to be able to place him with another dog if possible, so she reached out to me. When I met Snoopy I was optimistic that he would be able to be placed with another dog based on what I saw. We worked with him only 2 times and he was placed with a woman who had other dogs. She carefully watched them over the weekend but was able to put them all together very quickly. Snoopy was just a joy to work with. He was definitely a people pleaser. A gentle giant.

Sully and Murray are the 2 dogs in the last picture. I am behind Sully and Nikki Chaganos, owner of Pet Sitter Galore in Neenah WI is behind Murray. Murray is one of her dogs. Sully is a dog that she petsits from time to time, and one of her new dogs Percy was still learning about other male dogs and she wanted a little help getting Sully and Percy together because Sully also could question other male dogs at times. I had worked with both dogs previously so I was familiar with both of them. Percy was already in the house so Murray graciously stood in for the picture. :) Sully and Percy did great for their first meeting and were going to meet a few more times and go for a few walks together as a bonding experience as it was something they both greatly enjoy.

I hope you enjoy these stories!

11/06/2024

When I spoke to Tasha's owner, she was very concerned. Tasha had become very and her in this regard had scared her husband so much that he wanted to end Tasha's life. Tasha's owner loved her very much. She did not want this to happen and really wanted to save her. When Tasha was away from her owner, other people like the Veterinarian and the Groomer could handle her. This told me that Tasha could be trained and I could help her. This was a issue. We set up a time to meet and I told her to have Tasha in another room when I got there so we could talk first. We spoke about and about , and how we would use that to train Tasha. Her owner thought it all sounded like it made sense. I told her how I would like to meet Tasha. We went through the process I explained to her and she started using with
Tasha using and that I taught her, and Tasha responded beautifully. You don't need physical techniques to train a dog, you just need to be able to communicate with that dog in a way that he or she understands. Most are a matter of miscommunication or misunderstanding. Tasha settled down quickly once her owner started showing her she knew how to be a good . She now had to prove that could be a good consistently. I showed her some exercises to practice with Tasha and she even stopped # at the neighbor dog outside. She had been with her but with a she learned that was inappropriate. She stopped barking when she saw the neighbors in their yards outside too. So many things can be solved with leadership. So now her owner needed to practice with her for a few weeks until I came back for a follow-up visit. When I came back I found that Tasha had done quite well. There were a few hiccups along the way but overall things had gone very well. Tasha's owner had good over Tasha now, and Tasha was much less . Tasha still did not want strangers to pet her, but that may come with time. She was still only recently adopted and she was a stray so they did not know her background. We worked on on the follow-up visit. Tasha still has some problems with if another dog reacts to her when it walks past her, but she does pretty well if the other dog is calm. Her owner learned what to do in those circumstances. Each dog is unique. What Tasha's owner does with her dog might be different than what another owner does with their own dog, based on their own dog's personality. Marquardt K9 Behavior Training evaluates each dog individually. I was very happy to be able to help Tasha and her owner. Not every dog is a party animal that can be petted by every stranger that comes along. Some dogs can walk by people and be fine with that but only want pets and snuggles by a few people. That's ok. As the owner we have to advocate for our own dog. We have to know his likes and dislikes. Tasha may end up to be a dog that likes everyone, it's just too soon to tell. If she doesn't, that's ok too. Her owner will keep her safe.

11/06/2024

Meet Mishka, a mix and Larissa, a 15 year old resident who was there first. I met the owners at the and they spoke to me about being worried about the interaction between their newly adopted dog and their 15 year old cat. Mishka was a lot of energy and very interested in the cat, maybe a little too interested. They were concerned about the cat's well-being so they were keeping them separated. They didn't want to do that long-term They wondered if I could help. Interestingly, I had just worked with a family recently on the same issue so I told them about that, and we set up a time to meet. Mishka proved to be a very sweet girl and very agreeable to . She liked her new owners and wanted to please them. They'd had her for just shy of 4 weeks at that point. She was doing a bit of and she needed a bit of settling down, but generally she was a good dog. They'd had dogs before but we talked about , and how communicate, and how we would use that in order to train Mishka. Using her own communication methods, mainly and meant she would learn more quickly than trying to teach her human words. This proved correct and Mishka was a great student. At the end of the session we brought Larissa out and with a vocal correction Mishka knew to leave Larissa alone. Larissa was happy to be able to be out of the bedroom again. I cautioned them to watch Mishka carefully with Larissa over the next few weeks and they said they would. When I came back two weeks later, I saw Larissa was out with Mishka, and they said they were now having to correct Larissa because she was picking on Mishka! We worked on some work, some in the yard, and discussed how to get Mishka to instead of on the walk. Mishka by this time had really settled into her new home and was feeling very comfortable for the most part. Her owners even looked forward to possibly bringing her to the pet expo next year, which they couldn't have done this year! I really enjoyed working with this family and Mishka. I hope I see them at the Expo next year!

08/05/2024

Louie is a beautiful I had the pleasure of working with last evening. Louie has a very sweet but is a little bit of a when there is a lot of commotion going on. The main reason his owners called is that he had gotten into a bit of trouble with the neighbor dogs, and he had never had trouble with any other dogs before. As a matter of fact he had been boarded numerous times with no issues. Louie had always stayed in the yard before, so had to be reestablished. His had gotten a little rusty, so to me it sounded like we needed to put back into the hands of the owners. Their family had grown since they had adopted Louis 7 years earlier, and life happens. It was time to get back to some groundwork. Louie turned out to be a dog who greatly wanted to please his owner! Can't you see it in his eyes? Such ! We began with an exercise called Claiming Your Space, to keep Louie away from the kitchen table while the family was eating their meals, and to stay off the furniture for a while to reinforce leadership. He will still get plenty of love on the floor. For yard boundaries and recall, we began working on an exercise called Distance Control, which will give the owner more voice control from a distance as he works with his dog. This boy is so sweet, so willing to learn something new and please his owners and welcome someone new into the home too. What a sweetheart, he really grabbed this trainer's heart!

30/04/2024

This cutie is Baxter, a , about 6 months old. He had been giving his owners a tough time of it as he is quite a , so at the advice of a family member, they called . This family had many dogs in the past and had tried to train Baxter like their other , but these techniques just didn't work with this dog. The owners needed to learn to and learn leadership techniques so Baxter learned he was not in charge. Baxter was doing a lot of , , , and was having a few accidents yet. We had some work to do. We started talking about how dogs communicate, using and , and began using this to communicate with Baxter. Soon his jumping and barking was becoming less and less. We discussed some ways to speed up the housetraining and to help Baxter to distinguish where not to go potty. We also started working on leadership techniques for the owners to use with Baxter. This started to calm him down a bit. Of course this will take time as all training does, but we did see some changes right away. Baxter is one smart ! He will continue to make progress as the owners work with him until our next session and get more focus from him so we can move on to our next training item. Isn't he just the cutest?

23/04/2024

I was happy that I was able to work with Deacon and Georgia again, two purebred . It was a cold April morning, but you never can tell with the weather in Wisconsin, so off we went outside. We worked on , an off leash exercise to obtain better . Deacon was the star of the show on this exercise. Georgia did quite well but gets nervous at times so she needs a little work yet. We worked with them from about 10 feet away, and the owners will continue working with them at farther distances to get excellent recall. After that we moved inside to work on some sit/stays and down/stays both with the owner and with the owner out of sight to begin getting Deacon ready for some testing. He has some work ahead of him but did quite well on the first few tests. He is one handsome and smart dog! It was so much fun working with these ! They really love to work for their owners!

23/04/2024

I worked with Miles, a , last week and again this week. He was a very who had some tendencies in the past. I found Miles to have a lot of over feeling that he had to control the situation and probably protect his owner. Miles certainly did not have the temperament to be a lead dog, and that gave him a lot of anxiety, feeling that he had to be the lead dog. He needed that job to be taken away from him. His owner started to learn how to read Miles' and learned to communicate with Miles using that and certain that Miles could understand. This is how dogs communicate with each other, so Miles understood right away. His owner learned how to be the leader that Miles so desperately needed. Miles was a little nervous that first day because everything was changing, and dogs are always nervous about change. His owner was impressed at how quickly Miles responded to the training and was optimistic that Miles could change. When I came back today, I saw a different dog. Miles was clearly more calm and a happier dog. His owner is very happy with the progress Miles has made so far. Miles really didn't want to be that nervous, anxious boy of a week ago. He wanted to let go of all that control. He is not "fixed" yet, but he is definitely on his way. There is work ahead of him. But we are all very optimistic about where he is headed!

23/03/2024

I was really looking forward to meeting Hal, a mix who was described as having been adopted about 8 months previously, and really had not come out of his shell. He spent most of his day by his choice in a bedroom closet, and the family wanted to help him move past his . I had told them to block off the bedroom before I got there and was surprised when Hal walked up to me and licked my hand. The family said he never did that to strangers. He usually at strangers. Well I guess Hal decided it was time to let go of some of that fear. The other little dog in the household was Toby, a who was clearly used to getting what he wanted. It was clear to me that Toby would have to be on the same training program as Hal to get the results we wanted. Toby was soon listening quite well and when Hal saw that his little pal was listening to the , he started loosening up and seeing that the humans could be good . This is what Hal really needed, was to feel safe, and to be able to have good leadership. Safety is what was missing. He started running around and acting more like a normal dog. The family was given some exercises to work on with Hal and Toby until our next visit. I am quite confident that Hal is going to continue to come out of his shell and not hide so much as long as everyone follows the instructions they were given. These are two intelligent dogs and very with great personalities whose owners will enjoy for many years to come. Nice job Hal, Toby and family! ❤

05/03/2024

Paris is a that I had the pleasure of working with today. Her owner called for help because Paris had a of humans she didn't know, and had become to outside of the household. Her owner was fearful she would end up getting hurt with her behavior with other dogs! She lived with 2 other dogs, another miniature dachshund who is 16 years old and a 16 year old . The beagle was a big barker and had tried to curb that in the past, but had not been successful and wouldn't mind working on that if it was possible also. Paris was her primary concern. When I arrived, Paris was doing a lot of and waiting it out was not working, so we fast forwarded a bit so the owner could hear what I was saying. I gave her a quick introduction to how dogs communicate and she gave Paris a correction in dog language verbally, which quieted her down for the moment., Dogs communicate mainly through and , they don't speak English, so saying no to them really doesn't have a huge impact on them when they are in a heightened state of . Using their own language gets through to them much more quickly. We don't use physical techniques because we wouldn't want to do anything to harm the trust the owner has already built with the dog. The bond, the trust and the respect are all very important in the balanced relationship. We continued working on leadership techniques with the owner so that Paris could see that the owner could be a good canine leader for her, and she did not need to be protective of her in a normal situation. In the meantime, the 16year old beagle also received a few vocal corrections for barking and she too settled down and was quiet. The owner was pleasantly surprised at this! All 3 dogs began learning to greet visitors calmly when they entered the house. This is really key for the dogs to allow the owner to be the one to answer the door, and not the dogs pushing at the door when the is heard on the door or the rings. This is a clear leadership situation. It makes everyone much more calm, including the owner! Paris was visibly calmer and not as nervous by the end of our session. With practice and consistency, this will only improve.

05/03/2024

Callie is a beautiful mix I worked with last week who had gotten herself into a bit of trouble with the family over some food. There was a squabble and the cat ended up with the short end of the stick so to speak. The cat Yoda is ok, but understandably was pretty wary of Callie after that, and the family reached out to for help to bring the family back together safely, and make sure this didn't happen again. This was an isolated incident and they also wanted help to understand why it happened in the first place. Callie also had some issues at times with other and they thought they might work on that once this issue with the cat was resolved also. Callie proved to be a doll to work with, very friendly and a people pleaser. She had been through two owners prior to the current owner and possibly some domestic issues and she tends to really cower when there are loud noises in the house, so we worked with her soft temperament carefully. Callie really needed to know that someone else in the household was the , because she really did not want to be. She was quick to give up that position when offered the chance. She was doing a bit of and she learned quickly not to do that. She also learned to her people through the house. This is a safety issue as well as a leadership issue. Callie also learned to calmly meet visitors as they came to the house which pleased the owners quite a lot! The was a huge trigger for her, as it is for many dogs. The owners also learned how to keep Callie away from the cat and give him some space if they were concerned with Callie's behavior, and to better read her body language. The family will have a few weeks to work on these things and next time we will work on leash work and some other outside work. Callie did a great job on her first visit!

17/02/2024

Deacon and Georgia are both beautiful I had the privilege of working with earlier this week. They are both coming from different . Deacon is 3 years old and Georgia is just shy of 2 years old, I was excited to work with them because Standard Poodles are such an extremely intelligent breed, and I'd worked with Standards before. Deacon had recently become of one of his owners, and to people on the street. Before things got too serious, they wanted to get help. They had done a lot of with the dogs, but they knew they needed to call in a to work on some . They wanted to work with someone who would make sure they wouldn't lose the trust they had built up with the dogs, especially with Georgia, who is still quite shy. We should never sacrifice trust for good behavior. It's not healthy for the dogs. Deacon was quite reactive to the so that is one thing we worked on, and meeting guests politely as they came to the door. We also worked on having the dogs walk with the owners through the house instead of running past them, and waiting at the door until being released to go outside. Deacon and Georgia took to the new techniques right away, since we used their own communication system in order to train them! Their owners were rock stars and "got it" right away as well. The dogs did a great job and were waiting back from the door within minutes of starting the exercise, without using any harsh techniques. Previously they could not stop the barking and charging at the door. We also discussed other to use with them on a daily basis. It is possible to show to the and still show a lot of love, trust and respect. Both dogs should be more relaxed moving forward as well as the owners!

23/01/2024

Percival is a beautiful I had the pleasure of working with recently. I had worked with Percival's owner previously with two of her other dogs several years ago, and when she adopted Percival she wanted to work with me again. Percival was adopted from a southern state, and had previously only lived outside. He knew nothing about living inside the house and being an . He needed to be and needed to learn . His new owner had already had him a few weeks and he was getting along with her other dogs very well, so there were no issues at all. When an adult dog needs to be housetrained, we can use and in order to help do that. We need to make sure it isn't a or a , such as a urinary tract infection, but that wasn't the case with Percival. He just was confused about where it was acceptable to relieve himself. He also needed a few more rules so he was clear about who made the rules and that he needed to follow them. Percival is a sweet dog who is very trainable and has a soft personality. He is going to make a great housedog! to

Marquardt K9 Behavior Training facilitates better communication between you and your dog so you can

14/11/2023

Hey everyone, remember Sully? He's a beautiful that I worked with over the summer on a few things. Well I recently worked with him on something that I'd like to share with you because it's something you may not know is a service offers. Sully's owner has a cousin who also has a dog, and Sully's owner and her cousin were really hoping that Sully and the cousin's dog would get along so that they could bring their dogs along to family functions. So far that had not been something they could do. Sully had said no, I do not care to share my space with that dog. I said well I think we might be able to change that. So we met and we started on leash a ways apart and walked past each other, then a little closer and did several passes that way, then I really liked the way things were going. I made the decision after they walked right past each other that we would go nose to nose (I would not have made this decision if I saw anything that would have told me either dog would get hurt). Making sure that the leashes didn't cross, we let the dogs go nose to nose, being ready to pull them back if necessary. After a few minutes both were doing play bows, and showing they wanted to play with each other! We still didn't let them off leash (it wasn't a fenced area and the property was on a highway) but let them have some more time on leash nose to nose with each other as they tried to play together. At that point both Sully's owner and her cousin were comfortable moving forward on their own, so we ended the lesson. They were happy that they would be able to have the dogs together in the future and not have to leave them at home for family events. This is another service offers for certain situations.