The Mindful Pupper

13/11/2025

Considering this guy not only had ZERO concept of a stay but also an aversive reaction to anything that remotely suggested stillness... he has come a long way!
Never under estiamte the power of capturing behaviors you like- they buid the strongest foundation for future goals.

11/11/2025

In Hoquiam and looking for some training opportunities to continue work with your dog?
Join Dax on Sunday afternoons!

Next class starts Sunday November 23rd at 1pm. Still have a couple slots open, come join us in Hoquiam!
https://www.derogadogtraining.com/services

07/11/2025

2 week of crate rest was BORING but he survived! back to our normal adorable mayhem until he finds his new best friend.

28/10/2025

I started a discord group for my clients last year and honestly, it's been amazing!
We have a thread for wins and to continue to hear about progress clients are making has been fabulous.
Keep up the good work my friends!!!

27/10/2025

It’s been a long three months of constant progress from this guy and I couldn’t be more proud. But keeping every one’s needs in mind, it was decided he wouldn’t be a good fit for his owner. Arlo is absolutely ready to find a new partner in crime to he;p him through this next chapter in his life.

22/10/2025

*update* thanks to the support of his wonderful breeder we were able to get him in for his neuter super fast! He is currently recovering but generally doing well.

Arlo has been boarding with me for 3 months now. After a lot of work and improvement and some heartache we decided he wasn’t a good fit to continue service dog training with his owner.

My ideal is finding someone who wants a highly competitive scentwork companion because his drive for odor and searching is phenomenal.

25/09/2025

It’s been super busy over here as we celebrate Arlo’s two months of progress boarding.
There are so many details that go into setting up a successful service dog and if things are missed especially early on it can be an uphill battle for everyone. Arlo is learning resilience among so many other things. what that looks like here is being okay being calm and slowing down without having movement restricted.

10/08/2025

Love testing Lizzie's litters!
A few more from this litter are available, they all tend to be a good medium energy level for service work and she has done a lot to make sure they are getting exposure to weird sounds and stimuli.

10/08/2025

https://podcastaddict.com/fenzi-dog-sports-podcast/episode/204361631

I'm working with my SD handlers on easing out of extinction in settle and relaxation protocols - there are a few big reasons why
1) I find that this does not generalize well to other handlers or other environments
2) learned helplessness can go a wide variety of ways and if we ignore or miss signs of distress, we are missing out on in seeing areas our dogs are really struggling

This podcast episode isn't really about extinction, but it is about understanding different between building relaxation and just building stillness.

Listen to Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast - E421: Jane Ardern - Anticipation vs. Relaxation: Training Release Cues by Melissa Breau on Podcast Addict. Jane Ardern joins me for a conversation about how our release cues can influence our dog's state of mind and ability to learn. She shares what the field-bre...

01/08/2025

This quote came up in our client discord server this week and honestly it can't be more true in a lot of things happening in my life as well as for clients right now.

Sometimes it's books for humans that give us really important peaks into the brains of our canine partners.

14/07/2025

Having so much fun in my puppy classes nice weather means opportunities to generalize our behaviors on different surfaces and around friends.

30/04/2025

I refer back to this class a lot, especially for my friends/clients who are adventurers.

This really changed the game for me as far as understanding and breaking down how to get strong early responses to specific wild life I want my dog to avoid or tell me about.

*Register by May 12!* Don’t miss your chance to join Ken Ramirez for an in-person Positive Reinforcement Snake Avoidance Training workshop at The Ranch in Graham, WA, from May 17-18. https://tinyurl.com/mpukupn5