West Wind Dog Training

21/06/2025

https://www.insidenova.com/lifestyles/critter-corner-how-to-transport-pets-safely/article_8adf4280-dd75-4b17-baff-1a600b0c017b.html

Over the years I have seen too many posts about newly adopted dogs, dogs with rescues and even family pets slipping loose during transport and running off.

18/06/2025

This is the wrap up my daughter wrote from this year‘s UKC premiere. I steward with judges there, which is a fantastic way for me to observe dog body language and interactions. My daughter has developed such a love for working with our dogs.

Jordy has only been with us since February. He came to us after the loss of a long time, family friend and mentor in Shetland sheepdogs passed suddenly. He had a little bit of training prior to coming to us. In May, my daughter on slight impulse, put him into a UKC rally competition and finished his first rally title

Years ago, extremely driven competitors sucked the fun out of various canine competitions for me. I was just happy if my dogs qualified yet there would be pushback from others who felt I could be doing so much better with my dogs. Years later, we are going back to the world of competition and our biggest goal is just having fun. Titles are secondary

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UKC Premier 2025 recap!!!

We are walking away with 8 new titles!

Piper- Piper competed in conformation, precision coursing, dash, and steeplechase. She got reserve champion all days, her RACEN and RACEA titles, her DASH title, and her HOP title!

Jordy- Jordy competed in rally, precision coursing, and Sunday conformation. He qualified in all 3 rally runs, earned his RACEN title, and I got a SPOT-ON with him. Sunday, he took an Altered Group 2 for his first competition win!

Frost- Frost competed in precision coursing and dash. She earned her RACEA title and is 1 run away from her RACES. She also got her FLY title. We met a junior at the show, Tanis, who asked if she could take Frost in and they took a class 3rd! Tanis did all the work herself including the grooming!

It was great to see all of our friends and congrats to everyone!

25/05/2025

Jordy has been with us for about three months. He came from a longtime family friend inventor in the breed who passed February 2025. His name was Jordan so we did a slight name change to something that was a little easier to call. He has been through a lot. But today at the mid Atlantic Labrador club, UKC club, in Durham, North Carolina, my daughter Sarah showed Geordie to his first two legs of his UKC rally one title. And with two first places.

06/05/2025

You might hear trainers and behaviorist talk about distance decreasing and distance increasing behaviors. These our signs a dog will give when he wants you to either come closer or when he wants you to move away look at the loose body language in this dog the way the tail is wagging, lots of wasted energy, he is curling into the people at the trailer. This dog wants the distance between him and the other people to decrease. They’ll never assume just because a dog is approaching you that he wants to be friendly. This is why understanding body language is important. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/192YArGs1z/?mibextid=wwXIfr

27/04/2025

🚨‼️ Scammer Alert ‼️🚨

Unfortunetly the scammers find new ways of preying on these poor lost dog owners. They are now pretending to be calling from a local veterinary hospital. Claiming either their dog was in a serious accident or was found and needs medical attention. They ask the owners for the credit card so they can start with life-saving care.
Unfortunately this is happening more and more. We always tell our lost dog owners to never send anybody any money until they check with us. It is most likely going to be a scam. This just happens to be one the latest scams, claiming to be a veterinary hospital.
We want to bring awareness to this situation so nobody falls victim to the scammers.

25/04/2025

https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/training/why-e-collar-dog-training-is-not-recommended/

E-collar dog training isn't a good training option. Aversive training measures cause stress and pain rather than building a bond with your dog.

20/04/2025

Anyone who knows me often knows I am not a fan of dog parks because the risks to our dogs are too high. However, if it is just your dogs at the park or you meet up at the park with friends of yours, all of your dogs get along and play well, and there are no other dogs at that park, then let your dogs play. However, the rule I have is, I am keeping very close watch for our dogs that are coming towards the park. If this happens, your dogs should be leashed up and removed immediately. Ask the person to keep their dog back until you leave with yours.

I spent this weekend at dog shows. I’m heading home tomorrow with Lilith, Jordy , and Piper. I wanted to be able to give them a good run before heading back to the hotel because there really isn’t a good place for me to give them a long safe walk at the hotel. I found a local dog park with a fantastic set up. Three separately fenced play yards. One with some things for dogs to climb on in jump over. Another smaller area with benches that was great for smaller dogs. And one huge area that had to be at least an acre completely fenced. I brought my dogs into the agility area and let them have a really good run. So, if there’s no one at the dog park, bring your dogs. If someone else shows up, pack your dogs up and head on home.

14/04/2025

Congratulations. This was one of my most successful clients. Why? They did what needed to be done and they made the time to do it. They also carefully chose a dog that would mesh well with their lifestyle. I can’t wait to see how far they keep going with this lovely girl.

10/04/2025

My own dogs have been busy recently. Frost finished her Coursing Ability Advanced title and got her American temperament test certification. Lilith got her farm dog certification, ATT certification, and is herding instinct certification pending. Piper is too young for ATT (need to be a year) but got her FDC and is herding instinct certification pending.

08/04/2025

The power of the cookie! Client took his dog off leash tonight against suggestions. Dog decided to try and run after something and no matter how much the client called the dog ignored him. I started calling in a very happy voice, and the dog knew I had cookies. The dog stopped and came back to me as fast as he was running after whatever he was chasing. Please keep your dogs on leash. Because the next time whatever this dog wants to chase me override the power of the cookie. The dog is young and still really early on in his training. But, the power of the cookie and associating me with a lot of fun things played a big part in this dog coming back.

03/03/2025

FINALLY finished my video - Applying the Canine Ladder of Communication to Dog Shows. This is a passion of mine as I steward and watch dog body language. I can also work this into a presentation for dog clubs, judge's education, etc. It is a follow up to my video on making the dog show safer.

Do you know how to identify stress signals in show dogs? Your dogs will let you know they are feeling stressed long before the growl, snap, or bite. Did you ...

22/02/2025

And here is Piper doing a fun run. Three months and she can compete for titles.