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The Pack Dog Training Reactivity Redefined! Creating calm for dogs & building confidence in humans - Vancouver BC 🐾🇨🇦

08/02/2025

Everyone say hello to Kumo who had his first official training session out of his five package program with Kelly this morning.

Owner concerns: Human reactivity, Dog reactivity, Leash manners, Obedience, Recall, Socialization, Aggression (has the intention to harm)

Our assessment: Kumo is a very typical Frenchie, minus the long hair haha, who lacks impulse control and isn't being given clear and consistent leadership and direction. He has no intention of causing harm but puts on a bit of a spectacle when he gets frustrated and excited.

What we are doing: Today we focused on the basics, mainly loose leash walking, the start of a heel command, and practicing a look command in a low stimulation environment.
Because we work out the real world we utilize the chaos of public and everything uncontrolled becomes a training opportunity. During our practice obviously other people, runners, dogs came passing by so we used those moments to change things up and be able to shift from working on obedience to honoring thresholds, redirecting if necessary, giving clear leadership and direction in the moment and building confidence in both dad and Kumo.
I had both Blue and Loki help me in the session, which is great because those boys are staying with me for a board and train for the same reasons that Kumo is training.

Stay tuned for more of this cute face!

08/02/2025

Everyone say hello to Banana who had his initial assessment with Kelly this afternoon.

Owner concerns: Human reactivity, Dog reactivity, Leash manners, Separation anxiety, Biting/ Nipping, Socialization

Our assessment: I met Banana and his parents in a neutral park near their home, which is also a pseudo off-leash area. Because of this when I walked up they were surrounded by off-leash dogs and banana was losing his mind. I walked up less than a minute later and he had some feelings that he needed to let out so he grabbed hold of my jacket and released some energy. This was NOT aggression, or even reactivity, this is exactly Why I called dogs autistic toddlers because he was releasing pent-up energy through physical expression using his mouth which are the dog version of hands. Don't worry I bought his love with lots of duck treats for the rest of the session ❤️ 🦆
His parents also explained that his reactivity had gotten significantly worse after he was neutered, which is an issue I am seeing more and more often; dog's behavior getting worse after spay or neuter instead of better.
I saw that Mom and Dad were struggling to control him so as we walked and talked, I wanted to try out some different equipment as his Martingale collar was far too big. We tried a properly fitting Martingale followed by a dominant collar and finished with a 3 mm prong collar with Dad explaining at each level how much More confident he was in handling banana in moments of outburst. I will continue to remind everyone that our tools are meant as an aid in controlling and communicating with our dogs as we work through training.
I brought out Yuki at the end to make sure that they were comfortable and confident in the new equipment as I planned on selling it to them at the end, along with a Baskerville cage muzzle and asking them to also get a waist leash.

Five package training program to come so stay tuned!

07/02/2025

Everyone say hello to Lexi who had her initial assessment with Kelly this morning.

Owner concerns: puppy sh*t 😂

Assessment finds: by my standards as a aggressive and reactive dog trainer, this puppy is absolutely perfect hahaha
Her parents have been extremely proactive with her training since they got her a month ago, she's only 4 months old, but they want to make sure that they're doing things correctly.
She has very typical, low grade, puppy issues like being excited when she meets new people and usually has a little excitement urination. She doesn't listen to her senior sisters micro communication of calming down and backing off. She doesn't really have a schedule or routine in place yet, but these are all easy fixes!
They are already using a crate, just not enough. They say that she's doing really well on walks with her harness, so there's no need to change that. We talked about different food, a bit more structure and guidance but nothing majorly concerning.

Our prescription: I'm going to do a combo puppy package with Mais from having her come in majorly majorly and polish up a few of the basics, both in home and on walks before I finish off with a little socialization session focusing on dog communication, body language and how to set the building blocks of a well balanced dog.

Stay tuned for more of this adorable face!

06/02/2025

Are you a dog owner in Vancouver?
Do you enjoy the off leash trails at Pacific Spirit Park?

Apparently, due to a small handful of irresponsible dog owners, the city is talking about expanding the leash required trails and making the leash optional trails areas even smaller.

Those of us who love this park and use it responsibly with our dogs need to get mobilized and stand up for one of the best off leash areas we have.

Please send your complaints and concerns to: [email protected]

06/02/2025

There’s so many factors to dog training, other people’s opinion on what you do should not be a factor!

Here’s a small list of things you can and can’t control for dog training!

05/02/2025

Dog Name: Mars, 3 years old. Pointer/Lab/Pittie mix! Initial assessment with Jinx.

Owner Concerns: Dog reactivity, Leash manners

Brief Assessment: Mars is new to the home and has been with his two moms for the last few months now. He’s a rescue from a shelter and as far as we know, he had a previous home he was consistently escaping from given he was left in the yard to his own devices very frequently before being taken in by the SPCA. Mars is good with cats, people, is low-moderate energy and generally a very happy, chill guy with most triggers/stimulants except for dogs. Assuming Mars didn’t do much foundation training in his previous home, and he’s quite young, he has not learned how to emotionally regulate or deal with big emotions. Currently, he can put up quite a fit and he frustrates often and easily when he’s not given what he wants- this can manifest in a ton of ways but for Mars it’s mainly pulling in leash or barking. Emotionally regulating outside starts from inside the home and we started with just going over home routine and adding in a place cue to help moms give Mars a bit more structure in the home to aid with his over active mind. He’s very food motivated and while we will be using this to our advantage, withholding or waiting for treats seems to frustrate Mars quite a bit (the opposite of a calm mindset which is what we want) so we will ease up on treat training and begin using other methods for reinforcement.

Our Prescription: Mars is a pushy puppy who will always be a little stubborn and will always want to push back a bit in terms of when he’s told what to do (even when guidance and safety is what he wants). Stay tuned for his journey as we implement a bunch of new things for Mars to learn!

05/02/2025

Dog Name: Floofy! 4 months old, Spitz/Pom mix! Initial assessment with Jinx.

Owner Concerns: Biting/ Nipping, Recall, Obedience, Basic manners, Separation anxiety, Leash manners

Brief Assessment: Floofy is one cute puppy! He hasn’t been with his mom for long but he is fully running his household! There’s always a great concern when getting a first puppy or the first time training a puppy about doing it wrong or making things worse, which is so valid and that’s why we’re here to help! Do not let Floofy’s size fool you, he is a spicy/strong willed boy that will not be listening or taking no for an answer. We tweaked a few things to his lifestyle like putting away anything high value so mom can hand him these things instead of having them free access around the house. Mom also had a crate and so we went over what crating with a schedule looks like and also potty training.

Our Prescription: Floofy is still fresh in the home so we will be adding in a ton of boundaries and expectations the upcoming few weeks to get Floofy where he needs to be behaviourally for mom. Stay tuned!

04/02/2025

See 'SANCTIMONIOUS'
- the act of pretending to be morally upright or pious, often in a smug or judgmental way, while not actually living up to those standards.

If I hear one more unqualified, inexperienced, uneducated, mindless Zak George following FF/R+ zombie word vomit this statement out of their mouth, I'm going to scream.

The amount of social media keyboard warriors that do nothing but sit behind their phone screen acting self-righteous as they attack a dog owner doing everything they can to try to keep their dog and their community safe is getting completely out of hand.

One of the reasons is that nobody's telling them to SHUT THE F**K UP, so this post is.

You claim to care so much about animal welfare...
Are you out there in government changing legislation on animal testing, specifically beagles that are used because they are small and docile? What about the laws and the lack of punishment for proven animal abuse? Are you changing the legislation in your area?
Are you aware in your neighborhood of where dog fighting is happening? Because yes, it's happening in every neighborhood.
Are you posted outside of that home that everybody knows about where the dog is outside 24/7 and barely fed or watered?
Are you reporting the people that are out there abusing their dogs with their bare hands and a flat buckle collar and leash (which 9.9 out of 10 times is the equipment that those abusers are using)
Are you scrolling the internet for the videos of dog abuse, crush videos, dog brothels and r**e to report them and track down the offenders?
Are you staying up to date on your local animal controls abuse reports page and saying nothing to the lack of punishment and consequences for those people?
. or are you just out here on Instagram and Facebook shaming a family paying $2k for a training program and using a prong collar on a reactive dog they are trying to keep from being euthanized?

Oh you are so virtuous and amazing 🙄

Do us all a favor and shut right the f**k up.

04/02/2025

Everyone say hello to Arthur who had his first session with Kelly out of his five package training program and a Bravo for braving the snow this do so!

Owner concerns: Socialization, Recall, Biting/ Nipping

Our assessment: Mom has worked really hard with Arthur and might have the best in-home protocol and completed training foundation that we have ever walked into. So good that we had no notes and we knew that we were going to do a majority of our training outside and be adding some new tools and techniques.

Our prescription: For our first session we met at one of their local neutral parks, and while it was absolutely dumping snow, we were determined to work on some socialization. Thankfully we had with us who was working with Tommy (see their recent stories) So we were able to double up creating both controlled and organic socialization.
Remember our goal is always creating neutrality, so in this session we didn't even think about meeting other dogs but just learning to exist in close proximity both in structure and in fun.

We are happy that Mom are reported that the walk home after the session was amazing and he was a perfect little gentleman.

Stay tuned our next session is in a week and we will continue working on creating confidence in both mom and Arthur 🫶

03/02/2025

❄️ Snow & Dogs ❄️

This was a DM we received today and we think it's a great topic!

Can you walk your dogs in the snow? For how long? Does every dog need a jacket? Booties?

There are several factors to this question to take into account for example breed, a husky or Saint Bernard is going to do better in this weather because of their coat and their natural affinity to colder weather then say a pitbull or Frenchie. That being said we know several people that live in colder parts of Canada than have acclimated a breed that's not necessarily built for colder weather but has become accustomed to it.

We find that a good rule of thumb is letting your dogs enjoy the outside snow for about the same time as you would let your toddler. Both of them do not necessarily keep track of when they're getting too cold or dehydrated and both need to be monitored and frequently checking their hands and paws.

Keep an eye on snow build-up for longer haired dogs on their undercarriage and between their toes. Make sure to feel their ears and how cold they are getting. Don't hesitate to utilize even a basic jacket to insulate and keep snow build up off their bodies. You can also get booties which come in a variety of different styles now. If your dog hates booties you can also do a paw salve that is a nice barrier to both cold, wet and salt.

Comment below on your dog's breed, how you prepare them for this weather and how long you let them play outside for 👇

03/02/2025

Everybody say hello again to Lucy Petunia who had her first official session out of her five package program with Kelly this morning.

Owner concerns: Dog reactivity, Human reactivity, Leash manners, Separation anxiety, Obedience, Socialization, Basic manners, Recall

Our assessment: Lucy Is a fearful girl, who is a bit under and over socialized at the same time. Mom has lost her confidence in being a assertive and capable leader and Lucy has picked up on that causing her to want to protect mom and her from what makes her nervous. There is little to no rules and boundaries and definitely no consequences for lack of compliance.

How it's going: The fact that Mom was walking Lucy on two different pieces of equipment with two different leashes, neither of which were helping control and communicate with her, we stepped out of the norm and gave her a 3 mm prong collar at our assessment. Mom checked in with us less than a week later saying it was a complete game changer and had brought back her confidence in walking Lucy.
Today we worked in their home, as we all know that's where the problems start. Right now there are no protocols or management techniques in place with people arriving, which gives her strong feelings. While I was happy to see you a raised bed and a crate, mom admitted she does not regularly use either. As I explained we needed to have more rules in the home so Lucy knew what replaced was and when she had a job versus when she didn't. We did a couple of drills with teaching place command on the raised bed and bed command with the crate before doing a little drill of leaving the house because Mom does not currently walk her in her neighborhood.

Stay tuned our next session is in 2 weeks and we are going to build on what we practiced today.

03/02/2025

Everyone say hello again to Nico who had a touch-up session with Kelly this afternoon.

Owner concerns: Dog reactivity, Leash manners, Obedience, Biting/ Nipping

Nico and his family did a five package training program which finished at the end of 2023. They followed up in 2024 with a short board and train program when they went out of town, during which I E-Collar trained him.

I was happily surprised to see him on the schedule today, As I hadn't seen them in almost a year, but of course I was also concerned that something had gone south.
Nope! They just wanted a touch up session and to push the boundaries a bit with their trainer and Nico's BFF Cooper at their side.

We met at Patterson Off-Leash Dog Park and took advantage of there only being one other dog in the fenced in off leash area, so I brought in Cooper and we walked Nico around on leash but relaxed. A few other dogs came in and we took advantage of the calm but semi chaotic environment before moving out onto the track and doing a formal parallel walk with Baloo followed by Scrappy and Robert.

We also got to take advantage of doing some interruption and correction of his bus fixation as there is a loop nearby.

We are so impressed with how far they have come in their training which is directly related to their prioritization and dedication.

Nico is going to come stay with me in August for two weeks when they go out of town and we're going to use that opportunity to polish up some training even more.

02/02/2025

Everyone say hello again to Ryka who had her second follow-up session to her board and train program with Kelly this afternoon.

Owner concerns: Human reactivity, Dog reactivity, Recall, Biting/ Nipping, Socialization, Separation anxiety

Ryka had a bit of a rough start to life, coming from an inexperienced breeder and being bounced around to a few homes before settling in with her new parents caused her some fear and anxiety paired with being under socialized.
Foundationally she's a good girl, she was simply lacking confident and clear leadership from her parents.

During the board and train it was not only an opportunity to see what she knew, how much of her issues were foundational versus environment and her parents and how she could be in the right conditions.
She did absolutely amazing with me, once I formed a good bond with her, she always turned to me when she had concerns or questions about her role in a situation.

It was my job after to train Mom and Dad, but especially Mom who did not have a lot of confidence, how to be the leader that she needed.

Today we really push the boundaries and not only had Mom walk her through a semi-feral off-leash dog area, but we also had another client Dixie, who is also a sassy lady, join us with her mom that doesn't have a lot of confidence.
It was awesome because I could provide both moms the direction and feedback they needed as their situation was so similar.

It's not a surprise at all that everyone did absolutely splendid, with both Ryka and Dixie mom proclaiming how amazing it was to see their girls neutrally walk through a busy park and it was what they had always hoped they would have with them.

Both of them have more practice to do, but they both know what their girls are capable of when they're given the right rules, boundaries and direction 🐾

02/02/2025

You can't "fix" everything

If you are dedicated and consistent in your training you will make progress.
With that being said, not everything will be a total fix or even a true rehabilitation or change... especially if you have a sassy pup 😉

Off leash is a perfect example of this, so many of our clients report their dogs having "pretty good recall"...and we hold your hand while we say this... If your dog doesn't have 99.9% recall in almost every situation you should not be letting them off leash OR you create a management system. Maybe you utilize fenced in off-leash dog parks after hours (when nobody is there), maybe you rent a or utilize a 50 or 100 foot long line. Regardless, our point is that you have to have management for a training component that isn't 100%.

What is something that your dog does not have 100% compliance or understanding of that you have a management component in place?

02/02/2025

Everyone say hello again to Bailey who had another session out of her five package program with Kelly this afternoon.

Owner concerns: socialization

Our assessment: Bailey is nothing more than a typical barely 1-year-old pup That loves everything and anything and has zero impulse control.

Our prescription: after doing a couple of foundational sessions with Jinx working on the puppy basics, I came in to give some alternative applications of the e-collar and create controlled environments with other dogs to practice their training tools and techniques.

They had made some really nice progress since last session 2 weeks ago and we love that they reached out a number of times to clarify homework and training and ask questions.
As I had .shey_west.coast We were able to double up on dogs and we brought out pairs to have some organic socialization, but really set the rhetoric that seeing other dogs and people normally means we do not engage with them.

Remember you don't want a social dog, you want a neutral dog. You want to be able to say "No we are not going to meet that dog or person" and it not be a big deal because that's the standard. That way you can be selective of the humans and dogs you allow your dog to engage with.

01/02/2025

Everyone say hello again to Molly who had her fourth session out of her five package training program with Kelly.

Owner concerns: Dog reactivity, Aggression (has the intention to harm), Biting/ Nipping, Separation anxiety

Our assessment: I started working with Molly in July of 2024 pretty soon after she had been adopted by her now parents. Molly was not their first golden retriever but their first dog with hyperactivity, impulse control issues and some minor reactivity so they were at a loss of how to handle it. They were trying the same techniques that worked with their balanced dogs and obviously getting nowhere.

What we did: Dad was really struggling on walking her especially when she was getting close to her threshold, so we added in a prong collar for control and communication. She then came and stayed with me when they went out of town which allowed me to e-collar train her, which became a invaluable tool for control and communication especially when off leash.

How it's going: It's been a few months since our last session as Dad likes to space them apart, and things have been going well overall, especially inside the home but we wanted to utilize our session today to create controlled environments to talk about socialization, dog body language and communication and give dad the opportunity to polish up his timing and levels of the e-caller in various situations.
I brought out Cooper, Sage, Yuki, Dixie and Archer and we also engaged with some dogs in the park.

They are doing so well and we are so very proud of both of them and the progress that they've made. Their last session is in March and then she will be staying with us for a few weeks in June when her parents go on vacation which gives us more opportunities to practice and train.

01/02/2025

Everyone say hello to Jessie who had her final session with Kelly out of her e-collar training package.

Owner concerns: Human reactivity, Leash manners, Aggression (has the intention to harm)

How it started: let's just start with the fact that Jesse is a foundationally goodest girl. No real reactivity or behavioral issues, simply a lack of impulse control and consequences for bad behavior from her humans. Their biggest issues was her overdramatic relationship with her puppy cousin, followed by excitement when people come in and the occasional mitten stealing when off leash in trails.

What we did: As she didn't need much work, I felt that adding the e-collar into their training would be a wonderful tool to help magnify commands and cut through the noise when she was overstimulated.

How we wrapped it up: We finished the program by going to Pacific Spirit off leash dog park, alongside Cooper and Sage, we used to be environment to practice recall in a variety of different situations, help her make more neutral choices and reinstill handler relevancy and engagement.

They did absolutely amazing! I couldn't be more proud of all of them and they are very happy with the results of their package 🐾

31/01/2025

Everyone say hello again to Naya You have her final session out of her five package training program with Kelly this afternoon.

Owner concerns: Leash manners, Dog reactivity, Biting/ Nipping, Recall

Where we started: Naya is foundationally a good girl but had a tendency to let her excitement get out of hand when meeting new dogs and people. Due to the lack of structure, rules and boundaries inside the home those same issues became prevalent outside the home.

What we did: We started with more structure in the home including a crate, protocols for human arrival and creating an understanding that neutral and calm behavior are what the humans wanted.
We added some new tools and techniques to her training program including a prong collar which finally gave Mom the confidence and being able to handle her even in times of overthreshold. We then continue to create controlled scenarios for Mom and Naya to gain more experience and therefore confidence in different environments with different temperaments.

How we finished: Today we walked a local neighborhood trail that they used to frequent, but were too nervous to until our training program. .shey_west.coast brought out sassy Diego while I had Cooper and sassy Yuki. We were simply neutral and just in each other's presence as we explored the trail before heading back and doing a final walk with Skye and Anakin.

Stay tuned: Mom plans on signing up for an e-collar program as she wants to add that to her toolbox.

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How Kelly became the Crazy Dog Lady

Kelly has always had a love for dogs, and grew up in a household where she had four that were her best friends. After she graduated with a biochemistry degree from California State University at Fullerton, she moved to Washington state where her love for pitbulls began. She started PB and Chi Dog Rescue Society in 2012 and worked hands on with over 500 dogs and felt rescue dogs was her true calling. Seeing the issues the dogs coming out of the shelters had, she got her certification in dog training and started working hands on with the reactive and unsocialized ones in particular as there was so little training willing and able of working with them. Through the course of her rescue and training experience, she built a pack of her own dogs that she worked diligently to balance and work together in harmony. She now uses her own skills, along with those of her ten pack, to help dogs and families all over the lower mainland to find their family harmony too. She always says “whatever your issue, I have a dog for that!”

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How Kelly became the Crazy Dog Lady