StairStep Dog Training

24/03/2025

Love working with the puppies. This was a spectacular little girl.

23/03/2025

He's a handsome man.

23/03/2025

Where did you go with your dog today?

22/03/2025

19/03/2025

We do not work with drugged dogs. Training can solve issues if you take the time and have the patience to actually work the dog. The dogs I see most on SSRIs just need boundaries and consistent work to do.

SSRIs for Dogs?! A dangerous trend backed by weak science
AVSAB and force-free trainers push SSRIs as a humane fix for behavioral issues, but the research behind them is sketchy at best! Mostly owner surveys, small studies, and zero long-term safety data.
A recent study found that people taking SSRIs had higher levels of a brain protein linked to neurodegeneration and Alzheimer’s.

If these drugs may harm human brains long-term, what could they be doing to dogs, who age much faster?

Side effects include -increased aggression
-lethargy
-withdrawal symptoms
-personality blunting
But you won’t hear that from the AVSAB
The pharmaceutical industry has no interest in vet schools teaching these risks. Most vets prescribing SSRIs DON’T even know the full consequences. Yet force-free advocates reject effective training tools while blindly promoting psychiatric drugs.

So who really has dogs’ best interests in mind?

13/03/2025

Look who's boarding this week! It's Barfight Charlie.
🎶 Chuck Chuck Bo buck banana fanana fo...🎶 never mind.

27/02/2025

Teach your dog how to come out of their crate calmly. That way they start calmly instead of like a spastic weirdo.

16/02/2025

Snoopy was reactive to people and dogs. Would bark and get over excited. Here is a little bit out front with the neighbors working in their garage

16/02/2025

On Tank's second run, it clicked. Confidence came way up.

16/02/2025

Tank went sheep herding today! In the first run, he was unsure but started to get the idea. Stay tuned for the second run

16/02/2025

For years, fluoxetine (Prozac) has been pushed as the answer to behavioral problems in dogs. Veterinary behaviorists and force-free advocates love to cite “science-backed” studies to justify long-term medication use. But here’s a big problem, most of these studies are flawed, biased, and rely almost entirely on owner-reported data.
Take, for example, the 2009 study on fluoxetine for compulsive disorders in dogs (Irimajiri et al., J Am Vet Med Assoc). It claimed fluoxetine helped, yet the only improvement came from owners’ OPINIONS, not actual behavioral measurements. When researchers looked at objective data the dogs’ actual behavior logs they found NO SIGNIFICANT difference between the medicated and placebo groups. But guess which result gets cited?🤫
How about the 2007 study on fluoxetine for separation anxiety (Simpson et al., Veterinary Therapeutics). The conclusion? Fluoxetine was effective … but only when paired with a structured behavior modification plan. And yet, thousands of dogs are medicated without any meaningful training, as if a pill can replace actual learning.
Sad reality is that Dogs are being drugged, not rehabilitated.
Ask any serious trainer what happens when they get a dog that’s been on fluoxetine for years. They take the dog off the meds, implement a sound training plan, and SHOCKINGLY the dog improves.
Not because fluoxetine “worked,” but because the dog finally got what it needed: clarity and proper training.
Yet, the AVSAB keeps pushing these medications while dismissing legitimate training as “aversive” or “outdated.” They’d rather chemically suppress behavior than actually address it.
The real question isn’t whether fluoxetine has some effect but why so many dogs improve when you REMOVE the drug and train them properly?!!!
Behavioral change comes from learning, not sedation. It’s time to stop pretending otherwise.
I know I am not the only one noticing that dogs on fluoxetine don’t get better - they just get dull.
The dog isn’t learning or adapting, just becoming more passive.
This can actuallY DELAY proper rehabilitation, because the dog’s emotions and responses are chemically suppressed rather than modified through learning.
Thinking about making a solo podcast to talk about the dog I have in training right now, one of the many that end up euthanized after YEARS of being on SSRI’s and the pandemic of prescribing psychotropics like flea medication

15/02/2025

Snoopy is starting to work on a long line and pay attention.

15/02/2025

Hello, Snoopy!!!
This handsome boyo just came in for training. He's a one year old Large Munsterlander.

12/02/2025

Tank is a scared little man. Taking him out to places and using his obedience gives him direction instead of letting him decide what needs to happen. We're teaching him that he won't die if something is different.

12/02/2025

Took Mr. Tank out to Bass Pro Shops.