Paw And Order

16/04/2025

Hope the husky mix gives the impression that she can pick up satellite signals with those epic ears, but somehow they don't slow her down in the slightest - this gal covers a lot of ground! Luckily for her, she was adopted by trail runners 👌
Hope likes other dogs, but she doesn't like awkwardly long or rapid-fire dog greetings - and these are sometimes unavoidable on our local trails. To prepare her for these situations, she and her human came into Well Rounded Hound class to build up her manners and controlled hellos, stacking the deck in her favour when faced with the uncontrolled introductions of the general dog public. Hope passed with flying colours!

From there, her people wanted to get her into group dog walks for extra social opportunities, but were a bit nervous about just throwing her into a party bus situation - which is where I came in again. We built and tested all the skills needed - recall, staying with the group, riding in cars rubbing shoulders with excited strangers-to-become-friends, and navigating different personalities and play styles. We started with one canine companion and added dogs to the group as she learned the ropes, and now we can all confidently say she's ready to join a hiking squad 👏

Want your dog to go on offleash group hikes, but not sure they have the skills? Contact me, and we can customize a program to make sure everyone is safe, confident, and appropriately skilled so that your future dog walker always gives your pup a gold star 🤩

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10/04/2025

It has been an extra cute year for puppies so far ☺️
Frank, Luna, Coco, Scuppers, Stewie, Moose, and Jack have all joined the Polite Puppy squad to learn about social skills with dogs and people, basic manners, and confidence and tolerance for the weird things that the human world will throw at them. Their dedicated humans are doing a great job with all these lovable pups 😍

My next puppy class will be in June and spaces are limited, so reach out early if you're adding a furry family member this spring! If you have a pup RIGHT NOW? Message me, and we can discuss private lessons or I can recommend a local, qualified professional 👏

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15/03/2025

Puppy class starts in 1 week and there are 2 spots left, email or message to lock in yours!

28/02/2025

Bosley 💛

I love mastiff breeds and have a particular soft spot for a Dogue de Bordeaux, and 4-year-old Bosley brings the slobbery sweetness like it's his full-time job. He also brings 140lbs of unbridled enthusiasm into every interaction he has, which can be a LOT for the recipients of his attentions as well as for his #1 fan holding the leash with all of her strength.

Like SO MANY friendly and exuberant dogs, Bosley's straight-to-the-afterparty greeting style worries strangers and embarrasses his owner. This naturally leads to a decrease in his social opportunities - which, of course, results in an increase of frustration, which then makes him look even more unhinged. It's a common cycle that requires handling skills, controlled setups, and patience for us to find the off-ramp into a better pattern.

Bosley started training with a recall workshop in the fall, and then we added some new communication aspects to his leash walking. We can't ask Bos to be polite under duress until he can do it in the first place - then he can learn that playing it cool will actually result in MORE fun and friends, which is exactly what he's trying to access.

This big dog has an even bigger heart and he so desperately wants to please, so if you see Bosley and his boss lady walking around Castlegar be sure to give her a quiet thumbs up because they are fabulous and they're working hard!

27/02/2025

There are still a couple of spots left in this fun class! Learn fun and flashy (or even functional) tricks like "jump through a hoop", "weave through my legs" or "go get me a drink" and work your way towards a Trick Dog title certificate 🏅 🥳

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27/02/2025

Dog people are my people ❤️

Dog People

25/02/2025

The first Well Rounded Hound class of 2025 has graduated, and the next class is already in session!

These pups have graduated to sports classes and other adventures after doing an incredible job learning basic manners and life skills, appropriately greeting people and dogs, as well as some cute tricks. Let's shake a paw for Winnie the Mexican Rescue Pup, Shiro the Shiba, Ziggy the Labrador and Omega the Brittany (Meg to her friends, which is literally everyone she has ever met or not yet met)
🐾 ❤️ 🐾

14/02/2025

❤️

08/02/2025

Monday evening classes starting February 24th!

Well-Rounded Hound is a classic manners and life skills class where we cover the "basics" (focus, recall, stay, leash manners, polite interactions) plus some fun tricks. The small class size allows us to dig deep into these skills challenges.

Super Sniffer is an introductory nosework class designed to get your dog started on structured searching games, you observing their body language for clues and to provide support, and to build great communication, teamwork, and confidence together. Nosework is awesome and dogs love it!

04/02/2025

I met Mila and Balu after they and their people moved to the Nelson area from Chile at the start of this winter. These two young dogs spent their first few years living freely, coming and going as they pleased throughout the day and then tucking into the house for meals and to sleep. The cultural differences are vast around the world as far as how dogs are kept and handled, and many dogs thrive with the understanding and autonomy they have in countries where they aren't housed, leashed, kenneled, etc. in the same way dogs are here. Dog-dog communication flows differently when humans aren't holding the ropes, and Balu and Mila had a deep and broad social life back in Chile, visiting and being visited by their dog friends about town.

Moving to Canada and converting to on-leash life, in a community and culture where humans restrain and mitigate dog interactions more intently (for better or worse), has been hard on Mila and Balu. Their naturally developed and nuanced social skills aren't hitting the same notes as they did at home. Mild disagreements can quickly turn into loud and dramatic ones especially if humans' emotions come into play, and when dogs who grew up in free-form dogness find themselves conversing with dogs who have experienced a completely different worldview. The language barriers exist in their species too, sometimes (like humans) handled gracefully and sometimes less so.

These sweet, perceptive dogs are so fun and clever. We started teaching them a nose-to-hand target and some leash pressure communication to add options and clarity to their public interactions, rewarding good choices and watching them negotiate their new world independently and as a pair. Their human guide learned to respond to precursors instead of reactions, and I loved seeing them face the neighborhood gauntlet as a team with a plan.

Dogs have so much nuanced communication in their posture, face, ears, tail, movement, vocalizations... while some of this (snarling, snapping, barking) can be unpalatable to humans, it's important to remember species-specific differences and try not to escalate a disagreement when we come in hot with our perceptions. It's tricky, but worth it!

03/02/2025

Classes coming up for the next few months: consider this your pre-boarding announcement! Reserve your spot in advance if you can as spaces are limited - details on each class soon to follow. These classes won't run again until later in the year, so don't miss out! 🐕 🐕 🐕

09/01/2025

Two days left to sign up!

06/01/2025

This Saturday, take a few hours to revamp your leash walking experience into something you actually enjoy! Whether they drive forward like a sled dog or ping around in all directions like your arms aren't attached, learn an effective method to teach your pup how to walk like you're best friends holding hands, instead of playing a game of tug of war at summer camp.

29/12/2024

Bring me you baby dogs 😍

26/12/2024

Group classes starting Monday, January 6th!

26/12/2024

Two spots have opened up for this weekend!

You asked for it! The last workshop of 2024 is all about RECALL 🐕 💨 Email to lock in your spot while spaces last, and stay tuned for more workshops in the new year on leash walking, tricks, and other topics - if there is something you'd like to see, drop it in the comments!

12/12/2024

You asked for it! The last workshop of 2024 is all about RECALL 🐕 💨 Email to lock in your spot while spaces last, and stay tuned for more workshops in the new year on leash walking, tricks, and other topics - if there is something you'd like to see, drop it in the comments!

08/12/2024

Sage is a young and extremely cute little rescue pup who was adopted this summer. After 6 weeks of settling in, she started to show some unexpected social decision-making when approaching other dogs. She's a teenager, so we want to give a wide berth fas far as behaviour expectations, but her new family also wanted to make sure they supported her in making good choices and having positive interactions. Sometimes, she would be nervous and cowering. Other times, she'd be a barking, spinning cyclone of energy that those approaching her found, reasonably, a bit off-putting.

Dog behaviour in a given moment can be indicative of their emotional state (current or general), environmental factors, genetic predispositions, and their learning and experience history. This is why dogs never actually behave a certain way "out of nowhere" even if it does look that way to us sometimes. We don't know the specifics of Sage's history, so we set out to curate positive and confidence-boosting social experiences for her so that she'd have a higher likelihood of optimism and decreased anxiety when meeting new dogs. We also started building her disengagement and recall skills.

Sage made fast progress and graduated to my offleash hike daytraining program. We continued to expand her social skills, recall consistency, and hopefully passively address the anxiety in vehicles that was making her carsick. If a dog is dog-social, their recall and offleash skills can be bolstered nicely by trained adult dogs setting the example, and my aussie Soldís (Sage's playmate of choice) has a great recall that has her buddies racing her back to me every time.

It has now been a few weeks since Sage drooled excessively or threw up in the car, and she continues to make good (albeit loud, because genetics) social decisions when we meet new friends. Adolescence is no joke and there may be a curveball or two ahead, but I have no doubt Sage (and her awesome, dedicated humans) will be able to handle it ⭐️