Kate the Puppy Coach

📣 Puppy Owners! 📣 Meet Lindsey! She is the Head Fit Coach at Fit Dog Canine Fitness & Wellness @fitdogmi 🧡 Fit Dog is a canine gym where dogs can get stronger, faster, leaner and meaner (not literally!) But puppies are like young children where they don’t need “fitness”… but there are so many other benefits for young puppies doing exercises like the ones in this video! Coach Lindsey explains! GO PUPPIES! 🧡

Dogs don’t speak English, Judy! 🙃😆

I hear this all the time…people tell me that they take their dogs to daycare or they go to dog parks to try to help make their unsocial, scared dog more social and confident. Could this work? Potentially. If the daycare knows exactly what they’re doing and if every star on earth aligns properly… every. single. time. But what typically happens is we get dogs like this to be even further set back and more scared because they were “forced” into an environment that was overly stressful. If we took something that was scary to you … let’s use tarantulas as an example. If I were to lock you in a room and fill it with tarantulas that were jumping on you, climbing all over you, biting you… do you leave that room feeling confident with tarantulas or do you leave f’ing traumatized? 🤔 Have a happy day, ya’ll!

Yesterday I posted a video on how NOT to introduce dogs but I got a DM from someone who said “so how DO you introduce 2 dogs?” This is such a looooong discussion but I wanted to address some thoughts here. Happy Saturday! 🩷, Kate the Puppy Coach

Here is a tip to ‘start’ teaching your dog’s how to go into the crate using a one-word command (“crate!”) without fighting massive battles! ✅ Yes, you can incorporate treats as well. ✅ Yes, consistency every day doing this will teach the dog to go right in without fight. 🩷, Kate the Puppy Coach

Here are two tips for how to manage and control your puppy from jumping and chasing simply using your leash! 🩷, Kate the Puppy Coach

Why is there so much guilt surrounding use of a crate? I talk about this with my clients all the time! I just finished an hour long video teaching my puppy clients all of the reasons that utilizing a crate is just so freaking important! Crate up, my friends! Release that guilt!

⚠️ Trigger Warning ⚠️ I’m going to offend some people by this video. Especially if you’re the kind of person who leaves your barking dog outside in the yard for hours at a time 😬 The discussion of why dogs become reactive is actually a pretty in-depth one. It requires more than eight minutes, which was my limit on this video time. So this is just one tiny little perspective as to why dogs go from enjoying their walks with a calm demeanor to becoming explosive. I’ll do a full podcast on this one day soon … but take a listen to this perspective and let me know what you think - even if you’re the one I make mad 🫣 (sorry but your neighbors will thank me)! Have a happy day!

Bloopers Video! 🤪 Shiz like this is why my program is taking longer to build 😆🥴🤣🫠🙃 🎬 Take 2 🎬

When puppies are old enough for “formal training” clients have to decide what type of environment they want their dog to learn in. But they also have to evaluate how much of the process they would like to be part of - and that depends how much they actually want to do, how much time they have to put in, if they have physical limitations that might actually make the job hard to do and how quickly do they want the results.

When puppies are in my puppy development course, owners are always seeking that light at the end of the tunnel 🌈… where their puppies stop jumping, they stop biting, they stop pulling on the leash, chasing the cat, eating food of the counter, stealing socks and shoes … Formal training. Working with a trainer to help you to establish the rules. Hiring someone who can give you the tools and the knowledge on how you can communicate what is acceptable and what is unacceptable. If you’re in the metro Detroit area, Happy Tails Learning Center for Dogs can help. If you live out of state, start interviewing trainers to see who aligns with your beliefs, who can help you achieve all of your goals and who you jive with the most. Your trainer should become part of your dog’s team for life, not just a couple of weeks! There IS a light at the end of the tunnel. You’re almost there!! ☀️ 🌹 😃

I talk a lot about leadership in my Puppy Development course, especially the importance of being a fearless leader with our dogs when they have shy, nervous and/or anxious personalities. Are you a strong leader? Would you follow you? If you have a young puppy and need guidance on this, enroll in my puppy development course through Happy Tails Learning Center for Dogs! 🩷, Kate the Puppy Coach

Do you have a dog that jumps? The first question I always ask clients is, “are you asking the dog to jump?” Or “do other people ask the dog to jump?” Of course the answer is always “NOOO!” so I will follow up by asking “do you get amped up to see your dog and squeal with excitement when saying hello to them?” … this is where I get, “well yeah 😬🫣”. Guys!!! Asking your dog for excitement is asking for the behaviors that come with it. That includes jumping and mouthing! But one of the other things that many owners inadvertently do wrong is they start to push their dogs down or off of them in an effort to say “stop jumping”. But what they are really saying is “LET’S GO!!!” and by accident, you’re asking for MORE jumping. A lot of our dogs “bad behaviors” don’t come from stubbornness. They come from a lack of understanding of exactly what is acceptable or unacceptable and a lot of times that is because we are giving a conflicting message. Need help? If you have a puppy who is under six months old, you can enroll in my puppy development program (anyone nationwide can join)! If you have a dog older than 6 months old, seek out a balanced trainer that can help you! If you’re in the Detroit, MI area, we can help you at my training center called Happy Tails Learning Center for Dogs @happytailsrule 🩵 Let’s do this!! 👊🏻

Puppy owners (ok, dog owners in general 😜) sometimes over-complicate how easy it is to manage behaviors they don’t want. Think about all of the behaviors that your dog is displaying and utilize your leash or your crate to manage and prevent the behaviors you don’t want. This does not necessarily have to be the forever plan! 👇🏻 Formal training and consistent follow through can eliminate behaviors that we just don’t want anymore. But when our dogs are just little tiny baby puppies, the key is “management and prevention.” Keep it simple and don’t over-complicate it!

Hi 👋🏻 Kate here! I was out on a walk this morning with my three dogs and a garbage bag blowing in the wind startled my dog Wasabi. I’m always encouraging dog owners, especially those with young puppies in the socialization stage, to take the time to stop and allow their dogs to investigate what was scary. This is a good way to help dogs overcome their fears by realizing what initially started them (and made them uncomfortable) is really not that scary at all! So whenever you have something that is safe for them to “investigate”, encourage them to go near it and use their nose or their tongue to sniff or lick. Have a happy day!

I was chatting with a client yesterday who has a 4 year old dog that struggles when she sees other dogs. Sound familiar? It’s a problem for A LOT of dogs! The client had mentioned she wanted to socialize her dog with other dogs so she would get to the point of not caring about them. We chatted about what that looks like for a little bit (short recap here) but we’ll dive much further into it in a couple of weeks! Do you have a dog that struggles when it sees dogs (or other triggers)?

What if I told you it was as simple as using a little leash pressure, some turns and some basic feedback to get a young puppy to walk by my side?! Okay, it’s not THAT easy … but almost 😅 Meet Remi @remi.toller 🩵 He’s cute & smart! He’s enrolled in the Puppy Development Program at @happytailsrule taught by me @katethepuppycoach 🩷

Puppy owners are always concerned about “socialization“. Most new puppy owners interpret this as getting their dogs out and about and exposed to as many things as possible. The true secret though is not quantity, it’s quality. Whenever you are exposing your dogs to other people, places, objects, or dogs you want to make sure that you are intentionally socializing where YOU are controlling the experiment so that the whole exercise is a positive one. 👎🏻 Negative socialization creates negative outcomes. 👍🏻 Positive socialization creates positive ones! I have an entire module in my online puppy development course that breaks this down in an insane amount of detail!

Do you have a puppy (or heck, a dog of any age!) that “doesn’t listen” to you? Are you saying words/commands and your dog is just 🖕🏻 Is it because they’re stubborn? Or dumb?! Or do they just have zero clue what you’re saying?! 😆 Dogs don’t speak English, guys! Formal training with a professional trainer teaches dogs what English words mean! So if you’re throwing words at your dog and they are not responding with the expectations you have, decide if you need to hire a trainer to help you! If you’re in the local Detroit area, Happy Tails Learning Center for Dogs @happytailsrule can help! Live someone else? Well, Detroit is a beautiful place to visit 😍 But you can research a good trainer in your area to help you. Drop a 🫠 in the comments if you need help with your dog!