K9 Basix

09/04/2025

Charlotte and Oogie doing a little Service Dog training at the Sunland Park Casino. Good job!

31/03/2025

Rustie the Doberman doing fantastic in public access training at Bath & Body Works at The Fountains! Good girl!

17/03/2025

Charlotte the Bernese Mountain Service Dog Waiting patiently for mom to get called at the doctor’s office.

06/03/2025

In the Wild Wednesday (a day late again.)

Your dog’s behavior is 75% a reflection of the humans and environment around them and 25% wolf.
Yes, your dog still has wolfly instincts, such as territorial and pack mentality, but your dog is 15,000 years removed from the wolf.
His wolfly instincts are not what drives his behavior every day, it is how YOU behave towards him, how you communicate with him, whether he lives indoors or outdoors, and whether you set boundaries, limitations, structure and discipline.

Your dog is:
1st an animal
2nd a species
3rd a breed
4th a pet
5th a name
Your dog’s name is the least important thing to him. That’s why he doesn’t respond to it when he is following his animal instincts, such as chasing a squirrel (prey drive).
He is an animal first and must be treated like one.

Do you know who has the best behaved dogs (excluding working dogs)?
Homeless People!
Many times when you see a homeless person with a dog, the dog is off leash, they walk or sit beside their human, they are completely calm, they look up at their human frequently, they don’t bark at other humans or cars.
Why? Because the homeless person walks everywhere and their dogs must follow them and they understand better than pet dogs they they are dependent on their human for food. They spend 100% of their time with the human; they don’t have the opportunity to get in trouble because they’re left alone or not being supervised. The human establishes leadership and mutual respect.

Also…
I’m sad to announce this will be my last “In the Wild Wednesday.” Now that I’ve restructured my Obedience Program to a 1-2 day B&T, I just can’t keep up. I will periodically post articles about the wolf/dog dynamic, it just won’t be on a schedule.

01/03/2025

Charlotte rocking her new custom made bandana by AJR Creations! Text Joe at 915-841-8976 to get one of these cool dog collar bandanas in a variety of designs. You can find Joe at the Craft Market 2000 Lomaland (Inside the Karate Studio) on March 16 from 11am-4pm. Dogs Welcome!

19/02/2025

Orbiting (Service Dog task that helps create a bubble around the handler so they don’t feel crowded.)

29/01/2025

In the Wild Wednesday
I often receive calls from frustrated dog owners seeking information on my Obedience Training Program in hopes of resolving “behavior issues.” While obedience training is always beneficial to a dog’s development, when a dog exhibits “behavior issues” or “doesn’t listen” it is almost always the human that needs training, not the dog.

Most behavior issues are a direct result of the owner failing to establish boundaries, limitations, discipline, and structure in the home.

In the wild…wolves are a highly organized pack. There is a breeding pair consisting of an alpha male and an alpha female. Either one can be the pack leader. The remaining members of the pack are various levels of hierarchy, but they all happily and respectfully follow the pack leader without question.
There is a misperception that wolves fight for the privilege of being the pack leader, but this is rarely the case and would only happen in an unbalanced pack.
The pack leader, male or female, is usually chosen by default. They generally just demonstrate a natural born leadership quality that the other wolves recognize and are more than happy to defer to.
The wolves in the lower hierarchy have a strong instinct to work together as a team and infighting over dominance is rare. Plus, the pack leader does not allow it. Survival depends on everyone knowing their place.

Most wolf experts believe the domesticated dog is essentially a juvenile wolf that never grows up.
Since juvenile wolves have absolutely no instinct, desire or expectation to be a pack leader, pet dogs are not born with a natural instinct to be a pack leader. Their instinct is to be a follower. Contrary to popular belief, your dog does not want to be the boss. They will, however, take on the role of pack leader, just as it happens in the wild…by default.
When the human fails to establish boundaries, limitations, discipline and structure, the dog feels they have no choice but to take on the leadership role. But since this is an unnatural role for pet dogs, this typically results in an unbalanced dog and chaos in the home.

More on this next week.

26/01/2025

22/01/2025

In the Wild Wednesday
Most dog trainers use treats as their primary method of training behaviors that you want from a dog. There are other methods, but treat training is by far the fastest and most effective way to train, and time is money.
Most people think this method works so well simply because dogs love people food. It tastes good. But it goes much deeper than that.
In the wild…wolves must be opportunistic when it comes to eating. They never know when or where their next meal is coming from. Wolves (and dogs) are designed to go days without eating. Anyone who has ever nursed a puppy through Parvo has watched their puppy go more than two weeks without eating. You have to force them to drink water or they will die, but eating is the least of the worries.
Wolves will eat even when they aren’t hungry. If they eat in the morning and run across a free meal left behind by other animals a few hours later, they will stop and eat until they are completely satiated again.
Treat training works, not because the food is tasty, but because dogs have a strong instinct to eat whatever is available, whenever it is available. And they have a strong instinct to do whatever it takes to get the food.
For wolves, it’s hunting.
For dogs it’s learning to do what the human wants them to do. Sit. Down. Stay. They’re not hunting, but they are working just as hard to earn the food.

18/01/2025

I get asked a lot about what the difference is between a Service Dog, Emotional Support Animal and Therapy Dog. This chart by makes it easy to understand the differences in the requirements for these dogs. If you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call.

15/01/2025

In the Wild Wednesday
Some of the most difficult cases I encounter are dogs with separation anxiety. Being left alone is not instinctive to a dog’s nature.

In the wild…a wolf pup is NEVER alone. From the moment they are born they are with their pack 24/7. When mom and dad go off hunting, the pups are left with older siblings, aunts, uncles or cousins.
When a male or female wolf disperses to go start their own family, the clock starts ticking for them to find a mate, or find a new pack to join as quickly as possible. Wolves don’t survive for long on their own.

When we bring puppies and new dogs home, they typically get used to the comings and goings of their humans, first for short periods of time as we move from to room, and then when we leave the house for hours at a time. They begin to trust that we will return.
Some dogs are simply born with a stronger wolfly instinct not to be left alone (nature). Or, sometimes a dog experiences a trauma while they are left alone that causes the behavior (nurture).
In the case of Storm, the Belgian Malinois in the video, he exhibited no anxiety for the first 7 months of his life. Then his owners moved to Ft. Bliss from Germany and Storm spent 10 hours in a crate on a cargo plane. The separation anxiety started immediately and was quite severe.

He went into a complete panic when his owners left the house (1st video), but he also constantly circled the house when only one owner was home, making it difficult to do simple chores.
I worked with him to be calm while one human left (2nd video) and helped him learn to relax during normal household chores (3rd video).
Storm is doing much better now. He still has some anxiety, but his condition has improved significantly.

There is no cure for separation anxiety. If a dog’s anxiety isn’t severe enough to require professional intervention, you can try calming chews available at , having them wear a compression jacket, giving them a workout on a treadmill, or taking them on long walks with a weighted vest. They do have Xanax for dogs, but it should be a last resort.

10/01/2025

In the Wild Wednesday
What on Earth could be worse than a person with no education or experience representing themself to be a Dog Trainer?

A person who claims to be a "Certified Trainer" such as CCPDT, CBATI, IACPI, etc. Those acronyms look impressive on a business card, but it doesn't make them any more qualified than any other trainer. All it means is they went on a website, paid $300 - $500, took a test, and received a "certification" that is not recognized by any State or Federal agency.
Even a dog groomer has to take a state board exam and obtain a license before they shampoo your dog, but not a dog trainer.

A "certification" doesn't make dog trainer more "qualified", all it does is make them feel entitled to charge more for their services, probably because they need to pay for all those capital letters.
BTW you know who doesn't have any certifications? Cesar Millan.

An attorney friend once told me she would much rather hire a paralegal with 10 years experience, over a lawyer who just passed the bar exam.
The same concept applies to dog training.

In the dog training industry, "you get what you pay for" does NOT apply. I know trainers who would work for free, and often do, just because they love working with dogs.

And I am aware I am going to get hammered for this opinion, but it is what it is. Bring it on.

04/01/2025

Does your dog dig?
Build them a Dig Pit! I often get asked how to train their dog to stop digging holes all over their yard.
Digging is a natural instinct, so it can’t be trained out of a dog. You can only correct them (if you can catch them in the act), deter them (chemical sprays, put rocks in the holes, lay down chicken wire under the grass/ dirt) or the most effective option, give them an alternative (give them a place where it’s ok to dig).
My clients, Teresa and Robert, took my advice and look at how happy Jackie is with an outlet for her digging instincts!
Their dig pit is quite impressive, but for those less talented, filling a baby pool with dirt works too! Bury a few bones to encourage them to find that spot rewarding, and there you go. No more holes in your back yard.

02/01/2025

We said goodbye to my beloved Eleanor this morning. She was diagnosed with bone cancer in August and she was only expected to live for 2 months. She made it to Christmas and was able to ring in 2025 with us. Her paw prints will forever be on my heart.

02/01/2025

In the Wild Wednesday

Before I start this series discussing common dog behaviors that are often misinterpreted, I want to address the reason there is so much misinformation about dog behavior.
It is not the dog owner's fault.
The problem is the dog training world as a whole.
Ask 10 dog trainers a simple question about dog behavior and you will get 9 different answers.

Here's the dirty little secret about the dog training industry...

There is no local, state, or federal law that requires dog trainers to have any type of certification.
There is no government agency or accredited authority that regulates or establishes a minimum standard of education, knowledge, or experience that a person must achieve in order to legally represent themselves and do business as a dog trainer.

Anyone, without ever having trained a single dog in their life, can get business cards printed and start charging unsuspecting dog owners' money for their "services".

My hope is that those menaces to the dog training profession will at least read one book on wolves, and they aren't that hard to find. Enter "wolves nonfiction" on Amazon and you will get about 20 results for books written by a reputable scientist, usually with an impressive degree in animal science, wildlife, ecology, and/or biology.

In stark contrast, enter "dog behavior nonfiction" on Amazon, and it will result in a list of around 100 books, none of them written by a single scientist with a degree in Cynology, the scientific study of domesticated dogs. (More on this next Wednesday.)

A whole lot of dog training books are professionally published and self-published by people with questionable credentials. (See dirty little secret above.)

Why is the lack of authoritative books on dog training alarming? Because it means anyone portraying themselves to be a dog trainer can make up whatever bulls #!& that comes to their mind, and there is no accountability.

I have much more to say on this matter, but I promised to keep these weekly insights brief.
Next week I will cover a whole class of dog trainers that I think are even more dangerous than those operating without education or experience.

31/12/2024

My New Year’s Resolution for 2025 is to start a new educational series:
“In The Wild Wednesday”

Starting tomorrow, since New Year’s Day happens to fall on a Wednesday, I will post brief insights in to the world of dogs. My goal is to help pet parents understand the wild nature of dogs in hopes that it will improve their relationship with their furry four-legged family members.

The first thing I do during my free consultation is ask, “tell me what’s going on” so I can understand why they called me. I then listen patiently while my prospective client tells me everything their dog is doing wrong, and what they have done so far to try to fix it. Unfortunately, my response almost always starts with me telling them what they are doing wrong, not what the dog is doing wrong.

My next sentence usually begins with, “in the wild…” to help the pet parent understand why their human verbal communication does not translate in to a language the dog understands, and therefore the unwanted behavior is never resolved. (I will cover this in a future post.)

After the free consultation, sometimes they hire me, sometimes they don’t.
The ones I never hear from again usually decide to look for a trainer who will tell them what they want to hear…. that the problem isn’t their fault. And there are plenty of trainers out there who will do exactly that. (I’ll cover this in a future post.)

I am also inviting you to participate in a Q&A. Please submit your question through IM, not by commenting on a post. Please focus your question on how a dog’s wild instincts influences a dog’s behavior in the home, not personal questions about your dog’s particular issue. (You can contact me for a free one-on-one consultation for that.)

I am excited to start this series and I hope that you find it enjoyable as well as enlightening. Monique

29/12/2024

Dinner with a captive audience. They’re keeping a respectful distance so it’s not quite begging, but they sure are ready if anything drops on the floor! 🐾💕

22/12/2024

This video (originally posted by .training on IG) demonstrates why you should never take your dog to a dog park. Dog parks are an unnatural environment for dogs and contradicts their genetic territorial instincts. This confusion causes them to go in to fight or flight mode. Even this Golden Retriever, one of the most gentle and friendliest breeds, isn’t immune to instigating a fight. -9 Koncepts