Connected Canine

13/12/2025

New classes for January have been posted!
Something for everyone 🐾🐾🐾

09/12/2025

Continuing education requirements for 2025 - ✅✅✅

29/11/2025

Such a great episode about living with dogs with strong genetic behaviors that sometimes/often aren’t easy to live with.
Give it a listen, it will help you breathe a little easier. If you happen to live with an uneasy, or high energy, or big feelings dog. 

I see you 🫶
I feel you 🙏🏼
I hear you 👂🏼

Podcast Episode · Cog-Dog Radio · 11/25/2025 · 17m

28/11/2025

✔️ Boundaries are not ❌ aggression.

Imagine if you were walking down the road and a stranger ran up to you and you just had to let them do whatever they wanted without sticking up for yourself?

It's a bit unthinkable isn't it?

That's often the position we are asking dogs to be in when we try to silence their "reactive" behaviours that are actually not reactive at all, they're boundary setting.

Dogs are allowed to set boundaries. Some dogs have stricter boundaries than others. Some dogs get overtly cross when their boundaries are crossed, others get fearful. But expecting dogs to NOT have boundaries and allow absolutely everything anyone wants to do with them without push back is unrealistic.

🐾 If play gets too rough and rude, dogs are allowed to say so
🐾 If a greeting is far too fast and impolite, dogs are allowed to say so
🐾 If a human is touching a dog in a way that's making them feel threatened, dogs are allowed to say so.

The thing is, if we try to punish these boundary setting behaviours, we run the risk of making them worse. Boundary setting behaviours are controlled and appropriate to the situation. But if we try to silence them the dog may just react with more aggressive behaviour responses in a way that becomes inappropriate to the situation. For example, much more exaggerated a response, unable to control themselves, unable to have their say and move on.

Any cross words from our dogs and we immediately feel we need to apologise, they're in the wrong. But are they? Lily is one of the most gentle and friendly dogs I know. Certainly the most sociable I've ever parented! But even Lily gets cross. Even Lily has boundaries. A short sharp collection of woofs towards dogs jumping in her face too often and she moves on. That's boundary setting. That's normal.

Picture: we give our dogs boundary setting behaviours ALL THE TIME. Telling dogs to get off things, telling dogs to sit and wait, teaching a dog to walk nicely.... These are all boundary setting behaviours. We need to allow our dogs to have their own boundaries too. Boundaries aren't aggression 🐾💜

15/11/2025

Coming to Florida in 2027!!!

Dive into the fascinating world of sensory integration with our Sensory Integration (SI) Theoretical Course, designed to deepen your understanding of how dogs process sensory stimuli to shape their behavior and perception. This course is perfect for trainers, behaviorists, and dog enthusiasts who wa...

11/11/2025

We have a new ship! I mean a vessel! I mean a car! A van! A bus! A Buzz 😃😃😃 Hank the Tank had to retire due to miles we were putting on it. We welcomed our new mothership, who doesn’t have a name yet, to our family last week. As with all new vehicles, there are issues you only find out after the fact. Our first one: dogs don’t want to leave the car after we get home 🤔

02/11/2025

Got a puppy?

01/11/2025

Starting next weekend! 3 spaces are available for a fun month of detection prep sniffing games 🥳 This class is suitable for beginners and advanced sniffers who want to add more spice to their techniques.
I look forward to meeting all the new sniffer dogs and their humans!

meeting dates: November 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th

19/10/2025

Sunday morning toy search 👏 and play. Toy search is a great game for detection dogs and maintains their motivation for searching in a very natural, no pressure way. This is one of the games (and all the steps to building it up) that I teach in Scent Detection Introduction class. Next class is starting in November. Dates haven’t been set yet. Soon!

19/10/2025

For your Sunday reading enjoyment 📰🐾
Hope you find the information useful as well as fun 🤩

I’m an avid book reader, and this one was such an easy read. Actually I got it first as an audio book, like I often do, but then I liked it so much I had to get a paper copy as well. A lovely friend who is a certified dog behavior consultant suggested it. Let me just say that if you pick up this b...