Maintenance, Maintenance, Maintenance … sounds boring , right? But, oh, so important! A fellow shelter employee was asking for advice the other day. She has three dogs (used to be four), one of them has resource guarding and “dominance/alpha” issues. She did a lot of work to resolve the resource… Continue reading
I had an interesting and “long” conversation with the driver on the bus coming home from the shelter the other day. B.Driver: “Hey, man, I saw you the other day over here walking like five dogs! Was that you? You don’t see that every day, I mean you see that… Continue reading
We are supposed to be the intelligent species. The people who say this obviously don’t see what I see. I’ve talked to other balanced trainers who get a lot of business from “purely positive” failures. PP is very idealistic, not very practical. You can’t just ignore all bad behaviors, sometimes… Continue reading
Me and Willie have been walking the same path two or three times a day for five years. I’m pretty sure he’s really comfortable and there are a lot of positive experiences on it. We’ve walked thru many rain storms, no big whoop, even in the hard rain. He is… Continue reading
I’ve held a leadership role for over 20, of my 30 working, years. In dog training it’s imperative to praise each and every time (when they’re learning), but with people I rarely did. I just felt you were supposed to do what you were supposed to do, and do it… Continue reading
All animals are motivated by something; different situations might need a different motivator for the same result from that animal; you might need a different motivator to get results for different behaviors in the same setting. A good leader will try to find the motivator for each individual animal in… Continue reading
A lot of what I write is to help others learn/see another perspective, refresh an idea they already knew. But also in trying to help others, it makes me think about what I do so I can better myself as well. This one is definitely one of those … Dogs… Continue reading
“…like, I don’t know, but it seems like she’s mad at me.” Was the last of a text conversation I had earlier this week with one of my toughest clients (not the dog, she was awesome!). “She’s not ‘mad’ but probably frustrated, which gets you frustrated, whuch makes her more… Continue reading
As good as it is to receive them, I kind of smile and dismiss compliments. Well, I don’t really dismiss it so much as I don’t address it. I don’t mean for it to be rude, I think it’s my way of showing humility, I try to only do what… Continue reading
I posted a communication with a client on FB which had good and bad in it. The good: they were looking for help. The bad: they didn’t THINK before getting into the situation. The worse: they put the dog on an app to rehome it before trying. The silver lining:… Continue reading
