Happy Hounds Dog Training

10/26/2026

I'm excited to share that I'll be speaking at the FREE virtual Puppy Blueprint Summit!

This free 14-day virtual event takes place November 9–22 and features 20+ dog experts sharing how to turn early puppy chaos into calm routines, good habits, and a well-adjusted, happy puppy.

(If you have an older dog, you'll still find many of the presentations helpful!)

My interview is all about The 4 Pillars of Successful Puppy Leash Training.

I'll share the four pillars I believe are essential for successful leash training, explain why each matters and how they work together to build enjoyable leash walks.

I'll also be sharing my Pre-Training Walk Warm-Ups guide as a free gift for summit attendees!

👉 Register for the Puppy Blueprint Summit here: https://puppyblueprint.com/register-2026?am_id=stephanie774

Affiliate disclosure: The other speakers and I have volunteered our time to make this event completely FREE! However, if you choose to purchase one of the optional paid summit offers through my link, I may earn a commission. Those upgrades are completely optional.

Hope to see you there!

Register here for the FREE Puppy Blueprint Summit by PupScouts by Kelly.

10/24/2026

I've just published a comprehensive blog guide to muzzle conditioning!

It walks you through my 10-step muzzle training process, from building positive associations with the muzzle to helping your dog comfortably wear it during everyday activities.

I've included troubleshooting advice, common mistakes to avoid, and checklists to help you recognize when your dog is ready to progress. I've also included my free dog body-language guide if that's something you need help with.

Throughout the guide, I've even linked directly to the corresponding sections of my new video tutorial!

📖 Read the blog:

How to Muzzle Train Your Dog: 10-Step Muzzle Conditioning Guide. Break muzzle training into simple, manageable steps!

10/23/2026

This muzzle conditioning tutorial is NOT short, and that’s very intentional.

When I was deciding what to include in this tutorial, every clip and explanation had to pass one test:

If I were muzzle training my dog for the very first time, would knowing this make me more likely to succeed?

If the answer was yes, I kept it!

So this video is long, because real muzzle training is often more complicated than a perfect demonstration makes it look.

Most muzzle conditioning tutorials I've seen demonstrate the steps with a dog who's already completely muzzle trained, but as a professional dog trainer who's muzzle trained many dogs, I know that's unlikely to be what your actual training sessions look like.

Your dog might hesitate. They might seem confused. You might accidentally make a small handling mistake that changes how comfortable they feel about the muzzle.

And knowing how to recognize and respond to those moments can make all the difference in how comfortable your dog becomes with their muzzle.

So I filmed my real muzzle training sessions with Neirah, starting with her very first introduction to the muzzle.

You'll see my 10-step muzzle training process, but also the mistakes, the hesitation, the troubleshooting, and exactly what I'm looking for before moving to the next step.

I didn’t want to just show you the steps. I wanted to help you understand how to make the training decisions within those steps, so that you can apply the process with your own dog.

🎥 Watch the complete muzzle training tutorial: https://youtu.be/ZR9ax0vNdV8

I hope you find it helpful!

STEP-BY-STEP DOG TRAINING PROGRAMS BY HAPPY HOUNDS:View all traini...

10/15/2026

When (and how!) should you phase out dog treats?

I received this great question on my Come on a Real Walk With a Dog Trainer (Leash Training Masterclass) video (all videos mentioned linked in the comments below!):

💬 Q: I would like to know HOW and WHEN is best to fade out treats?

First, I don't think our goal should be to eliminate food rewards entirely.

I strongly believe our dogs should be “paid” for their hard work, so I still occasionally reward well-established skills.

I also think it's important to continue reinforcing specific safety skills (like “leave it” and “drop it”) throughout our dogs' lives. After all, we're often asking them to disengage from something they find REALLY interesting, and we want to maintain a strong, reliable response!

That said, we don't need to reward every repetition of a well-established behaviour either.

✅ My general rule: Reward generously while your dog is learning, then gradually reduce food rewards once they're consistently successful at that particular skill AND level of difficulty.

I let the dog's behaviour tell me when they're ready, rather than following a set timeline.

(And if their success starts falling apart when I reduce rewards? That's often a sign I've faded too quickly.)

💡 Here’s something important to remember: difficulty and reinforcement rate are two separate “training levers”. You don't want to increase difficulty AND reduce rewards at the same time!

For example, imagine your dog is learning to walk on leash without pulling.

If they're doing beautifully on a quiet residential street, you might start gradually reducing how frequently you reward them in THAT context.

But when you take that same dog to a busy park with squirrels, other dogs, and a hundred exciting smells? That's a much harder environment! I'd go right back to rewarding generously rather than expecting the same behaviour for fewer rewards under much more difficult circumstances.

The goal isn't to “stop rewarding” our dogs. It's to gradually reduce how much support they need from us to maintain those behaviours as their skills become stronger.

And if you're working on loose leash walking, this is exactly the kind of progression I help you navigate in my 6-week step-by-step leash training program!

I walk you through building reliable leash walking skills, gradually increasing distractions and difficulty, and fading food rewards as your dog progresses to successful walks in the real world.

👉 Check out the full leash training program here: https://happyhoundsdogtraining.shop/products/6-weeks-to-dream-walks-step-by-step-leash-training-program �

Stop your dog from pulling on leash. A 6-week step-by-step digital leash training program for frustration-free walks.

10/10/2026

20% off this Thanksgiving 🧡 + a personal story

Life seems wildly expensive these days.

My household feels it, and I suspect yours does too.

I’m going to share something personal, because it goes back to the heart of why I started the online portion of Happy Hounds in the first place.

I grew up without much money. Things were not easy.

At one point in my 20s, things got so financially difficult that I went grocery shopping and had to choose between buying my dog's kibble and buying food for myself.

I ate oatmeal for dinners that week.

I believe that skilled, educated dog trainers provide an incredibly valuable service. I would never want to undervalue the work that we do.

But I also know that not everybody can afford private dog training. I've been in that position myself.

That's a big part of why I started creating free YouTube tutorials and affordable digital training programs alongside my private training work.

I wanted more people to have access to high-quality, rewards-based training, regardless of their financial circumstances.

Of course, Happy Hounds is a business, and I need to make a living too. But at its heart, I started this company because I wanted to make a difference in how dogs are treated and trained.

So, this Canadian Thanksgiving, I'm offering 20% off all my digital training programs, including bundles.

Use coupon code HAPPYTHANKSGIVING at checkout, or click the link below to apply it automatically.

🧡 Shop the Thanksgiving Sale: https://happyhoundsdogtraining.shop/discount/HAPPYTHANKSGIVING

The sale ends Monday, October 12 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time.

It's a small way for me to make training a little more accessible, and to say thank you for being part of this community.

Happy training!

Stephanie
Happy Hounds Dog Training

Affordable, high quality, easy-to-follow dog training programs to solve specific dog behaviour concerns.

09/20/2026

Can you train a dog with just play and praise?

A fantastic question came up in my YouTube comments recently:
“How effective is training using simply play and praise?”

I thought I'd share my answer here in case it helps others.

My short answer: play and praise can absolutely be effective rewards, but HOW effective they are depends on how much your individual dog values them.

Positive reinforcement simply means adding something the dog values after a behaviour, making that behaviour more likely to happen again.

Although food is one of the most common rewards used in positive reinforcement training, the reward doesn’t have to be food.

I personally LOVE using play. Play-based training can be fantastic for things like recall, and I also use it a lot when working with dog prey drive.

In fact, after working with a lot of dogs that chase animals (including my own dog, Neirah), I’ve found that the right toy can sometimes be even MORE effective than food, particularly at the beginning of prey-drive training.

(If you have a dog who loves to chase animals, you can see how I use play as part of prey-drive training in this free guide: https://happyhounds.myflodesk.com/preydrive )

Depending on the dog, “rewards” like praise and affection can absolutely be reinforcing too.

HOWEVER, it’s important to remember that these rewards aren’t necessarily equal.

Your dog might be a little motivated by praise but love playing tug. Another dog might find food far more rewarding than either praise or play.

Rewards fall on a spectrum of value, and your individual dog gets to decide where they fall. Generally, the more your dog values a reward, the more motivating it’ll be.

So why do force-free trainers like myself use so much food? 😂

Mostly because food is incredibly practical. It’s portable, usually highly rewarding, and can be delivered very quickly. That means I can get a lot of successful repetitions without stopping to play for 30 seconds every time the dog gets something right.

Food can also be useful when I don’t want the reward itself to increase arousal. If I’m teaching a dog not to jump on guests (Watch: How to Stop Dog Jumping On You in 3 EASY Steps https://youtu.be/g6PVdqinCUk ) or working on reactivity to a trigger (Free reactivity guide: https://happyhounds.myflodesk.com/reactivitytraining ), for example, a really stimulating play session may not be the reward I want in THAT moment.

So yes, you absolutely can train using play and praise.

The more important question is:
Does your dog find that reward valuable enough to repeat what you’re asking them to do?

Only your dog can tell you that.

Want to learn more?

I recently wrote a full article about training dogs who aren't interested in food. I'll link that here: What If My Dog Isn’t Food Motivated? (Can I Still Use Reward-Based Training?) https://happyhoundsdogtraining.ca/what-if-my-dog-isnt-food-motivated-can-i-still-use-reward-based-training/

09/17/2026

FREE live online event!

Recently, the amazing Annie Phenix—author of books including Positive Training for Aggressive and Reactive Dogs (linked here https://link.amazon/B03pk0J6e )—reached out to ask if I’d be interested in being interviewed about my experience as a dog training educator.

I know of Annie, we’ve spoken on social media, and I’ve read her great books. So I’m a bit embarrassed to admit:

I had never heard of The Phenix Advocacy Center.

What a shame, because it’s an INCREDIBLE and much-needed free support and advocacy center for R+ canine professionals.

Annie was hoping I could share my experiences, and I couldn’t be more excited to do so.

On Monday, September 28th at noon ET, I’ll be going live with Annie via Zoom for about 90 minutes.

The interview will be recorded, so if you sign up (for FREE, thanks to corporate sponsor Sniffspot), you can watch it at your leisure. However, if you can attend live, I’d encourage it because we’ll be having a Q&A at the end where you can ask me questions.

I’m so grateful to be able to take part in events like this, and I truly hope sharing my experience is helpful for other force-free professionals.

👉 You can sign up for the live event here:
https://givebutter.com/pacs-september-lets-get-real-from-dog-trainer-to-dog-training-educator

And you can learn more about The Phenix Advocacy Center here:
https://phenixadvocacycenter.org/about-the-pac/about/

Hope to see you there :)

09/02/2026

I’ve been asked some version of this question 12 times in the past week alone: “What if my dog isn’t food motivated?”

I’ve never felt I could adequately answer it in a quick comment reply, so I finally sat down and created a full resource!

In my newest article, I cover whether you actually NEED treats to train your dog with positive reinforcement, a simple test to figure out whether your dog truly isn’t food motivated, and 3 common reasons food rewards may not be working for your dog (and what you can do about each one).

👉 Read: What If My Dog Isn’t Food Motivated? [Can I Still Use Reward-Based Training?]

What if your dog isn't food motivated? Can you still use reward-based dog training? Here are 3 tips and a simple test to try with your dog.

08/26/2026

If you're working on leash training, what you do BEFORE the walk can make a huge difference.

In this new blog post, I'm sharing the 3 pre-walk exercises I use to help dogs burn off excess energy, build engagement, and get into a better state of mind for training.

Read it here:�

These 3 pre-walk exercises will make your dog's leash training easier by building engagement and skills before walks.

08/24/2026

If you’re working on leash training, don’t overlook what happens BEFORE the walk.

Trying to teach a dog to walk nicely on leash when they’re already bursting with energy and completely distracted is basically training on hard mode.

In this YouTube video, you can actually see the difference a warm-up routine makes with my client Gus. I included footage from his very first and later sessions, and the difference in how often he chooses to check in with me and walk beside me is pretty amazing.

This video covers three simple exercises I like to do before leash training to help take the edge off excess energy, build engagement, and transition the dog into a more focused training mode.

They only take a few minutes, but they can make the training afterwards easier and more effective.

Watch here: https://youtu.be/Wd7qqAohnrQ