The Naughty Dogge

05/21/2026

My little Adrenalin Ju**ie, Nugget, is getting all of her needs met today. She seeks thrills, and today I gave it to her without her needing to use her teeth. Some of her badness comes from boredom and the joy of the fight, but not today.

05/14/2026

We got our lazy butts back in gear. Here is a long awaited podcast that hopefully is worth the wait.

We want to redefine dog training categories. Let’s get rid of balanced and force free and define trainers this way instead…

Podcast Episode · Lift Your Leg - the art of training a dog · May 13 · 58m

04/30/2026

I spent my day making certain that none of these dogs had any justifiable reason to dislike me. They had a day of fun, relaxing, decompressing, and just being dogs. This is so important in training; structure is way overrated and often does more harm than good. Sometimes we just need to work on relationship and making sure we are worthy of what we are asking from our dogs.

I needed to do this in order for me to again work on her dinner tonight. It's been a real problem feeding her. She must learn the simple rules - It's a whole lot of fun here, we live in harmony together, I won't control you unless it's needed, but in those moments you must allow it. And don't bite the teacher. That's it.

I am making huge headway on a lot of this with both Mr. BC and my little itty bitty red head.
Here is tonight's dinner. She ate painfully slow, and I did call her off half of her bowl and surpised her with something exponentially better. She ended up flipping it upside down, and was fine with me taking it, adding it to her bowl, and putting it in her crate. Slowly, the tide is changing.

Monique Anstee,
Author of As a Dog Thinketh and Lift Your Leg - the podcast

04/29/2026

Her belly is full, and my fingers are still attached. That morning she got her dinner, just a few hours delayed. I placed a bowl on the floor, and armed with a Pig paddle, blocked it from her. I never had to use the Pig paddle – I think she learned from the night before.

I placed the bowl on the ground behind me and she was free to do as she wished. As she circled the bowl, I also circled it keeping it from her. She realized my body wasn’t giving her access to the bowl so she stepped back, sat and looked at me without me asking for anything. As she looked at me, I stepped aside, giving her access to the bowl, but she continued looking at me. I stepped aside and told her to get it. This time she opted to eat rather than come at me. Wise choice, Bitch, wise choice.
Now we are on a not- so – loose – leash walk. My arm is too messed to be dragged by anything, even this little itty-bitty. So I put the leash behind my leg and held it on my belly. As she pulls forward, my leg naturally goes back as I’m walking, making it very annoying for her to pull. I found a natural way to bug her just enough so that she offers what I want. Now our walk is a bit more pleasant.

I also tackled loose leash with horizon runner. He was brilliant.
Monique Anstee
Author of As a Dog Thinketh and Lift Your Leg - the podcast

04/28/2026

An oldie,

When Did Respect Become a Dirty Word?

I recently posted about respect, and got a response that I was not anticipating. I quickly realized respect has become a dirty word...

In my own life, I would never ask a person for advise if I did not respect them. I would never take guidance from a person if I did not respect them, and would be cynical is any unsolicited guidance was given. If I do not respect a person, their opinion means nothing to me. All that are close to me in my life, not only do I value them greatly, but I also respect them.

Respect is a beautiful word. You cannot value a person, and hold them near and dear to you, if you have no respect for them. I love my husband dearly, but equally as important, I respect him.

And I love my dogs, and respect them. I respect who they are as dogs, I respect their genetics, their potential, and most of their personality traits. Likewise, they do the same for me.

I work with many people who do not respect their dogs, and many dogs who do not respect their people. Until their is respect, and the mutual flow of trust, that relationship has no value....

At least that is the way it is in my world, and my own personal relationships with both animals, and people.

Monique Anstee
Victoria, BC

04/28/2026

He’s back! We started our day off-leash, only now we are home close to people. I put an e-collar on him just incase he decided to bolt. The video is of how we looked. We are now a team adventuring together. Even though we are apart, we are connected by an invisible thread that you can see in this short clip.

I was asked about how I could let a dog like this off leash I started with multiple dogs and my bike Most dogs just want to run and are not leaving the group Plus, even run aways start to look twitchy before they bolt and simply changing direction gets them unstuck But even bigger than the group is the desire to run. Let them run with a bike, and they will happily follow, except this dog didn’t. If that’s the case you must know enough to make them think.

My new B and T is here - she’s a cocky little minx that loves fun, especially fun with teeth I unclipped her leash in my very safe dog yard that my silly chickens claimed as their own. The chickens are about the same size as her so it seemed like a calculated risk. The game was on. There was a lot if flapping, clucking, and the odd feather could be seen. I called dog’s name. Nothing. I tossed my bucket in her path - she didn’t notice. I stepped infront of her path flapping a rubbermaid lid at her and rocked her world. We then became fake besties. We played, or pretended to while she really was feeling me out to bite me as witnessed by her low tail. Then when she tested me with a fake bite and I was audacious back with a disrespectful poke she got a rush from it, from me not being scared and different to the others, which got her tail go up. I kind of love this bitch, though dinner time didn’t go as planned for either of us. She went postal on me rather than eating so I took her food back. If she’d prefer to eat me than her food, she clearly isn’t that hungry. She looked most curious about my chess move when I left her.

If I was a dog and raised force free, I’d look like her. I thrive with pressure and excitement, and if provided none can easily create it.

Back to Mr BC, I did use ecollar on him today Not something i like to do with this breed, but he scented deer and bolted. He instantly came with a nick after his name, and we saw the deer a minute later, when he picked up their scent again. No electricity was needed that time, he came on his name.

Please like, share and follow so that Facebook remembers. I exist.

Monique Anstee, Author of As a Dog Thinketh , and Lift your Leg – the podcast.

04/24/2026

There are different types of pulling on a leash. Some dogs are in a hurry, and some dogs want to run into the horizon. You know that if you drop their leash you will never see that dog again.

I have the second type with me right now. As luck would have it my right arm is gimped and there is no way I could hold onto him. Instead, I drove north where I have the freedom to let him run into the horizon.

The first time he ran was in the forest. I took him to terrain where he had to pay attention where his feet went, only he didn’t. He had a beautiful natural consequence for being an idiot as he plummeted off a rock, landed on his feet like a cat, and ran back to me, wondering what happened. After that, he paid attention where his feet went, but this lesson never left the forest. We spent all week in there. It’s been good for our souls, and has given him a chance to unwind and get his head where it needs to be.

Today was the first time I took him on a City type walk. We went on a bike with him off leash.
When he hit the sidewalk, his default behaviour returned. It seemed advantageous as he ran in a straight line ahead of me, only if I turned, he did not. When we got to the park, he kept running straight. I went on my normal path without him. I was on a bike and had the ability to zoom ahead of him and leave him in the dust, and did. He continued running solo without a thought of me.

I got to my destination and could not see him. He had stopped running solo. When I called him, I got the best recall that has ever existed. After that, he stayed with me and we ran as a pair.

I will need to use tools on this dog, but tools are overused. First, we must try and fix the mindset in the right way. This dog has never learned to follow, and has been micromanaged. He is a dog that needs freedom, needs to run, needs to make his own choices. He is a border collie after all.

While we are just at the beginning of our journey, this week has given us the perfect foundation for the following weeks.

Monique Anstee
Author of As a Dog Thinketh , and Lift Your Leg – the podcast

04/15/2026

Another oldie. I’d like to add to this, rather than relying on food and toys, make sure you are so much fun and unexpected that they always keep half an eye on you.

Intrinsic Motivation:

Trainers from the instinct sports know something that other's do not... the value of intrinsic motivation...

While we need to teach with food and toys and praise, these need to be considered teaching tools. Your teaching tools are there to help you clarify the concept that you are trying to communicate, but in no way should be keeping your dog engaged and with you.

Your dog needs to be enjoying working with you, and should not be working for his food. While this almost looks the same, there is a ginormous difference.

If you are confused by what I mean, go take all leashes and training equipment off your dog, and empty your pockets, and go and stand still. Is your dog pestering you to do something with them? If yes, all is good. If all you see is a tail and a bum, then when you get your food they are suddenly ever-present, you have some work to do.

I do not want my dogs thinking, "If I do this, I get that". It won't hold when I need them the most.

What we need to instill into our dogs is an inner joy for their work. If they love their work, the work itself becomes the reward.

Rewards quickly steal the play from play and turn it into work. Alternately, focusing on the learning of the work can turn it into play. If you don't believe me, ask some young kids to help you wash your car and observe how they enjoy the sponges and the bubbles, and their finished product. Then the next time pay them $5 for washing your car. Do that twice, and see the difference in their enjoyment as they do it. Rewards stop inherent enjoyment - and instead get us focused on the reward at the end, not the job at hand.

However, there are exceptions where, "If I do this, then I get that," rewards are needed. They have a place when it comes to dull, mundane practise, such as is necessary for any repeated drill like fronts and finishes, that has no purpose to the dog. As Evan Graham says, "Leave something in it for the dog". If the work itself gives the dog nothing, then we need to add it.

Intrinsic Motivation is complex, and will take a while for you to wrap your brain around. Rewards do have a time and place, but the difficulty arises when they are expected. The focus and enjoyment on the challenges of the work lose their value and enjoyment, and rather become a roadblock to their reward. We need to create joyful work, and joyful moments, and find the right balance. Allow work to become enjoyable work, (with a reward at the end) rather than focusing on the reward at the end.

Monique Anstee
Victoria, BC
Author of As a Dog Thinketh and Lift Your Leg- the podcast