The Naughty Dogge

06/24/2026

This treasure is mine until she is old enough to cross the border. Meet Skye, the not-yet giant Schnauzer

06/24/2026

Nugget had her first successful return home with her family while I was in Quebec. She was sweet, loving, and everyone enjoyed her. The only issue was around wiping her feet.

When I got her back yesterday she was grumpy and weird. I ran with it, but when I had to pick her up her tension was obvious and she threatened to bite me. This morning she finished the job and did bite me, followed with going postal, and I had to put her down. I then picked her straight back up and continued on what I was doing.

Biting doesn’t stop me - only good behaviour does. I did a repeat to see if her mind was truly changed. She was fine.

We left home and did 6 km in the forest, then had a three hour break before the video below. I am a firm believer in not allowing a dog’s bad behaviour to dictate how I interact with them, so handling continued until she was a relaxed pile of jelly in my arms.

If a dog bites you, you must tell them biting is wrong, and continue doing what you were doing until their mental state has changed. Here is the changed Nugget.

I offer sincere apologies to her groomer. The only consolation for my terrible scissor skills is that her coat grows fast!

Monique Anstee and Belgian IGP National Champion Harry (allow me to brag just the once).
Victoria, BC

06/22/2026

CWDF All Breed Canadian National Championship 2026

🏆 Harry is now our Belgian Shepherd National Champion
🏆 3rd place IGP3
🇨🇦 Qualified for upcoming FCI and FMBB World Championships

I’m so proud of my dog. About two years ago I was debating retiring him because of a challenge we couldn’t overcome. Thanks to two men who are as passionate and invested in Harry’s success as I am, they got me through it. Thankyou Alexei Turkin and Andreus Kreis. I couldn’t have done this without you. Both the All Breed Champion and Belgian Champion get regular trainings from Alexei. That says a lot.

Sheila Suttill, my training partner, came with me. She endured flight delays that turned into cancellations, among so many other disasters, but that is what trialling at this level is about. S**t gets flung at you, and you dodge and recover, and keep your mental game. Or you don’t. This year, we did.

This was such a fun trial, well run and glitch free. The organizers, judges and helpers were all top. Thankyou so much.

Next year it’s Sheila’s turn with Harper and I can return the favour. We do this all over again, coming back to Quebec, only hopefully with better flights home.

Thankyou to everyone that has been a part of our journey, and to my mentors that taught me most of what I know; particularly Chris and Mo, Connie and Peter Scherk and Mia Skogster. We wouldn’t be here without you.

Monique Anstee

06/20/2026

Clearly we are not missed at home.

06/20/2026

While I was busy laying a well thought out track for Harry’s trial prep, he too executed some well thought out design changes to his accommodations.

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