Lead With Patience - Canine Training & Behaviour

03/23/2023

01/09/2023

09/15/2022

Let’s be honest, trying new things is hard. Being bad a new things sucks even more. But you’ll never get good at something without sucking at it first.

Today we went to our first rally obedience trial. We sucked. Well really ..I did. I’ve truly let his rally skills slip and haven’t built on the foundation we got when we took a training class a year ago. These things happen! Life gets busy and we end up prioritizing other things, especially things that are easier for us. Choose the hard thing today. Teach your dog something new or layer distance, duration or distractions onto a known behaviour! 🤍

09/13/2022

Original post from Training

08/02/2022

One thing I didn’t worry about on my wedding day: my dog

Sure, he needed a bath. That’s easy - sent him to the groomers.

I never worried about him being a good boy and I never worried about where he was and what he was doing because my little brother took care of him (thank youuuu).

I didn’t worry because he IS a good boy. He is a good boy because of training (genetics help a ton too - thanks breeder). Recently his hormones and him reaching sexual maturity has really challenged us because:
- he’s more protective (aka barking when people come over)
- and more excitable towards other dogs.

These are things we can work on together (with the assistance of a little ✂️✂️✂️ from the vet October 2nd).

Little rant, but needless to say, he was great at our wedding. He was lovely. A perfect boy that was happy to see everyone, except my poor little brother trying to get him out of the car to drop him at home when I wasn’t there.

08/02/2022

Coming home from a lesson be like….

*my dog sniffing the other dog on me and being offended*

07/06/2022

Welcome Millie ✨to the well rounded puppy program!! I think it’s pretty clear that Bernese Mountain Dogs hold a special place in my heart. This 8 week old pup already learned a ton in her first session tonight! This week we are working on:
• exposure to new stimuli and desensitization to touch
• recall
• name association
• sit
• lay down
• leave it
• preventing jumping up
• & of course puppy biting, potty training, crate training

I’m very excited to see where she will be in 6-weeks!

In other news, I married my best friend on June 25th (woohooo 🤍) so I’m getting back into the swing of training and will try and post more ✨

11/08/2021

Dog trainer takes on the dog show world. . .

WOW! Overwhelming. Conformation sure is a different ball park than pet obedience.

In obedience we want a perfect heel or a nice loose leash walk with the dog at our leg.

Conformation wants the dog in front of you with a tightly held lead.

Obedience looks at what the dog does when we ask.

Conformation looks at the way the dog is structured, their gait, and their look in accordance with the breed standard. Including their bite (who knew! Not me, the unprepared handler).

Obedience looks for an approachable dog. A dog open to handling. A balanced dog.

Conformation judges run their hands all the way down your dog, measuring their build (including, and unexpectedly to me, Nelson’s boy parts). They don’t look at whether the dog is fearful, reactive, or overly excited.

Needless to say, it’s challenging! More so than I’d thought which makes me appreciate the fantastic dogs and handlers doing conformation. We’ve got some work to do! Nelson didn’t place in any of the shows, but we did get 1st place, and best of breed in the Bernese Mountain Dog category of Guardian Dogs…. because he was the only one 😂. A couple beautiful participation ribbons for us, a super fun day, and a list of things we need to learn.

10/12/2021

There was no way I was getting a picture of this squirmy puppy!

Welcome Max ✨ to the well rounded puppy program! Mac is an 11-week old Papillon/Chihuahua mix who picked up recall immediately!

10/12/2021

Happy Thanksgiving dog lovers ❤️