Brenin Behavior

10/23/2026

Two of my trainer friends (FIKAdogs and Dog Pause) did a podcast together! It is fun and educational - I love the '3 second scratches' as a way to check for petting consent.

In our first guest episode of Sit, Stay, Fika, I share a cup with T...

10/12/2026

Thanks Anissa for your detailed 5⭐ review! It was such fun chatting and helping Alphi in our virtual consults.

"The work that Sarah and I have done for my little Alphi is phenomenal. From being our odor work trainer to being our private trainer, I can't recommend Sarah enough. My dog has some severe confidence issues and has some moderate prey drive. Due to his reactivity, we opted for the online option. Given how physical dog training is, I was curious to see how it would work. Sarah would meet with us virtually and taught us some games via enactment on her end while offering guidance on questions or issues we may have been having. I love that she calls the training "games" and truly puts you in a different mindset. After all, everyone loves games! While the road ahead is long, Sarah has been with us every step of the way and Alphi has already had much improvement compared to before we started! She changed our lives for the better and I couldn't be more thankful for her improving both Alphi and I's lives. I look forward to continuing to work with Sarah for as long as I'm able!"

10/05/2026

Thanks Cassy for your joyous 5⭐ review! I really enjoyed working with Mookie and helping him remember how to walk nicely on leash.

"Wow wow wow as my grandson would say. What a difference Sarah was able to make working with our pups in just three weeks! We will continue with the once a month dog tutoring, too."

09/28/2026

Thanks Tara for your 5⭐ review! I enjoyed working with you to help your household of dog and cats all get along. And Isley is such a star at nose work!

"Sarah has a deep understanding of why animals do the things they do, and how to make it fun (for us and for them) to change behaviors that don't work so well. She does this through little games that the dogs love to play - it's all positive, and honestly kinda feels like magic! The games she's taught me have helped my dog become actual friends with my cats, walk nicely with me on sidewalks, and overall created a strong and loving bond between us. Other games helped my foster dogs gain confidence and learn basic life skills after coming out of rough situations. We now do scent work classes with her regularly because my dog loves the process so much."

08/21/2026

Great opportunity for those local to Fort Collins to learn about dog training from some terrific instructors.

07/02/2026

I am thrilled to announce that I am now a Certified Nose Work Instructor through the National Association of Canine Scent Work (NACSW)!

Requirements for this certification included 8 days of direct training, plus at least 40 teaching hours of the NACSW curriculum and 40 hours of observation of searching dogs (I had over 200 observation hours!).

I am honored to join other great instructors in teaching this fun activity. Check out my website to get your dog started: https://breninbehavior.com/scent-work

06/12/2026

Do you dread thunder and fireworks season? Here are 6 tips to make things easier for you and your dog on the day, and 4 bonus tips to help prevent noise reactivity.

Find out more details on my blog: https://breninbehavior.com/blog/jun-26-noise

05/01/2026

I really liked this post by Karolina Westlund - she describes nicely how animal training and understanding their behavior is more complex than you might initially think.

Dr. Westlund says, "... some people think that learning to train a dog is like learning to drive a car. You watch someone do it, you copy the footwork, and off you go. But a dog isn't a car. A dog is a living, breathing, constantly-processing nervous system. Actually, I’ve come to realize that dog training is much more like brain surgery than driving."

... and not like driving a car.

04/17/2026

Come and find out more about wild horse behavior!

04/01/2026