K-9 Composure

01/18/2024

Everyone welcome Maggie the Shepsky mix to our Stay & Train program! 🐾

The universe has such a magical way of bringing things back around full circle. Maggie’s parents are some of our very first clients that we had 15 years ago when still we resided in VA.

Their previous dog with us, Rudy, is now peacefully resting over the rainbow bridge and has sent this little lady to help heal his parents hearts. 🌈

We are honored to have connected and aligned with them while we are in TX. We are still on a bit of sabbatical raising the next generation of K9C kiddos, but we are happy to make exceptions for our loyal 4 paw families! Here’s to the next generations 🥂

01/16/2024

Hey guys!
We are working on rebranding and creating a new logo for the site. Would love to have your input on our poll and new look! 🐾

Nicole Dodson has received 218 designs so far using DesignCrowd to create a new logo design. Nicole Dodson has selected 4 designs to get your feedback and help decide which one to select.

12/19/2023

Tips for keeping your pets safe this holiday season🎄

11/17/2023

When you are looking to get a purebred, being that you have done your research to see if the dog will fit your lifestyle and you can genetically fulfill what it was bred to do, these are the types of breeders to look for.
Standards are there for a reason and preservation breeders will not breed colors and sizes outside of that.
Great video explanation and a little history on the Doberman here! 🐾

09/29/2023

For all the Toppl lovers! 🥳

04/26/2023

Example #1 of why properly socializing puppies is important.

And let me reiterate PROPER socialization.
❌dog parks❌greeting strange dogs/people❌

We do not get to decide what is scary to our dogs. It could be something you would never think of! In puppies, these fears are primarily from lack of exposure to new stimulus.

I do not know what Venom has been exposed to prior to getting him a week ago at 3.5 months. On our first walk I noticed he was very bothered by things moving and anything taking place above his normal eye gaze straight or down.

He was terrified of the tall grass blowing in the wind. So how did I fix this and make it one of his new favorite activities?

1. RELATIONSHIP! I had to start building a bond with him being I was new to him and vice versa. This way he had someone he could trust in situations that do not make him feel secure.

2. PLAY! Puppies have short attention spans. You need to be more interesting than your environment. We do a lot of hide and go seek and letting him chase me. I also act extremely goofy to keep “fun energy” going.

3. DESENSITIZE! We kept a distance that was comfortable for him still within sight of the trigger. We trained and played slowly decreasing proximity.

Once he was neutral to the trigger close by, I used the relationship created & play to defeat the grass monster 👹
Truly all I did was take off running into the grass and he followed. The chase game & hide and go seek were applied and we had a grand time 🎉

Once he realized grass was fun it was easy to turn a mild trigger into friend. 🫂

04/25/2023

Just gracing your feeds with a little bit of happy today! 🫧☀️🫧

04/25/2023

Priorities! 🙌🏼

04/21/2023

Y’all will have to forgive my unkempt state. I am exhausted 😆

Day 1 working on name/recall/loose leash, climb, touch for lure, magnet hand, and markers.

Really impressed with this guy! He had just gotten to me after about 3 days traveling in cars and planes from overseas.
I typically start imprinting much sooner with my demo and working prospects so I am playing catch up with socialization, relationship building, and desensitizing.

Looking forward to bonding and working with this little big dude 🥰

04/21/2023

We will be attending UDC Nationals this year and super stoked that it is nearby!

Swipe left to see the schedule.

Will you be attending?

04/03/2023

And now I have to remember you for longer than I knew you 🐾🌈🐾

It has been 5 months since we said goodbye. I still haven’t washed your blanket on the couch or your nose prints off my mirrors.

Some days are better than others where the waves are calm and gentle. But on days like today they are violent and take my breath away. 🌊

It was an honor to be your human in life and an even greater honor to have a love that makes your absence this breathless. 🖤

Follow us on IG 👉🏻👈🏻

04/02/2023

So you think you might be in a burnout cycle? 😮‍💨

In our last post we talked about what burnout is, some symptoms of it, and how it can largely effect pet/animal industry workers. 🐾
•••••
Today let’s discuss the 5 stages to help you identify where you may be in the process.

Stage 1: Honeymoon Phase- when starting a new job or project it is common to experience spikes of satisfaction. This can especially be true for those of us neurodivergents who hyper focus or chase dopamine to get things done.

Stage 2: Beginning Stress Phase- as the honeymoon stage wears off you will begin to experience and notice the uptick in frequency of stress. Fatigue can set in causing a lack of production, inability to focus, difficulty sleeping, and ability to enjoy other activities.

Stage 3: Chronic Stress Phase- if management steps aren’t taken, and pressure continues to grow, so too do the stress levels. You may withdraw from social activity, become more apathetic, procrastinate, and become angry lashing out at coworkers or those around you.

Stage 4: Burnout Phase- At this point you can no longer function as you normally would. You may feel numb, obsess over problems letting them consume you, and notice more physical ailments. (headaches, stomach problems, gut health etc)

Stage 5: Habitual Burnout Phase- left untreated burnout can lead to depression, anxiety and many other mental/physical issues that prevent you from doing your job and putting your position in jeopardy.
•••••
Speaking from personal experience, stage 5 sent me into a downward spiral of behaviors that caused me to not recognize myself. Always seeking the next thrill just to feel anything at all. The numbness was UNREAL!

Part of my recovery was finding balance in nature. 🌲
But my place of respite was Sascha. My girl was with me through it all, and many times was the only thing that kept my from falling off the edge. To her I could never be more thankful. 🖤

Do you have someone who helps you come back to center?
Tag them in the comments! 👇🏼

04/01/2023

Have you ever experienced chronic burnout? Let’s talk about it!

What is burnout?
Burnout Syndrome originated in the 1970s by psychologist Herbert Freudenberger. Originally it was used to describe medical professionals but later evolved to include any work profession. Surveys done across various industries found that from 2020-2021 alone, burnout had increased by almost 10%, from the 43% reported prior to the pandemic.

Disclaimer: Stress is not burnout (but can lead to it) and Depression is not burnout (but can mask as it).

Burnout typically feels like you don’t have enough. No motivation, energy, or care.
Symptoms can vary depending on what phase of burnout you are in.

3 main symptoms to be aware of are:
-reduced personal performance
-persistent exhaustion
-indifference

So why is a dog trainer bringing this up?
In short, because this is why we dropped off for awhile, and to shine a light on a topic that many in the animal world experience but don’t talk about. (your vets, techs, trainers, groomers, rescues, etc)
When you are so passionate about what you do, you give and give (many times thanklessly) …until you’re out.

While burnout is not an overnight thing, if left unmanaged, let’s just say you stand to lose a lot. Your mental health/sanity, your friends, your partners, your job. The list goes on.

We bring this up not to shame or to fain victimhood, but to shine a light on a topic many are secretly suffering from.
Part of recovery is having open and honest conversations. The beginning of the healing process starts with recognition, honesty, and conversations like these.

If you or someone you know may be dealing with burnout or compassion fatigue, let’s talk about it! While we are not licensed therapists, we are a safe space for discourse amongst the community.

Drop us a heart if you can relate or share your stories in the comments so others can see they are not alone.
And if you want to see more like this, give us a follow as we will talk more about our journey back from burnout, compassion fatigue, and loss.

03/30/2023

Mutual eye contact between you and your dog can increase oxytocin (for both). Oxytocin is also known as the “love hormone” and can help reduce feelings of anxiety while also enhancing connection. 🫂

👉🏻Side note: Not all eye contact is created equal. The eye contact we are speaking to here is between you and the dog you have bonded with. This does not apply to unknown dogs and will very likely be seen as challenging or intimidating.

Dog on dog eye contact is typically seen as in sighting hostility and in some rare instances play. It is not common for dogs to make eye contact for an extended amount of time because it is seen as assertive.

Eye contact avoidance is common to show respect, submission, or to de escalate (all of these look slightly different). Since it is not particularly normal for dogs to make eye contact for extended amounts of time, we begin conditioning the exercise to mean something positive with us. Sometimes handlers train this inadvertently (since our dogs are always learning).
Have you ever pet your dog when they looked at you? Treated them? Talked to them lovingly? 💕

••••••••

Eye contact is one of the first things we begin working on in our program with new dogs to help build trust, connection, and relationship. Once built, this behavior/exercise can provide extreme advantages to your dog in stressful situations. 👀

We are currently working on putting together a 90 day online working puppy training curriculum.
It will include exercises like this in an excel spreadsheet with weekly exercise breakdowns including prerequisites to more advanced chained behaviors.
Be sure to follow us for more training tips and advice! 🫶🏻

We started a new IG account
Follow us 👉🏻👈🏻

03/28/2023

Some great tips for grieving the loss of your pet and the parts of yourself they took with them ❤️‍🩹

216 Likes, 22 Comments - Beth Bigler🌈Pet Loss Grief Counselor () on Instagram: "🌱 “For a seed to achieve its greatest expression it must come completely undone. The shell c..."

03/28/2023

And your home is now my heart 🐾

RIP Sascha 11/22

03/25/2023

Streamlining the Doberman Pinscher

While they may have developed a reputation for their sharpness, the dogs were reportedly a success when first formally presented to the public. While the Doberman Pinscher wouldn’t step into a show ring until 1897, more than three decades earlier the fledgling breed was exhibited at Apolda’s inaugural dog market in 1863. Amid the various stalls with shaggy shepherds and lap-sized companions, Dobermann’s dogs stood out for their depth of character.

After Dobermann’s death, attention began to be paid to the breed’s appearance as much as its working ability. Around the turn of the 20th Century, crosses were made to two English breeds – the black-and-tan Manchester Terrier and the Greyhound – giving the breed some of its streamlined fluidity.

While Dobermann sparked the creation of his eponymous Pinscher, it was a liqueur manufacturer, Otto Göeller, who fed it just the right kindling to ensure it would burn brightly until today. Five years after Dobermann’s death in 1894, fellow Apolda resident Göeller founded the first Doberman Pinscher club (in a pub during that same annual dog market), and helped write the first standard. At its peak, his von Thuringen kennel held some 80 dogs, many of which he exported abroad. A talented salesman and fervent promoter of the Doberman Pinscher, Göeller even named a bitter from his distillery after the breed. - Denise Flaim for the AKC

Ch. Borong the Warlock, Doberman Pinscher, 1955

03/15/2023

Communication from our pets can come across as subtle to those without a lot of experience in reading dogs.

Our dogs need time to decompress after a stressful or new situation. If we continue to put our dogs in new situations without the ability to decompress we can create flooding.

Flooding more often than not, will lead to aggression and learned helplessness (extreme submission).

To avoid flooding your dog, pay attention to what they are communicating and their energy levels. Most behaviors are not “out of the blue”. They are typically a result of continued pressure in the same type of situation or an amalgamation of stressors back to back without a means to “escape” and decompress or to create wins.
You can not always avoid stress.
It is our job as caretakers to notice when our dogs are over threshold (too much stress) and create space or help them work through it.

To increase our dogs thresholds and avoid flooding, we work to desensitize different stressors. This is a gradual process that should be full of wins for your dog boosting confidence.

TRIGGER STACKING – WHEN BEHAVIOUR HAPPENS “OUT OF THE BLUE”
We’ve all had those days when nothing seems to go right and one frustrating thing after another happens, leaving us feeling wound up, stressed and ready to explode at the next unsuspecting person who dares to ask us something. This “unsuspecting” person may think we have a serious behaviour problem or need anger management coaching, when the truth is that we’ve just had a really bad day and don’t usually behave like this at all.

Dogs are no different and a behaviour that seems completely out of character or happens “out of the blue” is often caused by “trigger stacking”.

A trigger may be anything that increases a dog’s stress levels and has a negative impact on their emotional, mental or physical state. These may be small things that we may not even notice or seem insignificant to us, but they are all adding to an increasing “stack” of things that may end in a “trigger”.

When stress levels reach a certain point, the next stressful event, however small, may cause a reaction that is completely unexpected.

Instead of just focusing on a particular behaviour and seeing it as a problem that needs to be prevented, take a step backwards, look at the bigger picture, look at events, circumstances or environmental factors that may have played a role in causing that particular behaviour.

Being aware of potential stressors and allowing your dog time to decompress, relax and unwind can often make all the difference between “normal behaviour” and a behaviour that seems completely out of character.