Muttamorphosis Dog Training, LLC

08/12/2026

Dogs can distinguish distinct human facial expressions! Not shocking, you might be thinking but ... one can't just assume. Previous research showed that they also understand our tone of voice. So, although this study was about negative emotions, another takeaway: smile at your dog when you're happy with them. A genuine smile. Don't fake it -- they'll know! And praise them with a happy tone of voice, I don't want to hear some flat boring "good dog." 😁 You don't want to keep using treats forever, great, me neither. So make your facial expression and tone of voice rewarding for them. 😊

Think your dog can tell when you’re angry rather than sad? New research inside dogs’ brains suggests the answer might be more complicated than you think.

06/05/2026

This! Your dog's pain is very likely to go unnoticed, especially chronic pain. And yes, this is even true for dogs who will yelp dramatically with acute pain (eg having their toe stepped on).

I am going to say something that might ruffle some feathers and I genuinely do not care.

DO THE FU***NG PAIN MED TRIAL.

I have a dog in my program right now. She came to me for biting people in the house when being touched. Which, yes, that is a serious behavior. But before we do anything else, we do the right thing. We rule out pain first. So we sent her to the vet for a full workup. X-rays. The whole thing.

Hip dysplasia confirmed.

And the vet cleared her.

"She is not limping. The hip dysplasia does not seem to be bothering her."

She is biting when touched. She is crying out during normal activity. She cannot settle. She is escalating.

I am not a vet. I want to be really clear about that. But I have been doing this long enough to know that not limping does not mean not hurting. Stoicism is a survival mechanism. Dogs are wired to mask pain. That is not a green light. That is a dog doing exactly what dogs do when their body hurts and nobody is listening.

And here is the thing I keep coming back to. I wrote about this a few months ago when my own back was out and I noticed how much shorter I was with my dogs. How sounds that never bothered me suddenly did. How Rumor's normal snuggling felt impossible. My behavior changed because my capacity changed. Pain does that. To all of us.

Research out of the Autonomous University of Barcelona found a direct link between pain and aggression in dogs. The most common cause? Hip dysplasia. Dogs with no previous history of aggression who developed pain became more impulsive, bit more frequently when handled, and were more likely to assume a defensive posture than dogs who had shown aggression before. And their owners were often completely blindsided because nothing in that dog's history prepared them for it.

Sound familiar?

When a dog is in pain, the brain shifts into survival mode. The pathways that normally handle sensory input, coordination, and emotional regulation get taken over by pain signals. You cannot train your way around that.

You cannot train your way around that. Behavior modification does not fix a body that hurts. The downside of trying is minimal. The downside of not trying is a dog who keeps suffering while everyone looks for answers in the wrong place.

About 80% of my cases have a medical component. That was not something I set out to specialize in. It just kept showing up case after case until I could not ignore it anymore. And now I feel a responsibility to say something when I see it being missed.

So I am genuinely asking, not coming for anyone. What is the hesitation with a pain med trial? What do you actually lose? A few weeks and the cost of the medication. What do you lose by not doing one? A dog who keeps getting labeled a behavior problem while her body is quietly screaming that something hurts.

She is telling us. In the clearest way she knows how.

You don't lose anything by doing the trial but you have everything to lose if you don't.

Picture of Roulette just because.

05/01/2026

Ok, we can disagree on dog training tools and techniques, but no trainer should be doing this. This is absolutely ridiculous. As Gia notes in her commentary, the dog is clearly choosing the discomfort of all those "corrections" over the pain of sitting. Also no decent trainer of any type (balanced, positive reinforcement, etc.) would just keep repeating the cue and/or correction over and over and over. That poor animal. 😔 Please choose your trainer carefully!

04/25/2026

If you reach for your dog's collar—maybe to move him off of the couch when he doesn't want to get down, for example—you need to understand that you are, from your dog's perspective, being confrontational, maybe even aggressive. Taking hold of a dog’s collar seems normal and totally fine to us. But it's probably not totally fine to a majority of dogs. You can see this if you watch the body language of a dog whose collar is being grabbed: does he lick his lips, put his ears back, duck his head, close his mouth, or freeze? Or, especially for huskies, does he mouth your hands when you reach for his collar? Each of these subtle forms of communication can be signs of discomfort or worry. In the photo here, my own dog, Bonita, knows the collar grab is no biggie (though she’s not thrilled with it). She’s ok with it because we worked on it and, importantly, I try not to do it unless I truly need to and, when I do, I give her a heads up (I always say, “lemme getcha”).

If you feel the need to grab your dog's collar, stop and think: Is this absolutely necessary? Could you convince the dog that he actually wants to get down from the couch on his own? If your dog is new to you (newly adopted rescue dog, for example), you might want to have him dragging a leash inside the house (when you’re there with him)—that way you can grab the end of the leash rather than getting right in his face for a collar grab before he even knows you. And for any dog—even one you know well—I suggest that you spend a little time to help him become more comfortable with a collar grab. Here’s just one simple way to work on this:
https://youtu.be/h-xVAgr4qQQ?si=Mh-7P8R1jGb95_2R

04/24/2026

I love so much about this podcast episode from Sarah Stremming (Cog Dog). She offers a clear way to think through whether and how to use aversive techniques or tools in dog training. I know, it sounds like risky territory for a dog trainer, especially one who dwells in, as she calls it, R+-landia. 🤣 Give it a listen -- what do you think?
https://sarahstremming.com/podcasts/aversive-interventions/

04/15/2026

Is your puppy or adolescent dog overly mouthy with you or other human family members? Or maybe she's constantly pestering your other dog for play but your other dog has had enough? Then you might need the Karl Hack. Here's a video from Kathy Gord Callahan demonstrating with several young puppies. You can get a slightly larger plush dog for larger adolescent/young adult dogs. Always supervise your pup with Karl!

Puppies are used to wrestling and biting their littermates, then they go home to you. Oops! You're the new littermate, and you don't want to engage that way....

04/10/2026

Want to train your dog to "drop it" (or "out")? If your dog is struggling with this, I can just about promise you that he's not being belligerent. Most likely, (a) he just really wants that thing in his mouth (remember, he has the cognitive abilities, very roughly, of a toddler) and (b) he doesn't actually understand what "drop it" means. He probably does know that you're upset if you issue the command sternly, but the idea that you want him to release what's in his mouth is not going to compute to a dog. And this understanding is important, of course, in those cases where the dog's definition of "toy" is much broader than yours (e.g., encompassing your shoe or something he might actually try to swallow). I like to start teaching "drop it" by playing tug or fetch using two toys of equal value (where your dog decides which toys are of equal value). Here's a video to demonstrate. Note that my dog in this video is a senior who is only occasionally interested in toys. I had to work to rev her up a bit. If your dog is struggling with "drop it," I'm guessing you won't need to rev him up. 😂

Use this game to begin to teach drop it (out). Use two toys that are of equal value (according to your dog!). By teaching your dog this trading game, you can...

04/07/2026

Another great resource for housetraining is a classic: Patricia McConnell, Ph.D. and Karen London's Way To Go:

The best selection of dog training books, dog nutrition books, and dog competition books anywhere!

04/05/2026

Housetraining. Ugh. That dreaded task we all have to do with any puppy or dog we intend to share our lives with. Here's a good set of basic instructions and things to consider, whether you have a brand new puppy, a new adult dog, or a dog who you thought was housetrained and now seems ... no longer 100% housetrained. And this article includes a link to another one on teaching a dog how to ring a bell to ask to go outside.

Preventing your dog from pottying in the wrong place is the first and most important housetraining task. Since most of us cannot keep our eyes on our dogs every minute, having a safe, comfortable confinement area is key to housetraining success. Most dogs naturally avoid going potty in their sleepin...

03/24/2026

Does it sometimes seem like your dog doesn't even know her name? That's probably because she does not, in fact, know her name ... or even what a name is.

Some nonhuman social animals, like certain cetaceans (dolphins and whales), produce what is called a signature whistle. The signature whistle may function somewhat like a name for these animals. It might be like a person walking into a room and saying, "Bob's here!" But for most nonhuman animals, the scientific jury is still out as to whether they have even the concept of anything resembling a name -- a vocalization or other symbol or behavior that Animal A intentionally uses to refer to herself and that other animals of the same species can use -- or at least recognize -- as a reference specifically to Animal A. And if they do have such a concept, would it extend, for a domesticated companion animal like a dog, to a name given to them by humans? We don't know.

But even if dogs do not understand the concept of a name, your dog can learn to respond to the name you've chosen for her. This video shows one way to help your dog learn to respond to her name:

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