Training One Paw at a Time, LLC.

02/12/2025

Meet Pickles! Pickles' family told me that I could share his story in hopes that it will help other families in the future, who are really struggling with a dog with significant problem behaviors. Please take a few minutes to read about Pickles journey!

Pickles is a 2yr old rescue. His amazing family adopted him less than a year ago. When adopting him they were informed that he had problem behaviors and had displayed aggressive-related behaviors such as growling, snapping, and biting. As well as reactivity and impulsive like behaviors. Pickles new family called me in right away to start working on building his confidence and working through all his problem behaviors. When I first met Pickles it was clear that he LOVED people! However, when observing him first hand, it seemed likely that he had experienced some trauma in the past that had an influence on his current problem behaviors. To no fault of his family, he was very sensitive to strange noises; being touched on certain areas such as, his paws, and hind end; and was easily startled by stimuli. In some situations his fear became so great that he would react aggressively, or he would compulsively spin in circles. He also had other behaviors that we worked though…

Well, after a few months of training Pickles alternative behaviors; teaching his owners how to read body language, manage the environment, and train Pickles on their own; he has blossomed! Pickles and his family have been exemplary students and have come so far in such a short time! His compulsive spinning has been significantly reduced and his likelihood of reacting with aggressive-related behaviors are nearly nonexistent. Not only has his overall confidence and behavior improved, but he is now able allow his owners to use a dremel to grind down his nails! All dogs are different but though training, patiences, consistency, and some treats can go a long way in improving both you and your dog's lives!

01/16/2025

It's never too late to start training your dog! Ashley is a Certified Dog Behavior consultant specializing in behavior modification and currently taking on new clients! Ashley strives to help teach dogs AND their owners the skills to live their best lives as a team. She uses reinforcement and science based techniques to ensure the wellbeing of everyone involved and strengthen your human animal bond! Contact her today via messenger; email: [email protected] ; phone: (609)658-5056 ; or fill out the Fetch form linked in the comments. Ashley will answer your inquiry at her earliest convince. Happy Training! 🐾

12/26/2024

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! Wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday!

11/29/2024

We hope everyone had a Happy and safe Thanksgiving! We are extremely thankful for all our past, present, and future clients!
I started this business because I have a passion for helping dogs. This would not be possible without the owners who put in the work to enrich their dogs’ lives and strengthen their human-animal bond. We will always do our best to educate and support our clients through their struggles. Thank you all for being the best dog parents you can be! Sincerely,
Ashley, assistant Scott, and our four legged helpers!

10/18/2024

This handsome boy Parker has been working on becoming less reactive on walks. We are working on his reactivity to stimuli in the environment with a combination of desensitization, counterconditioning, and teaching him alternative behaviors. His parents have been doing an amazing job keeping him on track and he has made amazing progress!

09/22/2024

I have no judgment towards balanced trainers. I may use positive reinforcement/force free techniques but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t balanced trainers out there that are great. HOWEVER Cesar Milan is not one of them. The techniques he uses are adversity based on the dogs body language. He may get results but at what cost to the dogs wellbeing and the human animal bond.

BEYOND CESAR MILLAN

20 YEARS LATER.....The following review was submitted to National Geographic by Dr. Andrew Luescher, DVM, Ph.D, DACVB (board-certified veterinary behaviorist).

Dr. Luescher, former director of the Purdue University Veterinary Behavior Clinic was asked to provide feedback on "Dog Whisperer" tapes prior to the show's airing.

In this letter to National Geographic (date unknown), Dr. Luescher writes,

"I think this series, if aired, would be a major embarrassment for National Geographic. It is not stimulating or thought-provoking, since none of the presented techniques are new. They are outdated and have long been abandoned by most responsible trainers, let alone behaviorists, as inappropriate and cruel. I very much hope National Geographic will pull the plug on this program."

Please read the entire letter (It's not long.) and share: http://beyondcesarmillan.weebly.com/andrew-luescher.html

This program and trainers who have mimicked the behavior seen in this program have done so much damage to the dog training industry, dogs, and the human-animal bond.

I have met and spoken to Dr. Luescher personally, and I share his sentiments, as do all other trainers in the evidence-based, best practice camp. Meanwhile, much of the unsuspecting public still looks to National Geographic as an authority and has no idea it has thrown science to the wind, at least in terms of dog behavior and training.

Cindy Ludwig, MA, BS, RN, KPA-CTP, CPDT-KA
Canine Connection LLC
Willard, MO

Image copyright Valder Beebe Show, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Cesar_Millan_Mar_2018.png

09/21/2024

Just because a dog may behave aggressively does not mean that they are aggressive. They are most likely scared, nervous, anxious, etc and want space.

Good to know

09/03/2024

Some of our recent graduates. Congratulations to all the dogs and their owners! Training is not only about teaching the dog but teaching the owners; all of which have learned and applied the techniques to help their dogs be the best version of themselves! 🎉🎓🐾🦴

08/27/2024

A day late but happy national dog day to all the amazing pups out there! 💗🐾

08/10/2024

Displacement behaviors are way more common than you think. Have you ever seen your dog shake their body without being wet? Thats a displacement behavior. Displacement behaviors are behaviors that happen out of contest like shaking off without being wet. Other common behaviors include yawning, lip licking, paw licking, scratching, sniffing, etc.

So how do we interpret these behaviors? It is believed that most displacement behaviors occur due to feelings of stress or frustration (internal conflict). To determine if your dog is reacting due to these feelings you need to look at what is going on in the environment. For example, you are inside in the middle of a training session and your dog starts to yawn and scratch. If your dog has been engaged and doing well up to this point this may be a signal that they are becoming frustrated or overstimulated and are attempting to decrease those feelings. These behaviors are engaged in to reduce stress. It is their solution to the internal conflict.

When thinking about displacement behaviors it seems bad but remember not all stress is bad! All living beings need a little stress to achieve their goals and can increase resilience. As long as your dog is able to bounce back, displacement behaviors are completely normal and can give you some insight on how your dog may be feeling.

07/04/2024

Happy 4th of July!! For dogs with firework phobia make sure you plan any outings accordingly, play some music to drown out the sound, and keep windows covered. Hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday!

07/03/2024

Anthropomorphism is tricky especially when teaching clients about dog body language and emotional states. I do use comparisons between human experiences and dog emotional states to help my clients better understand their dogs BUT it is very important to note that dogs are not humans!! Even though they may experience complex emotions they are still dogs and giving them too many human like qualities has the potential to do more harm then good.

ANTHROPOMORPHISM

THE GOOD / THE BAD AND WHERE TO DRAW THE LINE

This hard to pronounce and complicated sounding word – (anth-ro-po-morph-ism), means assigning human qualities, characteristics, emotions, feelings or motivations to our dogs (a non-human entity).

Advancements in canine neuroscience have revealed remarkable similarities between human and canine brain function, particularly in areas related to emotional processing.
This has given us far more understanding of canine cognition and emotion.

Although this is a great thing, it’s so important not to take anthropomorphism too far by assuming that our dogs experience emotions in exactly the same way that we do.

Dogs experience a similar range of emotions that would be seen in a 2 to 2 ½ year old child but are currently not thought to feel more complex emotions like guilt, shame, remorse, spite, pride or contempt.

Here is a link to a graphic that shows where a dog’s emotions are thought to stop in relation to the age of a child - bit.ly/canineemotions

Here are some examples of taking anthropomorphism too far:

“My dog knows exactly what he’s done – look how guilty he looks! No, your dog is reacting to your body language, tone of voice or remembers your previous reaction – this is fear, he is trying to appease you, calm you down, diffuse the situation.

“My dog chewed the couch just to get back at me for not taking him for a walk “ - No, your dog was probably bored, frustrated, lonely, had separation distress and was looking for a way to self-sooth or entertain himself.

“My dog pees inside just to spite me” – No, there could be a host of reasons, but spite is not one of them.

“My dog is just so stubborn” – No, find what is motivating, rewarding for your dog, are there too many distractions?

“Look at how proud my dog looks for winning the competition, graduating from a class, after being groomed etc” - No, your dog is reacting to your emotional state.

Instead of assuming that your dog is feeling “adult human emotions”, learn about body language and notice the context of the behaviour. This will provide a far more accurate idea of how dogs are really feeling.

Anthropomorphism is an essential tool in recognising a dog’s emotional state and allows us to have compassion, empathy, understanding and connection, but taking it too far is detrimental and undermines relationship.