Modern K9

*Teacher By Day; Dog Trainer By Night!
*Balanced Dog Trainer (CDT-C)
*Living peacefully together👤🦮

11/10/2026

I see this time and time again.

A handler who has a reactive dog forces the dog to not look at the trigger.

And I understand why they feel that is necessary because they know that looking often leads to reacting. But forcing the dog not to look isn’t really solving the problem.

We don’t want to use distraction to work through the reactivity.

Instead, we want the dog to develop memories of being able to look at a trigger while feeling calm.

That means in our training, we have to set things up that allows the dog to be successful so we can build those memories.

But if all of their memories are looking away from the triggers, the dog is going to still struggle & not know how to handle looking at triggers.

In training, we actually reward the dog for looking and looking away, completely changing their intent- from looking at the trigger because they’re concerned to looking at the trigger because it’s rewarding.

But this isn’t as simple as it looks. Keep in mind what you see going on in this video clip was after 4–5 lessons working on filling in other gaps in the dog and handler’s training.

11/09/2026

I am so thankful for my personal dogs. They have helped me tremendously with so many of the dogs I foster or train.

They are able to help me in ways I would not be able to achieve on my own.

11/07/2026

You can see the intensity in Murphy’s face. He is waiting, desperately waiting for me to call him out of that position.

And many would believe it’s because he’s getting food from me-But in this moment, it wasn’t about the food.

Being that far away from me is really hard for him. In fact, if you’ve been following me for a while, you have seen the many videos of Murphy staying close to my side no matter where we are. It can be the craziest overstimulating environment, it doesn’t matter -he’s always next to me.

This is because he has an incredibly high pack drive. His desire to stay with his pack a.k.a. me, is very high. It’s not because he loves me so much. It’s because he sees me as his safety net. I am where all of the good things come from. So being far away from me is scary to him.

That is why understanding the drives your dog has is so important because it will help you to understand why they do the things they do.

For example, my Doberman Lincoln, this task would’ve been so easy for him. He would’ve been locked in because he knows he’s getting something out of it and he would happily hold that position for a piece of food.

Murphy on the other hand-it took a little bit longer to teach-not because he didn’t understand, but because he wasn’t motivated enough. I had to make sure that the motivator I offered was able to compete with the motivator of being near me.

Dogs with a higher pack drive have a tendency to be more susceptible to separation anxiety-working with that type of personality requires a special approach at times.

11/06/2026

Laziest boy in town🥰😂

11/05/2026

This was much harder for one than the other.

11/04/2026

But I’m also not the type of trainer that thinks that dogs peeing frequently equates to marking their territory. The theory of marking (yes theory, because it can’t actually be proven) seems absurd to me because there’s no way a dog pees on items thinking “this is mine, oh and this is mine too, and this too”. There’s no way they think it all belongs to them.

Furthermore, most dogs that are labeled as “markers” don’t mark as much on their actual territory as they do in new environments.

I fully believe that it’s just about passing on information.

Some details dogs can obtain about another creature just by simply investigating their urine are:

• gender and reproductive status
• age and body size
• general health status
• emotional state
• diet

This is why I have no issues with a dog that chooses to “mark” because I see it as pee-mail or an “Instagram story”.

And when they kick back towards their waste to wipe more of their scent, I just see it as them hitting “submit” or “send”.

Lastly, if the dog is doing this in your house, I don’t consider that a “marking” problem. That is a house training problem.

11/03/2026

Yup. Rinse & Repeat.

It is a never ending learning process.

11/02/2026

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard this statement. Normally it’s with a rude undertone.
“I don’t know how you foster. I could never give up a dog.”

Almost as if to say that there’s something wrong with giving up a foster dog-like how in the world could you possibly give up a dog?

But personally, I think it is more about making the person feel better with their decision to not foster or to make them look good for not fostering.

Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t think fostering a dog is for everybody. And I’m not saying that everybody should foster a dog. I just think this is a horrible excuse for not fostering.

Not having the time or energy to give to a foster is a better excuse.

Worrying that you might not be able to handle having a dog in your home is a good excuse

Fearing that you don’t know enough about dogs to foster one, is a great excuse.

Not having the schedule to allow for the care of a dog, is a wonderful excuse.

But worrying that your heart might hurt for a few days-That is not a good excuse because let me tell you, although my heart hurts every time I give up a dog, the joy of seeing them in their new home is greater than my discomfort.

10/31/2026

We can do all of the things in training, but if we don’t add in real life scenarios, it’s very possible the dog will still struggle.

And this is because dogs are very contextual. If you only practice a skill in one specific context, the dog then may struggle to transfer it to other areas of their life.

This is when many dog owners feel discouraged because their dog does great around a group of dogs during a training session but still struggles with reactivity on walks.

So while Eve, the black Doberman has gone through a lot of training and we have already entered in helper dogs, we needed to add in scenarios where it looked like it was outside of a training session.

For this lesson, instead of going into the client’s house and training together, I let her know when Lincoln and I had arrived. I took a walk in her neighborhood and we met each other a few minutes later.

While the human knew this was truly a training session, the dog saw it through the lens of her regular daily routine.

Not only was this beneficial for the dog, but it was also beneficial for the human to see how far they have truly come.

10/30/2026

I know so many dog owners want to know-NEED to know-how did we make this progress?

What is the secret formula?

What are the tricks?

But that’s just it – there is no secret formula. I didn’t have a special plan. She did not go through intense training.

All I did was develop an appropriate dog/human relationship. A relationship based on trust, fairness and predictability.

The trust is developed overtime as we begin to open up the lines of communication. I helped her to make the correct associations to the different verbal cues I expected her to know. The trust also comes from always setting her up for success.

The fairness is shown from always providing motivation in some way shape or form to help her do the things I’m asking her to do. I don’t just expect it. I set it up so she wants to do it.

And the predictability comes from always showing her that I have her best interest at heart and whenever I ask her to do something, it always ends with a positive result.

I didn’t just expect her to do what I wanted her to do without actually teaching it to her. I didn’t expect her to do it because I said so-and I most certainly didn’t expect her to choose my way over her way without giving her a reason why.

And this is the exact reason why when I work with my clients, I never address the actual issue on day one.

Why?

Because what the client thinks is the issue, really is not. It is just the result of having a poor relationship with the dog.

So the relationship must be repaired first.

Address

Indian Land, SC
29707

Website

https://linktr.ee/modernk9_carolinas, https://youtube.com/@ModernK9_Carolinas

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