Deerwood Kennels

04/17/2025

This is the nature of the big white dogs

A 2-year-old boy who spent the night alone in remote Arizona wilderness and walked 7 miles through mountain lion territory was led to safety by a rancher's dog, authorities say.

A huge search operation was launched when the boy disappeared from his home in Seligman, Arizona, about 100 miles south of Grand Canyon National Park, at about 5 p.m. Monday. He was wearing just a blue tank top and pajama pants, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office said.

But 16 hours after he went missing, rancher Scottie Dunton found him on his land 7 miles away. The boy was safe and well and had apparently been led to his property by the rancher's dog, Buford.

"I got in my truck to go to town and I see Buford walking down the side of the fence with a little blond kid with him," Dunton told NBC affiliate KPNX of Phoenix. "I had heard about the missing child this morning, so I knew it was him."

More: nbcnews.app.link/ZjXmElNwCSb

03/17/2025

03/05/2025

What could be better than the end of winter? We are excited to announce our 2025 FREE rabies clinics!🐾🐾 We have adjusted the schedule, and all clinics will now take place from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM to better serve our community. ▶Please check your location for the specific day of the week. Let's show our furry companions the love and care they deserve by keeping them protected. Register today!⬇ https://essexcountyny.gov/Health/rabies-clinics/

02/02/2025

Muzzles are one of the most misunderstood tools in dog training. Far from being a punishment, they’re a vital resource for ensuring safety—for dogs, their guardians, and everyone around them.

From the Aggression in Dogs Master Course, here’s what you need to know about muzzles:

1. Muzzles Provide Safety and Confidence:
A properly used muzzle allows dogs and their guardians to navigate difficult situations—vet visits, public walks, or training sessions—without fear of escalation. Safety gives everyone the confidence to focus on learning and progress.

2. Acclimation is Key:
A muzzle is only effective if a dog is comfortable wearing it. Proper acclimation involves gradual, positive exposure, teaching the dog to see the muzzle as a neutral or even positive experience.

3. They Enable Positive Reinforcement Opportunities:
With a muzzle in place, guardians and trainers can safely introduce stress-free, rewarding interactions. This not only reduces risk but also helps change the dog’s emotional response to triggers over time.

4. They Support Long-Term Behavior Change:
When combined with a comprehensive behavior plan, a muzzle serves as part of a broader strategy to modify aggressive behavior. It’s not the solution on its own but a critical tool that supports safety and growth.

Muzzles, when used thoughtfully, are not just about protection—they’re about opening doors to positive change and a safer, more confident future for dogs and their people.

10/09/2024

When dogs are afraid, it’s really worth using reward-based methods to rehabilitate them as quickly as possible. Chronic fear and anxiety cause real suffering so if you can rebuild the dog’s confidence quickly, it’s so very worthwhile because it means they can get back to enjoying life that much sooner.

If you want to build a dog’s confidence and help them feel comfortable, one of the most valuable tools you can use is food. If a stimulus is paired with food frequently enough, the dog will start to associate the stimulus with food and this will cause the dog to feel better about the stimulus. Luring a fearful dog with food can be a very powerful technique that really accelerates rehabilitation BUT YOU HAVE TO BE VERY CAREFUL that you don’t push the dog too far too fast.

If a dog is very food motivated, you can lure them too close to something that makes them feel very scared, and this can be a dangerous and counterproductive situation. If the dog is too scared they might take the food and then react aggressively as soon as the food is gone, or they may simply be so scared that they are unable to form a positive association from the food.

On that note, you should not use this exercise (or any exercise you read about on the internet!) with a dog that is dangerous. If a dog has bitten a person hard enough to cause a serious injury, it means they are likely to do so again. This dog needs help from a professional dog trainer who understands how to read body language and use positive reinforcement methods to safely rehabilitate the dog.

Fortunately, most fearful and reactive dogs are not dangerous. They bark, they lunge, they snap, and they may even “bite” but their bites don’t make contact with the skin, or they don’t break the skin. These dogs have learned bite inhibition and they are safe to work with and you can use this technique to quickly rebuild their confidence.

Yes, this technique involves using food to lure the dog to approach you (or some other stimulus that makes them uncomfortable) but you don’t lure them so close that they are overwhelmed with fear or in danger of reacting aggressively and that makes all the difference.

As they approach, they get high-value treats, reinforcing them for approaching and helping them form a positive association with you (or the scary stimulus). But then, you use a lower value treat to lure the dog further away again. This low value treat is still providing a Classical Conditioning effect, helping your dog form a positive association with the stimulus, but it’s also providing a contrast to the high-value treats that the dog received during their approach.

Crucially, the dog is now back to a very comfortable distance again so when you toss high value treats to lure them to approach, they are moving towards you, but they’re comfortably far away.

Luring a dog to approach a scary stimulus like this is a very powerful and useful technique that can really accelerate the rehabilitation process, so long as you don’t push the dog too far too fast. And as you repeat these steps, luring the dog to approach and retreat repeatedly, the dog is going to get much more comfortable about approaching and being near you.

You can test this at any time by pausing the exercise and seeing what the dog does and where they go when there are no treats offered. At the beginning, a fearful dog will stay quite far away, but after a few minutes of this exercise, there is a good chance that they will readily come closer to the person, even without any food to lure them.

Be patient, watch your dog’s body language, and keep luring the dog back to a very comfortable distance to reset and this technique can work wonders.

If you do this long enough, you will get to the point where the dog will come right up to you without you offering a food lure. If the dog comes right up to you without you tossing a treat to lure your dog, and the dog looks comfortable, you can now try offering a treat directly from your hand. When you do so, you should keep your hand down by your side and you should always have multiple treats in your hand. When you get to the last treat, either toss it to lure the dog away from you, or withdraw your hand before you feed the last treat because an empty human hand is much scarier than a human hand with treats in it.

If you do this enough, it won’t be long before the dog happily takes treats from your hand. At this point, you can feed the dog an entire meal by hand and they will quickly start to feel comfortable around you, and the dog’s life will be much more relaxed and happier as a result.

Again, you should not do this with a dog that is dangerous, and you should be very patient with this exercise. Don’t rush it. Keep luring the dog back to a comfortable distance and it won’t be long before this dog loves approaching you and being near you.

Wow, did you really read all this? Amazing! Do you have or know a fearful dog? If so, tell us about them in the comments.

If you’d like help rehabilitating a fearful dog, you should join the Top Dog Academy, which you can do now for free with a 1-month free trial. We can help you rehabilitate your fearful dog with methods that are easy, gentle and also quick and effective. We want to rebuild your dog’s confidence as quickly as possible!

https://dunbar.info/oct2024TDA

Sign up now and you’ll get instant access to lots of great resources. We’ll be available to guide you through the process with personalized training advice. In one month, you could resolve their fearfulness and be back to enjoying a fear-free life together!

And if you’d like to download a PDF version of this document, or if you’d like to learn more about it, go here: https://dunbar.info/retreat-with-honor

10/04/2024

Obviously, there's a lot more to resolving dog behavior problems than what we can fit onto a single sheet of paper, but this illustrated flow chart provides a great overview of the concepts you'll need to resolve almost any dog behavior problem.

And if you do have a dog behavior problem and you're looking for help, we want to help you and we want to help you for FREE:

https://dunbar.info/oct2024TDA

For the next few days you can join the Top Dog Academy with a 1-month free trial and you'll get instant access to all of our online courses and training resources PLUS we will provide you with a personalized training plan to ensure that you have the guidance you need to achieve your goals and resolve any behavior problem you are struggling with.

This is an amazing, limited-time opportunity to improve your communication and relationship with your dog and enhance your quality of life together, using simple, thoroughly tested training techniques that are easy to use and thoroughly enjoyable.

As you can see from the flow chart, we have four basic concepts that you'll use.

1. Don't Feed Your Dog From a Regular Food Bowl. If you want to modify your dog's behavior or temperament, there's a very good chance you can use your dog's food to accelerate the training process. You don't have to use all your food in training, but for the food you aren't using in active training, you're much better off feeding from hollow chew toys, snuffle mats or puzzle feeders, all of which will stimulate your dog's brain, give them an enjoyable activity to pass the time, and preserve the value of your dog's food. This is particularly true if your dog has any sort of fear or anxiety-based problem, because food, and lots of it, can be really useful for rehabilitating these problems. Speaking of which...

2. Classical Conditioning. If your dog has a problem that is caused by fear or anxiety (including a lot of reactivity and aggression), then you need to train your dog to FEEL more comfortable, confident, and relaxed in specific situations. Expose your dog to the scary stimulus at a low level that isn't overwhelming, and when you do, give your dog things that they love, like praise, food, play, and good vibes! Put on a big smile and do a happy dance and your dog will start to associate all this good stuff with the stimulus they used to be scared of. Repeat x100! Pretty soon, they'll be looking forward to the used-to-be-scary stimulus appearing, because they know what comes with it.

3. Crate Training. If your dog is getting into trouble when you're not around, your training options are limited. There's a lot you can do to teach and reinforce good habits when you are present and supervising your dog, but you also have to prevent your dog from getting into trouble when you do have to leave them alone, especially if it's the sort of trouble that is going to be self-reinforcing. Teaching your dog to LOVE settling down in their crate makes this easy. You can leave your dog in their crate with a food-filled chew toy so they have something to do, and if you tire them out before hand with some training or play, they'll probably be ready to settle down for a nap. The first step is teaching your dog to LOVE going inside their crate and settling down there and in order to do this, you'll need to be present at first, but once you've achieved this goal it makes managing your dog and keeping them safe much easier. Teaching your dog to LOVE settling down in their crate also makes it easy to resolve Separation Anxiety.

4. Lure Reward Training. Teach your dog to perform useful behaviors on cue, reliably and promptly, in any situation, without the need for lures or special equipment. Teach your dog to understand verbal instructions so you can tell your dog what you want them to do. Motivate your dog so they WANT to listen to you and do what you ask, by rewarding your dog with a variety of truly meaningful rewards (not just food!), and provide the rewards in a manner that is interesting and exciting. Test your dog's comprehension so you have a realistic understanding of what your dog is actually capable of, and in what situations, and so you can measure their progress as you continue to train. Practice in progressively more challenging scenarios until your dog listens to you even when they are off-leash, at a distance, chasing a squirrel or playing with other dogs. Yes, this takes time and lots of practice, but when you make it fun, and you make it into a game, it becomes one of the most enjoyable and rewarding ;-) parts of living with a dog.

Wow, did you really read all this? If so, tell me something about your dog in the comments, what do they do that you like? Or that you dislike? At any rate, you deserve a cookie!

And if you have a dog behavior problem and you'd like help, join the Top Dog Academy today. In one month, using our methods, you can resolve this problem, or your money back.

https://dunbar.info/oct2024TDA

Oh, and if you want to download a PDF version of this flow chart, or read more, you can do so here: https://dunbar.info/problemflowchart

08/25/2024

Download Three eBOOKS for FREE from https://dunbar.info/FreePupBooks
Our goal is that every new puppy owner gets these books BEFORE or immediately AFTER getting their puppy and so, please spread the word with all your doggy friends in your community, across the country, and around the world, and encourage them to do likewise in their communities.
Anyone — breeders, veterinarians, pet stores, dog trainers, dog owners, and shelters — may post these books on their website for others to download for free.
Good Habits are Just as Hard to Break as Bad Habits and so... Give New Owners the Know How to Teach Good Habits from the Outset.