The Successful Mix

04/22/2026

One of my favorite traditions each year is visiting local veterinary practices with gift bags filled with snacks for their amazing staff.

This year, inspired by my Fear Free™ Certification, I added a little something extra for the patients, too—squeeze cheese! It’s a simple but effective way to help reduce fear, anxiety, and stress during vaccinations and other procedures.

These visits are always a highlight. I love seeing the smiles from the front desk team, and it’s a great reminder of just how hard the people at these clinics work every day to care for our community’s pets.

04/20/2026

We see photos like this all the time. A child hugging a dog. A ‘cute’ moment. Something worth sharing.

But what if we look closer?

The dog isn’t relaxed. The body is stiff. The ears are back. The eyes are squinted. These aren’t signs of happiness — they’re signs of discomfort.

What looks adorable to us can feel overwhelming, stressful, or even threatening to our dogs.

This is why the first pillar of Dog Aware is Body Language. It’s a foundational pillar because when we can read how a dog is feeling, we can step in, create space, listen to their whispers and prevent dog bites before they happen.

Many bites don’t come “out of nowhere” — they come after subtle signals that were missed.

Cute doesn’t always mean comfortable.

And learning to read body language keeps both kids and dogs safe.

04/18/2026

At The Successful Mix we help dogs who struggle when they pass other dogs on their leash walks learn to check in with their human walking partner.

Animal Positive Coalition

03/05/2026

As usual it's smart use of Positive Reinforcement for the Win!

Most cities hire people to pick up cigarette butts. Sweden hired crows. And they work for peanuts. Literally.

A Swedish startup called Corvid Cleaning built a machine that rewards wild crows for picking up cigarette butts — the number one litter item in Swedish cities. A crow drops a butt into the slot, a camera verifies it, and out comes a peanut.

No training camps. No cages. The crows figured out the system on their own, because corvids are among the most intelligent animals on the planet. They use tools, solve puzzles, and apparently — run side hustles.

The machine tracks every deposit. The counter on this one reads 124. That's 124 cigarette butts picked up by birds no one asked to help.

02/26/2026

Check this technique out for a reliable recall! 😊

02/12/2026

What I

01/28/2026

While I encourage you to read the whole post... I'll highlight these two paragraphs:

"We know that fear-based methods erode trust, damage relationships, and lead to further fallout. We know that force and intimidation may suppress behavior in the moment, but they create anxiety, unpredictability, and breakdowns.
The enforcement actions we're seeing, the use of overwhelming force, the climate of fear, the unpredictability, mirror exactly what we've moved away from in animal training because we know it doesn't work. Not ethically. Not effectively."

This is a space for curious trainers and anyone who values thoughtful, ethical training. Together, we explore evidence-based insights and real-world inspiration.

And yet it also feels wrong for us not to acknowledge what is going on in the United States, as, together, citizens and non-citizens have been demonstrating against the activities of federal immigration agents in their communities, and these agents' repeated pattern of extreme force, violence, and intimidation.

But what does this have to do with animal training, some ask? Everything. The laws of learning and behavior change are universal and apply to humans as well. Moreover, the well-being of animals is inextricably intertwined with the well-being of their people and the safety of the community that surrounds them.

We know that fear-based methods erode trust, damage relationships, and lead to further fallout. We know that force and intimidation may suppress behavior in the moment, but they create anxiety, unpredictability, and breakdowns.

The enforcement actions we're seeing, the use of overwhelming force, the climate of fear, the unpredictability, mirror exactly what we've moved away from in animal training because we know it doesn't work. Not ethically. Not effectively.

This isn't just about principles aligning with our methods. It's about the people in our communities, our clients, our neighbors, our fellow humans, who deserve the same compassion, safety, and dignity we advocate for on the other end of the leash.

As trainers, we understand behavior change. We ask: what sets the occasion for that behavior? What are the reinforcers? What can we change in the environment if we want to change that behavior? These questions are the foundation of how we approach change, whether we're working with a reactive dog or confronting systemic problems in our communities.

So, we will continue doing what we do: connecting with the ideas, principles, and people that ground us in compassion, evidence, and effective change. We'll keep using our understanding of behavior to work toward the world we want to see. And we encourage you to do the same, in whatever way feels right and possible for you.

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Resources our team has found helpful:
https://bit.ly/49YXaEu
https://bit.ly/4t6CqDm
https://bit.ly/49YXbZ4
https://bit.ly/4bXeLza

01/28/2026

Keezletown, VA: Saw these two dogs shortly after noon today (Wed, 1/28) running loose on Caverns Dr... the black and tan got close enough that I didn't see any ID, but did see that she looked to be wearing an underground fence collar and a green harness, she also looked like maybe recently spayed?, the black dog never got close. The black and tan then took off down the hill and ran across Mountain Valley Rd. I've contacted animal control. Hope they find their way back home safely.

01/09/2026

Get your dog's cooperation for medical care, such as administering eye drops. I can help you learn how to work towards this goal.

01/01/2026