Patterson Dog Training Services

07/10/2026

One of the things that I am seeing a lot of when I visit client's houses for training are doggy allergies. Itchy skin, thinning hair, redness between the toes and sometimes even scratching until the skin bleeds - these are all examples of symptoms of allergies. We all see ads on the internet and on the TV for dog allergy medications and treatments. Something that I have to stress is that if you think your dog has an allergy, take it to the vet and have that confirmed first.

There are various dog conditions that mimic allergies. One of the most prevalent is demodectic mange, the lesser known of the manges. We all have probably heard about sarcoptic mange, and the bad effects that it can have on your dog. Demodectic mange is a non-contagious condition that is also referred to as "red mange." It's an inflammatory skin condition caused by a microscopic mite, "Demodex Canis."

The funniest thing about this is that every dog has these mites. They live deep inside the oil glands and hair follicles. On a healthy dog, the immune system keeps the mite population low and harmless. The mange condition only happens when something goes wrong with the immune system "shield," allowing the mites to breed completely out of control.

The mange condition usually shows up as one of two types: localized and generalized. Localized usually occurs in puppies under a year old. It shows as a few isolated, patchy bald spots, usually around the face, eyes or front legs. The skin may look red or scaly. In most cases, the condition resolves itself, the skin clear up, and the puppy goes on to live a normal life.

Generalized mange can affect pups with severe immune defects or older dogs with sudden underlying health issues, like diabetes, cancer or Cushing's syndrome that absolutely tank their immune system. It shows up as widespread hair loss across the body. The skin becomes crusty, darkens significantly, and frequently develops secondary bacterial infections.

This is the type of infestation that requires the treatment of a vet. It won't clear up on it's own because the dog's immune system has completely lost it's ability to control the mite population.
Demodectic mange is not contagious to humans. The dog doesn't need to be quarantined because this condition is purely an internal breakdown of that specific dog's immune system control.

Now, the big thing is that the two manges, sarcoptic and demodectic, look a lot alike. Both cause hair loss, raw red skin, crusting and sores from secondary infections. Demodectic usually doesn't cause itching unless a secondary bacterial infection sets in, whereas sarcoptic causes intense skin irritation. Demodectic usually starts on the face, muzzle and around the eyes, while sarcoptic mange usually starts on the belly. hock and ear edges.

Both mange conditions may eventually require veterinarian treatment, but only sarcoptic mange is transmissible to humans, causing the condition known as scabies.

So, while your dog may just have allergies, there are specific things to look for when he is itching and scratching. Examine your dog and look for thinning rings of hair around one or both eyes, making it look as though your dog is wearing spectacles. Run your hands along the muzzle, forehead and front legs. You are looking for small, discrete circular patches where the hair has fallen out. Check your dog's feet, especially between the toes and the nail beds. When demodex hits the feet, it causes the skin to swell, turn a deep reddish-purple and lose its hair. The paws can become quite tender, and the dog may lick at them frequently, leading to misdiagnosis as simple environmental allergies.

If your dog has thinning hair, look closely at the skin surface. Look for what appear to be dark blackheads or plugs blocking the pores. Because the mites are overcrowding the hair follicles, the follicles overproduce keratin and sebum, plugging the pores and causing the remaining hairs to slide out.

Finally, give the dog a sniff. If the mite population is high enough to cause generalized demodectic mange, it compromises the skin's natural moisture barrier. This allows normal skin yeast and bacteria to proliferate wildly, producing a very distinct, heavy, stale or "musty" smell that doesn't disappear even after a bath.

So, please remember, especially in puppies and some immunocompromised animals, if your dog suddenly starts showing some of the symptoms mentioned earlier, don't brush it off as "just allergies." Sometimes, it can be something that is serious but treatable, like Demodectic mange. As always, enjoy your furry friends and if you need some training help, we are a phone call away.

06/29/2026

Our business number has changed. Same awesome training, different number. 234-282-5989.

03/29/2026

Here's something that we rarely think of but is extremely important. It's unpleasant to talk about, but necessary. The thing is, we invest time, effort and money into our dogs - training them and taking care of them throughout their lives. When the time comes to say goodbye, we sorrowfully say our final farewells. Usually, we outlast our dogs. But one thing that we don't often think about is what happens if our dog outlasts us.

The biggest issue is that we can't always count on well-meaning relatives to take care of our dogs. Relatives have their own concerns and often cannot take on another mouth to feed. Not only that, but many times dogs react badly to a loss and behavior problems surface. The dog that was perfectly okay at Grandma's may not be okay living with the grandkids 24/7. Luckily, there is a solution to this whole conundrum. Better yet, there are several solutions.

One of the first things that you can do is gift your dog to a relative in your Will. You can set aside some cash to care for the dog while your relative has it. Problem is, the relative is not legally bound in this case to actually keep the dog or to use the money for the dog's care. There are cases where the relative in this type of arrangement just chucks the dog to the local pound and pockets the money, or where the dog doesnot fit into the environment and the relative has to get rid of it. Unfortunate, but true.

A better solution is a pet trust, with allocated funds. A caretaker is assigned, and they are legally obligated to use the money for the dog's care. This is a better solution because it guarantees that Fluffy will be taken care of by a caretaker you have chosen.

A less formal version of this is called a Pet Protection Agreement. This is also legally binding and is a viable solution for your Will.

A Pet Care Directive is like a Protection Agreement, but doesn't legally force the caretaker to use funding to take care of the dog. Once again, the Directive allows the dog caretaker to choose whether or not to use the monies to care for your dog.

If you have no relatives you can use for your dog, then you can use Legacy programs. These are programs like Veterinary Hospitals, the ASPCA, and other charity programs. You can Will your dog to them, and they will try their best to rehome them.

If that's not your style, most experts agree that a Pet Trust with a named guardian and detailed instructions is the best course of action. You can assign a backup guardian and include a letter of your final wishes, if you need to.

Of course, my personal wish is that each and every one of you live long, fruitful lives filled with happiness and love. In reality, sometimes the end comes at unexpected times, and we leave this world and our loved ones behind without a directive on how they are to be taken care of. Maybe this should change. I encourage you to provide protection for your dog so that if the unthinkable should happen, Fido will be looked after.

03/27/2026

Reliability. That's what we all are looking for in a trained dog. The confidence to know that when you tell your dog to sit, it sits. The trust that when you take your dog to the dog park, it won't attack the other dogs. The understanding that your dog is an even-tempered member of the familyand won't bite the grandkid. That's what we are looking for in our dogs - reliability.

The only way that your dog can get reliable is through a training program that emphasizes repetition, consistency, fairness and understanding. There are many programs out there that promise many things. Some deliver, some don't. Don't fall for a program that doesn't deliver on what they promise.

Here's how you pick a good trainer. If the trainer advocates first that you use aversive training techniques like Chokers, Prongs, Slips, or Shock collars, don't go with that trainer. A good trainer uses non-aversives before ever resorting to aversive techniques.

If your trainer isn't consistent with his instructions, don't go with that trainer. A good trainer has a plan and lets you in on that plan. Granted, there may be times when circumstances dictate that plans change, but a good trainer will always tell you about changes beforehand and let you know the options that are available.

A good trainer understands that the owner needs to be instructed on how to train. Oftentimes, trainers act like training is a huge secret. Owners need to know how training techniques work so that they can continue training at home. A good trainer will show the owner how the technique works, and encourage the owner to learn correct ways of training.

Finally, a good trainer understands that not every situation is the same. A trainer who comes into a situation thinking that they know everything will teach nothing. Sometimes what causes the dog to act in a certain way is totally the opposite of what we think. A good trainer knows this, and approaches everything with open eyes.

Make sure you have a good trainer. Here at Patterson Dog Training Services, we pride ourselves on continual learning. We study, learn new techniques, and pass them on to you. Steady, reliable and understanding, just as every good trainer should be.

03/11/2026

Timing. Let's talk about timing today. Timing plays such an essential part in training a dog that even professionals get it wrong sometimes. When you are training, the keys to success are fairness, repetition, timing, and consistency. If any of these things are lacking, then your training is not going to be successful.

Timing, however, is the most important thing ever. Rewards and corrections, if used, must be delivered with spot-on timing. This is absolutely necessary because of how animals learn.

I really don't have the space to go over the theory of Operant Conditioning, but in a nutshell an animal learns by whether or not a behavior is rewarded or not at the moment that it is performed. If it repeats the behavior and gets rewarded again, then the behavior is more likely to be repeated again. If it runs into a scenario where the behavior does not result in a good result, then the behavior will start to decrease and eventually be extinguished.

When we train, we are putting Operant Conditioning into practice by rewarding behaviors we want and ignoring or correcting the ones we don't. This idea is pretty simple. The problem is that in order to be effective, absolute timing plays a huge part. The trainer must reward at the proper instant, and must correct or withdraw at the proper time as well. This is something that they must read into the situation, and something that is learned through experience and understanding of the dog's behavior.

An average owner who decides to teach their dog the basics can accomplish that. But, if there is an issue that requires behavioral modification, or complex commands, an experienced trainer is better. An experienced trainer can understand the timing needed to establish a pattern of behavior - something an owner may not understand.

So, if you want to change Fido's behavior, and you don't understand how to time things, your training can actually have unintended consequences. The issues can actually become worse. That is why so many well-meaning owners fail when trying to train.

At Patterson Dog Training Services, we specialize in cruelty-free training. Our trainers understand how use timing, rewards, consistency and understanding to train your pup. We won't be satisfied until you are.

03/03/2026

It's been a while since we did a post here - let's rectify that. I wanted to write today about operant conditioning. If you want a really technical and brilliant synopsis of what it is, read Jean Donaldson's amazing books. She has a way of explaining it that absolutely makes sense.

Conditioning is one of the ways that dogs (and pretty much all the other animals) learn. The basic idea is that if a behavior brings rewards, then that behavior is likely to be repeated. If that repeat brings rewards, then the behavior will be repeated again and again as long as it continues to bring rewards. On the other hand, if the behavior brings negative consequences, the behavior will gradually decrease as long as that behavior continues to bring about negative consequences. Eventually, the behavior eventually ceases.

Now we, as humans are not immune to this form of learning. Parents use it all the time with their children. The kid misbehaves, and the parent punishes. Eventually (unless you got one of those kids who were like me,) the behavior goes away; replaced by an acceptable behavior. Punishment's pretty effective, right?

The issue here is that punishment isn't effective unless the punished realize what they are being punished for. When it comes to dog training, punishment is something that a good trainer strives to stay away from. We take the first part of the conditioning cycle and repeat it so that the animal learns through success rather than punishment. This creates a behavior that is based on repetition and reward, not fear and pain. When home trainers train using outdated techniques, they are setting themselves up for failure, and creating an environment of fear, rather than an environment of reward.

I guess what I am trying to say here is that learning in general is a process of steps that go a lot quicker if proper behavior is enforced correctly and improper behavior is discouraged in a humane manner. Here at PDTS, we strive to practice cruelty-free training, with the goal of fear-free, happy dogs. If the dog is happy and obedient, the client is happy and satisfied. Whether you are considering having an older dog trained, or having your puppy schooled, consider Patterson Dog Training Services, where we will treat you and your dog right!

02/10/2026

One of the most frustrating ideas I come across as a dog trainer is that dogs are "just little people in fur coats." Look, we understand the bond that develops between owners and their pets. As a matter of fact, the pet industry wouldn't exist without that bond. We feel it too, with our own pets. We know that dogs become members of the household and that we dote on them as we would our own children. When that becomes frustrating is when the "pet parent" doesn't understand the dog itself. They see the dog as a member of their family first, and forget that psychologically, dogs are very different than people.

Not understanding the psychological nature of your dog can be one of the most cruel things you can do as a dog owner. There is a word - anthropomorphism. It means "attributing humanlike characteristics to nonhuman things." All of us are guilty of this to a degree. We assign human characteristics to everything. Our cars, our AIs, nature - we relate to these things on a human level because we have no other reference or context. We use our own experiences as a template to define the world, because it's our most valid reference point. When it comes to dogs, I call it "the Fluffy mentality." People with a Fluffy mentality are the ones who expect their dog to act and think as a human, like in a cartoon or a Disney movie.

Anthropomorphic traits create a psychological trap for both owner and dog; when an owner mistakenly thinks that their dog is "near-human," then they often feel justified in correcting them as if Fido understands his infraction as a human would.

Oftentimes, this misunderstanding creates tragic situations. If a person thinks that their dog is smart and understands he's doing wrong, then repeats of the behavior can only be done from spite. The dog is attempting to punish the humans or get his way. This idea creates frustration when the human is unsuccessful in changing the behavior. If the dog is doing this whole thing out of spite, then it's no longer a situation of training, it's a confrontation. Frustration grows, and the dynamic changes. Now, instead of scolding Fido for a behavior, the human uses physical correction because it's justified to deal with the dog's spitefulness. This, of course, is wrong, and only has the effect of creating fear in the dog.

Here's where it gets even worse. The dog doesn't see the infraction as an infraction - it sees it as normal dog behavior. It doesn't even necessarily connect the action to the consequences. All the dog truly knows is that when the human gets angry, bad things happen to dogs. So, it shows appeasement behavior to ward off the impending confrontation.

Here's an example: Fido chews newspaper when his human isn't home. To Fido, this behavior is natural. Humans not being home is stressful, and dogs relieve stress by chewing. It's not a bad thing - it's a Natural Behavior For Dogs. Fido doesn't connect this infraction to the anger his human shows upon returning home and seeing newspaper all over the floor. Fido just sees the human getting angry. The human brandishes the torn up newspaper, and even smacks Fido with it. The thing is, Fido is psychologically incapable of connecting the context to the situation. To Fido, the key element here is that the human gets home and punishes him for an unknown reason. Once again, the human leaves, the stress sets in, and Fido repeats the newspaper chewing behavior because that's Normal Behavior For Dogs.

To the human, Fido repeats this behavior because of spite - "if the human leaves, I'm going to chew this paper to punish them." If the human's reaction happens as soon as they came home and see chewed up newspaper, then Fido may associate the human coming home with the correction. He may begin to show appeasement behaviors as soon as the human arrives, in the hope of avoiding confrontation. The downcast look, the crawling on the floor, even submissive urination. Unfortunately for Fido, the human who is locked into the anthropomorphic view see this as indication of guilt. The "guilty" behavior serves to reinforce the human's view that Fido is acting out of spite, and creates a spiral of misunderstanding.

You can see why this is frustrating. Once a pet owner gets into this cycle, it's hard to break them out of it. Anger, justification, even resentment towards the dog is the result, and the trainer must work on mending the relationship between owner and dog, rebuilding their trust in each other.

Here at Patterson Dog Training Services, we will help you understand your dog's psychological needs. We educate dog owners on their dog's perspective of the world, and help pet owners truly understand their dog's perspective of the world. The best thing about dogs is that they live in the moment, so fresh starts are very possible. Call us for your dog training needs.

02/02/2026

When you try to train your dog, do you ever notice that it's sometimes hard to get them interested? You present your treat, you expect a great reaction, and instead your dog looks at you, yawns and lays down. You think this is about motivation, right? Surely your dog just needs to be properly motivated to do what you ask. So, you try better treats, you try other methods, and you run into the same roadblocks... what's going on?

One of the main things that we as humans don't really understand is that dogs function on a totally different level than we do. They have their own motivations, their own desires, and their own language. As humans, we understand intuitively that our dogs don't understand the deeper contexts of English, but sometimes it's hard for us to understand that we as humans don't understand the deeper contexts of Dog, either.

Dogs communicate with scent, with vocalizations, with postures, and with facial expressions. This means that for humans, some of the means of dog communication are above our senses. Studies have shown that the contents of the scent glands by the dog's tail change chemical composition in reaction to the dog's health, mental state, and position in the pack. That's why your dog sniffs other dogs there when meeting them. Under the tail sniffing isn't inappropriate - it's just dogs reading about other dogs.

That is also true about scent-marking. Dogs will often urinate in places where other dogs can easily sniff. A fencepost or a tree trunk becomes a bulletin board, crowded with messages of "I am here." These scent markers are often reposted, with a dog going around to the same places and leaving urine markers repeatedly.

When well-meaning owners stop their dogs from greeting properly, when they don't allow their dogs to investigate interesting smells on walks, they are unintentionally cutting off their dogs from enjoying a basic form of communication. This isn't a condemnation of the owners - this is just a statement showing how we as humans don't understand how deep the divide is between what the dog does and our understanding of it.

Not only do dogs use scent as communication, but their body language also is extremely complex and hard for humans to understand. Dogs have complex signals that they use when relating to each other. Oftentimes, a subtle conversation starts when a dog sees another dog yards away. Body language begins to be noticed. A dog's posture, how directly they look at another dog, whether they face that dog or turn away, whether they yawn or pant slightly, even whether they sniff the ground can be important cues to other dogs; cues of intent that are extremely important to a peaceful meeting.

As humans, we tend to look upon communication as a language thing. Dogs see communication in different ways. Behaviors that we find uncomfortable, like hu***ng, can be looked upon as your dog trying to communicate something through canine language. We as human caretakers have a responsibility to learn what those signals truly are. We cannot be effective stewards of our animal companions without knowing what they seek to tell us.

So, when you do your training, pay attention to the subtle signals. A yawn is oftentimes the dog's way of defusing tension. When your dog yawns repeatedly, examine your technique - there may be something that is stressful that you need to be aware of. If your dog seems more interested in the ground than in your command, it may be a signal that your training session is done. Learn your dog's signals and eliminate the confusion that frustrates many dog owners.

For more information, try a Google search for "canine stress signals" or "canine body language." You will be absolutely amazed at what you find.

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01/29/2026

So, today's post is going to deal with training styles. There are almost as many different training styles as there are dog trainers, it seems. You have the old-style trainers, the positive reinforcement crowd, the e-collar gang, the treat trainers, the clicker folk, the relationship lovers - shopping for a trainer to work with you and Fido has to be one of the most frustrating things ever. I thought I would help you narrow it down a little, so that you are well-informed when it comes to selecting a trainer for your pet.

Let's about the two opposing styles first - the aversive trainers versus the reward trainers. Aversive trainers are the ones who use dominance and fear to train. They center on using corrections to reduce unwanted behaviors. The idea is that aversives use punishment to train, with the idea that the dog will avoid misbehavior.

Aversives do work quickly, and they have a tendency to be somewhat effective in some cases. However, aversives that are wrongly applied can damage the relationship between owner and dog, can create fearful dogs, and can have unintended consequences like increased aggression. The aversive trainer will tell you that the corrections have to be applied absolutely correctly, with pinpoint timing and accuracy. The average owner just isn't trained in this level of precision. It's hard for the average owner to understand when to apply corrections in this style of training, which can lead to further issues.

Reward-based training is the polar opposite of aversive training. The dog is rewarded and encouraged when behaviors are presented, and the training focuses on positive reinforcement. Reward training has benefits: the relationship between owner and dog becomes stronger, and training is more enjoyable. The downside of this style of training is that learning often takes longer.

In truth, the best approach lies somewhere between the two. A balanced training approach oftentimes has the best results. Mild aversives like voice corrections alert the dog that his behavior is wrong, while rewards for good behavior encourage learning. A great trainer excels at determining how training is applied in your dog's particular case.

Here at Patterson Dog Training, we examine your dog's behavior and how it is affected by the relationship the dog has to you, your family, and his environment. We focus on reward for wanted behaviors, and our corrective techniques are humane and effective. We do not believe in cruelty, force or pain. Try us, and you will see your dog's true potential with a tried and true training staff that focuses on your dog's happiness and mental health.

Please reach out if you have questions. We can be contacted at the phone number above or just leave a comment. We enjoy talking to our friends.

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