Christi Chapman, ABCDT Professional Dog Trainer

05/03/2026

I am officially announcing some BIG changes to my training business!

Updated website, and a new trainer - highly qualified but needing hours working with clients to earn her official certification! Please welcome MiRae Yellowbird to the training business in Fremont County!

MiRae lives in Riverton, is a Northern Arapaho woman who is AMAZING with animals and passionate about helping people find harmony in their relationships with their animal companions. She is also a very talented artist, and does gorgeous beadwork.

Please check out our new website, and if you want to hire Mirae as your trainier, please specify this on your Behavioral Intake Form!

https://christichapman.org

04/24/2026

Free spay an neuter clinic at Arapaho Elementary School Gym!! If you have any questions please call MiRae @ 3078403272

03/31/2026

Book your training now!

https://form.jotform.com/Christichapman/behavior-intake-form

03/11/2026

HIGHLY recommend products like these, and not just for anxious dogs. Products like these are a great way to cultivate an ability to calm for high energy, adolescent, and high drive performance dogs. Given after physical exercise this helps the brain redirect into a calm mode, rather than creating an addiction to exercise or play! Eventually this becomes the pattern, but although you might not NEED these any longer, keeping in in the toolbox is ideal, so you can reward your dog with a relaxing activity to engage in or offer in times where life becomes a bit stressful or chaotic!

03/06/2026

Has your dog got you "barking mad!" over barking?

Barking is a form of communication and incessant barking can be an indication of many different things. Most common is overstimulation, frustration, or to get attention, or a combination of these.

How do you curb these things when you have a busy lifestyle, especially during the week? First, we determine the underlying cause of the barking. Then we look at your dog's breed, type, and age. Then I develop a tailored program, including 5 minute training sessions, short activities to do that don't involve long hikes/runs/walk, and a feeding routine that will give your dog something else to be thinking about rather than barking!

Shoot me a message to learn more!

03/05/2026

Exercise- Can we overdo this with our dogs?

The short answer is yes, absolutely! Dogs are athletes and when we are exercising them endlessly with daily long ventures on foot, with a bicycle, or motorized vehicle there is a possibility that we are doing too much physical activity. Do you give your dog long play sessions with the ball or the frisbee? One toss after another? Using a ChuckIt to gain more distance on the throws? What about a flirt pole or tug session until your dog finally flops down, panting and exhausted? Giving a short rest followed by as much play of choice again, and again?

If this sounds like your play style with your dog, you could be overdoing it! The more you provide your dog with physical activity, the stronger their bodies and endurance become, and you will never be able to keep up with the need for more. You will have a super athlete on your hands, with not enough to engage in to satisfy the need YOU developed and encouraged! What this can do is create a dog who is constantly frustrated, overstimulated, restless, demanding, and possibly even aggressive!

But, you say, I have a high energy breed! They need this kind of exercise! The truth is that the exercise needs to be tempered with mental stimulation. Lower energy mental stimulation, meaning indoor games using the ball or frisbee, hiding it in places and asking your dog to find it, using those as a reward in a short training session by tossing the item to them gently, and letting them strut around with it or chew on it. When they offer it back to you, repeat the cues or ask for a different one until you have complete a 5-10 minute session of training. It can be known cues mixed up, new cues, building on duration and distance with known cues, or chaining cues together for a short routine.

You can still do the long hikes, the bike rides, the utv adventures, and long walks but try to mix up the intensity of those with some breaks and allow your dog to sniff and explore safely during the slow downs or the breaks. Try stopping in an area that might be rich with new scents such as a meadow or clearing, along the bank of a stream or river, and watch your dog to see what they are focused on, for how long, and how they engage (just sniffing? urinating on it? air scenting or following a scent along the ground? sniffing one spot for a long time or up and down an item?) and when they are preparing to disengage with the spot and move on. I would suggest limiting those higher intensity activities to one or two times a week and utilizing daily mental stimulation.

Another argument for shorter and less frequent repetition exercises is that they can put tremendous strain on joints, muscles, ligaments, and bones. If the only exercise is chasing that ball, or that a frisbee over and over, your dog is at risk for injury, acute or chronic! Fixing them can be quite costly! Maintaining them can also be costly.

Try some of the suggestions above and see if your dog becomes a little less intense, and more focused on you. For more tips, keep following me, or reach out to inquire about training! Dogs have so much to offer and we are only tapping in to a teeny amount!

03/02/2026

What a great opportunity to access Michael Shikashio and his great mind!

How can we help dogs that compete over resources when the resource is the owner? This presentation will focus on restoring harmony between dogs who have a history of conflicts over their owner’s attention. Michael will review the setups for safety when working these cases, discuss the behavior cha...

02/28/2026

TERRIERS - tenacious or terrific?

All terrier breeds are, by design, tenacious. This is what enables them to perform in the activities they were bred to do. Modern life for terriers is not as exciting as it once was. Frustrated, they develop the behaviors that make them undesirable to many, or overwhelm an owner who is not prepared!

Celebrating the breed, providing activities for the dog to engage in that satisfy the primal urges their ancestry demands, and learning how to make the dog "work" for the owner is one of the most enjoyable things I do! Understanding breeds helps us to understand needs. Needs that are not something we can "train out of" a dog. But there are absolutely ways to safely allow your dog to meet their needs daily, simple and easy means to having a well adjusted dog that people will oooh and ahhh over!

As a trainer, it is important for me to be able to recognize breeds in a dog with mixed genetics. I am trained to look at the whole dog, from anatomy to behavior, and decipher what the specific needs are for your dog. Then I can help you meet those needs, in ways that are enjoyable and easy, and create a deep bond between the two of you.

Schedule a session with me, or purchase a package to reach your goals! Oh, and I can help you with the introductions to some sporting activities that are tailored to your breed like agility, barn hunts, herding, and much more! Fill out the form to register - https://form.jotform.com/Christichapman/behavior-intake-form
and help your dog become terrific!

02/27/2026

Is your dog a Bully or a BULLY!?

Bully breeds include many types, such as American Staffordshire, American Pit Bull, American Bull Dog, Bull Terrier, Mastiffs, Boxer, and even the Pug and Boston Terrier!

Why are they called "bully breeds"? It has nothing to do with being a bully, in fact, many of the breeds are treasured for their affectionate natures, are great with kids, and are big softies. The term "bully" originates from the use of "Molasser" breeds to bait bulls and bears for bloodsports. Most molassers were also used as guard dogs for flocks and homes alike. After the bloodsports were made illegal in the late 1800 in Europe, the breeds became better known for the original purposes of guardians.

These breeds have stocky bodies, some have the shortened snouts and flatter faces, and range in size from the Pug to a Cane Corso or Mastiff. They are prized for their loyalty, which is what also gives them the bad reputation of being "fighting" dogs. While bloodsports are illegal in most countries, they still exist in underground circles. It is their loyal natures that make them such devoted dogs as to place themselves in harm's way for their masters. They will do anything to please. This trait also makes them great family dogs too.

Celebrating Bully Breed dogs can be a very rewarding experience, especially when you can tap into their specific ancestral roots in a modern way! Want to learn more, or work with a certified professional trainer to help your dog be the BEST Bully?
Fill out my Behavior Intake Form, and upon review of the form, I can reach out to you with pricing.
https://form.jotform.com/Christichapman/behavior-intake-form

02/19/2026

Dogs have an uncanny way of looking guilty when they've engaged in behavior they shouldn't have! Are they displaying real guilt though?

Guilt is not an emotion that animals possess. When you come home to big holes in the yard, or the trash scattered about the house, and your dog looks at you like the pup in the graphic, what is really happening is appeasement behavior! Appeasement is different from guilt. Dogs co-regulate with humans, meaning they feel what we are feeling! So when you come home to this the emotions you might feel could be anger or sadness, and your dog is feeding off of those emotions! By giving us a sad look we may begin to transition from sadness or anger to a more loving emotion, and your dog is self rewarded, because now the negative emotion is gone! Sometimes, with anger, we might anthropomorphize and feel that the dog is demonstrating guilt, justifying our emotional response! In those cases, the dog is trying to de-escalate our emotion. If it builds, the dog is going to make itself smaller and slink away, not in shame, rather self preservation.

These looks are the result of evolutionary traits that solidified our relationships with dogs. Offering appeasement behavior in different situations often gained access to resources. Begging, with such a longing look and big, sad eyes and a pitiful stance often resulted in more food, so the body remembered and repeats this.

But WHY do they do these things? They are engaging in the SEEKING emotion. Jaak Panksepp was revolutionary in helping us to understand our own emotions and those of the animals we love. The SEEKING emotion is what is driving dumpster diving and holes halfway to China! What exactly are they seeking? They are seeking to fulfill the behaviors that gained resources for their ancestors, or perhaps even themselves in an earlier life. In ancient times, dogs were scavengers mostly. So when their relationship began with humans it was from scavenging the waste at the edges of the dwellings of our ancestors. Food scraps like gristle, bones, and even human waste were easy resources with much less effort. Now, in modern times, dogs no longer need to do these things for survival, but the instinct is very deep still.The earliest evidence of our relationships with dogs is over 16,000 years ago. It is only in the past 60-75 years that we began feeding our dogs with commercial food. This negated the need to find their food, earn it by guarding, hunting, herding, or other mutually beneficial behaviors.

If you are having trouble with naughty behaviors, I can help redirect that into positive and fun activities that result in a dog who no longer feels the need to engage on their own, in ways you would prefer they didn't! Fill out the form from the link below and have fun with your dog rather than cleaning up the aftermath of the SEEKING behavior!
https://form.jotform.com/Christichapman/behavior-intake-form
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