Blue Dog Training & Behavior

05/20/2026

05/14/2026

Another day, another 150 dogs. Wonderful volunteers, new friends and a particularly shut down dog I’m calling Flower who after much tlc (thank you Dawn), dared to trust and began to show signs of hope.

05/13/2026

Wonderful people from all over the country coming together to give 1500 dogs a fresh start. Honored to be able to help.

04/26/2026

Big spoon played by 6 month old Clancy, Little Spoon played by 6 year old Piper.

Both were trained as young puppies in Blue Dogs Puppy Foundation Stay & Train program which provides graduates the opportunity to stay with us for pet sitting needs throughout their lives.

What “camp stay “ would be complete without a crush? 💕💕💕

03/12/2026

What are some of the books on my summer reading list as a certified professional, Dog Trainer and behavior consultant (who also wants to learn more about the sport of tracking in dogs)?

I’m posting this now because it looks like we’re going to get 16 to 20 inches of snow in a few days and two days ago it was 70° out!

My hope? If you post your summer reading list, summer will come!

What’s on your reading list? Have you read any of these? What did you think?

03/05/2026

Puppies are individuals and require socialization plans that are as unique and individual as they are.

Training your dog for your lifestyle and goals is what our force free fear free puppy foundation stay & train program is all about.

Spring break availability!

Call us anytime to answer your questions.

02/25/2026

3 of my furbabies in the arms of dad.

A sight that brings me happiness every time I see it.

01/15/2026

Training puppies in the winter when it’s below zero, windy, icy and awful isn’t easy but it’s crucially important to do early socialization and training with your puppy… Especially during the primary socialization window of 8 to 16 weeks. Once you’ve taught your puppy, a few basics, just get creative and think of places you can go and times you will be welcome. This was an hour before closing on a weekday and we literally had the greenhouse to ourselves.

03/25/2025

THIS THURSDAY 3/27/25

7PM EST

Only $19.95 Before the Live Event on 3/27/25 at 7pm Eastern ($29.95 after)
A recording of the webinar will be available if you cannot attend live!

Beyond the Basics: The Complexity of Canine Body Language in Aggressive Behavior
In this presentation, we will go beyond the basic canine body language cues that most of us understand - yawns, shake-offs, tooth displays, and so on – to look at the complex clusters and sequences of cues that are often displayed by dogs during aggressive behavior.

We know that body language tells us about a dog’s internal emotional state, but did you know that it may also indicate possible underlying causes of the aggressive response such as resource guarding, territorial behavior, neurologic problems, or a medical condition? Recognizing these signals gives us the opportunity to involve a veterinarian or veterinary behaviorist when necessary and to create effective behavior modification plans.

How predictable are a dog’s body language cues? Are the cues displayed toward humans the same as those displayed toward other dogs?

What about human body language? What do dogs get from us? Does our body language influence their behavior? How much can we actually communicate with a dog using our own body language or by mimicking theirs?

Join Sarah for this information-packed, fresh look at body language, with loads of video examples that will provide the answers to these questions and more!

12/19/2024

This is 1 yr old Havanese Molly.

Molly just graduated from Blue Dog’s Foundation Stay & Train (our new force free/fear free home based board & train program for non puppies without serious behavior issues).

When Molly arrived
- She wasn’t certain where to go potty
- she knew “sit” but no one had ever been able to teach her down after an earlier negative experience with a trainer who physically forced position changes
- She ran the other way when she heard the word “come”
- she had an amazing temperament and was friendly with kids and dogs but could be a bit too exuberant at times and had a low tolerance for frustration (which really means she was just tired of humans not understanding her communication)!

Molly has wonderful human guardians who love her joy for life and wanted to make sure she knew basic cues that could help them keep her safe.

3 Weeks later….

- Molly has the fastest and most enthusiastic “down” cue.

It took patience and allowing her to build trust while teaching her simple easy to accomplish behaviors that she had no negative experience with.

We were building what we like to call a trust bank account. You may spend days or weeks building up that trust account with your dog, but by doing so you can ask for things that might be a little more difficult and require your dog to trust more.
Your dog is then willing to try because you’ve built up that trust account.

- Molly learned that people can understand what she is communicating and also she learned a verbal marker that let her know clearly when she had made a correct choice. This type of training, reduces uncertainty and frustration in your dog and opens up an entire new world of possibilities.

- Molly graduated with A wonderful recall behavior, an impressive “rest on Mat” behavior that we like to call “there’s no place like home” and a slew of tricks that she is happy to show anyone who is willing to watch!

- She learned to eat her food on a schedule which helped with her house, training issues and had only two accidents in three weeks!