Gentle Touch Dog Training

12/21/2025

Having technical difficulties and rather grumpy (grrr) related to new phone, so if you need me...message me on Facebook.

12/17/2025

Congrats! to the AKC STAR PUPPY grads in last night's class. They accomplished all 20 of the checkoffs in the 6 sessions of classes and did well on the final 4 (sit, down, come and loose leash walking) graduation re-test.

The next STAR PUPPY class starts Tues. Jan 13th, 6:30-7:30PM and runs each Tues for six sessions. Cost $200.

Other classes coming up FUNdamental Agility starting Thurs. Jan. 15th, 6:30-7:30pm, each Thurs. for 6 sessions. Cost $120.

AND...potentially a daytime series of sessions...Puppy/Dog Basic Obedience... I need feedback to know days/times that would work for people (who don't or can't do evening sessions). Thx.

AKC CGC (CANINE GOOD CITIZEN) CLASS and test. Depending on interest...starts Tuesdays, Mar. 3rd for 8 sessions, with the last session to include the 10 Requirements Testing. Cost $240.

WHAT about Novice Tricks class? Owners and their dogs love this class, but it's hard to get people to sign up... What's goin' on?? Don't you know that fun and learning are great partners?

12/16/2025

Thinking about day time 🐶 classes... One person is wishing for Fridays.

Send a message to learn more

12/14/2025

Housetraining

I usually get several calls about this topic every year, but I've seen so many good summaries of how to housetrain your pup/dog it seemed like I didn't need to write another one. However when my daughter brought her new dog here straight from his prior owners (who honestly felt he was housetrained) and he proceeded to have housetraining issues I reconsidered....

I usually get several calls about this topic every year, but I’ve seen so many good summaries of how to housetrain your pup/dog it seemed like I didn’t need to write another one. Howeve…

12/08/2025

I've had questions about the next series of puppy training classes...
STAR PUPPY Tuesdays starting Jan 13th - Feb 17th, 2026 at 6:30pm-7:30pm, 6 sessions 1hr/wk. $200. Reward-based, fun, small sized classes. Practicing socialization, training, activity and responsibility (of ownership). Gentle Touch Dog Training, N5991 Settlement Dr., Medford, Wi. Text or call- 715-748-4248 or Message Gentle Touch Dog Training on FB to reserve your spot.

12/08/2025

Having agency? Allowing your dog to actively influence what happens in their life...having choices. This becomes extra important when they are stressed, worried, or need some sniffing time. Having choices builds confidence, welfare and joy, whereas being forced to do something magnifies fears and distrust. ???Example: your dog avoids being...caught, put into kennel or car, brushed, toenails clipped, collar grabbed or collar/harness on or dog coat on, picked up, put in bath, etc. ... And so you've captured, grabbed, forced, trapped them into doing...whatever. And now, if you're near wherever the unliked and scary thing happens, your dog is avoiding you. So why? Why doesn't your dog like the things that so many other dogs like...going for car rides, loving their kennel, liking the idea of a walk, being afraid to be near the bathtub/water?

Dogs, and animals in general are more fearful about many things than people are, plus they are newer in the world and have had less experiences and explanations. They need a chance to explore stuff, have some time to decide it's ok without anything scary happening. Any BAD first experience has much more negative impact than an 'off' experience later on. When they show bravery, they need to be rewarded for it. That's why in classes we play in/on/over/under games and any forward/try is rewarded. That's also why hand targeting is an early game...our hands need to have a lot of positive value to our dogs. It's important for dog owners to be able to see their dog's worry and be understanding, give them time and space and help the dog build the confidence, joy and trust in us, we all want them to have.

12/07/2025

As long as we're on the topic of recalls (having your dog come), let's talk about when we call them away from something they were enjoying (like sniffing). SOooo, they were having great, intense fun and I/you called and THEY CAME!!! Well then, of course, they wanted to go right back to what they were doing before I/you called. But we grabbed them up and put them in the car, house, kennel... pretty much not fun. Oops! What do we think? rewarding for coming or punishment for coming?

But, but...we had no choice... WAIT we did have a choice. They did an excellent recall and I/you could, at least have played a 3 or 4 treat game of search/hand target, or pulled out your tug and played a nice round of tug-it or (OK we weren't ready) so you played 'chase-me' to the door or around the car and grabbed up some dog chow and tossed it on the floor for a scatter-search. Yeah! now we're keeping that good recall and having fun with our dog. Face it...having fun with our dog was why we got that dog, right?

12/03/2025

So yesterday I wrote a little about training a high quality come/recall, but today I thought I'd talk about the non-cued "Check-In." This can be taught on-leash (usually a longer one) or off-leash. What is it? It's rewarding your dog for showing up/looking at and for you after sniffing or doing crazy-fast running loops or whatever exploring. It involves a pocket of treats (both high value and low...i.e meat and dog chow) and rewarding your dog for coming and seeing you or hand targeting after each short adventure. Some dogs (like Token) come in very frequently during walks, others do a longer explore (like Glory) and then give an over the shoulder stare at me to see if coming in would be worthwhile. If I drop my hand (hand target) she blasts over. So hers is a check-in plus a recall signal. She likes to get me to do the signal. Dogs really like to have choices, just like we do. This game, that mostly is controlled by the dog, benefits your ability to otherwise to call them in on your terms.

12/02/2025

How do you get your dog to come...quickly, happily, every time? It's a process that includes a bunch of things...good to great rewards, good timing, using your own body well to communicate, practice, creating multiple signals/sounds that mean come--> but some mean quickly/now and others mean when you're done sniffing, avoiding creating a punishment for coming, avoiding overusing the dog's name or nagging, and timing your requests so they are most likely to be honored, until a time in the future when the cue is extremely good. Because each time your dog doesn't come when called is a practice in the wrong direction.

11/30/2025

I really liked this video of a guy working on training an octopus to play piano. He did all sorts of the key things that make working with and communicating with another species possible: 1) building a friendly relationship 2) figuring out what was most liked by the creature 3) trying different things when what he thought would work...didn't 4) persistence and willingness to re think strategies 5) celebrating small wins!

JOIN DISCORD NOW Will see you there! https://discord.gg/MyrHY2CEmUDon’t follow me on Instagram https://bit.ly/3A6kYn2 I post every year!--------Buy the Hamme...

11/25/2025

Interesting study ... gotta love female dogs!!

A research team at Kyoto University ran a hilarious and surprisingly deep experiment in 2022. They invited 60 dogs to watch two actors open food containers:
one who handled it smoothly…
and one who struggled like they’d never opened anything in their life.

When the dogs were allowed to choose which human to approach, something interesting happened.

Female dogs overwhelmingly chose the competent person.
Eighty-three percent walked straight to the human who actually knew what they were doing.
Male dogs? They didn’t care at all. No preference. No judgment. Just vibes.

But female dogs didn’t just choose better — they evaluated better.
They stared longer at competent humans.
They avoided the clumsy ones.
And they made choices based on who seemed more capable.

There’s one twist though:
They only cared when food was involved.
If the containers were empty, they didn’t bother judging anyone.
Which honestly makes them even more relatable.

Scientists say this puts female dogs in the same group as dolphins and chimpanzees, who can also assess the competence of others. It shows that dogs don’t just watch what we do — they judge our skill level when it matters.

So the next time your girl dog watches you struggle with the treat bag…
Just know she’s silently evaluating your life choices. 😏🐾