Progressive Dog Training and Behavior Consultation

09/11/2025

This.

Poison control company employees are taught to say their poisons won’t affect other wildlife in the area.

It’s a bald-faced lie.

There are better ways to control rodents than poison, so please look into them and stop using poisons. Every home that uses poison is like a bomb going off to all the animals in the area.

Maybe he knew he was dying…maybe that’s why this coyote chose to lay in a graveyard and admit defeat.

Lucky for him, Glen would be visiting that graveyard and would not rest until he found help for this poor, suffering creature.

He had no fight in him when we came out to get him. He couldn’t even run away. We drew blood on him to check his clot time. His blood should have clotted in 2-5 min. We drew the blood Saturday…it still hasn’t clotted. It had to be poison and the worst case I’ve ever seen in a coyote. Animals that naturally control the rodent population are frequently poisoned from eating poisoned prey. Many pest control companies will tell you it isn’t true but wildlife clinics all over the world have proven it over and over again.

By some miracle, he responded to treatment and is now with Berkshire Wildlife Services getting the care he needs.

This comes on a day where I found out thatNational Pest Management Associationn (NPMA) listed “counteracting activists efforts” as one of their mandates. They are aware that wildlife rehabbers are speaking up about all the carnivores they are killing.

As long as they continue to kill untargeted wildlife with their products, we won’t stop.

Let’s counteract their counteracting efforts for this poor creature…

PLEASE spread the word.

He didn’t deserve this.

08/06/2025

This is true for so many dogs too- especially those who, for their own valid reasons, don’t want or need to be instant friends with everyone all the time.
Do you?

Dogs are beautiful, handsome, and generally adorable, yes. But that doesn’t mean they’re our personal cuddle toys and want our hands on them, especially when they’re first meeting us.

When meeting a calm and thoughtful adult dog, let them think about you, and decide how, when and if they want to say hello.

Dogs are due the basic respect and physical autonomy you’d give to anyone you’re meeting, especially for the first time.

If you like these short Youtube videos, then you will LOVE the online video library where all of the full-length training videos are housed. Warwick has hun...

07/30/2025

Hi guys-
It’s an emergency situation for CCR. (I’ve shared their info before.)
If you are like-minded about the plight of these poor horses who, on top of being abandoned to slaughter after being used up and broken down by the people they served, are now suffering even more in this deadly heat, and feel moved to help a bit, it’s never been more needed than right now.

Thank you in advance, if you can. If you do.
Thank you, for them. ❤️

07/16/2025

You do it anyway.
😔💔

The loss of one of my dogs, the second to pass in 9 months, has led to a pause in content whilst I heal. I know many of you know this pain… and yet we do it again, and again. I would do it 1000 times over 💔❤️🐶

06/02/2025

So wise and true.
And it goes for dogs too.

“Just one more time!”
Knowing when to quit is an art form.

When we are working on something new, or something we (or the horse) aren’t yet proficient at, it’s very tempting to want to keep pushing that can down the road.

Work ethic is extremely valuable. Without it, you won’t get far as a rider. You need the willingness to push a little bit - both yourself and the horse, to increase fitness, confidence, experience and more.

If we don’t stretch the rubber band, we never grow

But if we overstretch the rubber band, it snaps back.

It’s far better to get a better effort toward correct, than a hundred bad movements, pushing to perfect.

It’s far better to notice the effort in the right direction than to get greedy and lose all interest from the horse.

It’s far better to exercise muscles less intensely but more correctly, than to burn them out and create compensation.

As all things in riding require, a balance must be sought:

Between too much and not enough
Between working and accepting
Between appreciating and pushing

We have to find that new line every single day, every moment, and be careful not to let the green goblin of “he can do better…just one more” take over and rob the horse because of their good nature.

05/24/2025

This is lovely- inside and out.

I’ve found the same is true with dogs.

And people too.

☺️❤️✌️

05/22/2025

This!! Thank you!!

05/19/2025

All
Of
This!!

“Force-Free Doesn’t Work.” Do You Believe That—Or Just Say It?

Every now and then I pause and wonder:

Do people genuinely believe force-free training doesn’t work—like, deep down?
Or is it a defense mechanism? A rehearsed response? A way to avoid confronting the side effects of punishment?

Because I can be honest:
Yes, punishment can suppress behavior. It often gets fast results.
But I don’t like what it does alongside those results—
The fallout. The shutdown. The fear. The loss of trust.

So I don’t pretend it doesn’t work. I just question what it means to “work.”

Can we ask the same honesty in return?

Can those who preach balance admit that many “bad” behaviors were coping strategies?
Can they acknowledge the difference between obedience and emotional wellness?
Can they say, “Yes, it’s effective—but we don’t always talk about the cost?”
Can they acknowledge that suppression often fails—and not just because the trainer wasn’t skilled enough, but because the dog’s needs weren’t understood?

Take this argument I heard recently:
“Cooperative care in zoo animals is proof you can pair aversives with reinforcers to make it okay.”

That’s not just wrong. It’s revealing.
Because if you truly believe that cooperative care for wild animals is built on aversive control,
you’ve misunderstood everything about how trust-based handling in zoological and marine environments works.

The whole point is that you can’t use force—so you have to use understanding.
You have to go slow. You have to build trust.
And when you do, you don’t need the threat.
That’s not proof of punishment working.
That’s proof of what’s possible without it.

So when someone says “force-free doesn’t work,” I want to know:
What were you looking for?
What did you try?
What didn’t you understand?

Because if you’ve only measured “success” by suppression, you might not be seeing the full picture.

And if you have seen it, and still pretend it’s not real—
Then let’s call this what it is:
Not about truth.
Just about tribes.

05/12/2025

Yes. This. 😁👍

Unsettled, anxious, or fractious dogs don’t need corrections, or a combative, punitive, “no” mindset.

What’s needed is flow: calmness, patience, time and space, relaxed movement, and some well-timed, easy, fun things to do to help them find moments of calm.
They need our flow, our peace, to help them find theirs.

05/02/2025

Attention and intention are languages.
When we know this and put them to good use, much around us improves.

04/29/2025

It’s 11am here on the 29th- this poor scared soul’s euthanasia day. I don’t know if it’s too late. It may be. But I can’t help but share this.
Hail Mary, little sad, scared friend. I’m sorry you went through this.
Anyone know anyone near this shelter in Texas??

04/29/2025

THIS.

There are "dog trainers" on social media insinuating that science has no place in dog training. 🤦🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️🫣

Isn't it ironic that if the science demonstrated that aversives and punishment effectively taught dogs without harming them behaviourally, emotionally or physically, aversive dog trainers would be telling you to follow the science. However the science continues to prove their methods are ineffective and unethical, so they are rationalizing by trying to persuade the dog owning public that we don't need to use evidence based training methods.

I invite these trainers to try training a dog without the heavy reliance on operant conditioning or capitalising on the dogs vulnerabilities in their anatomy. Science plays a part in all dog training, regardless of whether you believe in it's significance.

Science repeatedly demonstrates the fallout of using abusive training methods, but aversive trainers continue to deny the empirical truth. No matter what they believe, the facts don't change.

Saying science doesn't belong in dog training is just further evidence that these self proclaimed trainers don't understand canine behaviour and clearly never intend to.

Are you going to choose a trainer who bases their training on scientific evidence and ethics, or are you going to choose a trainer that bases their training on debunked myths, personal opinion and ego? - Holly Leake

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