http://goldenmaldogtraining.com/

thegoldenmal, Mountain View, CA (2025)

01/04/2025

Back by popular demand… 75-Hard Challenge: Dog Edition!

The standard version of this challenge is for humans, and involves following different rules for 75 days straight. This is the dog edition, intended to help you better your dog’s life and improve your relationship!

And what better time to start than January? Anyone need a New Year’s resolution? 👀 We did this last year, and it was SO much fun.

Feel free to tweak the numbers a bit to account for elderly dogs, injured dogs etc., but the goals are intended to be realistic and possible based on the quality of life that every dog should have.

If this seems like everything you already do, great! Join in and inspire all the other people in your life to see that it’s possible! And if it feels like a challenge, even better. This is intended to build habits across a long period of time in a sustainable way. 🫶🏼

Follow along by posting stories or reels/IG posts and tag me in them! I highly recommend condensing everything into a highlight with this post as the first slide so people can learn more when they click! I also have a template you can use to track yourself, which is already up on my page 🥰
 At the end of the 75 days, we’ll see how many of you fulfilled all 75 days, and maybe there’ll be a little prize… 👀

Today is Day 1. It’s a little late to fulfill all the requirements, so as long as you choose to commit to the challenge, you’ve already fulfilled Day 1!

(And if you’re late to the party, no worries! Whatever day you choose to do this, that’s your Day 1!)

Ready for Day 2?

See you tomorrow 👀

12/25/2024

said i was gonna use my time off to post a lot and didn’t do that at all lol happy holidays everyone!! using this post as a reminder to instagram and you that i exist 🫶🏼 can’t wait to get back to work soon! i have a new format of videos i want to try out so looking forward to that as well :) if you’re still reading, comment your favorite book you read this year OR favorite movie/tv show you watched. 🤩🫶🏼

11/10/2024

While I love that social media has become so supportive of reading dog body language and being conscious of how dogs communicate with us, the nuance has been completely lost. It is simply not as clearcut as “this is stress, this is joy.”

And it is NOT possible to get a definitive reading on a situation in a 30 second video clip outside of very obvious and extreme situations. Whether it’s a training video, play video, or completely random dog video, I will stand by that same statement.

This is true for a few reasons:

First, all dogs present differently. This can be due to breed specific reasons (ie. german shepherds have a completely different tail set to shiba’s), physical structural reasons, or random specific quirks.

Unless you know a specific dog well enough to know what THEIR body language looks like, everything is only a guess.

Second, context matters. Let’s say a dog is presenting stress signals in a training video. What is that dog’s baseline for stress? Is the training reducing the stress signals over time? Is the dog already a generally stressed out dog?

An ordinarily happy-go-lucky dog that is anxious and overwhelmed in a training video is bad, obviously, but a dog that has SEVERE anxiety issues showing minor stress signals might actually be a massive sign of positive progress. You cannot rule out a snapshot as if the context is irrelevant.

Third, all emotions are two sides of the same coin.

A dog eager to work for a treat is not far off from a dog that is frustrated over not getting it.

A dog that is excited for his ball is not far from a dog that is stressed about when it will be thrown.

Resource guarding often shows positive body language as well as negative body language very close together because the insecurity that leads to guarding is triggered by the enjoyment and value of the item.

Now, that’s not to say body language analysis or breakdown videos aren’t valuable, or that they shouldn’t be made. I myself and constantly evaluating body language subconsciously.

But there must be a distinction between whether a video is being used as a definition or a single example.

11/02/2024

ANSWER: After daycare, your dog should be tired, but still active.

Your dog should NOT be exhausted nor full of zoomies. Either of those options indicates that daycare is too overstimulating for your dog, and they are “crashing” afterwards. This is not a healthy place for a dog to regularly be.

Many dog owners like daycare because it is soooo tiring for their dog. And while it should be fulfilling both mentally and physically, keywords like “exhausted” are red flags for me.

A healthy dog should not need a multi-day “recovery period” after daycare. They should not flop on the couch and be dead to the world for 4+ hours after. They should not be unwilling to go on a walk, engage with people, etc.

One of the reasons I’m not a huge proponent of daycares is because I find it to be “too much” more often than not. Beyond the other issues and dangers that come with utilizing daycares, even at its best, dogs do not thrive off of 6-8+ hours per day of constant stimulation.

This is why preschools for children have nap time, planned quiet activities, and are often half-days. Developmentally, dogs are anecdotally comparable to preschoolers. The benefit of preschool comes from the structure. Likewise, the benefit of daycare does too.

A “perfect” doggy daycare would have social time intermingled with individual sleep time, food and/or toy based enrichment time, engagement with humans, and decompression activities.

Of course, this is difficult to do large scale, which is why most daycares don’t.

In the absence of a daycare that is able to provide a balanced day for your dog, I highly recommend that people have a dog walker come and do drop in-visits midday. Your dog will benefit far more from concentrated one-on-one time alongside calm, adequate rest.

Questions? Let me know in the comments 👇

10/20/2024

This is a post I will be titling Hello Algorithm Sorry For My Absence Please Remember I Exist. For the price of $0 you can help me out by leaving a comment to remind Instagram that you care about my posts. I’m also running a special (2 for the price of 1) in which you can leave TWO comments, also for $0 (😱).

Hate comments are also accepted as long as they’re 5 words or more because that’s what Instagram values.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been up to over the last few weeks. ✨

Cheers!

09/18/2024

There seems to be a common misconception that if a dog is “too much” work, then they just need to be trained.

Too energetic? Train them. Too playful? Train them. Too mischievous? Train them.

But that’s not necessarily true.

Training a dog can build the relationship between them and their owner, can make them more obedient, can help them navigate specific situations easier, but it does not inherently remove their need for basic care.

Yes, walking your dog at length (not just around the block once or twice) is basic care. Playing with your dog beyond repetitive fetch is basic care. Training with your dog even after they are obedient is basic care. Seeking out breed specific fulfillment activities is basic care.

You can train your dog to walk nicely on leash, but it won’t negate their need for going on walks.

You can train your dog to recall, but it won’t negate their need to run around off-leash.

You can train your dog to settle inside the home, but it won’t negate their need to go out.

Pulling on leash is something you can fix, a dog having energy is not. Running away is something you can fix, a dog wanting to run in the first place is not. Destroying the home is something you can fix, a dog needing alternative outlets is not.

See the difference?

While I love that training dogs has become much more mainstream—I’m a dog trainer, after all—at the same time it worries me that people are starting to see training as a panacea to every problem they have with their dog.

If your dog is too energetic, too excited, too playful, too destructive, too [insert trait here], sure, train them, but also make sure that YOU are providing the exercise and stimulation that should be given every single day.

Dogs are not inanimate objects you can tailor to fit exactly how you’d like them to be. Their care requires significant effort. And while training may make it easier or more enjoyable for you to provide their care, training does not take away their need for it in the first place.

09/17/2024

TRUE. In my experience, at least…

How many dog owners do you know that swear up and down they LOVE owning a dog, but seem to find walking their dog an annoyance, playing with their dog boring or tiring, training to be reserved for curbing bad behavior?

If walking your dog is nothing more than a forced necessity, a chore to check off your list, then you probably don’t actually like owning a dog.

If training your dog is not something you would do unless you absolutely had to, then you probably don’t actually like owning a dog.

If you did not get your dog specifically with the intention of participating in activities with them, then you probably don’t actually like owning a dog.

If you do not ACTIVELY enjoy the effort and sacrifice required to give your dog their best life, then you do not actually like owning a dog.

In fact, the “sacrifices” should barely be considered sacrifices for how much you like to do them. They are to me. Walking my dog, driving him to the beach or on a hike, playing with him, training with him, etc. are not sacrifices to me. They are things I actively want to do.

If you COULD ethically never walk, play with, or train your dog ever again… would you stop? If so, you probably don’t actually like owning a dog.

Dogs cannot be separated from their needs and wants. You might love dogs, but that is different from loving OWNING a dog.

You would laugh if someone said, “I love mac and cheese, but I hate cheese and I hate noodles.” Or “I love surfing, but I hate swimming, getting wet, and sand.”

So why don’t we feel the same way when people say, “I love owning a dog, but I don’t like walking them, training them, and playing with them”?

09/15/2024

I don’t know who decided we could just start lying on Instagram, but I am SO sick of posts claiming that “xyz minutes” of sniffing/lickmat/snuffle mat/enrichment toy/etc is EQUAL to some exorbitant amount of time walking, running, playing fetch.

I even saw a post claiming that a CAR RIDE was the equivalent of a walk. 🤦🏻‍♀️

The truth is that enrichment activities do not equal anything except for other enrichment activities. A snuffle mat could be an equivalent to a kong. A kong could be an equivalent to a lickmat. A lickmat could be an equivalent to a sniffing walk.

But in no universe do those activities equal physical exercise. They do NOT build cardiovascular endurance. They do NOT strengthen tendons and ligaments. They do NOT stretch and grow muscle. They do NOT release exercise-specific endorphins.

It is extremely concerning to me to think that there are owners out there that are giving their dog 20 minutes of enrichment time in the living room and then thinking, “Great, that means we don’t have to go for a walk!”

In my opinion, enrichment activities should be seen as an addition to what your dog is ALREADY doing, not a replacement or an alternative.

Your dog needs to go outside. Your dog needs to walk, and yes, needs to do that for more than 30 minutes per day. Your dog needs to run. Your dog needs to build muscle. Your dog needs to stretch their legs. They do NOT need another snuffle mat.

Obviously if the weather is bad or your dog is injured or you are sick, enrichment activities can be used as replacements to supply stimulation for a few unfortunate days. But that should not be something you plan for.

Go outside and walk your dog. It’s the bare minimum of pet ownership.

09/03/2024

Shocking, I know, but the worst thing a dog can experience is NOT living outside…

Obviously, that statement assumes that the dog in question is not being abused or neglected. The problem is that a lot of people refuse to understand that living outside in itself is not abuse or neglect.

I am far more concerned with the epidemic of dogs in suburbs and cities that live in a thousand square feet (or less) and whose only activity all day is a 30 minute walk to the dog park and back.

I am far more concerned with the dogs whose owners think a snuffle mat in the living room is exercise.

I am far more concerned with the dogs who spend 23 hours per day lying on the couch doing absolutely nothing.

I am far more concerned with the dogs who haven’t been adequately fulfilled or exercised per their breed specific requirements in months, or possibly even ever.

I am far more concerned with the fact that the majority of dogs I see out and about are massively overweight and horribly undertrained.

Many dogs live outdoors either due to their work (ie. livestock guardian dogs), their lifestyle (ie. sled dogs), their own preference due to breed, or the preferences of their owner. Yes, sometimes in the snow. Yes, sometimes on a chain. Yes, sometimes without blankets or pillows/traditional dog beds (and if you don’t know WHY that is, then you’re not really qualified to be making critiques in the first place anyway).

And more than I am concerned about dogs who always live outdoors, I am FAR more concerned with the dogs that only ever live inside…

08/26/2024

Apparently it’s International Dog Day so here are some of my favorite pictures of Finley ft. my chaotic editing phases because I’m ✨indecisive✨

I also got a new camera a few months ago, but you wouldn’t know it because I’ve taken a grand total of 0 photos with it so far 😗☝🏽

08/17/2024

Now that Instagram allows you to reply to comments with reels, I wanted to bring my Q&A’s into my account directly. Previously I’ve hosted them in channels and in stories, but these will be permanent and allow for much more detailed questions AND replies.

So drop any and all dog questions in the comments, and as I have time I’ll reply to them in the form of a full reel :)

This post will stay up indefinitely, so please come back and add questions as you think of them! I’ll post periodic reminders on my story as well as have this post pinned. ✨🐕

08/07/2024

6 years ago i gave birth to my son. here’s his sonogram to prove it. happy birthday finley 🥹 here’s to another year of strangers telling me you’re soooo skinny for a golden retriever, shedding all over everything i own, and being too old for leo dicaprio. ✨🐕

thegoldenmal

01/04/2025

12/25/2024

11/10/2024

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10/20/2024

09/18/2024

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