Connie Swaim Canine Behavior Services

04/21/2026

Do you always have to change the dog’s behavior?

I recently saw a client with a 14-month-old, neutered male dog. They had only had the dog a month when I saw them. They called me because the dog was difficult to walk because he is strong.

However, when I came in, we found another issue. This dog could not stop hu***ng me. I was there 90 minutes and he would only stop hu***ng if he had something else to do. The problem was he would immediately begin hu***ng the second that distraction was of no more interest to him.

He was easy to distract if I played tug or if he had a bone filled with cheese to lick. As soon as the cheese was gone or I stopped playing tug; he would start hu***ng my leg and grabbing my arm with his dew claws on his front legs. And his hu***ng was intense as you can see from the scratches on my arm.

If I got up and walked away from him, he would momentarily stop as well, then just start hu***ng me in my new location.

Luckily, the dog does not do this with the people he lives with; but he does it sometimes to the owner’s daughter and their grandchildren but the owners felt this behavior was lessening as the dog became more familiar with the daughter and grandchildren. The couple rarely has visitors.

So, do they need to “fix” this problem?

Not necessarily. They could manage the issue; meaning that on the rare occasions they do have visitors; they could crate the dog or put the dog in another room for the duration of the visit.

What they can’t do though is nothing. If they do occasionally have visitors and the dog remains that intense about hu***ng, their visitors will not be happy and the dog may become more and more frantic. So, they either need to change the dog’s behavior or manage the dog so he is unable to practice the behavior.

It is very possible this behavior will gradually decrease as the dog is in his new home longer and he relaxes more. But if the behavior is allowed to go on the dog may start to find it more rewarding because he is getting attention when he does it. Negative attention is still attention. Or the dog might hump and then the owners immediately give him a cheese filled bone which would mean that in order to get the cheese filled bone the dog thinks he must hump someone first.

And sometimes this type of frantic behavior can lead to the dog beginning to bite if his anxiety is not addressed.

I do want to be clear that this dog was NOT dominating me nor was this sexual behavior. People often think this behavior has something to do with dominance or they think the dog shouldn’t do it because it is neutered.

If they are unaltered then hu***ng could certainly serve a sexual function. But there are other reasons dogs hump.

The following is from PetMD, “Humping behavior can be directed toward a person when a dog is excited. It is a sign of mental or emotional arousal. The behavior can be a physical outlet for the dog or a way of seeking attention.

“Dogs may select a person to mount based on their relationship with the individual. It may be a sign that the dog prefers the person, or it could actually be a sign that the dog may be anxious about that person.”

In this case the dog was anxious. In the 90 minutes I was in the home he never laid down except for extremely brief moments when he had the bone to chew. But, even with the bone he would lick it standing up vs laying down to relax. He was panting a lot as well. My visit was causing him a lot of emotions he wasn’t equipped to deal with and his only solution was to hump me.

I often have dogs jump on me or hump me when I first go into a home (I ask that the dog not be loose when I enter, but not everyone remembers to do that). About 90 percent of dogs quickly stop the behavior if I ignore them. But, in cases such as with this dog, ignoring just made the dog more frantic and want to hump more.

I would have preferred to have the dog crated or placed in another room so the owners and I could talk without making the dog more anxious (and so I didn’t get so scratched up). But they had never tried crating him or putting him up and they had strong negative feelings toward crating. And if they held onto his leash, he also became frantic trying to get to me. I was afraid to keep filling up his bone with cheese because that would be a lot of cheese in 90 minutes and I found playing tug with him and trying to talk to the owners was more than my brain could easily handle.

In short, the owners were not prepared to manage the dog and the dog didn’t know what to do with himself other than hump me.

I discussed crating and why it wasn’t bad for the dog as long as the dog was trained to love going into the crate. I pointed out that they might sit in their chairs for three hours and not move while watching a movie and that was not punishing; so, leaving a dog in a crate for three hours while he had a bone to chew on or by allowing him to relax and nap was not punishing.

My worry for this dog is he may have some more underlying anxiety than the owners think he does. It was concerning to me that he was unable to lay down and relax while I was there. The owners said he did seem to pace a lot; but they has have not had a dog before so they are unsure what is normal or not normal.

I gave them many ideas for using the dog’s food as enrichment to help him learn to just lay down and chew and lick something. Chewing and licking can be calming events for dogs. That way when they do have visitors, they can bring out four or five frozen Kongs filled with the dog’s kibble and get him to engage with that and over time hopefully he will just learn to relax more when people are visiting.

The trick is to be proactive and not reactive, meaning to give the dog the chew items before he has a chance to hump rather than teaching him hu***ng makes the chew items appear.

My final thought for them was that if the dog was still exhibiting this much anxiety in three or four more months, they may want to have a discussion with their veterinarian.

We eventually got to the reason they called me and it turned out if this dog knew the person holding his leash had cheese, he did not care about his environment and would focus very easily on the person he was walking with.

04/18/2026

Please remember: All dogs can bite! And many bites are to children. Read these numbers!

04/14/2026

An essay on adoption restrictions

I had dinner with a friend this week who was denied the adoption of a 10-year-old Brittany spaniel because of her age. The woman’s age, not the dog’s age.

She is in her 70s. But she is active, can financially care for an older dog, owns her own home with a fenced yard and has 40 years of experience with the breed she wanted to adopt. Her husband is less active but can easily let a dog in and out and interact with the dog.

They were looking for a Brittany because that is what they have always owned and they wanted an older dog because they realize they cannot care for a young dog or puppy.

The rescue sent a person to conduct a home visit. She told them that even older Brittany spaniels are too active for people their age. My friend pointed out they lived across the street from a park that included a huge dog park and that she was an active walker. The home visit person said she doubted my friend could physically hold onto the leash. Now this is not a frail looking woman by any means. She could hold onto the leash.

The in-home visit person also said that if something happened to the dog, they would not be strong enough to pick it up and get into their vehicle to take it to the vet. Yet, the couple has a strong network of friends in their neighborhood who could be called on to help.

So, by that logic I need to get rid of both of my dogs as I cannot pick either of them up.

This couple would have been the perfect home for an older dog. But the rescue let a bunch of “rules” get in the way vs looking at the circumstances in front of them.

I get it. Every person I know in animal rescue has a horror story of a dog (or cat) adopted out and something horrific happens to it. Now many of these stories are not personal knowledge to the person telling the story, but more of someone else they know in animal welfare told them, etc. We ALWAYS focus on the negative stories and remember them. Even if 99.9 percent of the animals we adopt live wonderful lives we focus on that tiny percent who were failed in some way.

I have always thought that adoptions should be more of a conversation. There should be guidelines, but not hard rules. For example, many rescues will not adopt an animal to a home if another animal in that home is intact. Which is ridiculous. The animal being adopted is not intact so it isn’t going to be making babies. Why not ask why they have an animal that is intact? I have had intact dogs off and on for many years and will happily discuss why. And I have never had any of my dogs father a litter of puppies.

People living in apartments are also often denied. But that denial is sometimes based on not having a yard. Many people who live in apartments exercise their dogs far more often than people who have fenced yards because apartment dwellers HAVE to take the dog out for a walk. Instead, I would focus on whether the person living in an apartment is adopting a dog that might be a loud barker. Most dogs that get booted out of apartments get booted out for nuisance barking, rather than not getting enough exercise.

There are so many animals languishing in shelters and rescues. Older dogs especially are difficult to adopt. So, please carefully consider your adoption restrictions and ask if there can be more of conversations vs. hard rules.

Luckily, my friend lives in an area where I am familiar with some of the shelters and rescues, hopefully she will find a better reception with a different organization.

I am posting a photo of Skywalker who is now 10. He is still active and loves to run and go for walks, but he is also happy just sleeping on the floor.

04/13/2026

Trauma

We never know how it will affect us. That is also true for our pets.

I was in an accident this week. I was stopped at a light at the intersection of two highways. I was going east; I saw a semi heading south and realized it was going to run the light that was just turning red for that direction. So, I waited while he blasted through the intersection.

I congratulated myself on being so aware of my surroundings and proceeded across the intersection. The next thing I knew there was a loud bang and my truck started spinning. I felt the wheels momentarily tip up on one side. And then I was facing a completely different direction on the highway with the side airbags deployed and my hand clutching my dog Skywalker who had been on the floor behind me. It turns out a vehicle had been following the semi and they did not know the light had turned red so they kept going through the intersection and hit me.

I sat there totally stunned and then people were rushing over asking if I was ok and opening my truck doors, which caused me to panic even more because Skywalker was loose in the truck and animals often bolt during accidents. I was asking people not to open the doors until I got my dog, but no one was listening. Luckily, Skywalker crawled up across my lap and was licking my face.

Skywalker and I both walked away uninjured, but I was so stressed out I was basically unable to make decisions. I just sat down and started crying. The police came, people kept asking if they could pet my dog, someone gave me a bottle of water. My brother came and picked me up as my truck had to be towed. When I got home, I realized I did not get the name and insurance information of the people who hit me. Literally the ONE thing (after calling 911) you should do after an accident is exchange information.

My brain could not make good choices due to the stress of suddenly having a vehicle hit me from what seemed out of nowhere. It took almost two hours before I could begin to think more clearly.

Today was the first day I drove since the accident. I had to pick up a rental car. As I approached an intersection my hands started to sweat and I was looking in both directions and slowed down. The person behind me honked in frustration. I then drove a different way home to avoid intersections that had stoplights.

Let’s jump to Skywalker. He seems fine. He had no issues getting into my brother’s truck when he came to get me. But yesterday I was setting up a new robot vacuum and Skywalker suddenly became agitated.

I got the robot out of the box and plugged it in. Next, I was going through the steps of having the app on my phone talk to the robot and then talk to my Wi-Fi. Suddenly Sky literally jumped onto my lap (all 75 pounds of him) and was shaking. I asked him to get off and he clung to me and licked my face. He got off and was whining and getting low to the ground and then he started pawing me. I asked him if he wanted to go outside but that wasn’t it. As soon as I sat back down with my phone pointed at the robot he got agitated again and started clawing at me and raked my arm with his toenails.

I got so frustrated with him! I just want to set up the damn robot and my dog is freaking out.

Then I remembered why I was setting up the new robot. The old robot had stopped talking to my Wi-Fi. During the hours spent with tech support trying to problem solve it, the pairing noise between phone and robot made a high-pitched beep like a smoke detector and Skywalker is super stressed by that noise. I had to put him outside while I worked on the old robot so he wasn’t so stressed.

I gave up on the old robot after finding out there was no fixing the issue. But a month passed before I got the new robot and set it up.

I totally forgot about Sky’s issue with the robot vacuum.

The new vacuum was a different color and a different model but shaped the same. And I was doing the same thing, looking at the robot, looking at my phone and then pushing buttons on the robot. Skywalker remembered this series of behaviors produced a noise that scared him.

Even though the new robot doesn’t make that noise (it has a pleasant chime) Sky was still stressed out. I put him back outside while I finished setting up the robot.

A person might say my stress of going through an intersection in a completely different vehicle is irrational just as someone might think it would be irrational for Skywalker to be stressed by a completely different robot vacuum.

So, listen to your dog if he is trying to tell you something important vs being frustrated with him and if the person in front of you hesitates to go through an intersection give them a break as well.

03/22/2026

Start at the beginning rather than the end

Imagine you are learning to read and you have just mastered the alphabet song and are working on learning to write your name.

Now imagine someone gives you a copy of War and Peace and asks you to read it — in Russian.

It would be impossible for you to read this book. And yet this is often the type of task we ask our dogs to do and then if they can't do it we label them “stubborn,” “dominant,” or “he knows what he is supposed to do but….”

I recently had a client whose dogs live on a farm surrounded by woods. Generally, the dogs are good at returning to their owner on a walk, but if one particular dog sees a squirrel or deer, she will chase it and then one of the other dogs will follow.

The owner wanted the dog to be more reliable at coming back. So, first we looked at a recall when the dog was on leash, the other three dogs were in the house and there were no animals around.

The owner called the dog, she looked back, sniffed the offered treat and went back to looking around. This dog’s recall was still at the baby steps of learning to read, and coming back from chasing a deer would be like War and Peace in Russian.

We switched treats to something higher value and suddenly the dog was “wait, if I look back at you, I get that awesome thing?” In less than 5 minutes the dog responded immediately to its name and a recall word. Then it would even come and sit before the owner.

Next, we let the dog off leash but in the most boring part of the yard and we just let it wander around and occasionally I asked the owner to call the dog. We had a 100 percent success rate with this in another 10 minutes. To stick with the reading analogy, we were probably through learning the alphabet and maybe on the road to reading The Cat in the Hat.

The next step was letting one other dog out and then recalling both dogs but focusing on getting the ringleader to always return. We did this still in the most boring part of the yard and we didn’t let the dogs go far before asking them to return and rewarding them with a rain of hot dogs.

As we were going back into the house the other two dogs came out and all the dogs were excited and running about; then the owner went into the house and three of the dogs happily ran in. But the dog we were working with and the one that loved to be outside chasing things tucked its tail and walked very slowly toward the door. It was obvious going into the house was punishing for this dog. It wanted to stay outside and play. Instead, it knew going in would end all fun as she knew it.

So, we returned to just learning the alphabet and had the dog go into the house, get a big treat scatter of hot dogs, then once those were consumed, we called the dog back outside. Then we asked the dog to come back in and get a big scatter of hot dogs. This one is going to require the owner to keep working on it, but the dog was starting to go in slightly faster before I left.

If this dog doesn’t want to go into the house, then it is definitely not going to want to return to the owner when the alternative is chasing deer.

I encouraged the owner to continue making coming into the house a big party that does not always mean going outside is done.

For the recalls when walking I suggested working up to letting the dog go farther away before recalling it (but in a boring area and without the other dogs). The next steps will be getting a 30-foot-long line (training line) and giving the dog more and more freedom in more enriching environments and working slowly up to getting the dog to be more reliable on always coming back when called. After that the other dogs need to be added back slowly into the mix and the behaviors worked on some more until they are solid with the entire group walking together.

We also discussed playing hunting games in the house with treats and the dog’s kibble. This dog loves to hunt and use her nose. We can’t say “don’t do the one thing you are great at.” Instead, we can give the dog something similar but in such a way it is much safer.

Sadly, not everyone is going to make through War and Peace even in English, let alone learning to read it in another language. Not every dog is going to have a 100 percent recall when it sees something fun to chase; but by working on the baby steps first and getting a good foundation down the chances of that perfect recall are much higher.

03/18/2026

Rescues and shelters: Choose the right trainers

One positive I have seen over the last 16 years in animal welfare is the number of rescues and shelters who are turning to trainers to help with dogs that have behavior issues.

Shelters and rescues are also recognizing the benefits of paying trainers to help keep dogs in a home. Paying a trainer to keep an animal in its home is often less expensive than having that animal returned.

At the first shelter I worked at we euthanized any dog that failed a standardized behavior assessment. Then we started a program where we worked with dogs that failed the behavior test to see what would happen if they had behavior support. At one point in the program 93 percent of the dogs that had initially failed were able to be placed in homes and were not being returned at any higher rate than other adoptions.

Groups learned that people would donate money for behavior and training help. People love supporting programs that save lives.

Unfortunately, many rescues and shelters have wonderful intentions but end up working with the wrong trainers. Not because they are bad people, but because hype really does sell and most people don’t really know there is a difference between trainers and types of training. And many shelters rely on trainers who volunteer their services. Volunteering is awesome but it doesn't guarantee the person is the right fit for your organization.

If you work in animal welfare you obviously care deeply about animals and want the best for them. So, why would you choose a trainer who is going to use a prong collar or electric training collar? Or a trainer who tells you people in your shelter must be “dominant?”

Does punishment work? It can. But if you can get the same result without using punishment then why use it in the first place? The other issue with punishment is it may make the dog seem better in the short term, but months down the road the dog could have a different behavior that is linked to the harsh training methods.

At the first shelter I worked at we adopted out a 10-week-old puppy. It came back at 16 weeks with a serious bite history to children. The family had been hitting the puppy on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper every time it grabbed at anyone’s clothing or jumped on the children. Then one of the children reached her hand out to pet the puppy and ended up bitten so badly she required medical attention. The puppy had two more serious bites before it was returned. However, the family happily reported the puppy had stopped jumping on the children or grabbing their pants’ legs. So, the punishment “worked” but it made the puppy so worried about hands moving toward it, it started biting to protect itself.

The puppy became difficult to handle in the shelter as any hand that reached out to it resulted in the puppy biting. This combined with the documented serious bites to children in the home resulted in a euthanasia decision for the puppy.

So, how does a shelter or rescue navigate through the quagmire of dog training and behavior and find someone they can trust?

Here are some general guidelines:

• Look for a trainer who is certified through a national organization. Look up the organization and see what their certification protocols entail. The words “master trainer” often don’t really mean anything other than the person is the top trainer in their organization, so if you see “master trainer” find out what that means and how that person got the designation. Many fabulous trainers aren’t certified, but they attend conferences related to training and behavior. Find out what continuing education a trainer you are considering working with has done in the past year.

• Be skeptical of any trainer who guarantees his or her results. You absolutely cannot guarantee to “fix” an animal’s behavior.

• Board and train may sound fabulous, but will it change your particular behavior? Dogs tend to be very specific learners. So, if you have a dog that is biting children and the owner is considering returning it; don’t send that dog to board and train unless you are also sending the owner’s children with it. If the dog resource guards a toy on a walk and bites the foster parent, don’t use board and train. Teach the foster parent why the behavior is happening and how to change it. Sadly, many board and train owners use punishment tools. If you must use board and train, ask a lot of questions about how your dog will be treated and how the trainer plans to change the dog’s behavior in your home or shelter. There are some amazing board and train operators but you have to really do your homework.

• If you see the words “balanced” or “training protocols fit the need of the dog” or “dominance” in a trainer’s online information, ask questions. These words in and of themselves can be just fine, but often they are a red flag that the user is going to be training with some form of punishment.

• Conversely just because someone says they only use positive methods doesn’t make that person a good trainer. Words are just words. Find out what the person means when they use them. Do they have references? What are people saying about them?

• Put your money where it counts. Every animal shelter and rescue begs for money on an almost daily basis. If one of the rescues or shelters you support is raising money for training or behavior help research who they are using before donating.

If you are a shelter or rescue and you have not considered using trainers to help dogs either overcome behavior issues in the shelter or to help keep dogs in a home, you should explore the options. I am happy to provide more thoughts on the subject to any shelter or rescue who wants to consider the topic.

This photo shows me at Clicker Expo held in Chicago in 2025. This was my sixth Clicker Expo. I can’t go every year; but if it is close to where I live I will make the effort to get there. I also have attended two Aggression in Dogs conferences in the last three years. I attend at least one conference or workshop each year. This continuing education means I keep up on what my p*ers are doing and I am constantly learning new ways to help dogs. I am a Certified Training Partner with Karen Pryor Academy so you will see KPA-CTP after my name. It is easy to Google KPA and see what that means in terms of the type of trainer I am.

03/15/2026

Where will your pets go in the event of severe weather?

A severe weather pattern is predicted for the area where I live. There is the possibility of strong winds, tornados, and hail. People are urged to think about where they will shelter if necessary.

Don’t forget your pets!

Figure out your weather disaster plan before you need one.

First decide the safest place for you and your pets to shelter in a weather emergency. Once you know where everyone should be, practice going there and making it fun. While you can’t replicate the actual storm, if you practice fun games enough dogs are more likely to respond when needed.

My safe place is my walk-in shower. It is the most interior room I have. Dogs tend to not like bathtubs or showers because they may associate them with having a bath. I bring my dogs into the shower at random times and ask them to hunt for hot dogs. This makes going into the shower space fun and ensures they are going to jump right in with me if needed.

My two house cats go into the guest bathroom which is also an interior room. The cats and one of my dogs have a fractious relationship so it is easier on everyone’s nerves if they can be separated in times of danger.

For my outdoor cat, once I identify the possibility of severe weather I bring her into the garage and don’t let her out again until the threat has passed.

A disaster is not the time to train your pet to go into a crate. We often need to crate animals in times like this. You may need to go to an offsite shelter which will require your pets to be crated. You may need to crate dogs and cats to keep them safe in a home as well.

Practice teaching your dogs to run into crates at any time. Most people only crate their dogs at very specific times such as right before bed or when leaving for work. Asking a dog to go into a crate when none of those predictors is present may make the dog confused and unable to reliably perform the task.

My dogs love getting into my truck. But if you have a dog that doesn’t like getting into a vehicle, train the dog to jump in and out. If I need to leave quickly, I do not want to lift and shove a 95-pound dog into my back seat.

I discovered quite by accident that my hard-to-catch cat Peanut LOVES sleeping in a cat carrier even though if I wanted to put her in the carrier it would require careful planning. I now leave a cat carrier on the bed, and she spends the majority of her time in it. If needed I can close the carrier door and take her to her safe spot.

Ensure you have enough food and water for your pets for several days as well as any medications they may need.

If you don’t normally keep ID tags on your pets when they are in your home; put on the ID tags well before a severe weather event just in case your pets get loose. Have all of your pets microchipped. My indoor cats never go outside. But they are both microchipped because if a tree falls on the house and they get out I still want to have a hope they could be found and reunited with me.

Make sure leashes and other needed equipment are placed near exits in case you need to grab them and run.

Having a plan for safety is only the first step when you have pets. You also need to practice all the behaviors you might need in the event of an emergency well before you need those behaviors to happen.

03/10/2026

This is a GREAT post by a gifted trainer.

Instead of being angry at why your dog did something, ask instead why is he doing it?

https://suzanneclothier.com/dog-training-scientific-method-observation/?fbclid=IwY2xjawQdKnlleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFrWERhYWNHaG1tVjJLbG1zc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHpA9xjpNIndgwuRp-QfmBhnqeW4uBbVYwLqX2PZgOZzhA4qbU1fmKDSkktoW_aem_2CqflVEZ2Dr3Y2xtGvoleQ

Learn how applying scientific thinking to dog training improves your observation skills and creates better outcomes for you and your dog.

03/08/2026

The emotions of living with a dog with behavior issues can be stressful. Here is my story.

I owned a dog with a bite history. He cost me friendships. He cost me money. He cost me so much in terms of emotional baggage. And I rarely talked about him. Of my three dogs if you scrolled throug…

03/07/2026

I recently had a client consult in which the owner had been told to hit the 3-month-old puppy with a flyswatter either on its butt or its snout whenever it was “bad.” The person who told the client this came from a position of some authority to the client, so she thought the person knew the right thing to do.

It is easy to jump on the tree stump and start shouting about why this is wrong and how horrible people are. But the person who told her to do this was not a bad person or a mean person or a cruel person. She was just a person who had bad advice.

I was discussing this with a dog trainer friend, and she remembered when trainers told dog owners to hit the dog with a rolled-up newspaper because hitting the dog with your hand was “wrong” but hitting it with something rolled up would ensure the dog never knew it was the owner who was hitting it. (because we used to think dogs were stupid)

In 1984 I adopted my very first dog. Prior to this all the dogs I had just showed up on the road where I lived. Being a reader, I bought a book on how to train a puppy. It said if the puppy p*ed or p**ped in the house then the owner should drag the puppy by the collar to the area and rub its nose in the p*e or p**p. Since I assumed the author of a printed book about puppy training must be correct, I did this.

This is not meant to be a catalyst for a discussion of punishment vs reward-based training. But, rather to remember that most people who give advice we don’t agree come from a place of love. If all we do is yell at them and tell them how horrible they are most people will just dig in harder on their own beliefs.

When later this client brought out a spray she was using to “correct” her puppy, I told her I did not believe in those kinds of training methods. I went on to explain why and to give her another way of looking at things. I did not tell her she was a bad person, she obviously loved her dogs. Instead I provided her with another way to consider working with her dogs.

In the end the puppy’s owner put the spray away and said the flyswatter would just be for swatting flies.

Here are some questions that might help you find a dog trainer who is right for you.
• Is the person accredited with an organization? If so, look up the organization. Find out what criteria they use to allow people to use that accreditation. This does NOT mean that a trainer who is not affiliated with an organization is a bad trainer, but it is a question to start a conversation.

• Ask the person what seminars he/she has gone to in the last year. A person who is attending training conferences and seminars is often a person who tries to be a better trainer.

• Ask the person why they have chosen the training protocols they are advocating. A person should be able to back up their training methods vs just saying, “because it works.”

Finally, always be an advocate for your pet. If someone gives you advice you don’t agree with, it is ok to question that advice. People ask me all the time to defend giving a dog treats (it will get fat, it should just do it, etc.) I am happy to talk about why.

This photo is Skywalker as a puppy. He was the first dog I trained using only reward-based training.