Follow the Leader K9

08/03/2021

Like learning to ride a bicycle for the first time — Follow the Leader K9

New blog post!!!!

Yesterday morning I was drinking coffee and thinking about dog training as usual, when a concept popped into my mind. This is the idea that learning to ride a bicycle is a lot like learning to handle a dog. As a trainer, I am often brought dogs who are in fact “broken”; the brakes are out of adj...

10/04/2020

Im wondering
Why?
The questions keep coming
Answers few and far in between
And then I see you there
Solid like the sun
Or more like the earth
Im laying on

Im wondering how it is
That a dog could give me something
So stable to lean on

Its like a man once said
Or maybe it was a woman
They said "wherever you go
There you and your dog are"

Its hard at times
Especially with the ones who never follow directions
The ones who fail to "listen"
And the layers keep coming
Peeling away

I think I have them figured out
Then they send me a curve ball
Im worried right now
About one of my main dogs

He's hurt and I do not know what will happen to him
All i know
Is we did our best
We went the distance
We conquered demons
Together
And nobody else had to know

Nobody else had to see
And those missions
Those adventures
Those journeys
Gave me a taste of eternity
With you

Because in those moments
When we looked at eachother
A kind of freedom was felt
A sense of "no self"
Anatta is what they call it in buddhism

I learned more about buddhism from owning difficult dogs
Then I did from years studying it in college.

09/30/2020

There's nothing quite like a Zimmy boy, theres nothing quite like a Zim!
#hairless #mexicanhairlessdog #hairlessdog #chinesecrested #bulldogmix #bullymix #bullymade #bullybreed #bullylife #bullyboy #bullystyle #bullywild

09/25/2020

"FORCE FREE" and "PURE POSITIVE" DOG TRAINING DOES NOT EXIST! Watch the video link is in my bio or just watch @aft_dog_training recent youtube videos. Dogs are getting killed every day because trainers like #zachgeorge claim they can stop unwanted behaviors without punishment. The truth is they are lieing to and thus confusing so many people. Not only do these "pure positive" trainers lie, but also there methods are highly ineffective as evidenced by the very videos they put out. They never show dogs they have "trained" off leash and listening to their owners around distractions. Watch the video and see anthony break it down step by step using science to explain how these trainers punish dogs. The sad thing is the collar on this dog could cause a serious throat or spinal injury where as a prong collar, the "devils tool" cannot. Judge for yourself and lmk what you think.

09/21/2020

If i knew then
What i know now
I would have never learned a thing

If i knew now
What I knew then
I means i never knew I didnt know

You were the one
The one who taught me how little
There was i truly understood

You were the one who
Always let me know
It was ok to not know the answer

You are the one
Who taught me to flow with you
Taught me to fight

Your the one who let me know
Either way was ok
All of it is part of life

And looking back
I would have not wanted it any other way

I wouldn't have wanted an "easy" dog
Or a "nice" one
If i had that, I wouldn't have learned a thing

You see, humans are full of stories
That we tell about ourselves
And the world around us

A lot of these stories aren't true
And some of them hurt more than they help
In fact most of them do

Dogs can't hear our stories
Until we start hearing theirs
Then we start making a new story together

A wise man once told me
Inside ever dog are three dogs

The dog as the owner sees them
The dog as other people see them
And the dog as they see themselves

Its because of my most difficult ones
That everything I do
Its all about getting to that third dog

The dog as they see themselves

Once you start working with that dog
Once you start hearing that story
Once you stop only seeing them from the outside in

And start seeing them from the inside out
Then you can help them heal
Help them rebuild themselves

Then you know there are no bad dogs
There are just dogs we cannot understand
Because the stories people tell about them
Block them from telling their own

#kelpylife #kelpydog #akitamix #akitalife #muzzlelife #dogpack #dogscantalk #poemsbydogs #poemsaboutdogs #dogpoems #dogsofig #dogpoems

09/20/2020

I AM GOING LIVE AT 1030am for a 12 dog pack walk!

09/18/2020

@lrespa805 is looking for housing!

This human has spent countless hours helping out local shelter dogs in countless ways. She has rescued aggressive dogs and rehabilitated them on her own. She has invested years of her life full time into the @oldyellerranchrescue and still volunteers there part time completely for free. I can attest that her dogs are amazing and all extremely well behaved. Her goats I have not met but I am certain they are as well behaved as her dogs.
If anyone has a spot on your property and wanted a tenant that would be an asset, Lucy is your ideal candidate.

09/14/2020

I knew when we met
That I would never forget you
I knew when we met
I would have to reach down deep inside
I knew when we met
You would not be like any "dog" i had ever met before
And I knew when we met
That underneath all that fear
Was a confident dog just waiting to emerge

People often claim they have a "wolf hybrid" or a "coyote mix"
Often times I say nothing
But I know they are telling lies
This one was not a lie
This one was part wild
Part untamed
Part primitive
And I knew when I met her
She would teach me things

It always cracks me up
When people say they have trained a handful of dogs
Or "had dogs all their lives"
As if to say they have figured them all out
My specialty had been to always know
That no matter how many dogs I own or train or rehabilitate
There will alwAys be those unique ones
Who are actually here to teach me
As i teach them

With them I share a part of myself
I open myself up
I work so hard to listen and realize when I need to adapt

And so next time I get an actauly "feral dog" or a "wild dog" or a "hoarding situation dog"
I will look back
And i will think of Sky
i will remember the way she looked at me today

With those amazing deep brown eyes
That tore into the depths of my soul
That quietly screamed outloud for all to hear
It was a look of a dog saying "thankyou"

And as I gave her a pet
And for the first time saw her relax and accept me

I knew then
What i knew when I first met her
She is a one in a million
She is unique
And the things she shared with me
I am only mow beginning to understand

Special thanks to @nwbdogs on this one. If you do not already follow him....you need to.

09/12/2020

@nwbdogs can take credit for this phrase! I read it on his post this am and i had to share. If you follow me you have to follow @nwbdogs or if you train with me or trained with me @nwbdogs is a must!

It is so true but often times we do not practice enough before we demand something of our dog!

09/10/2020

PURE POSITIVE INSANITY=

Pure positive trainers will tell you It takes 1 year to get even their own dog to be off leash around very little distractions. This is insane because 1. This trainer got the dog from a breeder as a puppy and not from a shelter. 2. This is a dog bred for obedience and owned by a DOG TRAINER from8 weeks old.

So the questions is...how long using "pure positive " methods would it take an average person to get their average dog off leash? And off leash around distractions? The truth is we do not know because this guy does not even show his own dog off leash around distractions, let alone the average persons dog.

This is just another example of pure positive dog training nonsense. Their methods do not even work with their own dogs around high distractions....yet people are told this is the only way and remote collars are cruel because they punish dogs. Idk about you but i would rather have my dog off leash and being rewarded with freedom than on leash its entire life.

We have a serious issue in this country with people owning challenging dogs and some of the most popular trainers cannot even show any significant success even with their own dogs. All the responsibility is put on the owner or else the dog is labeled as untrainable and people are told to "get a different dog".

When you see a trainer online....ask to see the proof. Make sure you can see them showing dogs with similar issues as your own really succeeding in real world environments. If you do not use your common sense you may waste your time and money and even....your dog.

Use remote collars for off leash recall and you can have often have even the most difficult and dangerous dog off leash trained in just a few months. Many easy dogs can be trained in a few weeks to be 100% off leash around even the highest level of distractions.

'Moral of the story...stay away from pure positive trainers and force free trainers.....their stuff may make you feel good, but it just does not get the results we can get with positive first or balanced training.

09/09/2020

And I forgot to mention
How thankful I am
That there are still things to learn about you
5 years later
Im still seeing progress

And im wondering no longer
When it will "end"
Or when you will "stop"
When you will be "better"

It took me 5 years
To get to that point
Where i would look back
And smile

I would know
That we both tried hard
And made mistakes along the way
But that was just us being ourselves

Together

And I will never know
How different you would be
If i knew then what i knew now
Or if i didnt know now what i didnt know thatn

But life is like that
It's through looking backwards
That we know where we are
Its how we put the pieces together

Well i have been putting pieces together this last year
Ive stopped looking forward to the day when you "change"
Im looking back seeing how far you have come
And seeing how far I have come as well

If someone would have told me
That the "worst" dog i ever met
would teach me the deepest lessons
About myself
And made me the best trainer i could be

I would have never known
I never thought anything good would come from her
I never thought that she would be an asset to me
I never thought in her i would see an angel one day

Angels come in all different shapes and sizes
And it said that the devil himself
Was at one time the highest of angels
But i now know

That an angel who falls from grace
And becomes a devil
Is still an angel
And still here to help us along our way

And now when I meet a dog
They say is the worst or the meanest
They say is unpredictable
I know one thing is true

That all of them are angels
That just fell from grace
And they will be angels again
If we can just learn the lessons that they are hear to teach

#akitalife #akitadog #akitapoem #dogpoems #aggressivedog #meanpuppy #meanestdog #worstdogever #aggressivedog #crazydog #insanedog #meandog #dangerousdog #physchoticdog