Blackwood Canine

08/18/2025

Most reactivity advice? Trash. 🙄 It skips over the real reason your dog loses their mind at squirrels, skateboards, or your neighbors yappy floof.

These slides should give you an idea of what you’re up against, and what you can do.

🧠Build focus exercises that actually work
🧭Map out your plan and reward heavily
⚠️Introduce Triggers in a controlled environment

Interested in more reactive dog tips, let us know.

08/15/2025

Introducing… The 5 Week Fix 🚀

Because life’s too short to struggle with your dog through every walk, meal, and visitor at the door.

Over the course of 5 weeks, we’ll give you the tools, techniques, and confidence to:
✅ Walk your dog on a loose leash
✅ Have them actually "listen" the first time you ask
✅ Build good habits that will last long after the class ends

📍 **Where:** Blackwood Canine – Scappoose OR
📅 **When:** Every Monday @ 5PM, Sept 1–Sept 29

👉 Bring your dog, the proper training equipment (we’ll help you choose if you’re not sure), food for training, and a good attitude.

We’ve got the rest covered.

Cost: $300
We only have 6 spots available, so apply now.
https://www.blackwoodcanine.com/5weekfix

08/15/2025

You keep skipping the one thing you need to have the dog of your dreams… ✌️

06/12/2025

“Oh wow, he’s so good at home!”
Oh yeah?

The second you step outside, they’re acting like they don’t even know you, much less what you taught them.

Smells, squirrels, random humans yelling into AirPods…
Of course he’s distracted.

Different environments = different dog.
Start small, then turn up the chaos — one squirrel at a time. 🐿️🔥(just kidding stay away from squirrels. They bite)

06/03/2025

On Friday, a few of our club members decided throw their dogs on the field for a CSAU. Everybody seemed to hold their💩together long enough to fool the judge.

The CSAU is a required temperament test for French Ring.

Have you guys competed with your dogs? If so, what sport?

05/29/2025

Ever wish your dog had an off switch?
That’s kinda what PLACE is.

If you’re cooking dinner and don’t want the dog under foot. If you’re having folks over and don’t want your puppy wrestling them at the door. Or you just want the dog to be able to chill out somewhere while you binge White Lotus.

Most folks teach obedience like it’s a party trick.
But PLACE is one of the most useful hacks to keeping your sanity.

Save this, and keep grandma’s legs from getting scratched up every time she comes over.

05/15/2025

This is Mateo.

He’s a Rottweiler mix, about 65 lbs of lovable foolery with a solid resume: house-trained, crate-trained, obedience-trained, and emotionally trained to guilt you into giving up your spot on the couch.

Mateo’s current human had to make an unexpected move and can’t take him along. It sucks. She’s heartbroken. Mateo’s confused. You could be the silver lining.

He grew up with another dog and did just fine—but he can be a bit reactive on walks—he’s got some feelings, ok?—but he’s done a ton of training and we’ll include free training support to help him settle in and keep thriving.

Here’s the vibe:
•Goofy, loyal, and thinks he’s 30 lbs lighter than he is.
•Big fan of structure, snacks, and being told he’s a good boy (he is).
•Will sometimes act tough on a walk but is 💯 controllable.
•Emotionally available and very into long-term commitment.

He’s not for the faint of heart (or the flimsy of leash), but if you like your dogs with personality, cuddles, and a built-in security system, Mateo might just be your guy.

DM us.

05/01/2025

Everyone’s out here teaching their dog to ring a 🔔 to go potty.
COOL trick😏... That is until your puppy starts ringing it just to go bark at leaves.

Here’s the truth: You DON'T need a bell. You NEED your dog to go when YOU need them to.

We just dropped a YouTube video on how to teach your dog to potty on command. It's a section out of our recently released Housebreaking Blueprint Course.

It's Fast, Simple, and No more guessing.

(And maybe toss that bell in the trash while you're at it.)🗑️

Sick of standing outside for 20 minutes while your dog sniffs every blade of grass? In this video, we break down how to teach your dog to "go potty" on comma...

04/10/2025

If you’ve got a dog that’s pushing all your buttons,
if can’t figure out what they need,
if you feel stuck, frustrated, or just completely over it…

Let’s talk.

I’m looking for dog owners who are down to have a real, recorded conversation with me —
no shame, no judgment, just the truth and a potential path forward.

💬 Drop “diggin’” in the comments or DM me if you’re interested.

06/05/2024

We’re so proud to be a part of this community!

06/01/2024

Yo! Sport dog friends… If you are struggling with your dog creeping fwd for position changes, you need to sign up for this!

How do the transitions affect position changes for obedience

04/25/2024

So recently, I’ve encountered a few dogs that were extremely over-aroused in the bitework. Is this who they are? Possibly, but I’d bet it was more likely that they were reinforced to be this way.

I can admit that in raising my first malinois and going from a corso to a malinois, I spent an inordinate amount of time of drive building in a dog I did not need to build anymore drive. I in essence made her antsy. Even in her ripe old age, she is still twitchy if someone gets up or moves around the house.

This topic alone of reinforcing/building traits either willingly or unknowingly is a huge thing in and of its own, but it overall got me to thinking about puppy/dog development in bitework. It made me think of the idea of a “strong dog.” Because when people see a puppy or young dog exhibit characteristics of a “strong dog” they tend to give them more fight. Build more intensity in a creature that is plenty intense.

For the dogs who are not so intense we do have to do things to help compensate. For whatever reason, I tend to get a lot of dogs that not that tough and so I spend a good amount of time creating a system that allows them to win. A system that allows them to push through incremental adversity and still win. This predictable cause and response can give the impression of a strong dog, but does not always accurately portray who the dog is both in that moment and genetically.

So this got me to thinking… at some point the dog will compete or end up on a decoy that does not deliver the predictable response to their counter. They could be met with more violence and indifference to their efforts. Or they can be met with just awkward moment from the decoy that defies their previous experiences. .

My question for you all is, at what point and how often then is it important betray their expectations in training?

I’m curious to hear you alls thoughts.

Gamba biting pic for tax
📸 Emily Nikzat