Peaceful Pack Dog Training

05/29/2026

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1537207717765098&id=100044276537156

Tonight I ended up trying to help a friend whose puppy ate a kid's vitamin containing xylitol. Simple accident: kid dropped vitamin, puppy scarfed it down. (Note: this household is knowledgeable and is xylitol free, but a relative bought the vitamins, unaware of the risk to the dogs.)

The puppy only ate *one* vitamin. Which turned out to contain 1500 mg of xylitol.

100 mg/kg is the threshold for hypoglycemia which can be fatal. At 500 mg/kg, hepatic necrosis occurs -- destruction of liver tissue.

So just ONE chewable vitamin ended up creating a serious problem for a 30 pound pup (which is not quite 14 kg).

The emergency vet induced vomiting. Thankfully, the puppy had had a meal and so there was food in her stomach. In the vomit was the orange tablet, identifiable though dissolved.

Quick thinking on the owner's part (including grabbing the bottle of vitamins) and fortunately a nearby 24/7 emergency vet hospital meant that this pup received prompt treatment, and should make a full recovery.

Check your medications, vitamins, gum, candy, toothpaste, mouthwash, peanut butter and more for xylitol, also known as birch sugar.

This is useful information to have on hand:
https://www.calculatorsfordogs.com/health-nutrition-calculators/xylitol-toxicity-calculator

ALWAYS contact vet and ASPCA Animal Poison Control center immediately!

As for everyone (the non-vets) recommending the use of hydrogen peroxide, please update your understanding:
https://www.gsvs.org/woodbridge-nj/blog/hydrogen-peroxide-for-dogs-emergency/

Pass this along. I hope you never have to use it.

12/01/2025

As we lead up to another Christmas (already? What?!?) we look at some of the things that our dogs may face over the festive season and how best to ensure that they are not compromised in the midst of the activity. We begin with the first week of Christmas, and home fragrance....(click to view in full 😁)

01/05/2025

Dogs trainers, friends and families are mourning the death of the gifted Karen Pryor. Her work bettered the lives of so many by bringing a gentleness and kindness to our work with animals. Her groundbreaking and accessible book “Don’t Shoot the Dog” changed the way we thought about training dogs and was one of the reasons I enrolled in Gail Fisher’s (another brilliant trainer) All Dogs Academy so I could help teach others this way of training dogs. Karen’s legacy shall live on each time a dog is not choked, hit or zapped with electricity and instead is rewarded for learning how to think and choose the behavior we desire when training. Dogs live more joyfully with their humans thanks to Karen Pryor, thank you Karen .❤️

Karen Pryor’s life work defies labels. As a marine mammal trainer in the 1960s, she was a pioneer in the use of behavioral science to develop the dolphin shows at Sea Life Park. While there, she wa…

12/10/2024

09/03/2024

This is wonderful, for both the dog and the tiny human!

05/17/2024

It’s okay to just HAVE a dog.

Many people show their dogs, compete with their dogs, train their dogs for all kinds of things; and that’s wonderful- but you don’t have to do that to love or have a dog.

You can have a dog that you sneak a piece of your sandwich to, that you take on hikes or quiet walks, teach to grab the leash and bring to you, and let sit on your lap and make your eyes water with their horrific gas each night as you watch TV together. You can have a dog you do nothing with but enjoy, bring comfort to and receive from, and feel a sense of home with.

You can have a dog who doesn’t know anything fancy, but never leaves your side. A dog who doesn’t have any ribbons but can dig the best holes in your yard. You can just have a dog. That’s okay. Your dog doesn’t care. I don’t care. I feel the same with horses.

Today’s world often seems to put so much expectation on not just the dog, but the human beside them. Dogs don’t care about how many ribbons YOU’VE ever won, or whether you compete in things, what degrees you have, they don’t care. They are just happy to have a human who understands them, loves them; and provides for them. They are happy to just have you, and you can be happy to just have them too.

If we could normalize just having dogs, not expecting so much of them, and ourselves, I think their worlds would be much better for it. We’d lift some of the pressures we’ve put on them and ourselves. The things we see people doing with dogs today is amazing, but it doesn’t mean what you are doing is any less. As long as your dog is happy, enriched and understood, that’s all that matters. Really.

Here are my dogs, just do***ng.

04/27/2024

Sometimes when it comes to having a dog on the end of a lead. We even forget how to read basic human body language.

I’ve often been followed across the road , into a driveway, across the park. I suppose it’s very hard to understand why you would avoid interaction when you’ve never had a dog that doesn’t seek it.

But the main rule is if somebody looks like they’d re trying to gain distance from you. Allow it.

10/07/2023

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD – If your pet care professional isn't talking about; Choice, Communication, Compassion, Consent, Emotions, Empathy, Partnership, Respect, and Trust; you NEED a NEW pet care professional. Before training a dog, you must have a relationship based on compassion, empathy, and respect. To achieve that, you must be able to understand your dog's needs, emotions, and how they communicate. Having the ability to make choices and to give consent is essential to the mental health of every living thing. We can develop a lifelong partnership with our dog only after we understand all these things.

07/25/2023

Everyone deserves to have their space honored.

When I shared this photo just over a year ago, it caused a lot of stir on the internet.
People were mad. I was called names, I was accused of mistreating my dog, and I was told repeatedly that if my dog couldn’t handle being greeted by another, he had no business leaving my home.

I know this topic can be a sensitive one, so I was ready for some difference in opinions.

What I didn’t prepare for was the entitlement. The blatant selfishness. The loathing directed at me because my dog has different boundaries than someone else’s.

I feel that this topic is an incredibly important one to talk about. These dogs, the ones who need some extra space deserve to have someone to speak up on their behalf.
So I will continue to be that voice.

Head on over to the blog to read more about this topic and reasons why a dog might need space (www.sit-pretty.ca/blog - link in bio!)