AZ Dog Lady Training and More

29/06/2024

Well, one more Abbott German Shepherd German Shepherd baby dog will be joining me to learn how to be a super good girl This is Maya and you'll be seeing much more of her. Lots to learn. She is vocal and tries to tell us what to do, she is jumpy, bitey, and don't let those innocent eyes fool you. This will be so fun!!!! agsdogs.com

13/06/2024

This is such a cruel disease. Our big boy Pax had this. It was slow to take over. First he had trouble going on long walks, then he loved to swim and that went by the wayside, Everything he loved to do he just couldn't do anymore. His backend slowly sent completely out. We knew it was time when he couldn't get up to p**p or p*e. His brain was totally fine but not his backend.

Degenerative myelopathy (DM) is a disease that disproportionately affects the German Shepherd Dog breed. 35% of German Shepherds have the genetic mutation to be a carrier/at risk. Roughly 17% go on to be diagnosed with DM. Today we are going to talk about the cause, treatment options and how to prev...

22/05/2024

No doubt, when the subject of crate training comes up, there are two types of dog owners: those that vehemently disagree with crate training and those that swear by it. One side believes crate training to be cruel, confining, and may even stifle a dog’s free spirit. The other side believes that cr...

22/05/2024

Does your dog need to swim?

08/05/2022

04/05/2022

Do you have the desire to train your dog? I don't mean a little want to do it but a burning desire to help your dog best the best dog?

While perhaps in the movies one can have another person stand in for them during the dangerous or more challenging scenes, when it comes to successfully working with, and transforming your dog, there’s no such luck.

One of the easiest mistakes for owners and trainers to make is to assume training generalizes. And while there may be some “residual” generalization—generalization which owners get to “borrow” post-training—that “credit” quickly runs out.

Dogs are geniuses at figuring out who NEEDS to be listened to, and who might not be. Every small allowance, every missed correction, every hesitation, every command that is asked for and then let slide...gives all the intel needed.

Along with that, even if you do go through all the training motions, even if you are on top of all the above, but your heart and mental intention just aren’t in it, you’ll quickly find that many dogs will see through that as well. Especially your tougher cases. The strong willed, stubborn, pushy, “make me” dogs. If you try to just phone it in, without any real believability behind you; without any resolve and “kick ass” mindset, gaps can quickly be seen, and quickly taken advantage of.

This absolutely doesn’t mean you have to be nasty, mean, or angry. In fact, that will work against you. Promise. But a ,shall we say, smoldering intensity, a quiet but determined “I’m the wrong human to mess with”, a psychologically “strong silent type”...now that will get you some training traction. Raising your voice, getting frustrated or harried will always make things worse—but a quiet, patient, emotionally controlled, ever-watchful, parent-who’s-an-assassin mindset will create something that will feel likely very similar to any great dog trainer.

And this should help considerably with the ever-present issue of “My dog does great with my trainer, but he’s terrible with me.” Because if you think your dog is gullible enough to think you and your trainer are interchangeable—without behavior from you which IS interchangeable—then there’s only one species in the house who’s the gullible one.

When training is done, you ARE the trainer. There’s no stuntman to rescue you. And if things go sideways, this lack of understanding, and lack of mindset shift is almost always the reason why.

21/04/2022

I have tried to explain this to my clients but this post explains it to perfection.

For all of you who’ve been taught that corrections/punishment will destroy the relationship between you and your dog, and who now believe this, and are terrified to do so—let me introduce you to what you’ve not been taught.

Reality.

The reality of how your dog perceives you, and the association and relationship that develops from that perception, comes from ALL your interactions.

As I shared in the original graphic, if you were to ONLY engage in a one dimensional interaction dynamic, where you ONLY corrected/punished your dog, then you actually would undermine your relationship.

But unless you’re a sadist, I can’t imagine you’re taking on a dog only to correct/punish it. So you can relax those relationship fears. If you’re like any of the thousands of owners I’ve interacted with, you do many things with your dog—many things that have nothing to do with a negative associations. Things like I shared in the graphic: walks, play, affection, feeding, car rides, adventures etc.

When you share a multi-faceted relationship dynamic; one that is balanced with far more positive, fun, rewarding, enjoyable interactions, along with the occasional correction/punishment—which shouldn’t be fun or enjoyable—your healthy relationship is safe and sound. Your association is a healthy, balanced one. It’s both positive and negative, with the positives far outweighing the negatives.

This is why vets have it so tough. Your vet is almost always going to get the single dimensional association. Even when owners attempt to counter this association, bringing their dogs to the vet for non-visits, and having the staff give treats and pets...the scary, stressful, and sometimes painful reality of the other visits far outweigh the other positive interactions, and aren’t nearly powerful enough or frequent enough to combat the negative experience most dogs go through with typical vet visits. And so, we see the shaking, quaking, stressed out, freaked out behavior when we visit.

But back to you. Along with what I’ve shared above about relationship balance, your dog also learns that it controls its reality. It finds that negative consequences only occur when they make poor choices. Which means you are predictable in your actions, which means your dog’s world is predictable and safe...even when faced with undesirable consequences which come from you. Your dog understands that the consequences are tied to their behavior, and are anything but random. Which is also why the entire silliness about “learned helplessness” (which is also leveraged to frighten owners) is also precisely that…silliness. If your dog understands that their choices control their world, they’re anything but helpless. But that’s a topic for another day.

To sum up, if you live a normal, multi-faceted life with your dog, like everyone I’ve seen, you won’t have any fallout from correcting/punishing your dog. Zip, zero, nada. In fact, if you do a little thinking, you’ll see how easily owners accidentally create a truly dysfunctional, toxic, unhealthy relationship...by ONLY engaging in positives. Yep, you guessed it. You’ve become a one dimensional owner. One who need not be listened to, respected, or appropriately interacted with. Is that a positive association? Is that a healthy relationship?It’s certainly not how I’d define either, and it’s certainly not what I’d want for me or my dog.

Strangely, they always seem to leave these inconvenient truths out of the conversation. I wonder why?

26/02/2022

Been there, done that. I've been to countless seminars and workshops to learn new things.

Because it’s the weekend which means loads of lessons, I’m resharing this gem❤️

“Agh, I’m so stupid!” This is one of the more common things owners say during go-home lessons. I get why you’d feel that way…
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You’re fumbling with the remote.
You said the wrong word.
You stood in the wrong spot.
You made the wrong call.
Your timing was off.
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But you’re NOT stupid! Not at all! This is a lot to learn and it can be really overwhelming. It has a bit of a learning curve and it takes practice. You’re not stupid, you’re just new at this.
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Just because I’m a dog trainer doesn’t mean I’m immune to that feeling. The dog in this photo, George, is one of my beloved personal dogs. He has both human aggression and dog aggression. I was able to teach him a lot, but I wanted to do everything I could to help him become his very best self, so I sent him to a high level board & train program.
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At the end of that program, guess what happened?
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We had go-home lessons. And guess what?
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I fumbled the remote.
I said the wrong word.
I stood in the wrong spot.
I made the wrong call.
My timing was off.
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I wasn’t new to the e-collar, to dog training, or to working with George, but I was leveling up—and it was humbling! I had a lot more to learn than I realized. But I reminded myself that that’s why I hired these dog trainers in the first place: to teach me what I didn’t know.
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There are lessons at the end of every board & train because there is always new stuff we need to learn. You’re not stupid—you’re just learning. Be gentle with yourself!

21/02/2022

Most of the time people don't like the word punishment so I use all the words, punishment, correction, discipline, and the like. Then I explain how they're all pretty much the same - all they need to do is pick the one they like the best and we'll get started. Yes, if you want a happy dog with freedom to enjoy life , we need to put the word into action sometimes.

Everyone is happy to talk to you all about the latest and greatest fancy training protocol and technique, but very, very few are willing to honestly discuss the necessity and value of sharing appropriate punishment.

A good question to ask yourself would be: why? Why is such a critical component of creating a healthy relationship dynamic so rarely discussed? Especially when the absence of this dynamic is almost always at the core of owner’s struggles? It’s almost as if it’s too uncomfortable to be broached. So instead trainers keep feeding you pleasant, sweet, good-feeling approaches so you’ll feel good, even as you struggle. As long as the trainer looks/sounds good in their presentation their behinds are covered—and yours is anything but.

Find trainers willing to have difficult, uncomfortable discussions with you. They aren’t doing it because it makes them popular—it doesn’t—they’re doing it because it’s what you need, and next to no one else will discuss it.

P.S. And if you find that you’re still not emotionally prepared to pusnish unwanted behavior, you might want to rethink owning a dog. Because a dog without discipline, firm rules, and punishment,is a dog who’s lost, and struggling.