Flexible Pet Solutions

08/28/2026

Trying her paw at "flop", better known as "play dead" - this is a great trick for cooperative care!

08/28/2026

08/19/2026

Kaylee brushing up on her hold and starting a door/drawer open with a tab.

08/17/2026

Sokka cat is very food motivated, so we're working on some more advanced tricks with him. "Take it" leads to "hold" which provides some adorable photo ops. I've already started this trick with him, but he's still new to it, so my goal for this session is to see him open his mouth and fully enclose around the chopstick. I started with a wooden chopstick because it's easy for him to fit in his mouth, it has a texture he doesn't mind putting in his mouth, I can replace it regularly to prevent risk of bacterial build up (cat mouths are gross), and it's light enough he can carry it when we get to that step. We started by rewarding any movement toward the stick, then touching it, then licking it, and now mouthing it. It's harder to train new behaviors with so many distractions (his brother Groot, buddy caramel, and bestie Goosey), but that's our life so we just stick with a very short session and end on a successful rep. Grootie wanted a treat but I don't think he's "into" treats enough to fully learn this trick, so I accepted his offer of pawing the "target stick" to earn a snack. I want the cats to enjoy training, and recognizing their intrinsic level of interest informs my individual goals for them. No one wants to play a game they always lose. It's important to tailor our training to our pets both in what they find fun and in what they can realistically achieve without becoming stressed.

08/17/2026

Today we worked on 'take it' which is the beginning of retrieving non-toy items, pulling open doors by a tether, and lots of variations of holding cute things for pictures. We start the pattern with something the dog wants to grab with their mouth, like a favorite toy, build a little momentum on the pattern, and swap the toy for a simple item that's not a toy but is the right shape and material to be comfortable in the mouth. I like to reward "take it" without a firm grip since some of the items I want my dog to retrieve eventually are delicate (eg phones, key fobs, glasses). Rewarding rapidly for a gentle mouth approach can lead to a trickier transition to holding on to items later, but to me that's an acceptable compromise. Ori does a great job here, and we only want a few repetitions before a real break to keep it fun and engaging.

08/14/2026

Threshold practice is an important life skill and sets up our pets for success when mistakes happen.

08/11/2026

A quick intro to toy rewards! Ori is pretty equally excited about food and toys, and a bit of a distractible teen, so we still need to keep sessions short to get the most out of our time training.

08/11/2026

Place training is a very useful skill! Start with short sessions and build. Too quickly and your pet will rehearse leaving more than staying!!

08/11/2026

Helpers helping out. If you have well socialized, confident animals, congratulations, now prepare to have every activity you do interrupted 🤣🥰🐾

08/01/2026

Therapy dog session ✅ now, to nap! 💤 check out our therapy dogs at our website https://whatis.dog/therapydogs - they work hard to build connection and joy!