RotNDog Training & Behavior Consulting

RotNDog Training & Behavior Consulting Specialized Dog Training & Behavior Modification for dogs with problems since 2003.

RotNDog is your answer for help with aggression, fear, anxiety, and basic-advanced obedience.

IT WON’T ALWAYS TAKE AS LONG AS YOU THINKEllie was recently adopted as a “middle aged” lab transferred from a rural shel...
06/24/2026

IT WON’T ALWAYS TAKE AS LONG AS YOU THINK

Ellie was recently adopted as a “middle aged” lab transferred from a rural shelter and found her new home here in Palm Beach County. Unfortunately she displayed distress when her new owner would attempt to leave her home alone, crated or not.

He sought help through several avenues, was told that perhaps there’s a medical component, and then was set up with some remote sessions to work on a very long, very tedious, program to desensitize her to departures. The program seemed too long and daunting and unrealistic for Ellie’s owner despite having a lifestyle where he didn’t need to leave her alone too often anyway. So he looked for help elsewhere.

I agreed that the potential medical component shouldn’t be ignored, especially due to her age, however whether there was a medical component or not, I shared a very different program for “independence” training compared to what he experienced with the previous trainer. Mine seemed more practical, doable, and realistic to him - which is always my goal!

Within less than a month (because within that month her owner had also been out of town), he was able to leave her home alone with zero stress for up to an hour.

Was it magic with no work? No.

Was it months to years of work? Also, no.

But it was doable, in much less time than what he was originally told by a behavior professional.

I love helping people in a realistic way.

Impulse control: some dogs have it, some dogs don’t. (Some people have it, and some people don’t.)The ones who have it, ...
06/23/2026

Impulse control: some dogs have it, some dogs don’t. (Some people have it, and some people don’t.)

The ones who have it, had to learn it, dogs and people alike.

El Chupacabra knows that if he doesn’t wait patiently for the coconut, he’s not going to get it.

Why is that important?

It utilizes slow thinking.
It teaches patience.
It upholds rules and boundaries.
It caps behavior that becomes too much.
It rewards more desirable behavior.
It prevents frustration.
It lays a foundation for behavior modification.

When we push and shove our way towards something that we want, we might get immediate self reinforcement. But inevitably when things don’t go our way, we become frustrated and angry.

When we stop and restrain ourselves for our desires, we practice patience, discipline, and delayed gratification. The reward may not be immediate but we know it’s coming. This level of self control helps us when inevitably things don’t go our way so we don’t become frustrated and angry.

This simple concept benefits regular basic training but also is a great starting point for behavior modification, laying some groundwork that can be capitalized on later.

Some great impulse control exercises to start with include wait, stay, place, settle, leave it, “nothing in life is free,” and independence training.

06/22/2026

Muzzle Monday: Muzzle Paralysis

When conditioning to the muzzle, a lot of dogs feel like they can’t walk forward while wearing it. That sounds silly, but it’s actually a thing. I call it “muzzle paralysis.” Dogs literally have to learn how to walk with the muzzle on!

Here we are encouraging Macho to walk around while wearing it. He was already comfortable having it on standing still, but was still struggling to move with it on.

While “muzzle paralysis” is common, thankfully it’s easy to “treat.” Pun intended!

Happy Summer Solstice 🌞 Hopefully you get to spend some time in the sun today with your dog(s) in honor of the longest d...
06/21/2026

Happy Summer Solstice 🌞

Hopefully you get to spend some time in the sun today with your dog(s) in honor of the longest daylight of the year.

SMALL DOGS ARE NOT EXEMPT FROM BEING BULLIES!One of my clients who we previously worked with a bigger dog together, reac...
06/20/2026

SMALL DOGS ARE NOT EXEMPT FROM BEING BULLIES!

One of my clients who we previously worked with a bigger dog together, reached out to ask if I worked with small dogs, too. Her small dog was displaying bullying behavior towards the other dogs in the home, guarding certain areas as well as antagonizing them if they were confined.

Of course we can work on that!

Small dogs learn just the same as bigger dogs. It’s just that often times their inappropriate behavior gets ignored because they are small.

Once she started implementing a plan to address the resource guarding and bullying behavior, there was an immense improvement to the point she rarely displays it now after just a few weeks.

Pictured - is the bully! Haha.

Small dogs can undergo behavior modification, too.

06/19/2026

Hunter is a working line Doberman who participates in protection sports. His owner came to me because he was displaying aggression towards other dogs to the point that he would seek dogs out to fight with them. When his owner sought help from her training group to help curb the aggression, what they taught her unfortunately only made it worse.

Eventually it reached the point that when he saw a dog, he would turn around and redirect and go after his owner as well. She was smart enough to know that there had to be a different way.

This is not to knock the training group, but rather to bring awareness to the fact that working with aggression cases is very different than working with sports or obedience. The key factors in what they were trying to do to “fix” the aggression and why it wasn’t working included inappropriate use of equipment for a dog displaying aggression, a lack of direction for what he should have been doing instead, missed opportunities for reinforcement, an inability to keep the owner safe, and overall lack of clarity for the dog.

What makes cases like his even more challenging is that dogs in protection sports are trained to lean into conflict and to try harder when presented with a threat. And yet what we are trying to teach is the opposite - walk away and disengage from a potential threat or conflict … whether that’s a dog minding his own business or a dog barking behind a fence.

With the correct factors in play Hunter has improved beautifully, to the point that when he sees other dogs he almost always disengages on his own and rarely needs to be asked to do so. This is such an immense change from where we started.

I always have gratitude for the clients who realize certain training plans aren’t working and who decide to find another route. And in this case, we were able to resolve the aggression towards other dogs without affecting his protection training as well. A win for all.

When you have a reactive dog, moving can actually help with your progress. Now, I’m not saying that you have to move in ...
06/18/2026

When you have a reactive dog, moving can actually help with your progress.

Now, I’m not saying that you have to move in order to see success (I’m also not saying that I’ve never had any clients who chose to move FOR their dog lol). But when there’s a move coincidently in the middle of training, sometimes it can help.

The dog that Norman’s owner previously had was very sociable and walked around the neighborhood like the mayor. When that dog passed and Norman came into the picture with his leash reactivity, body handling issues, and potential pain related aggression, he didn’t want to be approached by strangers. But old neighbors would still approach because they had old associations with the dog prior to him. Yet that made the training all the more challenging.

In the new neighborhood, people leave them alone and Norman has been progressing even faster with the training.

Why? Because new places and new associations go better than having to undo old associations, too. And while of course that’s not always possible, it’s an interesting point to keep in mind.

This week’s Sunday Funday was a pretty typical one with all follow up appointments:🐾 Medium sized mixed breed that we’v...
06/17/2026

This week’s Sunday Funday was a pretty typical one with all follow up appointments:

🐾 Medium sized mixed breed that we’ve gradually worked through a number of issues including aggression towards other dogs in the home, aggression towards strangers, reactivity on the leash, body handling issues, etc. Currently, we are working on public outings.

🐾 Clients with a sheltie that we previously worked on anxiety around being separated, inability to settle and relax, as well as excessive barking in the past. We are now integrating a new English Cocker Spaniel puppy to the home and setting their integration up for success.

🐾 A client where we just finished working on resource guarding and aggression displayed towards other dogs in the household with their small Chihuahua mix. Now working on integrating the new foster puppy into the home.

🐾 Two boxers who displayed aggression towards other dogs as well as bikes and unfortunately got away from their owner one time and saught another dog out. They’re doing great in our maintenance sessions.

🐾 Five month old guardian breed mix puppy who had been displaying severe resource guarding over food, as well as a lot of impulse control issues and reactivity on a leash. In our second session the resource guarding over food is no longer an issue despite it having been a daily issue previously.

🐾 Remote session with a small terrier mix who had been displaying increased anxiety around the new baby and rescue guarding the female owner. We’re making progress.

🐾 Adolescent poodle mix who we had been working through normal “puppy” behavior issues, plus resource guarding, and now working through some mild fear and anxiety in specific situations.

🐾 Young adult bully mix with a lot of impulsive behaviors in the home as well as some reactivity on walks we are addressing.

🐾 An adult bully mix displaying aggression to other dogs who has a history of getting away from his owner and seeking other dogs out. This owner was afraid to step outside her apartment with her dog and would drive to other locations to walk. Now she’s walking daily in her neighborhood.

Of these cases 6 out of 9 have bite histories to people or other dogs and 5 out of 9 previously used other dog trainers without success and/or didn’t feel good about the other trainer’s approach.

My clientele is special and that’s how I like it!

05/23/2026

Clients and their dogs become much more than just business transactions over the years, especially when you get to know someone over such a long period of time.

For over 8 years, I had been working on and off with Duke and his owners. We worked through leash reactivity, resource guarding, defensiveness at the vet, and public manners. When his *owners* wanted to do more with him, we trained him to receive his Canine Good Citizen title, Canine Good Citizen Advanced title, and Canine Good Citizen Urban title. When *Duke* wanted more, we trained him to receive the AKC Trick Dog Novice title, Trick Dog Intermediate title, and Trick Dog Advanced title.

Duke LOVED his training sessions and we were still training for the AKC Trick Dog Performer title when he got a diagnosis for a large cranial lump and underwent radiation treatment. He went into remission for a year and we kept training. But despite fighting for so long, today his battle ended.

I’m grateful I got to see him a couple of weeks ago and I’m grateful for all the fun we’ve been able to have over the years. Every time we had a season, Duke would wait at the window for me to arrive. I will miss those days.

Enjoy this video we took in our last session where he was still learning and practicing his performer tricks.

RIP Duke 🌈

MUZZLE MONDAYWhen choosing an appropriate muzzle for your adventures, one of the many things to consider is how easily t...
05/04/2026

MUZZLE MONDAY

When choosing an appropriate muzzle for your adventures, one of the many things to consider is how easily they can be cleaned if they become dirty.

For example, these Dean & Tyler Freedom muzzles can easily have sand rinsed off of them, but the padded nose piece will take a while to dry if it becomes wet.

There’s always a lot to consider when making your choice!

Address

Serving Palm Beach & Broward Counties
West Palm Beach, FL
33401

Opening Hours

Thursday 8am - 9pm
Friday 8am - 9pm
Saturday 8am - 9pm
Sunday 8am - 9pm

Telephone

+16094081447

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