Brian The Barkeologist

03/30/2024

Brilliant first session with Millie the Border Collie, who has reactivity to guests and passerbies, general anxiety and fear, and some resource guarding. We actually became fast friends!

09/25/2023

Wow thank you so much Richard! Your kind words mean so much to me and I am so glad Finn is doing well!

Fun fact: Finn is the dog that I use as an example when I talk about the importance of controlling perimeter space with territorial dogs. A simple patrol by myself, Richard and his wife around the perimeter of their back yard 180'd his response to passerby's, deferring to us to intervene rather than jumping in himself during a training session. Very smart dog!

If your dog is showing territorial or resource guarding tendencies please don't hesitate to reach out!
(Click the picture to enlarge)

09/11/2023

I blew up my website and started from scratch!

I encountered some elements (including my contact form bugging out) that weren't working since a recent Wordpress update, and it seemed easier to just reset the whole thing. It was quite the undertaking but it's finally done!

To celebrate figuring this thing out I'm offering 15% off any training package for the next week, code: "COOLSITEBRO"

Thank you for your support! It means the world!

Hey, my name is Brian The barkeologist Dog behavior consultant Clients 0 + Consulting Hours 0 + Lectures + Podcasts 0 Dog training has evolved Cooperative Training techniques Beginning with obedience training often backfires: as the dog learns to outsmart the program or percieve your relationship as...

04/28/2023

Dog Life With No Spoons · Episode

04/04/2023

That look when she catches me catching her snorting the couch

03/30/2023

March has been a tough month, and I believe my price increase may have scared some people off. I went from way overbooked to way underbooked extremely quickly. I know too that the country's recent financial issues, bank collapses, and skyrocketing interest rates may have a role to play in people conserving their money.

I've rolled back the 90 minute intro session to $200 (was $250)
Follow ups have been rolled back to $120 (were $160)
Initial 4 session packages have been rolled back to $499 (was $599)
3 session follow up packages have been rolled back to $300 (were $350)

Thank you for your support 🤍

03/29/2023

I want to thank Mia's mom for her donation to my Chaos & Canines blog!

I have been working with Mia (left) for a while now, probably one of the most fearful dogs I've ever seen. Her mom and her infinite patience has slowly allowed Mia to come out of her shell. We still have a long ways to go, but she's already come so far!

03/25/2023

Finny has come so far!

He is a Bernedoodle with some reactivity and resource guarding issues.

With the help of some concepts from mathematics we were able to identify areas of conflict and stress which were contributing to his behavioral problems. Recently I posted about how human & animal conflict both follow a "power law" distribution. That means if you map the magnitude of all conflict, there are a lot of smaller conflicts and a few large ones.

Which means if large conflicts are happening with a dog - there is a theoretical 10^x more smaller conflicts being missed. With this in mind we were able to examine Finn's daily interactions and identify areas we could change and modify to adjust the conflict curve to reduce the magnitude and frequency of his reactivity and guarding!

03/18/2023

You don't need to go far on a walk to tire your dog out!

When you have a "human goal" like walking around the block, or walking for a certain amount of time, often your dog will pull you towards your goal - and you'll let it happen because hey, you accomplish your task faster. That's how pulling on leash starts! If pulling = forward movement, the dog will pull.

Today, I took Nova out on the long line and I wanted to walk at *her* pace, the pace she needs to go to absorb all the information in her environment. We did not make it very far, and that's okay! The mental stimulation of actually slowing the walk down and taking everything in, with some loose leash and recall training thrown in, was more than enough to tire her out for a looooong nap despite barely making it out the front yard.

When your goal is desensitization, enrichment, and engagement, not distance or time - you will both have a much more enjoyable walk!

03/01/2023

Look at that face!

This post is to congratulate Rey and her parents for how far they've come with her reactivity to guests!

01/16/2023

Vague predicates predict venomous vocabulary!