Category Archives: Uncategorized

Before the age of the internet and online learning (yes, I’m *that* old), there were only 2 ways to learn from others: One was from books, and the other was through in person seminars. These days, those learning modes are still available to us, but so is a third mode, online learning. Online learning variesContinue reading “5 Reasons To Try Online Dog Training”

It may surprise you to know that, as a professional dog trainer, I don’t rely on high levels of motivation to reach my dog training goals. If I waited for motivation, I’d never get any training done. Instead of waiting for motivation to activate my training, I use the following strategies to jumpstart my trainingContinue reading “Lack Motivation to train? Try these 3 tips.”

Building a rally obediece course correctly and efficiently is a skill that will serve you well as a rally obediece competitor. People who can build courses well, will build them more frequently, and people who build courses more frequently will likely practice courses more frequently. Below are my tips for making course building more efficient.Continue reading “How to Build a Rally Course”

I don’t remember much about my first herding trial with Bear, but I remember one thing with absolute clarity: Someone looking at Bear and exclaiming something to the effect of, “Ooh a Rottweiler, is he having mutton for lunch!?” Fortunately, when you own a Rottweiler, you get used to people making assumptions about your dogContinue reading “Competing in Dog Sports with a Non-Traditional Breed”

A recent discussion with a friend about the difficulty of teaching a class with a demo dog got me thinking about the use of demo dogs in the dog training world. I’ve taken a lot of classes with my dogs over the years and attended many seminars and clinics. Demonstrations have been part of manyContinue reading “7 Questions to Consider Before Using a Demo Dog in Your Class or Seminar”

If you’ve ever had a fabulous training session that ended poorly because you chose to ask your dog for ‘just one more’ repetition of a behavior too many times, you are familiar with the affliction I call ‘just-one-more-itis’, or JOMI. It usually happens because we humans are highly reinforced by sucess in training. A friendContinue reading “4 Tips for Combatting ‘Just-one-more-itis’”

If you are using positive reinforcement to train your dog, chances are that you are using food to reward your dog. The reason most of us use food is that you can reward multiple repetitions in a short amount of time, compared to tossing a ball or playing tug. When looking food rewards, a lotContinue reading “40 Unconventional Food Reward Ideas for Dogs”

Despite having fewer show and trial opportunities due to COVID-19, I still managed to log a decent number of KM on the Kia Rio this year. During those long drives, I rely mostly on podcasts and e-books for company. Below, are my 15 favorite podcasts of 2020, in no particular order. Drinking From The ToiletContinue reading “35,000 km: 2020 in Podcasts”

There has been some conflict recently in a dog training community that I consider myself a part of. I know I know, what else is new, right? This time, the source of this conflict was a seemingly innocuous question. Someone observed that the dog training/dog sports community appeared to skew towards white women, and wonderedContinue reading “How to Support your BIPOC Dog Training and Dog Sport Friends”