Rio's Christmas List

Hi folks, Rio here, I have taken over communications for the day. I feel I do not get nearly enough time on here to advocate for my needs… because I am clearly suffering. I don’t really understand this indoor-tree thing but I do understand presents. I like...

Self fulfilling prophecy of control

Many pet parents fall into the trap of over-managing and over-controlling their dogs. I see this most typically in terms of using force in training (using physical punishments, or threats of punishment, or physical molding), a handler’s leash skills, and overly...

Wordless Wednesday–non-agility, agility version

I do not yet have the photos of Rio flying over the A-frame so I have no ‘action’ shots from our agility trial but I do have some amazing photos of Rio sleeping. We worked hard on teaching Rio to have an ‘off switch’ and I suspect the whippet...

Rio, CGC, RL1 and now CL1

This past weekend, Rio had his second CPE agility trial!  I knew going into the weekend that it would not be our best since we are SEVERELY out of practice.  In the last 5 months, Rio has had 3 agility practices–2 handling games classes and 1 session where I...

Management… use it!

One of the things that sets professional trainers, experienced rescue folks, quality breeders, and “dog people” apart from the rest of the dog owning public is their commitment to using management techniques. It is definitely one of the struggles I have with...

Fear =/= Abuse

When I brought Shayne home from the shelter, she was quite a mess.  She was still quite underweight, was terrified of getting into cars, terrified of stairs, REALLY terrified of thresholds (she STILL doesn’t like being in doorways), was afraid of toys, was...