Balance – Trainer and Student

I have lots of opinions about how dogs “should” be trained.  I prioritize toys and play over food, speed over accuracy, short sessions over long ones, etc.  At the same time, I also have a range of students in both private lessons and in seminars with...

Brito – Training Day 5

For those who are worried that Lyra may have disappeared…no worries.  She’s doing very well and, if anything, has been rather brilliant this week. But…she’s getting to be a “trained” dog, which means there is less and less that I...

Brito home

  You can meet Brito in the following three videos.  I chopped out the 80% where he sort of wandered about and behaved much like a puppy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is0d9zZ7qnY (tug) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZOn_w2lnxk (beginning of heeling)...

Playing tug with a strong dog

Playing with a strong dog is a matter of leverage, not strength.  I can usually play with a dog that is up to half of my weight – more than that and I will suffer.  The trick is one of technique….the attached video will illustrate a few points. This is...

Lyra – Week 1, Day 4

Sleep is improving by the hour!  I still have to get up every few hours to let her potty, but the screaming is minimal now. Today she visited my son’s school.  We went early in the morning, so there were very few kids around.  After 10 minutes I took her home....

Puppy Gaetz

I’m jealous; here’s my student’s new puppy getting started.  I still have to wait a few weeks before mine arrives.  Here’s the kind of stuff I’ll do early on in the puppy’s career: This puppy’s lesson is split between tug,...