Perfect Companion K9

You are like a mirror to your dog. If you cannot stand being away from your dog for a second, your dog will likely also feel the same way and suffers separation anxiety. If you are very emotional, your dog will likely be reactive, too. Training can only help so much. You need to change. Instead of being the mirror, you can be the role model. If your dog is very obsessive, you can act independent. If your dog is very reactive, you can be aloof and calm. You can l

If you have to choose between giving up treating your dog like a human baby vs giving up your dog entirely, what would you choose? You may be surprised to know how many people l have met chose the latter instead. “I feel so sad about giving up my dog...but l think he will be happier with someone else.” Usually, what really happened is that the dog would have been really happy with the same person and would also behave much better if the owner could only stop humanizing th

I have seen so many owners who were afraid to correct their dogs. Many of them have been to other training classes and they were told that if they corrected their dogs, their relationship would definitely be damaged and there would be fallouts and their dogs would turn on them. I have met owners with scars all over their arms, ladies who could not wear bathing suits due to numerous scars on their thighs, seniors with cuts all over their faces after being pulled and dragge

Our human view of freedom is often about letting our dog do whatever he wants. For an anxious/fearful/timid dog, this could however be interpreted as not having a leader to follow with no clear set of rules to observe, which can make such a dog more confused and insecure. To a dog, freedom is about not having to doubt and worry. It is about having someone who can guide and protect them. When we allow our dogs lots of freedom, we are also asking them to make lots of decisions

When grandma comes to visit, the kids are very excited because grandma will shower them with gifts, yummy snacks and so on. Grandma never asks them to do anything they don't like to do. Grandma will tolerate all sorts of inappropriate behaviour. The kids love both dad and grandma but they display very different behaviours in front of them. There are lots more self-control in their relationship with their dad. With dad, there are clear boundaries and they understand what they

"My puppy loves to jump on all sorts of people and he gets really excited... What to do?" We need to teach our dog how to be calm around people. To start, we need to be calm and we should ask other people to be calm around our puppy. Do not let all these people just come and make a big fuss to your dog. Teach your puppy to know how to be calm and relax around other people so he will not view them as a source of super excitement. Physical touch and praise are high value affect

Many owners tell me their dogs will not pay attention to them once they see another dog in public. Their dogs just totally ignore them. The owners would become totally irrelevant. Their dogs never come when called and are simply put, impossible to control. You have to be someone that your dog really wants to be with in order for your dog to love spending time with you. You cannot be that person if you hardly spend any quality time with your dog. Spending quality time is about

I like to take this opportunity to talk about the protocol of meeting a person or dog. I teach all my dogs to stay calmly by my side when a person/dog walks towards us. I also teach my dogs to engage in me. I teach them to wait for permission before they go say hi, if l choose to do so. Even if an off leash dog runs towards my dog in an off leash area and they want to play, my dog will stay by me until l give her the okay to engage. If l do not want them to say hi for whateve

Your dog has a personal bubble. It varies in sizes depending on where he is, how he feels, and what he is facing. As your dog's leader, you need to be very in tune with how big your dog needs that bubble to be at all time. If your dog sees a trigger and needs a bigger bubble (i.e. more personal space), you can creat that by staying further away from the trigger. Distance is the key. You can just walk around, turn 90 degree, or make a u turn, to increase distance. Lots of dogs

A dog is not a cat. If you want a well behaved dog, please walk your dog daily. I do at least 60% of my training and socialization when l am walking my dogs. I spend lots of time walking my dogs - I walk them in a pack, and l walk them one on one; l walk them on leash and off leash; l walk them structurally as well as unstructurally... During the walk, a dog gets to know me and build a relationship with me in an instinctual manner. He will read my body language and observe ho

Why should I train my dog? Why can't I just let her run in the park? Training is very important because it is the common language that both the dog and human can understand. Just like learning a new language in school, the more we practice, the better we will become. Similarly, the more we spend time training our dogs, the better we will understand each other. Training should be very fun, it is something the dog should really look forward to. By making it a lot of fun to list

Teaching your dog to find your left leg will greatly help with off leash heeling. #remotecollar #offleashtraining #offleashcontrol #engagement

Several clients have asked me to show them what l do to train my own dog to walk on a loose leash next to me during our regular walk. I basically just communicate with my dog via my body, my words, and ecollar tap. I keep my leash very loose so there is basically no tension. By not clouding the communication with leash/collar pressure, my dog learns to pay close attention to and respect the sensation from her ecollar. In turn, my dog gets to feel the contrast between tension

This is Anja. She has a very intense ball drive. She will do anything for her ball and will run through fire to get it. When she sees her ball, nothing in the world matters. When we play ball, which is her favorite game in the world, l always use the opportunity to exercise her impulse control. I think of it like teaching her the meaning of the stop sign. I need her to learn how to take a moment to pause when she is very excited so she does not just get in high drive and fly

I want to talk a bit about leash reactivity. Many people make the mistake of thinking if they have a dog with leash reactivity issue they should take their dogs to meet more dogs ( dog park, doggie day care...). From our human point of view this may make sense but it does not make sense from the dog's perspective. Many of these dogs may appear fine after a while around dogs they know in their doggie care or pack walk; but once they are on leash meeting a new dog all the crazi

I am a strong advocate of zero on leash greeting. By that l mean when my dog is on leash we will not under any circumstances greet another dog in any form--no sniffing, no body contact, and no playing. Why? Because dogs are very black and white creatures. The more crystal clear the direction, the less stressed and confused they will feel. When my dogs are on leash they know it is not the time to get excited or concerned when they see another dog. There is no exception. This r

This is my dane at an elementary school playground when school was just out. There were lots of kids screaming and running around. I was asked why l did not allow these kids to say hi, and why l didn't ask them to hand treats to my dane. Socialization is not about sniffing other dogs or being touched or fed by strangers--it is about exposure and how to build confidence and develop engagement through such exposure. Learning how to calmly coexist with lots of fast running and

I want to talk about how I use verbal markers to communicate with my dog rather than just praise my dog with "good boy" "O that is awesome" when my dog has done something right. A marker marks the precise moment that the desired behavior takes place. A dog will gain a much clearer understanding on exactly what you are asking him to do. Let's look at this example: you ask your dog to sit. When your dog sits, you say good boy, reach into your pocket, and offer a treat to the do

Exercise is not just important because it can tire out your dog; structured play and exercise with your dog can build engagement and deepen your relationship as well. Engagement is about teaching your dog to look to you for what he wants and that includes when your dog wants to play. Teaching engagement can be lots of fun for everyone. In my case, whenever l go to the beach l always play some fun games with Anja so she gets into the habit of anticipating a fun game with me in

I want to use a very simply example to talk about something that is often missed in dog-human relationship, which is respect. Respect and engagement go hand in hand--you cannot look up to someone you do not respect, and you cannot respect someone you never pay much attention to. In this videos, 8-year-old Canissa was eating her favorite Fish n Chips in public with 1-year-old Spot in a down/stay by her side. Although Canissa was a tiny child sitting all by herself in front of