C.A.R.E Focused Education for Dogs & Their People
Inspiring Curiosity, Agency, Reflection, & Empathy
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11/4/2020 0 Comments The 3 Reasons Why Dogs Jump Why does your dog jump? Before you can do anything about it, you need to know why it happensEvery behavior has a function with dogs. In the case of jumping, let’s look at what those functions might be so you can look at your own dog and breakdown which one(s) are most likely at play. Function #1: For attention Function #2: It feels good - It provides a Dopamine boost Function #3: To access to a resource In social animals, our attention plays an enormous role in our dog's behavior. They are often either trying to get closer to or further away from us. They are trying to increase or decrease distance. Attention seeking behaviors are distance-decreasing, by nature. There was a study done in 2012 (Dorey & al., 20128(11) that showed that dogs significantly decreased their jumping when access to what they wanted was not available for at least 20 seconds after jumping. Function #1: Attention SeekingWith attention-seeking dogs, they learn to jump when they realize that our eyes, face and hands (the things that give them the attention they want) are up above them. This starts at a young age when they tend to get reinforced for it more often because they’re little, and cute, and relatively harmless. Then they grow, and grow, and grow. Pretty soon, they’re still cute but a little less harmless when they jump! But while we changed the rules, we didn’t make that clear to them. We continue to reinforce the jumping, usually unconsciously.
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10/31/2020 0 Comments Reasons why your dog keeps jumping Boing, Boing, Boing! 🤦♀️ Does that describe your dog?
I hear it all the time. My dog won't stop jumping on me when I walk in the door. My dog gets so excited to see people and jumps all over them. My dog started stealing things off the counter now that he's big enough. I feel like I'm constantly pushing my dog off of me. While it's not a new problem for me to hear about, when you're in it, it can feel very overwhelming, embarrassing, and like you somehow created this problem... 10/28/2020 0 Comments Uncomplicate the behavior
What do Lego bricks have to do with dog training?
You can take a big behavior that you want to work on and pretend like it's a Lego creation. Within your giant Lego creation, you can take this really big behavior and if you just teach the little pieces, you're soon able to put that big behavior back together again. It's really solid because it has a really nice foundation to it. 
I started my business in 2008 but what I do now looks very different from what I did back then. Now, I have two kids, ages 6 and 8, and since having them I moved from teaching group classes (in the evenings and on weekends) to focusing on one-on-one training. Prior to the Pandemic, I would travel from home to home while they were in school. I would work directly with clients and I had also developed a program where I could do much of the training with the dog while people were at work.
9/4/2020 0 Comments The perfect dog
You know those days when your dog responds as soon as you call him, lays on his bed while you eat a meal, joins you on a leisurely walk around the neighborhood, hangs out in the sunshine while the kids run around the yard, lays at your feet when you work, and cuddles up with you on the couch at the end of the day?
Virtually raise your hand if you often have those days!
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...Cue the crickets...
Yea, me either. No, really. And here's why.
Training your dog isn't about hitting a button and getting an auto-response. Training your dog is about teaching. It's about teaching them your expectations, teaching them to trust, teaching them how to respond to a cue, teaching them how to play appropriately, teaching them how to take some down time, teaching them how to handle their emotions.
One of the questions I hear most often is ...
My dog knows how to BLANK (insert the important skill) so why doesn't he listen? Why does he keep ignoring me? Do I have to use treats forever to get him to do what I want?
7/26/2020 0 Comments Freedom for reactive dogs
 I don't know if you've ever heard of Brené Brown but she has a famous talk and framework for trust, called the Anatomy of Trust. Here's a link, in case you haven't heard of it. In my humble opinion, it's an important understanding for all humans for grasp: Anatomy Of Trust She also talks about the concept of the Marble Jar. A marble goes in when trust is built. A marble comes out when an aspect of trust is removed. She talks about 7 key aspects to trust, several of which I believe also directly apply to our pets. 
For all the parents out there, do you remember potty training, or toilet training, your child? It wasn't easy. There were a lot of parts that needed to be accomplished. Your child had to recognize the urge, control her bladder, know where it was appropriate to go, alert you, have the drive to go in the new spot instead of the easier, familiar spot, and so much more!
Puppies need to learn the same basic pieces. They need to learn the appropriate place, be convinced to go there instead of the easier, more familiar floor, hold their bladder/bowels, alert you, etc. See the parallels? I have come up with 5 pillars to potty training and a 3 stage plan that you can master. Let me share the questions you need to start thinking about if you are going to have any success with potty training and then we can get into learning the 3 stage process
Get a puppy they said. It'll be fun, they said. It's a perfect time since you're home all the time... they said.
Sound familiar? Hey now, don't get me wrong. A puppy is a great investment into your future but that's just it. It's your future. It's your puppy's future. It can be overwhelming to know where to start! 
Here are some of the questions I've been getting...
Do you have a pandemic puppy? Well, talk about adding more overwhelm when the puppy raising you thought you knew looks so much different! You can't accompany your puppy into the vet's office. You can't go to in-person puppy social classes. If you don't have kids at home, how can you socialize your puppy to kids? Group classes are less accessible than usual. Most training is online, which is such a wonderful resource to have available to you but without a plan, it can be hard to know where to start! So in this post, I'd like to break down some of the training tasks that puppies are most receptive to early on. 4/16/2020 0 Comments Manners Matter Game Do Manners Matter?
Of course they do! Play the Manners Matter Game to work on your dog's manners in a really fun way! What motivates you? Play for prizes, play for fun, play for better behavior Over the next two weeks, come play my new training game with your dog. Move around the game board, perform the tasks, share your progress, invite your friends! |
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