Reset Password
Not Registered? Register
* Password must contain at least 8 characters and include at least one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, one number, and one symbol.
Already registered? Sign in
If you’ve ever dreamed of enjoying a walk with your dog without worrying about pulling, lunging, or bolting at the first distraction, you’re not alone. Every dog owner I meet says the same thing: “I wish my dog could be...
When you observe someone walking their dog, you often see the dog well ahead, leash taut, with the owner trailing behind. Or worse: lunging, pulling, or jumping. It’s so common we barely notice it — but it shouldn’t be...
Dog training is as much about mindset as it is about methods. Many dog owners come into the process with strong opinions about what tools should or shouldn’t be used. Some feel uneasy about prong collars, e-collars, or choke collars,...
When you meet my dog, or a dog I’ve trained, you might notice something: they’re calm. They walk politely. They don’t leap on strangers, chase every squirrel, or bark at every passerby. And yet—they’re not robots. They’re still dogs. What...
When your dog is fearful, it’s not just about a tucked tail or shaking paws. It’s a full story playing out in their body language, their past, and what they believe they can control. I’ve worked with many dogs over...
When Rebecca (not her real name) first called me at Best Buddy Dog Training, she was overwhelmed. Her dog, Fido, had what she described as a laundry list of “bad behaviors”: jumping, nipping, chewing, house-soiling, and pulling on the leash....
When I say “well-trained dog,” I’m talking about a dog that knows what is expected of him/her and makes the choice to be obedient. I'm not talking about a robot that only obeys commands. What I mean is a dog...
Meet Leo the Great Dane
Leo is a rescue from Houston whose owners called Best Buddy Dog Training because Leo was not adjusting well to his new home. He got into a fight with Kindle (the other dog), refused to...
Have you ever reached down to pet your dog while they’re bouncing around, trying to calm them—and wondered, why isn’t this working? That’s often the starting point for talking about appropriate touch in dog training.
Touch can either reinforce...
When people ask me about prong collars or e-collars, I always give a qualified answer. I won’t say they’re evil tools, or that I would never use them, but they’re rarely my first choice. Let me explain my reasoning—and when...
IMO, your dog's behavior should get one of three things from you at any given time: Approval, Acceptance, or Correction.
Approval is active and should occur when the dog has done something active you have commanded him to do. It...
Does your dog 'know' commands but is still difficult to control? Often I am told by new clients that the dog "knows" various things ... "He knows 'sit' and he knows 'stay' …"
Yet, these dogs are doing annoying and...
If your new puppy came home with you at 8 weeks old, raised by his mother, he already knows the things that make him obedient. The best way forward is to work with his instincts and nature to teach him...
I get lots of questions about the PRIME system ... specifically, what is it? So here it is in a nutshell:
PRIME is an acronym for Proximity, Resources, Interactions, Movement, and Elevation.
Does your dog pull uncontrollably when on leash? Have you discovered that using a prong collar makes your dog easier to control? Many people do.
The problem I have with such tools is that they put the entire responsibility on...
Obedience training will be ineffective if you are not someone the dog trusts and respects enough to obey when his impulses suggest otherwise. Without trust and respect, the dog will disobey when his agenda is different than your own if...
Apparently, the dogs have not read the new 'science-based' stuff so aggressively pushed by the 'purely positive' training crowd - who would certainly be showing the results of their work if the results were as wonderful as they claim. The...
Being calm and assertive allows you to communicate clearly and to take immediate action to correct any problems. Such action usually requires physical interaction and movement, persistence and consistency.
The failure to immediately take action (procrastination) often causes building frustration....
So many dog trainers ... so many crazy dogs. Many trainers are quite fanatical about their methods and tools ... even going as far as to say that others are wrong or abusive. With all the chatter, one thing seems...
A lot of formal obedience training seems to focus only on making the dog 'do stuff' … kind of a one-dimensional approach that limits the owner's ability to really connect with the dog.
I think a better approach is to...
Some dogs are easy. Sorta. You know the type … the dog that wants so much to please you that he/she will do anything you ask. Well, most of the time. Okay, some of the time - as long as...
One of the first things to understand is that there are different forms of behavior, and different reasons for that behavior. For example, the dog that goes rummaging thru the kitchen garbage container is not being disrespectful, per se …...
It's good to love your dog. It's good for you and - sometimes - it's good for the dog. So what could possibly go wrong?
Plenty.
Love without understanding and respect can very quickly become abuse. Both ways.
Learn all...
Training your dog is a self-revealing process.
Is there frequent eye contact? Is there any? Can your dog get approval or correction by looking into your eyes? Does he seek it? Does he give you space or does he lean...
There are some trainers (mostly 'positive only' trainers) who maintain that the whole "pack leadership" thing is false. The "latest research" shows, so the story goes, that there is no such thing. Wolves and wild dogs (our models) co-exist in...
I am often asked about my dog training methods and dog training philosophy. As I explain, I generally think about the two (extreme opposite) main dog training schools of thought. There's the "purely positive" training camp where the consensus seems...
IMO, good behavioral dog training is about teaching your dog the rules and boundaries allowable in a human world. So, I train dogs to control their reactions to certain things in a way that is acceptable to me and not...
Most peoples' life with their dog would be vastly improved if they could get their dogs to do 3 things reliably:
Just 3 things …
