In August 2021, I released a special video about my dog, This!, titled “Normalizing Imperfection in Dog Training”, covering our challenges so that everyone with a dog knows that [...]

Recently I came across an envelope containing all my report cards from kindergarten through university. Reading over my teachers' comments was an enlightening study of behavior [...]

As a professional dog trainer, I regularly see a lot of people working with their dogs. A common error people make when things don’t go well is changing criteria in the middle [...]

I’ve met a lot of people at the crossroads of their dog training and looking to go in a more reinforcement-based direction, but they’re worried it won’t work due to old beliefs [...]

Over the years I’ve asked my students to describe the connection with their dog in different environments. How is it different inside your house versus your front yard? What [...]

As a professional dog trainer, I can assure you there are six words that your dog training coach never wants to hear. You might think those words are "but he does it at home" [...]

When I first started dog training 30 or so years ago, I was studying the sport of dog obedience because I wanted to compete. We were taught to lure our dog to do what [...]

Have you ever been in a dog training situation and felt you are in the wrong place as your dog is not responding like other dogs? Or have you ever thought that your dog [...]

To the uninitiated, reinforcement based dog training looks as if you have to walk around with a boatload of cookies or else you are not going to get your dog to do what [...]

Trying to work with multiple dogs at once can be a struggle, especially when one dog consistently interferes. Even if you only have one dog, the information offered in [...]

When you have a new puppy, safe socializing is important. Something to consider is taking a pup to outdoor cafes or restaurants. When you do it right, there are many [...]

My dog won’t take treats outside! Is that something you’ve ever said or heard? We’re looking at the challenge of a dog refusing treats as a case study, as training will be [...]

Why is it important to walk your dog daily? Besides the obvious health benefits of exercise, we’re looking at the advantages of daily dog walking that many people don’t [...]

When we train dogs with layered shaping, we train with out of the box thinking. In this episode, I’m giving a glimpse of what that looks like and how it relates to the transfer [...]

Having coached thousands of people in dog training, I’ve observed that their dogs seem to fall into three categories. The dogs who seem to hate training sessions, the dogs [...]

I use shaping rather than luring with food in my dog training. In the 80s, I was taught to food lure and correct, learned to do it well, and luring brought me a lot of success [...]

We’re geeking out the topic of dopamine in dog training and how it impacts a dog’s motivation. Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter, and there’s a lot of research on [...]

We use targets in our dog training, which has prompted popular questions on the best way to fade a target and when to start fading. So that’s the topic of this episode [...]

A good dog training plan will set you and your dog up for success and protect your confidence. The planning I do for myself and my students includes 10 key elements. We’re [...]

The way we dog train is different, and there are four elements that are vital to everything we do. It starts with confidence for people and their dogs and layers to grow [...]