Every now and then someone asks me if they really need to get a fence for their dog. Let’s talk about that.

You do not need to invest in a fence, but if you don’t, then you will need to invest in dog training. You can hire a dog trainer or you can DIY it. If you hire a professional trainer, look for a dog trainer in your area who specializes in off-leash training with the e-collar. The e-collar allows you to communicate with your dog even when they’re not on a leash…

You might be surprised how many times I hear something along the lines of “To be honest, I really don’t like my dog very much!” when I meet with a client for the first time. I can’t fault them. Bad dog behavior puts serious strain on a dog’s relationship with its people and can cause all kinds of stress and tension in the house. If that’s the situation you find yourself in, this blog post is for you. Here are five suggestions to help keep everyone sane:

Thank you so much for trusting us with your beloved dog! While she’s here with us we will treat her as part of our family. She’ll get to know the human, canine and feline members of my family and team and each of us will take part in her training and/or care. We love getting to know our canine guests! …

In many cases, dogs come to me with quite a bit of training under their belt. They know all their basic commands but they often blow off their owner entirely and opt to do whatever it is they’d rather do in that moment. That’s why, despite all their former training, they’re here for more. Now, there are often many reasons why a dog blows off their owner but what I want to touch on today is the factor that’s often overlooked: attitude.

Let’s get right to the point, folks: We do dogs a disservice when we place restrictive labels on them before we give them the tools, skill set and state of mind (aka training) to be their best selves. If we label dogs based on our pre-training assessments, we end up with lots of limitations…

Dog owners are often worried about what things will be like once their dog returns home from the board & train. Will my dog still be himself? Will the good behavior last? Will I know what to do? These are totally reasonable questions, so I thought I’d take some time to address some of these concerns here. I’ll touch on the three main things to know about the post-board and train reality: the difference between personality and behavior, what we do to bridge the gap between my home and yours, and what you need to do to maintain your dog’s good behavior.

This week I posted on social media about what makes a dog happy, and how my observations (and those of my balanced training colleagues and clients) contradict the positive-only/force-free ideology. In my experience as a professional dog trainer, I have witnessed dogs blossom with clear communication, leadership, accountability and structure—the exact things that are labeled as harmful by the positive-only/force-free crowd. In this blog post, I’d like to elaborate on how two of these things—clear communication and structure—create “happiness” for a dog.

You’ll be happy to know it takes just minutes to stop leash pulling! With the right tools and training techniques, pulling can be stopped very, very quickly. Certainly in only ONE dog training lesson. I teach heel in a 2-package lesson so that I can help the human end of the leash practice the techniques and learn the nuances of communicating with their dog, but not because it actually takes two lessons for the dog to stop pulling. If this is shocking information, keep reading—and know that you’re not alone. Many dog owners are duped into thinking they have to spend 6+ months working on their dog’s leash behavior. If a dog trainer tells you this, do not give them your money!

Here are three key concepts that allow us to stop leash shenanigans almost instantly.

What can a high level correction do for your dog?  There is a really simple answer to this question. A high level correction can prevent your dog from repeating a behavior (hopefully an unwanted behavior such as chasing the cat, or eating the dog poop, or lunging at the dog walking by, whatever it may be). But, really, it is going to do so, so much more than that for the relationship you have with your dog.