Our Blog
Balancing public outings with adolescence
This live was inspired by a question one of my academy members had on a recent Q&A. She wanted to know how to handle public outings and public access training while dealing with unpredictable adolescent behavior. See, somedays her adolescent SDiT is brilliant....
Tips for stress-free holidays
I'm sharing my tips for getting through holiday festivities with your SDiT, especially if your dog is still young or dealing with some training challenges. If you have any questions, make sure to join our free Facebook group Train Your Service Dog with Confidence:...
Tips for dogs who don’t take treats around distractions
During our free live focus building workshop, we had questions about what do when our dogs won't take treats in the presence of distractions, so I decided to share some tips on building food motivation! Our focus building workshop has ended, but follow this link to...
3 Tips for getting your service dog to focus around distractions
Tips for building focus around distractions! To take part in our free four-part focus building workshop (which starts on October 16th, 2019), make sure to join our facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/386577681794076/
Common focus building mistakes
Does your dog struggle to focus around distractions? Today I'm sharing some of the top mistakes I see owner trainers make when trying to build focus in their dogs! You can find the free units I mention in this video in our free Facebook group "train your service dog...
Service dogs, reactivity, and public access
Today we're talking about the big topic of reactivity, what it is, and whether you need to wash your dog out. Here are all the resources mentioned in this video: Find a professional: IAABC: https://iaabc.org/consultants KPA:...
Freedom walks
When we opened our online academy to new members a couple months ago, there was a lot of new and updated content waiting for them. But, there’s one thing that seems to have made the biggest difference for them and their service dog’s training, and it’s not what I...
Age and training: Is your dog’s training behind?
By most conventional definitions Leo is "behind" in his service dog training. At 5 months he doesn't lay down on cue, doesn't know leave it, and has barely started his heeling training. But I'm not worried, not even a little. Here's the link to the study mentioned in...
When life gets in the way of your training
About three weeks ago I traveled to the east coast to bring home a new service dog puppy. A few days after we got home a family emergency took me out of town and brought me to my knees. Here’s how I’ve been managing a puppy and his training, when life got in the...