The Weekly High Five 🐾 Hey Reader,A few months ago I was walking with Maisie, a six-month-old golden retriever, and her owner. Maisie had been with her since she was eight weeks old. They'd done the work. Bowl training. Hand-feeding in the kitchen. Maisie nailed her name a thousand times indoors. Then they hit the sidewalk and it was like none of it had happened. We were halfway down the block when Maisie spotted another dog across the street. Lock on. Treats vanished. The owner's voice...
16 days ago • 2 min read
The Weekly High Five 🐾 Hey Reader,I sat in a living room a while ago with a mom I won't forget. Newborn baby down the hall. A cat doing cat things in the corner. An English Lab puppy named Nova who could not settle when guests showed up. The week before, the family had set out a licky mat with pumpkin (Nova's favorite) to keep her busy when their dinner guests arrived. Nova rolled it up in her mouth and ran it to the visitors. The mom looked at me, exhausted, and said, "She just needs...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
The Weekly High Five 🐾 Hey Reader,A family I work with had been doing everything right. Short sessions. High-value treats. Consistent reps. Every morning before the walk, their dog would sit without hesitation, sometimes twice, right there in the kitchen. They felt good about it. Like they finally had it figured out. Then they took him to a new trail on Sunday. Mom called his name. Nothing. She called again. He was locked on something at the edge of the path, ears up, completely somewhere...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
The Weekly High Five 🐾 Hey Reader,A few weeks back, I sat down with the Dempsey family for our Foundations session. Their 4-month Great Pyrenees mix, Henry, was bouncing around the living room. Three kids in motion. The kind of household where calm sounds like a hopeful idea instead of a real thing. Brendan mentioned, almost in passing, that they'd hosted Easter the weekend before. Three or four new visitors. A puppy. Three kids. Easter dinner. He never jumped on anyone. Stayed calm through...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
The Weekly High Five 🐾 Hey Reader,I was walking alongside Maisie's owner a few weeks ago. Golden retriever puppy, maybe five months old, front-clip harness, all the right gear. Another dog appeared half a block ahead. Maisie's body swung forward. The harness redirected her angle. She couldn't lunge the way she would have without it. And she was still completely gone. Locked on that dog, pulling with everything she had, just in a slightly different direction. Her owner looked at me. "I thought...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
The Weekly High Five 🐾 Hey Reader,An owner walked into one of my sessions last year shaken. Her Standard Poodle, Moose, had snapped at another dog on a neighborhood walk. Teeth, lunge, the whole thing. She came in sure he was broken. "It came out of nowhere," she told me. It didn't. Not even close. I asked her to walk me back through the sixty seconds before. When she did, she counted five moments where Moose had told her he was over it. A leash that went tight. Treats that stopped working....
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
The Weekly High Five 🐾 Hey Reader,I was on a coaching call last week with a family who had been going hard since the first warm day hit. Morning sessions. Second sessions after dinner. Extra training time on the weekend walks. They had actually increased their routine since spring started, because the chaos had increased. Their dog was getting worse. More pulling. More zoning out. More spinning at the door before walks. They couldn't understand it. They were doing more than ever. I asked one...
2 months ago • 2 min read
The Weekly High Five 🐾 Hey Reader,I got a text a last year around this time. It was one of those first real spring days, windows-down weather. A family I was working with had just gotten home from a walk with their dog. Three words: "He was wild." Pulling from the start. Spinning in circles. Barking at every dog they passed. They'd been looking forward to that walk all week. Figured he finally deserved the long outing he'd been missing all winter. By the time they got home, their pup couldn't...
3 months ago • 1 min read
The Weekly High Five 🐾 Hey Reader,Let's be real. Spring is here and you're about to spend a lot more time outside with your dog. Longer walks. Off-leash moments in the yard. Maybe a park visit. And right about now, a lot of families are realizing their recall isn't as solid as they thought. They call their dog. The dog hears them. And... does nothing. So they call again. "Come. Come. COME." And eventually, the dog wanders over. Here's the deal. This isn't a willingness problem. Your dog isn't...
3 months ago • 1 min read