Busting the Myth of Food/ Resource Guarding in Dogs

Dog owners are often given outdated advice about managing food/ resource guarding, like taking food from a dog’s mouth or standing over them while they eat. The intention is to “teach” the dog not to guard their food, but this approach often backfires. Let’s set the record straight: these methods do make resource guarding worse, […]
Adding a Second Dog to Your Household: A Comprehensive Guide
As a seasoned dog trainer, I often encounter pet owners who are contemplating the addition of a second dog to their family. The primary motivation is typically to provide their current dog with a companion – a playmate to stave off boredom and loneliness. While I’m advocate for ensuring dogs are not subjected to a […]
The fastest way to brainwash a person is have it repeated to them over and over
Social media is helping to spread and encourage rewards-based training across Australia, especially in the younger generation, university-educated, and left-leaning. Sadly, social media is full of a lot of conflicting and inaccurate information about dogs (and many other topics too), and I often have clients come to me confused because they don’t know what to believe regarding correct training methods for their dog.
Do you feel safe around your dog when he’s eating?
This particular subject always reminds of a Mini Fox Terrier that I helped with many years ago and yes some of them really do stay with you. It was a friend of a friend and their little Foxy was very sweet, affectionate and very social with everyone.
Dogs and kids
In dog training, I have made many mistakes and some that haunt me. Hence I’ll never make those mistakes again. When my son was first born my dog at the time was a Belgian Malinois named Odin. I had raised him myself from a pup.
My dog is really smart
This statement always makes me smile when my client first contacts me and tells me of their issues they are having with their dog. Yet they will interject with ‘but he’s really smart’ and the reason why every pet owner thinks their dog is really smart
Is my dog stupid? Why doesn’t he understand what I want him to do?
Dogs are complex in a way that we are not.
One of my favourite analogy’s for explaining the very way basic of teaching a dog anything is just like teaching a child to first walk. When that child takes it’s very first step the parents face will light up with excitement, following with lots of praise
Separation “anxiety” issues. When your dog can’t seem to be without you.
I had this issue with a dog before I became a trainer because I had no idea to what I was doing. I was so concerned about my puppy upsetting the neighbours with its crying and barking at the backdoor that I inadvertently created a monster