Once the owners have made the subtle but important changes to their technique and are getting better responses in their dogs, we work on using the exercises with distractions—the distraction that they actually react to OR any known distraction that they can handle. The goal is to present the distraction at a level that the dog-handler team can handle and then work in progressively more difficult distractions.

Angry Dog Question: My dog loves to jump on people and dogs who pass by. He’s friendly, but often dogs and people aren’t appreciative. Once he even tripped a jogger. He’s ok if we can get 10 feet away but sometimes we can’t get far away. What should we do? Answer: If you already know…

Question: My dog knows how to walk on leash but when he sees a cat that he wants to chase or a dog he doesn’t like, he goes bonkers, lunging and barking, and I can barely control him. I try to use treats to get his attention but it doesn’t work. Is there anything else…

Have you heard this statement from so many people that it seems like it’s an epidemic? “We had a Labrador mix when I was a kid and he was perfect. How come our new dog is so much harder? Is it the inbreeding?” Or does the statement go more like this, “We got Lucky from…

One of the major issues with teaching dogs to walk well on lead is that they want to rush ahead to see the sights. Walking next to you, and especially stopping to wait, is boring to them compared to exploring. How do we remedy the situation? We make sticking next to you and stopping a…

Frequently, when you want to start your walk, or at other times, you need to get your dog back to your side. Here is quick and simple way to teach it. In this exercise, ultimately you will be able to just say “heel” or position your shoulders the correct way and your dog will go…