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Many people mistake their dogs' exhaustion for calmness. They're not the same. Most dog owners think they know what a calm dog looks like, but they usually picture a tired or inactive dog. Just because your dog is doing nothing doesn't mean they're calm. Real calmness is different, and when owners learn to recognize it, behavior problems often improve more quickly.  I have a very calm dog. She's been calm since I first got her. She's a therapy dog. She's a 6-year-old mini Aus

I work with a lot of people who get a new puppy that's eight or 10 weeks old, and the first thing they do is start teaching the puppy to shake, high-five, or to roll over. It can be fun to do this with your puppy and put it on Instagram, for your friends to see.  If you teach the puppy tricks too soon and you don't focus on other things first, like its name, walking on a leash, potty training, acclimation to the crate, and stay.  Why Teaching Paw or Shake Might be a Bad Idea

This is a very important topic, and I get a lot of calls about this. Most owners think their dog is stubborn, ignoring them, or choosing not to listen, but in many cases, the dog is not being disobedient; it is confused. After years of dog training , I have learned that many behavior problems are really communication problems.  Keep in mind also that dogs don't use their ears as well as they use their eyes, and they don't use their eyes as well as they use their nose. If I wa

When your dog reacts to another dog or a person on leash, it can become very stressful, embarrassing, and exhausting. Many of the people I work with have leash-reactive dogs, and I have extensive experience addressing leash reactivity. It does take a long time to improve leash reactivity. It's not an overnight process. There's no quick fix for this. If your dog barks, lunges, freezes, growls, or completely loses their mind when they see another dog or a person, that is consid

On day one, most people focus on the cute parts of bringing home a puppy, like cuddling, playing, and taking lots of photos for Instagram and their friends. What if, starting on day one, we focused on the habits that prevent behavior issues from forming and your puppy having serious behavior issues later in life?  1) Always use a house line on your puppy from day one.  I recommend a slip lead, and the reason for this is because you want to control your puppy’s space. You don'

Dog training is not just about teaching commands; it's about helping owners understand their dogs and giving families tools that actually work in everyday life. I wanna start with that because it sums up about 90% of what I see in real life as a dog trainer. Most people don't come to dog trainers because their dog can't sit. They call us in desperation because life with their dog feels hard. People are desperate to get this fixed. Walks are stressful. Guests coming into the h

When I work with a new client, I structure the program to focus on the puppy's house manners first, their leash training second, and their socialization third. We will spend about three or four weeks working on the house manners, about two or three weeks on lease training, and then we take it on the road and go to Lowe's, Home Depot, Hobby Lobby, Tractor Supply, and any other pet-friendly stores that we can find for the puppy to get socialization practice.  Depending on the p

As a dog owner, you love your pup. Sometimes, those cute eyes are hard to resist, and you just have to toss them a piece of what you're eating, too. However, not everything that people can eat is also safe for dogs. The next time you give into your pup's begging, make sure that you're not giving them a treat that causes them harm. 1. Anything chocolate: While most dog owners are aware that they cannot digest chocolate, it is worth paying extra attention to keep them from get

Potty training is a problem for many people. I have found that people either get it or don't, and it's not an issue with the dog. It's not the dog's fault. It's an owner issue.  People call me to discuss puppy training, and their entire focus is on potty training. This happens a lot, and it's been happening ever since I've owned Top Gun Dog Training .  The goal of this article is to shift the new puppy owner's focus to the bigger picture of raising a puppy, beyond potty train

My dog Dixie has been diagnosed with heart disease after a routine checkup before teeth cleaning. They found a heart murmur, then, from an X-ray, found an enlarged heart and congestion in her lungs. I have created a GoFundMe  account to help with her expenses. Start-Up Fees: Including adoption or breeder fees, initial vet visit, microchip, supplies, and training .  $2000-$8000 Monthly Expenses: Food  Medication (heartworm, flea, and tick prevention) Daycare Dog Walker Groomin

Many people underestimate the level of responsibility needed to raise a puppy. So go back and listen to that first episode of What's Needed to own a new puppy. And today we're going to talk about the truths and the myths of raising a puppy. The Truths: 1: Raising a young puppy is a part-time job.  For some people, it's a full-time job. You have to be on top of that puppy all the time. They're going to potty 10-12 times a day. They need a tremendous amount of sleep. They need

Being an effective leader and building trust in your dog requires a skillset grounded in effective communication, temperament, and focus. This is exactly what I'll discuss in this article.  What to do? Make sure your communication with your dog is crystal clear.  In other words, I see a lot of new dog owners who will say a lot to their dog, and it means nothing. It's like a line in that Talking Heads song from the seventies, “You’re talking a lot, but you're not saying anythi

Building structure with your new puppy is one of the best things you can do to create a happy, healthy, and obedient puppy. There are many reasons we want to build a structure, and several ways to do so.  Why you should build structure in your puppy's routine Structure creates calmness in the puppy. When you have a structure where they know what they're going to do next, they're not stressed out overthinking what's going to happen next. They are not concerned about when they

As a dog owner, you want to do everything you can to ensure your furry friend is happy and healthy. That includes making sure they're getting the right nutrition. There are a lot of different opinions out there about what the best diet for dogs is, but the truth is that there's no one-size-fits-all answer. The best way to ensure your dog is getting the nutrition they need is to work with your veterinarian to create a customized plan.  In the meantime, here's a basic overview

Recently, in Northern Alabama, there were multiple kids bitten by dogs in various cities. I was on the news again last week, talking on WHNT News Channel 19 and giving tips on dog safety and working with reactive dogs. It's become such a problem. The story that I did was in reference to a girl who got bitten at her apartment complex when another dog, that's a neighbor's dog, was on a leash and approaching her. It got off-leash and got excited, ran to her, bit her in multiple

All new at 10 tonight. A 9-year-old is recovering after a vicious dog attack in Hansville. Left her with severe injuries on her face. Delilah McKay was sitting outside on her apartment steps when a dog that was being walked by another child all of a sudden attacked her. The family shared photos that show her injuries, and we want to warn you, some of those photos may be graphic. Delilah's mother tells us a nearby teenager managed to get the dog away from her daughter. Delilah

So you love dogs. You have a knack for understanding them. Perhaps you have already helped friends with their dogs, or maybe this is all brand new. Either way, you're here because you want to turn that passion into a real career. Good news—you don’t need a PhD in animal behavior or a decade of apprenticeship to get started. However, you do  need a plan, some education, and a lot of hands-on practice. Embarking on a career as a dog trainer may seem daunting. With vast knowled

After training a couple of thousand puppies and using this technique on my own puppy, Dixie, when I got her at 10 weeks old, the very first thing I taught her was go to your bed and stay .  I have a video on my phone of May 5, 2020, at seven o'clock at night, where I'm showing people how I trained Dixie to go to her bed and stay the very first day that I got her. My clients are amazed at this video and how well Dixie picked it up, and how easily I taught it to her the first d

Puppy socialization is the most important thing to teach your puppy from ages 8 to 16 weeks. Some experts say from 4 to 12 weeks. The breeder will usually start socializing the puppy from 4-8 weeks by exposing it to a variety of different people, animals, sights, and sounds. And then when the owner takes the puppy at eight weeks, they continue until 12 weeks or even 16 weeks. When we start socializing our puppy, we need to consider vaccinations. Your veterinarian will provide

A lot of people get these two confused. They don't even know there's a difference at all, and they don't know that there's many different...