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Many new puppy owners think walking their puppy once per day or a few times per week is enough. It’s not! How can you or your puppy learn anything by doing it a few times per week? You can’t! I suggest 3-8 walks per day for effective leash training of the loose-leash walking techniques that I teach in my puppy training program. I got my dog, Spaulding, at 3 months old and had him for 12 years, until he passed in April 2020. I estimate we went on an average of 6 walks per day

Waiting for the puppy to tell you they need to go outside is the biggest potty training mistake that can cause more accidents than almost anything else. New puppy owners often expect their puppy to bark at the door, scratch the door. whine, pace around, or sit and stare at them. The problem is that most puppies don't know how to communicate that yet. They don't realize that the bathroom is outside. When they feel the urge, they simply go wherever they happen to be. Instead, o

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 wan

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

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

Training a dog can come with a huge set of challenges. If you have a high-energy dog that engages in destructive behaviors, gets bored easily, and makes life harder, you know what it's like. What makes it harder is trying to train a dog that you also have a hard time keeping up with. A high-energy dog may be a unique challenge, but fortunately, this challenge is far from impossible. Breeds are a good determiner Dog behavior is often genetic, and you'll find that many dogs of

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