Author Archives: astoffel

Let’s stop striving for perfection. It’s an exhausting and never-ending endeavor.Let’s stop striving for a perfect day, a perfect home, a perfect body, a perfect relationship, a perfect dog.Instead, let’s strive for progress. Let’s strive for effort.These are achievable, and they allow us to celebrate all of the little baby steps along the way.You’re never going to reach “perfect,” but you can always make progress.

This is a video I snagged from a lesson last week with Rastus. This dog pulled his owner to the ground and through a parking lot a few months ago. Look at him now! Change like this doesn’t come overnight. It takes hard work and committment. His owner said that it felt new and weird to slow things down and to think about walking his dog in a new mindset. Remember, we’re training your dogContinue reading “Trust the Training Process”

Dogs with impairments are just as trainable as any other dog out there. We may need to alter how we communicate with them, and we may need to get creative with our strategies, but there is no reason why these dogs can’t live full, happy, enriching lives out in the community. Don’t let anything hold you back from training a well-rounded dog!

Playtime can be an incredibly valuable time for you to build your relationship with your dog… if you take the time to set it up. In this video, Scout is helping me demonstrate the difference between passive and enriching playtime. Anytime we can get our dogs to be mentally and physically engaged, they will get more out of their time with us. We can also use this time to incorporate impulse control and basic commands!Continue reading “Make your playtime valuable”

Let’s talk about portion sizes. How much is your “scoop” of food? A scoop to you might be 8 ounces, a scoop to me two overflowing cups, and a scoop to the guy down the street might be a handful. In order to make sure that your dog is getting the proper nutrients that it needs, we really need to be looking at portion sizes on the food label. This will show you how muchContinue reading “How much are you feeding your dog?”

Is your dog easily distracted? Does she ignore you whenever anything catches her attention? Start having her work for her food! This will teach her that you are valuable and worth paying attention to. Plus, you’ll be able to get lots of repetitions in for any new skills that she’s working on. It’s a win-win!

I often hear people say: “my dog knows how to sit, so we can skip over this step”. But can your dog sit in a variety of situations, for different people, and around lots of distractions? Your dog may know how to get into a sit, but that is just the first step to teaching a solid command. Once your dog knows how to sit, teach them how to do it anywhere, anytime, and forContinue reading “Does your dog really know “sit”?”

Have you ever heard someone say “you get what you pet”? We’re talking about your dog’s energy and behavior. Petting is incredibly rewarding for your dog. When you pet your dog, you are essentially telling her that whatever she just did or is currently doing is good and earns her a reward. So if you pet your dog when she is panicked, jumping, barking, or whining, you are telling her that those behaviors will getContinue reading “You get what you pet”