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Meet "Pan" deMonium! He's a 7-week old Border Terrier that I've agreed to raise for a family member. Pan will be with me until he is 16-weeks-old. His owner has expressed an interest in exploring...

This post is a continuation of "Raising a Performance Puppy". If you missed part one, check it out HERE.

Pan, the Border Terrier that I am raising for a family member, is now 9-weeks-old! Each...

Socialization is introducing your puppy to sights, sounds, and surfaces. In this video, I use some boxes that arrived to expose him to the skills of tunneling and climbing. Add to that, the...

Pan has left infancy behind and become a toddler. His coordination is improving, his attention span is growing, and his boldness and intensity are increasing. 
I am continuing to work on...

A puppy's brain is malleable in these early stages of development.  Concepts that they learn early become deep-seated and long-lasting. This week, I am building on his experience of taking...

Pan’s obedience lessons are getting a little more complicated as I am doing very little luring and expecting him to perform to earn reward. Practicing multiple skills in a variety of orders...

I consider all of the exercises in the sport of obedience to be included in five skill sets. That is,
1. Heeling skills,
2. Recall skills,
3. Stationary skills,
4. Jumping skills, and
5....

I was training a Golden Retriever for field trial competition, a competitive event where hunting dogs compete against one another in retrieving and other aspects of bird hunting. He had developed a...

When training the new obedience dog, I divide all the exercises into 5 skill sets. Your dog must learn heeling skills, stationary skills, recall skills, jumping skills, and...

Techniques Change, Goals Don't!

Teaching a dog to sit straight in front of you requires that your dog know how to maneuver his body from side to side. 

Techniques for teaching your dog to...

Warming up, before your performance, can be difficult due to limited space and Covid restrictions.

If you use a Reward Marker (clicker or word), and your dog has a powerful response to that...

If you've spent much time with me, you know that I believe dogs make two kinds of errors; effort errors and lack of effort errors. Forging and Sidewinding are typically effort errors and they are...

Updated 1/12/22 - At the time this video was recorded, I was not utilizing a Reward Marker. I've made several edits to the article below (written in red text) to include exactly when you should use...

Proofing Part III:

A dog that is reliable on the sit stay, recall, and retrieve has the foundation needed for a successful obedience career.

This is Part III in a series of videos that I’ve...

Proofing Part II:

The word, proofing, is bandied about, and there are even “proofing classes” being taught. This makes me nervous, as extreme distractions can easily make a dog...

Proofing Part I:

One of the greatest frustrations for obedience competitors is failing.

Not earning a green ribbon is a drag.

Years ago, I had a dog that was very inconsistent. He would go from...

When you are competing, no matter the level, it is easy to let the cloud of disappointment overwhelm you when our dog makes an error in the ring. A failure can feel like a waste; a waste of time,...

If you are in the market for a new puppy, whether it be your next obedience, agility, scent work, tracking or field partner, a puppy’s education is far more likely to be limited by your...

On August 25, I had the pleasure of conducting a webinar with judges, Bob and Cathy Knight.

Bob and Cathy have been training dogs together for nearly 50 years. Together, they have earned 7...

Battling Pandemic Fatigue with A Virtual Match

When this pandemic ended life as we knew it, I was blessed to have recently created an online community of obedience enthusiasts at ...