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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 the ...

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 day, I...

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 use of a R...

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 the four subje...

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 direction t...

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 proved to ...

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. Retrieving ski...

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 pr...

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 retrieving skills.

Don't f...

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 produced...

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 unnecessarily nervous ...

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 her...

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, effo...

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 imagination, t...

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 Obedience ...

Part II: The Directed Signal Retrieve

The Directed Signal Retrieve epitomizes the importance of breaking down an exercise and teaching your dog the individual pieces before you try the complete exer...

The UKC Utility degree contains two glove exercises.

The first, the Directed Marked Retrieve, requires the dog go directly to one of three gloves. The handler stands in the middle of the short end of...

A friend called the other night to tell me she'd gotten her third UD leg. "I'm going to start entering Open and Utility now, and I'd like to try for UDX legs." She told me.

"Hold on," I told her, "Yo...

I have never known life without competition. My father was a tennis player and coached an NCAA Division I school for 32 years. My mother was an 11 time All-American in field hockey and lacrosse. Athle...