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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...

It’s been ages since most of us have had a chance to compete, and it’s exciting to think about showing again . However, showing is not without its challenges. Some of us are crating...

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...