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Loretta and I talk about what it takes to create the balance needed for a responsive agility dog — including how to rehab things!

For those who have just brought your new puppy home, this lecture is for you! Puppies need some time to get settled into their new homes, get acquainted with human and pet family members, and become accustomed to their new routine.

I find that often, we are really eager to get our puppies started on socialization - and forget that everything in their life is already really new to them during this stage. Before you start taking your puppy out and about, we want to make sure that he or she is comfortable in their new home first! Puppies are hard wired to have a 'home base' and going from one home to the next—cold turkey—isn't really something we can avoid, but we can make it a bit easier by giving the puppy some time to adjust, and develop their new comfort zone in their new home base, before expecting them to deal with more and more new things.

Consider the puppy's first week with your family as 'orientation' week. During this week, the priority is to help the puppy get settled in and become accustomed to their new world, family and routines. This week does not require any road trips or excessive adventuring (perhaps you'll need a trip to the vet for a required checkup, shots or meet and necessary trips like this shouldn't be avoided—but you can definitely avoid extra or frivolous adventuring during this time).

What we want to establish during this orientation week are things like: Who are the puppies' family members? Who will do the puppy feeding and what time do meals occur? When is it time for bed and time to wake up? Where will puppy sleep and where will they be during the day? Who are the other pet members of the family and which ones can the puppy interact with, and which might need some separation for now? Which doors lead to the outdoors for potty business? How often does puppy need to potty? What are some of the regular sounds and smells in the neighborhood?

Join Andrea and I as we talk about how to recover when things go wrong — whether that means a bad training session or a bad trial!

In this episode Sarah and I talk about the common thread that seems to run through everything she teaches — the idea of loving the dog you have, while also trying to help them become the best version of themselves. 

If you want to learn the sport of K9 Rally, there are so many great resources out there! I see this question all the time: "I want to learn rally, where can I start?" There are YouTube videos, phone apps, free blogs and articles, and so much more. So why consider taking a rally class or working with a coach? 

Understanding the role stress plays in training and living with our canine partners is essential to optimizing our lives with them! Agency provides one of the most powerful options for empowering our pups and creating an optimistic dog.

Have a dog with big feelings? Julie and I talk about the upcoming conference, and her journey to becoming a certified control unleashed instructor!  

In this episode I chat with Jennifer Summerfield, DVM, about what it's like to be a general practice vet right now and how you can do your best for your dog despite long appointment wait times. We also chat about her upcoming webinar on emergencies on the go and her class on behavior disorders! 

Join Erin, Sara, and me for a conversation about all the ways we can play with our dogs in the water, including Paddleboarding, SUP-ing, and Dock Diving!

Stacy and I talk about what it's like to compete in agility with little dogs who are not a "traditional" sports breed. 

Join Julie Daniels, Sophie Lui, Karen Deeds, and Sharon Carroll for a chat about living with and loving dogs with big feelings — and for a sneak peek at what each will cover during their sessions at our upcoming conference.

Join Chrissi Schranz, Deb Jones, PhD Julie Flanery and I for a discussion on the fundamentals of positive training — including the things most trainers overlook when working with their canine partners.

Note: the author of this summary is second author on the paper

This paper describes multiple studies, which assess the effects of genetics and breed on canine behavioral traits; assess the difficulty of visual interpretation of mutt breed ancestry, and the morphological traits people use to guess breed ancestry; and find new genomic regions associated with behavioral traits in dogs.

As is typical of papers published in the prestigious journal Science, this paper contains several related studies that inform each other.

The researchers collected and analyzed:

• 16,000+ owner surveys on their dogs' physical and behavioral traits, through the website darwinsark.org
• 2000+ genetic sequences of dogs with surveys (a subset of the first, larger set of dogs)
• Guesses from the public via the website muttmix.org about the top three breeds in a set of 31 highly mixed mutts, based on images, video, and short descriptions of the dogs

It's never too early to begin building a positive conditioned emotional response to the ring. Laura and I discuss exactly how to go about that in the latest podcast episode. 

The moving down is incorporated into both obedience and rally exercises. Having a prompt response to the down cue, even in motion, is important but sometimes difficult to achieve.

Let's talk through some games that you can use to teach or improve your dog's moving downs!

Sara and I talk about training for Mondio Obedience - including who can compete and how varied the trials can be! 

National Agility Competitor Dresden Graff joins me to talk about his training journey and share some tips for training the see-saw when you have a more sensitive dog. 

Ever wondered how The Play Way differs from other methods for treating reactivity? Amy and I talk about how she developed the ideas from her work on her PhD in Psychology.