This past week I’ve been busy teaching our 10 day professional dog trainers course, the TMD E-cademy. We are a week into it and I wanted to share a few reflections. We started the week with 6 students and a variety of dogs to work with. Most of the students brought either their own dog or a clients dog, plus we had several of our training dogs in residence to...

Using a shock collar for small dog? I bet that sounds like a pretty big deal. I’m sure it sounds like “rubbish” as Victoria Stillwell might say. (Victoria is the actress that portrays a dog trainer on the television show, It’s Me or The Dog) But the truth is, it’s not a big deal if you know what you’re doing. Knowing what...

There are several skills one must master in order to become proficient at training with an electronic dog collar. Learning when to tap the button and how to help the dog understand the sensation are two of the main components for success. But the one that seems most intimidating for the novice handler is understanding how to adjust the stimulation level appropriately...

thought I’d share a photo from my recent vacation. My partner and I were trying to decide on what excursions to take while visiting St. Lucia. While I gravitated toward the hiking, horse-riding and sail boat options, he was more interested in the high paced activities, like ATV’s, Dune Buggies & Jeep excursions. Figuring vacation was no place for a...

I recently hosted Chad Makin for his Pack To Basics workshop. We had a wonderful event and many trainers went home with new skills and knowledge to add to their programs in helping dogs and humans deal with aggression issues. Because the work involves immersing dogs into a group (“pack”) as a main part of the protocol for dealing with dog – dog...