We are getting a lot of questions about the novel upper respiratory illness (URI) in dogs. This is not as widespread as the media coverage is! It has indeed impacted pockets of populations, primarily daycare and boarding facilities with a rotation of dogs daily. We at Rocky Mountain Dog Training continue to take the health of our students very seriously. Our sanitation protocols have always far exceeded those set by department of agriculture as we've always worked with puppies who are a vulnerable population with developing immune systems. Our population is small and fixed each week, we do no ..read more

Thoughts on experience and education When I first started as a dog trainer, I was like the many trainers that I warn my clients about today. I severely overestimated my skills and I wanted to help dogs. I was always in the positive reinforcement (R+) training camp, but even though I never actively or intentionally hurt or scared dogs, I failed some, and that's because ineffective training, even R+ is just as dangerous as harsh methods and I'll get into that more later. This is obviously not something I'm proud of. If I had it to do again, I would absolutely make different choices. It is a sta ..read more

When we were kids, we had a beautiful, gentle dog named Spits. He was our first dog having only had cats prior. Spits was a really good-natured, goofy boy. Leggy. He galloped when he ran. He smiled all the time. He had a really long tongue. My sister and I adored this dog. When I'd get home from school, from outings, from wherever, I always remember that the first thing I would do was find him and say hello and give him a pat. He'd lean his head into me, looking at me with that big smile and tongue hanging to the side. On one particular day I'd been out with my grandparents. I remember we'd go ..read more

Lapses In Judgment In the Social Media Era There exists on the interwebs a 10hr video of paint drying. You may not have seen it in its entirety. It's ok. Stick with me. The video is available on YouTube exclusively. You won't find it on any social media sites because they limit videos to 59 seconds. At least for business accounts. That's about the max time consumers will spend watching anything on their feed.  If we post dog training videos, the length of attention we can hold is more like 14 seconds if it's unedited footage but I've learned I can maintain longer focus through a numb ..read more

Our Puppy Day School program is built for young bodies to learn, grow and fulfill their potential. One aspect we're both asked about a lot and can present a challenge in this setting is crating and downtime. I'll address both separately. When they are with us from 7:30am - 1:00pm give a little on either side for pick up and drop off, why would we rest them? Well, overly tired puppies are not productive puppies, they can and do make less desirable choices and learning retention isn't nearly as strong. Overly tired puppies can be easily overwhelmed. The opposite of what our goals are here. They ..read more

When I taught group classes I almost always tried to demo with green, student dogs. I use green dogs whenever I can because from the client side, there's this idea that when we demo with our own dogs and it goes smooth as silk, it's because our dogs are "easy" or they already know everything, or, or, or... Many don't believe that they can achieve the same results with their dog and think we're selling them snake oil. While that's patently false, it's just not worth wasting valuable coaching time addressing this assumption. Still, every trainer knows this challenge, because no matter what ..read more

When our brains function properly, we are able to lump a group of tasks together into one label and comprehend and complete all of the tasks under that label. This is truly impressive stuff! I could say, "go take a shower" and lo and behold, the vast majority of you would understand all the tasks involved to complete the project. But let's actually look at the sequential tasks in this activity: Remove shoes Unzip hoodie  Remove hoodie Remove tanktop Remove pants Remove socks Remove undergarments Place items in laundry Walk to the bathroom Shut the door Turn on the fan Turn on shower fa ..read more

I saw yet another post breed bashing the Chihuahua today and I think I finally hit my limit of eye rolls and moved into straight up annoyance.  Chihuahuas absolutely wear their emotions on their sleeves, it's true. By doing so, and in my opinion, they're probably the most excellent of all the breeds at communicating their emotional state. They are utterly and totally transparent about their feelings. How is this a bad thing? As someone whose career is largely focused on teaching people the value of learning how dogs communicate and the importance of taking time to read and understand a d ..read more

Put Mealtime To Work For You When You Need Some Downtime. It's universally understood in dog training circles that enrichment activities are a great quality of life increase for dogs. Scrap the food bowl, feed them out of toys. Meals that took them 30 seconds and left them looking for their next activity are turned into a brain game. A puzzle if you will. 20-30 minutes of activity using something they've gotta do anyway - eat. In technical terms, you're simulating foraging activities, something that as scavengers by nature, dogs love. But I'm gonna let you in on a little secret: It's not ju ..read more

Once upon a time, an American Psychologist by the name of Edward Thorndike was credited with the development of The Law of Effect.  The law of effect applies to every species on our planet and is occurring with all beings both through natural and artificial processes.  Thorndike's Law of Effect states that any behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and any behavior that is followed by unpleasant consequences is likely to be avoided.  It is the law of the land.   In science, a law has a repeatable and provable outcome supported by ..read more