Here are a few day to day scenarios where I think it's more than okay to pick your little one up! 1️⃣ If you're somewhere new and/or overly stimulating and your dog is having a tough time adjusting. This can look different for each dog, but sometimes walking in another direction just won't do. In that case, a reliable option is to pick your dog up so that he/she can have a well deserved mental break in your arms. 2️⃣ If you're in a high traffic area and feel like it would be safer for your dog to be in your arms. I personally feel much more comfortable if I can hold a small dog in my arms when walking across a busy intersection. This can help make things a little less scary for him/her as a whole. 3️⃣ Especially if your dog is shy, if there are going to be other, bigger and/or more boisterous dogs around, it's a good idea to begin their interactions from a safe distance and just watching, from your arms, before meeting up close. Trust your gut and intuition. I've yet to meet a small dog who had behavioural issue due to being picked up at the right time.

If you don’t get a harness for any other reason, get it for this 1 reason: You have probably heard many different opinions on dogs wearing harnesses vs other training tools. Above all, the claim that harnesses encourage pulling, which is untrue if you ask me. Flat collars, no collars, harness, no harness, no matter what option you go with, you'll want to make sure to combine it with proper training. That said, if you put training aside, there’s one aspect of wearing a harness that is the most important attribute and a priority, which is your dog’s safety! A non-negotiable. Dogs can slip out of collars and/or they can snap, wear off and give up with time. I’ve experienced or seen all of these instances as a dog trainer. Harnesses, and the Freedom (No-Pull) Harness, in particular, is one that I’ve not experienced safety concerns with yet. Especially since it comes with clips both on the front and back, to suit your dog’s walking needs. What harness do you use? I like this one.

"My dog dislikes my partner/friend/family.. Help!" It’s tough dealing with a situation where your little one is generally social and friendly with most. But yet, for one reason or another, your dog just doesn't seem to be too fond of someone close to you and you're now left having to manage that situation each time they're together. Here's what you can do to both prevent and manage unwanted/negative situations with them: Tip #1 - If most of the issues happen at your home.. If most of the issues happen at your home, as that seems to be where your dog reacts the most (this is common), you can try first meeting outside and going for a nice, pressure-free walk. You can take this a step further by doing an activity your dog is sure to enjoy with you and the other person nearby, before coming indoors. When I first met Lilo she really wasn't too into me, as it's the case with most new people. 😔 But one day she and I went on a super long and fun walk together that changed things for the better from that point on. Tip #2 - When the person coming to your home arrives.. When the person coming over to your home arrives, ask them to wait by the entrance of your home after they stepped in, instead of just walking directly in. However, the success of this can depend on just how your dog feels and reacts to this person in particular (the more challenging scenarios will encourage you to use a leash to guide your dog to take space first). But the idea is that you want your dog to be able to take his/her time to sniff, assess, think and walk away before anyone comes in. Letting your dog do this will help them feel more comfortable with the following interactions, even if they've already met before." “Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.” —Hal Borland Tip #3 - This one will sound familar.. This one will sound familiar to other advice you'll see me recommend but it's for good reason.. provide enrichment to your dog daily, ESPECIALLY when people are coming over! There's really nothing better than a dog who associates people and social interactions with relaxation and the feeling of calmness above all. Having a tired/mellow little pooch can also help them slow down, think and as a result make better choices that you're both happy with! Pro Tip! Do your best to avoid this: A common mistake a lot of pet parents (and even trainers) make, is they try to use food as a way to encourage or ease a dog's introduction to someone or a situation they may find unpleasant. This is something that may work with certain dogs, however, food or treats, in general, don't have the capability of truly forming the idea of actual comfort and safety inside your dog's heart and mind. Food can certainly help your dog go into a situation in a more positive mindset as a result, but to ensure that things remain optimistic, you will want to focus on forming a bond instead. This requires time, patience and experience. Your dog will be the one to let you know once he/she feels comfortable and safe, and that's when it's truly helpful to bring out food to reward the progress and efforts that helped your dog get to that point.

Separation Anxiety: 5 Steps/Ideas to Consider Separation anxiety is a popular topic when it comes to dog training, or raising a dog in general. I would be lying if I said that it's a behaviour that I find easy to tackle, especially as each case is different from the one before it. Whether it's due to the dog's age and for long the behaviour has been going on, or sometimes purely due to the dog's natural demeanour and personality. But before worrying about the possibility of separation anxiety in your new dog, or addressing it in your current dog, here are a few things to consider. To help prevent separation anxiety: 1. Make sure you're consistent with your dog's physical, mental and social enrichment outlets. A change, decrease or lack of consistency in these outlets can trigger different behavioural concerns, including anxiety as a whole. A dog who feels fulfilled, happy and mellow due to activities you do together is one that's more likely to react relatively calmly, to different situations. Has your dog practiced showing independence? 2. If your dog often feels the need to be really close to you, even when tired, you will want to go out of your way to slowly build and reinforce instances where your dog happens to give you space. Even if it's something as small as being in another room for a few minutes, to start. If your dog has a really tough time taking time and space apart from you when you're both home, try a different setting where doing so is a little easier for him, like during group play sessions or playdates. "The first step to correcting a mistake is patience." Are you using a crate or another small/restrictive area? 3. I am all in for crate training, however, crate training is the most successful with a dog that is already okay with being apart from you to some extent. Each dog is different but for a lot of them, being asked to be away from you AND in a small confined space can be a lot to handle at once. Work your way up, and until you're both ready, consider alternatives like dog sitting/boarding. Slow and steady always wins the race. 4. Whether you've worked your way up to having your dog stay comfortable on the crate, or free inside your home, if you want to leave you will need to start doing so gradually. Walk in and out randomly and for a few moments. Head out and come back in without saying or doing anything out of the ordinary. The less your dog feels a difference with you there vs away, the easier it'll be for him to adjust to the change. If your dog cries after you've walked out for 2 minutes, practice walking out and back in after 1 minute, and then 1 minute and 10 seconds, and 20 seconds, etc. Only practice makes perfect. 5. Continue practicing the slow increase in time apart, so that your dog can continue letting you know what he can handle. Separation is something that's not natural for most dogs, being as social as they are. But this doesn't mean it can't be trained, and at any age. In instances where you have no choice but to head out for a long period of time that you know your dog can't handle your best option is to have someone else be with your dog at your home or theirs. Separation Anxiety isn't easy. Tackling anxiety in general takes a lot of work. The important thing to remember is that our dogs need guidance, patience and understanding while they do their very best to make us happy and figure out the world around them!

The #1 mistake new pet parents make I'm a firm believer that one of the best ways to understand, guide and teach our dogs is to communicate with them in a way that speaks more to our dogs first, before ourselves. Ever wondered how pet parents who are deaf or mute communicate with their dogs? The fact is not all of them have, want or need a service dog. This is possible because all humans communicate with others first and foremost through body language, whether we mean to or not. But yet when it comes to new puppy pet parents, I see a lot of verbal communication used with their new pup, from very early on. And in my opinion, in most cases, it does their relationship more harm than good. Don't get me wrong! I am all for using verbal communication to reward wanted behaviours, but when it comes to guiding and consistently training a young puppy, the more you can let your body language, your composure, your silence, your patience, and simply your presence do the talking, the clearer you'll actually end up being in your dog's eyes. It's just not what many trainers teach because it requires more work, time, and self-awareness. But wouldn't you love it if your dog knew exactly how you'd like for them to respond when you say something to them? Let me touch on how communication with dogs should be with this example: teaching (or rather shaping) a dog to sit. Sit is a cue most dogs are super familiar with. But when you're teaching a puppy to sit, the way the best trainers will teach is to get you to do it without saying the word sit yet. You want to instead start with a hand gesture, usually holding a treat, wait for the behaviour as your dog begins to sit, mark & reward, repeat it a few times, and only then you can start adding the verbal cue "Sit". This is so that the association of your dog sitting with the verbal cue is created more consistently, as opposed to if you were to say the Sit, prior to your dog knowing to do the action, and risk creating a different association. But yet when it comes to most daily exchanges we have with our dogs and our expectations of them, we generally practice things via a structure completely opposite to the one in the example of teaching a dog to Sit. And this is where confusion and inconsistencies between what pet parents say and what their dogs respond with start happening. So I encourage you all to practice first teaching your dog to perform the desired action without a verbal cue (do so in easy, less distracting environments first). Like using a long leash to guide your dog to come to you, and rewarding them for choosing to do so instead of calling their name multiple times when they're not likely to come. Or making sure that you're teaching leave it, as your dog naturally learns to leave things when in front of you. Ultimately the goal of this isn't that your dog know what every word in your vocabulary means. (Side note, the average dog can learn what up to 165 words mean!) The objective is actually to have a dog that find a lot of value in your voice, more than anything, because it's a tool of communication you use as they're first learning what something clearly means through your body language.

"Why Does My Puppy Pee So Often?" Only had the new puppy for less than a week, and I am exhausted. She's five months old and as sweet as can be but needs to potty about every 30 minutes. Going to a vet for a checkup in the morning. I know it's a long process, but I need to know there is light at the end of the tunnel. This is a very common question, a very common concern. The main thing that stands out to me is that she's only had the puppy for a week, but the puppy's already five months. So this let me know that either the puppy has been, separated from the mother just recently, or, the puppy was home. Buy another family first and then rehome. Which could mean anything as far as the learned behavior. It's what's been practiced, what's been allowed, what's been encouraged. And, pottery training of course is, primary when puppies are this young and still very much learning. So if a puppy, whether they've lived with someone else or with me or regardless really, of their age, unless we're dealing with an adult dog, a puppy going to the bathroom every 30 minutes will really have me. Start by looking at the routine. And I don't mean so much their schedule or when they're being asked to go outside, but rather the routine as far as how often they drink water, how much water do they drink? Do they go, do they have accidents every 30 minutes? And how do we respond to that? That's what I mean by routine. But yes, more than anything. How are they getting their water and how much? That's where that's what I would start looking at. If my puppy is drinking, two litres of water, then it's pretty normal that they're going every 30 minutes. I don't want to, by any means restrict the amount of water that my puppy needs, but if I can reach out to my vet and say, I have a five-month-old. This pre, this energy level, this is the weather outside, it's really hot, it's really cold. This is how much, physical activity she does. This is how much food she eats. Potentially the vet can give you a bit of an idea as to how much water she should be drinking, but regardless of the amount, regardless of how you decide that amount, I would then correlate that to how often bathroom breaks are happening or even accidents as well, to get an idea of where the bladder is at right now. Cuz it could be that this puppy doesn't. Drink anymore, than they should. But yeah, for some reason is having to pee that often. So unless there's a UTI, which, it's a good thing that they're gonna go to the vet for the checkup. But if it's not a UTI, I would look as to how much water they're drinking and how often. I personally would rather have a dog water bottle. With a sticker that shows the daily intake. That way, if there are multiple people in your household, what you can do is have that sticker indicate that the daily amount is that. And so if people or family's providing a puppy with water, they're gonna make sure that they provide that daily amount. That's within that, sticker marker. And then, we make sure that one, the puppy gets enough water. Two, we know just how much. And if it's been a warm day, if the puppy's been doing a lot of things throughout the day and we know, she should be drinking more, then we also know, we may need to take her out an extra time today because she's had some, additional water. But if we don't know what that looks like, if we, don't actually have an idea of how much water a puppy is drinking, then it's really tough to work from that and to get a bit of a routine or a bit of an idea of what the bladder actually can handle in a more regulated environment.

Aside from it possibly being an object that is particularly special for them, your dog may be trying to get a game started that way (or think that by keeping something from you, something good will happen) and/or trying to let you know that they'd like to be provided with fun activities for their brain & body to focus on instead. What you should do if your dog isn't big on sharing his toys with you is practice sharing other, less valuable toys or objects, especially when your dog is feeling mellow or tired, and reinforce that with treats, to more easily create a relaxed and positive association with sharing.

"Why Does My Puppy Only Pee in One Spot?" Question about potty training. I often see advice from trainers to take the puppy to the same spot outside. But won't this teach them to go to only in that one spot? I understand that having a dedicated spot is very convenient, especially in bad weather when business needs to be done quickly. I'd like for the puppy to be able to potty outside in general, on walks, and not hold everything in until he gets the dedicated spot. Thank you in advance for your input. That's a very good question. Very, uh, specific. But when it comes to potty training, what I would recommend is, really taking a look at your puppy's demeanour. And I know that's not where a lot of trainers go when, asked about potty training, but if your puppy is needing to use one specific. Spot then it's not so much about the spot, it's about their comfort level. And so if I have a puppy that's a little bit more happy-go-lucky, a little bit more confident, a little bit more playful, more eager, more sure of himself, then I will likely have a much easier time going to new places, going to new areas, going to new locations, and having them do, or having them feel relaxed and at ease, comfortable enough to just potty there. And so what I'd recommend again is really look at the demeanour. If your puppies one that is rather shy, timid, unsure, then having that same spot can be very reassuring for them, can be very clear, indicator to them that they know what to do, where to do it, when to do it, and I would slowly start to transition my way out of that. I wouldn't rush it. If again, my puppy is one that's more eager, a lot more, confident, then you can likely push the boundaries a little bit more and go further out. Try new places, new locations, and you won't have much of an issue. But if yours is more of a. Shy pup, inexperienced, a little bit more nervous, and having that one spot maybe turn into two spots, and then eventually three without rushing would really be the key here, so that eventually your puppy does learn to generalize. Does learn to use multiple places and eventually just anywhere or grass in general. Of course, have it be the place for them to go potty.

Dogs love to! It's a common dog method to save an item for later use and a great way to burn some mental and physical energy. The best thing you can do about this is to provide your dog with digging outlets. You can allot them a specific digging zone in your backyard. Or you can encourage them to do it at a playground where there's sand, or at a park if there's an area where it's okay to dig the dirt there. Additionally, you can also try some of my DIY indoor enrichment activities, not only to help your dog burn energy in general but also because some of these activities will encourage your dog to dig indoors (mostly inside a cardboard box with towels/snuffling items).

1. Make sure that you monitor their daily water intake to see to it that they're not drinking too much/out of boredom. 2. Log the amount of time between pees, even if it was an accident. This way you will know how much time your puppy's bladder can hold, in correlation to the amount of water he/she gets to drink daily 3. Slowly work on increasing the amount of time in between outdoor bathroom breaks. 4. After playing, sleeping, and eating provide your pup with a quick opportunity to pee & poo outside. 5. Really important one! Avoid using bells or other means to allow your puppy to let you know when he/she needs to go outside for a bathroom break. It's far better, for you and your dog's relationship, if your puppy learns that they don't need to prompt you to let them outside. Not only can this be something they use when they're bored, want attention, or want to do something outside that might not be a bathroom break, but it's a prompt-like behaviour that can then be carried to other scenarios, where your dog might feel like he has to do something, in order for you to react, like barking, pulling, jumping, etc. And so it's best if your pup learns that all they have to do is wait and that you know exactly when they need what.