Blog
Learn more about our successes, our struggles, and what we have learned from our clients at The Freckled Paw.
The Daily Daisy: Conclusion
Daisy has found her forever home. She has a German Shepherd to play with regularly, and her mom walks a mile every morning. Since that's all she would walk with me, this is perfect. Her family had suddenly lost their older dog to cancer, Daisy is happily filling the...
resilience in dogs
I am finding myself using this word often these days. What is resilience in dogs and why am I using this term so much? Resilience dictionary definition: the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness When working with dogs, this is a term that I use when...
The Daily Daisy: Bags are Unpacking
Around week #3 Daisy become quite uncertain about novel things. Things that were not there yesterday are now quite terrifying. People putting pressure on her by looking at her or walking towards her also sent her for a loop. This was particularly apparent when I tried...
Your Dogs Social Skills
Your Dogs Social Skills As your dog gets older their preferences for certain things will change. This is also true in humans. A 5 year old does not like the same things as an 11 year old, and by the time you get to 30 you have a whole new perspective of life. Often,...
The art of doing nothing
When you want your dog doing nothing The gap of time between giving information to your dog and them deciding on a behavior is where most of our dogs chose poorly. It's in that space of time that bad decisions happen, you get frustrated, or overwhelmed and don’t have...
Sending your dog to School: Public or Private School?
Getting the most out of your Group Class Group classes are an excellent way to learn more about training your dog from a professional. If you have never owned a dog before, or this is your first dog without your parents help, then Group classes are a great place to...
Dog Jobs: Getting Promoted
Now that you have determined what you dog knows, you have created a training plan for the things he didn’t know, and you can start to use those things to give your dog information when he needs it. Find one area where you are telling your dog “No.” First, “No” does...
Give your dog a job: First Evaluation
Give your dog a job: First Evaluation You have completed your puppy class or basic obedience class, and those skills are just not transferring to home life. What happens when your dog “knows stuff” but you are still having some behavior challenges. This is your dog's...
When “Sit” becomes a job
In the last blog we discussed why your dog needs a job and how to make sure their needs are being met. Once you are checking those boxes of enrichment, exercise, diet and communication, where do we go from here? Take a look at one area of your life with your dog that...
Give your Dog a Job: Perfect Employment
Give your Dog a Job: Perfect Employment Before we determine what your dog’s job might look like, let's look at the definition of a “job.” Google says it is a paid position of regular employment. Time to break this down! A Paid Position We all want to think our dogs do...
Delayed Reinforcement
Fun fact about me: I go to the gym at OrangeTheory a few times a week (usually). One of the things I love most about my gym is that I get a report at the end of every class with a bunch of statistics about my workout. Yesterday my heart rate monitor died right at the...
Is using treats in dog training bribery?
My favorite myth about positive reinforcement training is that using treats is bribery. I am very careful to make sure my clients are not holding the treat in front of their dogs face and asking for a behavior. Treats before behavior is bribery, treats after behavior...
The Reinforcer we forget about!
People pay therapists lots of money to discuss their relationships and how to make them better. There are more facebook groups, and web pages dedicated to understanding other people and how to improve your relationship with your friend/spouse/neighbor/parents. Most of...