As a dog trainer who travels the country training dogs and working with 20-30 families a week in their homes it is so important for folks to understand how a dog thinks. And when there is no authority figure present, the kind of chaos and bad behavior that can happen. Remember the bad behavior of your dog is not the problem it is just the outcome of a breakdown of leadership in your home.

My friend and LA dog training colleague Sean O’Shea from The Good Dog Training and Rehabilitation puts out such a great blog that I am going to start featuring it here on my
blog, since the content and message is so powerful and important it needs to be shared by all, enjoy the read and feel free to also join his Facebook Fan Page.

How Are You Doing?

By Sean O’Shea

When we start to have problems with our dog’s behavior we naturally focus on our dog. It’s natural – the dog is doing something wrong, what’s wrong with him? Why won’t he stop barking? Why is he attacking Aunt Ethel? Why are my dogs fighting? Why does he always destroy the house when I leave? Why does he try to attack every dog on a walk? It’s normal to try and problem solve by focusing on the problem at hand, but problems are usually just the result of other issues left untended to, that have now grown into bigger problems.It’s easy for us to focus on our dogs, but oftentimes the better and far more valuable question is: How are YOU doing? This is usually the best place to start and the last place examined.If you honestly assess yourself, what percentage of the day do you spend being anxious, stressed, guilty, resentful, sad, fearful, needy, impatient, conflicted, angry, manic, depressed or worried, vs peaceful, calm, relaxed, confident, happy, assured, positive, patient and balanced?If you’ve spent any prolonged time with a person in any of these negative states, you know how uncomfortable, draining, and agitating the experience can be. Our dogs feel the same way – except they aren’t able to leave for a breath of fresh air – they simply have to stay, endure, and absorb all of the negative energy.Two things happen when our dogs are repeatedly exposed to this kind of negative human energy: First, it has a profound effect on their fundamental state – because they are forced to live in an uncomfortable emotional environment, they become heavily stressed, and this stress will cause them to engage in all manner of negative/neurotic behaviors. These behaviors can range from chronic barking and licking, to serious aggression. You cannot force an animal to consistently live in a toxic environment and not expect some serious behavioral fallout.And second, by presenting yourself as an unbalanced, unsafe, inconsistent, unpredictable human, there is no way that your dog can allow you to lead him – it simply makes no sense – why would a dog, or anyone else for that matter, follow an emotionally unstable leader? And if a dog has no leader, he will become stressed from the pressure of having to try to lead, and from the absence of guidance.

So the negative impact on your dog is compounded by both of these dynamics – and the effect is fairly staggering.

Because our dogs cannot speak verbally, they become convenient scape goats and unfortunate victims of our unresolved issues. But the truth is, if you watch your dog, you’ll see in his behavior – whether balanced, comfortable and happy, or unbalanced, uncomfortable and stressed –  that he’s speaking volumes about you and the environment you’ve created for him.

So if things have gotten dicey or problematic with your dog, it might be a good time to sit back and ask: How are YOU doing?

Sean’s website www.thegooddog.net

Sean’s Facebook Page

Solid K9 Training Providence, RI (401) 527-6354

*********FOLLOW ME**********

Subscribe To My YouTube Channel
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As a dog trainer who travels the country training dogs and working with 20-30 families a week in their homes it is so important for folks to understand how a dog thinks. And when there is no authority figure present, the kind of chaos and bad behavior that can happen. Remember the bad behavior of your dog is not the problem it is just the outcome of a breakdown of leadership in your home.

My friend and LA dog training colleague Sean O’Shea from The Good Dog Training and Rehabilitation puts out such a great blog that I am going to start featuring it here on my
blog, since the content and message is so powerful and important it needs to be shared by all, enjoy the read and feel free to also join his Facebook Fan Page.

The Gift

By Sean O’Shea

When it comes to our dogs, we always have a choice. The choice to see problems or to see opportunities.

Instead of simply being upset, annoyed, frazzled, or frustrated with your dog’s behavior, ask yourself if there’s a gift for yourself in the problem.

Are your dog’s issues offering you an opportunity to challenge yourself, to grow, to become more? More confident, more emotionally balanced, less anxious, less in a hurry, quicker to problem solve than to anger?

Are your dog’s issues exposing issues for yourself that need work?

It’s a very rare appointment in which the dog I’m working with isn’t reacting from the human’s issues and/or wouldn’t benefit from the human growing, challenging, progressing, developing themselves into more fully balanced, heathy versions of themselves.

If you only look for the problem your dog is offering, that is all you’ll find. But if you’ll take a deeper, more honest, and vulnerable look, you’ll find the gift he is offering as well

Sean’s website www.thegooddog.net

Sean’s Facebook Page

Solid K9 Training Providence, RI (401) 527-6354

*********FOLLOW ME**********

Subscribe To My YouTube Channel
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One of the biggest issues that clients call me about is Separation Anxiety. A dog owner calls me with issues ranging from simple whining in a crate, to dogs jumping through windows from the second floor to get to the owners who have left to go to work or the store. Massive amounts of destruction, not only to the physical property of the owner’s home and the dogs crate, but also the dog’s physical and mental condition are usually what owners arrive home to find.

I have heard so many ways for folks that have struggled. They have tried so many different “remedies” to stop this type of behavior, most with little or no success. Most of them are based on keeping dogs busy doing something, such as food based, exercised based, running around based. As far as I see it, all of it is Adrenalized behavior that will most likely create the same results or even make it worse.  Unfortunately, in a good amount of these cases, the behavior leads to the surrender of the dog (this happens often). So many dogs are returned to rescues by Foster Families for excessive barking as well as separation issues. I get a good amount of calls from families that rescue dogs and they are struggling with separation issues. Most vets will suggest medication, and although I have seen this work in some cases, it is not the norm for it to work. I have also seen dogs get TONS of exercise but the issues still exist. I am a huge advocate of lots of structured exercise for dogs to help with this issue, but that is far from the solution to extinguish Separation Issues.

I want my readers to know that you can actually “correct” separation anxiety. I look at it this way, when a dog is in a state of panic and stress, they are suffering and in mental pain. It is our obligation as dog owners to be advocates for our dogs, we should be protecting them both mentally and physically. Most dogs do not self soothe out of separation issues, so it is our obligation to help them out of it asap. Most dogs that have separation issues continue to repeat the behavior over and over, they need our guidance to stop the viscous cycle that will not end.

One of the things that I do not see within 24 hours of a dog with separation issues arriving for a board and train IS separation anxiety issues. We excel at being pro-active and preventing it but I also have absolutely no problem correcting it.

Lets first talk about being pro-active and working on prevention.

A few things I notice with folks that have dogs with separation issues is that, they make their dogs too much the center of attention, they do not have enough structured alone time for their dogs, and do not work on controlling space.

This is what we do to prevent and eliminate separation issues:

1) Structured walks of at least for 60 minutes a day. Having the dog in proper heel position, which means your dog has his head at your knee walking on a loose leash, no pulling, sniffing, marking, lunging or barking. Your dog should not be meeting or greeting people or dogs on the walk. All that does is get your dog even more Adrenalized and excited and the goal is to teach your dog how to be calm. The proper structured walk is the foundation of GREAT behavior both on leash and off leash.

2)  Crate train your dog. When you have a dog that is anxious, nervous and has separation issues and you find them soiling and destroying your house, you need to have your dog safely contained in a crate. Not only does this prevent destruction and soiling but it also prevents injury or even death to your dog who ingests something they happen to destroy. Removing something from your dog’s insides can be thousands of dollars in vet bills and dangerous tot he dog’s health.

3)  Control the space in your home. Teach your dog the PLACE command and use it. You should NOT have your dog moving about your house, following you around, going from window to window, responding to every sound and sight. This creates a more anxious dog that just can not learn how to settle down. I look for a dog that is calm and even bored in the house. A dog that is content on just existing in your home is going to do a lot better with any anxiety issues when the humans leave.

4)  Create the right atmosphere. The inside of your house should not be a dog park for your dog, it should be more like a relaxation spa. The goal is for your dog to learn how to relax, how to exist calmly in a world of chaos. You actually can teach your dog to relax by utilizing long duration exercises like Place and Down.

5)  Keep calm. When coming and going from your house, keep your energy calm. Do not enter rooms excited to see your dog, using a high pitched voice with lots of petting, and allowing your dog to jump up all over you. I realize you miss and love your dog, but the message you are sending to your dog is that if they start jumping and being excited you will give them attention. You want your dog to be calm around you not Adrenalized.

6)  Minimize physical, verbal and food praise. The greatest reward, in my opinion, for a dog is EXISTENCE, having a dog exist in our world with us is huge. In order to do that, we need to have our dogs mentally and physically behaved. I am not saying you should not pet your dog, or not give your dog treats, or not tell your dog how good they are. But I am saying that I see too many dogs already excited and anxious that get all ramped up with the constant rewards, praise, and treats. These rewards may benefit the owner and their feelings towards their dogs but are not benefiting the dog long term.

7)  Treat k9 training like a lifestyle and not a series of tricks. Treat dog training like a book full of chapters and do not skip any pages or chapters along the way. You need to keep up with the small things daily in order to prevent any of the big things from happening.

8)  Don’t question your dog to get it excited. Stop saying phrases like “Do you want to go for a walk” “Do you want to go for a car ride” “Do you want to eat”. All of these thing get your dog wired up or Adrenalized while you feel good because your dog is excited about something. In my book, all it does is cause too much excitement. What do you want the dog to do? Say yes or no? The dog is going for a walk, going for a car ride and going to eat, because you said so and that is just the way it is.

9)  Add more exercise. Adding walking on a treadmill to your daily routine. This has helped dogs decrease separation issues.

If all of the above things are still not working, you can actually correct anxious behavior. In my book, that is one of the kindest things you can do for your dog. Having your dog live in a state of anxiety just sucks for your dog as well as the people around you. You can use remote collars at very low levels to stop the whining. You can use a good quality bark collar (not the citronella type, those are quite abusive in my book) but the collars that give a light stimulation to your dog for barking. By doing this, you are stopping all of the anxious and Adrenalized behavior which keeps building up and is very harmful to your dog. Keep in mind, the only thing that is mean and abusive about separation anxiety is NOT fixing it, and leaving the dog in a state of unbalance or returning the dog to the shelter that the dog came from, which happens A LOT.

Remember, we NEVER see separation issues for more than 24 hours on my property, so a dog suffering from this for years, can come to us and it stops. This is why I am so passionate about all of the rules I outlined above. Follow these, and with small daily changes you will see dramatic results.

Solid K9 Training Providence, RI (401) 527-6354

For more information on training dogs visit us at http://solidk9training.com.

*********FOLLOW ME**********

Subscribe To My YouTube Channel
Facebook
Twitter

As a dog trainer who travels the country training dogs and working with 20-30 families a week in their homes it is so important for folks to understand how a dog thinks. And when there is no authority figure present, the kind of chaos and bad behavior that can happen. Remember the bad behavior of your dog is not the problem it is just the outcome of a breakdown of leadership in your home.

My friend and LA dog training colleague Sean O’Shea from The Good Dog Training and Rehabilitation puts out such a great blog that I am going to start featuring it here on my
blog, since the content and message is so powerful and important it needs to be shared by all, enjoy the read and feel free to also join his Facebook Fan Page.

Good Work If Your Dog Can Get It

By Sean O’Shea

Remember folks, dogs always do what ‘works’ for them. If pulling on the leash works to get you to walk faster or gets them to a desired tree, they will do it. If barking from the crate works to get the crate door opened and them out, they will do it. If acting the fool when you pull the leash out works to get the leash put on, they will do it. If barking and lunging at other dogs on the walk works to make the other dog go away (the dog’s perception) or is just a bunch of fun, they will do it. If jumping up on you works to get attention (even negative attention) they will do it. If pulling you out the front door works to get the walk started, they will do it. If barking at the back door works to get them inside, they will do it. If whining works to get them petted or soothed, they will do it. If chewing/mouthing on your pant leg or your hands works to get you to engage with your dog (what he’s looking for), they will do it. If staring or growling at you works to cause you to move away from your dog’s food bowl, crate, toy, bed etc, he will do it.

And they will do all of these things more and more intensely, and more frequently, the more it works for them.

When we respond to our dog’s negative behavior in a way that ultimately gives the dog what he wants, we have trained our dog (and he has trained us) to create the reality he desires…which might not be the reality you desire.

Our job, as our dog’s leader and guide is to be sure that we only encourage the behaviors we like – what ‘works’ for us and our lifestyle – and discourage that which doesn’t ‘work’ for us.

The best way to achieve this is to ignore very mild behavior totally and completely, correct more intense behavior you don’t like immediately, and to actively train your dog that patience, waiting, calmness, respect, and courteousness gets them everything. It’s what ‘works’!

Dogs, while being some of the most awesome creatures around, are also awesome opportunists! Left to their own devices, they will create a world for themselves (and for you) that is exactly to their liking. It’s up to you to pick which reality ‘works’ for you, yours or your dog’s.

(If your dog’s behavior is dangerous or frightening, or if you are unsure about how to proceed, please do not attempt to correct or train him on your own. You should seek the help of a trained professional who, if qualified should be able to help you sort these issues out.)

Sean’s website www.thegooddog.net

Solid K9 Training Providence, RI (401) 527-6354

As a dog trainer in Rhode Island who travels the country training dogs and working with 20-30 families a week in their homes it is so important for folks to understand how a dog thinks. And when there is no authority figure present, the kind of chaos and bad behavior that can happen. Remember the bad behavior of your dog is not the problem it is just the outcome of a breakdown of leadership in your home.

My friend and Los Angeles dog trainer colleague Sean O’Shea from The Good Dog Training and Rehabilitation puts out such a great blog that I am going to start featuring it on
My Blog Page since the content and message is so powerful and important it needs to be shared by all, enjoy the read and feel free to also join his Facebook Fan Page.

The Secrects To A Better Dog and A Better Life!

By Sean O’Shea

Whether It be business, financial, relationship, personal, or even dog training (make that especially dog training!), if you’re not harnessing the amazing power of visualization, goal setting, and creating intentions, you’re missing out on some of the great secrets of success!

I personally am a big subscriber to the power of these tools, and they have helped me tremendously in all aspects of my life.

Let’s take a super quick look at how these work, and then we’ll see how they might just help you with your dog…and maybe more.

When you set a goal, visualize an outcome, or create the intention of what you’d like to create, you set several things in motion:

1) You cause your brain’s filter (known by its fancy name as R.A.S. – Reticular Activating System), to adjust its focus toward helping you accomplish the goal you desire. Your brain filters out most of the information that it is bombarded with, in order to protect your sanity, and to help you survive/accomplish the things you have deemed important. The famous example is where you decide to buy a new car and suddenly begin to see the same car everywhere in great numbers. The amount of these cars on the road didn’t increase massively overnight – what happened was that your filter suddenly adjusted itself to find/accomplish the things that are foremost in your mind. In this case the car you are fascinated with/focused on. Some folks call this Law Of Attraction, I personally enjoy the scientific explanation the most. So once you create a goal, visualization, intention, your mind’s filter begins to filter out all that is unhelpful to achieving your goal and filters in all that is helpful to achieving your goal. Often ideas, strategies, and solutions will simply pop into your mind as your supercomputer of a brain hyper-focuses all of its power on solving the problem you are working on. Is it magic? It’s pretty close to it.

2) When you visualize exactly what you want to see, before you create it, you become positively charged with certainty and confidence, rather than tentative, unsure, and clumsy. People actually perform physically and mentally at a much higher level when they utilize the power of visualization. (Star athletes and other performers have used these tools for years, and there many scientific studies that back up the efficacy of the practice) You set yourself up for success when your brain has a defined set of images and goals to shoot for rather than a vague groping. And scientists have also found that we tend to get what we expect, and find what we’re looking for.

3) Clear set goals have a magical pulling power, they actually pull us in their direction. And the clearer, more defined the goal, and the stronger the emotional connection to it, the harder it pulls you towards it. Without clearly set goals, our focus and efforts tends to wander here and there. We dilute our power to accomplish great things through the scattering of our focus and attention. Defined goals bring us back again and again to our purpose. So if we want to create great things, we simply need to intensify and focus our intentions like a laser on what is we wish to create.

4) When you visualize or project an outcome, you create a psychological response, which in turn creates a physiological response. An example would be that you’re walking your dog reactive dog and suddenly see a dog walking towards you…you immediately see in your mind’s eye your dog whirling around, snapping, lunging, barking like a mad beast. What happens at that moment? Your psychological conversation has now caused your breathing to become shallow, your body to become tense, and stress hormones to be secreted – all signals to your dog that not only is trouble afoot, but also that you are in no way the person who is capable of either managing the situation or protecting your dog. That little negative visualization almost always guarantees a negative reaction from your dog. But if you develop the habit and skill of instead seeing what you want, rather than what you don’t, you have a far better chance of maintaing normal breathing, maintaining a relaxed body, and keeping the stress hormones under wraps – all of which convey confidence and certainty – and this positive visualization process can yield major results as you and your dog work towards solving problem behavior.

Personally, I utilize these concepts every time I’m working with a dog. On the large end of goal setting, every dog that comes in to us gets a chart made up of the owners goals and our goals that we wish to achieve before the end of our work together. On the small end, I set goals or an intention for every single training session – even if it is only a momentary issue – set the goal first and watch as that decision pulls you to the achievement of your goal. And in conjunction with the goals I set, I also visualize every outcome, ahead of time working out exactly as I wish it to. The combination of deciding ahead of time exactly what you want and what it looks like are an incredibly powerful set of tools. And the more challenging the dog, the deeper I go into this process. This keeps me positive, totally clear about my objectives, focused on solutions rather than problems, relaxed and confident. And all of these elements give me the extra edge when I’m working with challenging dogs or humans!

If you’re having problems with your dog or you just want to improve his/her training, you want as much of this creative, problem solving mojo on your side as possible! How do you think a dog (or the world!) would react to a confident, certain, positive person, with a clear image of what he wants to create versus the opposite? I know you know the answer to this one!

So regardless of whether you’re a dog trainer, a dog owner, or just one of those weird people without a dog, if you’ll practice seeing what you want, defining what you want, and feeling what you want, you’ll be harnessing some of the most powerful tools that man has at his disposal.

And you might just create a little magic of your own.

Sean’s website www.thegooddog.net

Sean’s Twitter

Solid K9 Training Providence, RI (401) 527-6354

As a RI dog trainer who travels the country training dogs and working with 20-30 families a week in their homes it is so important for folks to understand how a dog thinks. And when there is no authority figure present, the kind of chaos and bad behavior that can happen. Remember the bad behavior of your dog is not the problem it is just the outcome of a breakdown of leadership in your home.

My friend and LA dog trainer colleague Sean O’Shea from The Good Dog Training and Rehabilitation puts out such a great blog that I am going to start featuring it on
My Blog Page since the content and message is so powerful and important it needs to be shared by all, enjoy the read and feel free to also join his Facebook Page.

 
The World Series Of Dog Training
By Sean O’Shea

You don’t start swinging the bat the day of the World Series. You don’t throw your first Shot Put the day of the Olympics. You don’t sit down at the piano for the first time the day of your recital at Lincoln Center.

Of course all of these examples are silly, and no one in their right mind would actually contemplate them. BUT, as crazy as these examples are, this is exactly what I see so many dog owners do. And it’s one of the biggest causes of failure in their attempts to train/rehab their dog. It’s fascinating that something that we so intuitively understand in the human world (that being the necessity of using baby steps and constant preparation in order to achieve a bigger goal/accomplishment) regularly escapes us and frequently sabotages our attempts to train our dogs.

We somehow believe that the dog with the maniacal door reaction (or even worse, an aggression issue) will respond to our frantic attempts to keep him in “place” the one day someone shows up at our door, rather than practicing, preparing, and conditioning him to respond appropriately, to respect, listen and defer to you for the 3 weeks preceding the visit.

Or, we let our dog wander on the walk, smelling here and there, pulling us to and fro, teaching them ever so consistently that they need not respect or listen to us…and then our dog sees the little obnoxious dog from down the street and decides to not only bark, growl, froth, and spin, but also to share a bite on your leg for your trouble.

In the dog world, these are all World Series moments, and to think you can simply suit up and knock it out of the park on game day, without having spent the necessary practice, preparation, and skill building time, is folly.

If you’re looking to train or rehab any serious behavior problem, be sure that you practice, prepare, and condition both you and your dog with massive repetition and small, incremental challenges long BEFORE game day. Much of our success with severe behavior issues comes from utilizing this simple formula.

Remember, if you’re going to rock the stadium, you gotta work through T-ball, little league, high school, college ball, and then finally, if you’ve worked your butt off, you graduate to the big leagues. And if you approach your dog training with the same mind-set, you can accomplish something just as amazing!

 
Sean’s Dog Training Blog

Sean’s Facebook

Solid K9 Training Providence, RI (401) 527-6354

As a dog trainer in Rhode Island who travels the country training dogs and working with 20-30 families a week in their homes it is so important for folks to understand how a dog thinks. And when there is no authority figure present, the kind of chaos and bad behavior that can happen. Remember the bad behavior of your dog is not the problem it is just the outcome of a breakdown of leadership in your home.

My friend and dog trainer colleague Sean O’Shea from The Good Dog Training and Rehabilitation puts out such a great blog that I am going to start featuring it on
My Blog Page since the content and message is so powerful and important it needs to be shared by all, enjoy the read and feel free to also join his Facebook fan page.

The Ole 5 Dollar Speeding Ticket

By Sean O’Shea

How much impact would 5 dollar speeding tickets have on drivers speeding habits?

Probably not much.

And why is that? Because the reward for driving over the speed limit – whether it’s running late for an appointment, impatience, or just the thrill of some extra speed – outweighs the consequence. No one is going to change rewarding behavior for a 5 dollar penalty…why would they?

When a reward outweighs a consequence, the consequence will be ignored. And the behavior that the consequence was supposed to impact/change/prevent/stop simply continues on.

If speeding tickets were 5 dollars, folks would likely be driving like maniacs…it would be chaotic, it would be dangerous, and it would be unpredictable. (This is strangely similar to dogs we see who live in a world of few rules and insignificant consequences for negative behavior).

So what changes a driver’s speeding habits? What changes anyone’s habits? It’s simple really. Significant consequences for breaking known rules. When consequences become significant, behavior changes…for all of us. (That’s why speeding tickets and the ding they put on your insurance are so heavy…in order for them to be significant)

In working with dogs, I see the 5 dollar speeding ticket issued all too often by owners in an effort to stop or change unwanted behavior. And the fallout is: The dog’s negative behavior continues; owners become frustrated/annoyed/resentful; the unwanted behavior becomes even more deeply patterned; and worst of all, the dog begins to view the human in a disrespectful, dismissive light…and this spells massive trouble.

So knowing that insignificant consequences undermine what we’re trying to achieve, and significant consequences help us to achieve what we want, what stands between us and the promised land of stopping bad behavior and creating great behavior? Lots of things. For one, many owners are far more prepared to share affection and fun than they are discipline and rules. For others they are unsure about how to create and share fair and appropriate consequences for their particular dog (and this is an important point – this is not a one size fits all – for some dogs a stern voice is significant, and for others this would mean absolutely nothing). Others still are unsure about which tool or approach or strategy would be best to help achieve this. Some owners are worried that they might hurt their dog’s feelings or undermine their relationship. And maybe the biggest one of all, owners have been told over and over that correcting their dog will create aggression or other serious behavioral fallout. In all of the dogs I’ve worked with, I have never, repeat, never seen this be the case. But, there is an awful lot of propaganda saying otherwise.

Once you’ve clearly and fairly taught your dog the rules of life, the next step is finding just the right consequence motivation that causes him to make good, healthy and safe choices. And in many cases, the best course of action is to hire an experienced, balanced trainer, who can help guide you through the best choice of strategies, tools, and reading of your dog, to ensure that you share exactly the right balance of reward and consequence for your particular dog…and that you leave that 5-dollar speeding ticket far behind.

Sean’s Twitter

Solid K9 Training Providence, RI (401) 527-6354

My Official Response to Channel 10’s News Story – Part 1

By Jeff Gellman of Solid K9 Training.
Jeff specializes in dog training in RI, as well as anywhere else in the US.

A few weeks ago I was equally surprised and delighted that a local news station took
video footage straight from my YouTube channel, and proceeded to air a story about
prong collars being cruel, painful, and unnecessary tools to use on dogs. First, I’d like
to say that my Youtube channel is a wonderful daily source of education, reassurance,
guidance, and encouragement to both my current clients and the dog owning public
with many video examples demonstrating my successful training methods. The goal
in doing so is to ultimately teach as many people as possible how to deepen their bond
and understanding with their dogs, allowing them to live in peace and harmony in the
real world. I’d also like to mention that that just after this story aired, my business was
flooded with new clients. Business has in fact, been the busiest it’s ever been in the past
ten years, so in a way I’m filled with gratitude, yet, I would still like to finally get to the
bottom of this here and now.

I have clients come to me on a constant basis, some crying and all frustrated. I hear the
same stories each week; stories of failure, heartbreak, and near loss from people at the
end of their rope, desperate for a solution to their dog’s undesirable behavior. Many of
these folks had invested a tremendous amount of time and money using other trainers
enforcing methods such as treats, clickers, excited voices, excessive praise, and even
medication that never even touched their dogs’ behavior issues. Some people even found
their dog more excitable and even harder to live with, after trying many, if not all of the
largely unsuccessful training tactics commonly used by trainers all over the country.

A large percentage of the dogs I work with on a regular basis would’ve been put to death
because other trainers would either not take them, or would simply give up after only a
few sessions, proclaiming the dog as “untrainable”, “unmanageable” or “unadoptable”. In
my opinion, these words mean, “undeserving of life”, and that is undoubtedly the most
inhumane and cruel fate of all. All dogs deserve another chance to learn, and all dogs
deserve a right to live. I will work with any dog out there, putting not only myself, but
also my family at risk until the dog is calm and balanced, because ninety percent of the
time, my training tactics work, and if for some reason they don’t, I will keep working
to try and find a solution that will. When it comes down to dog training, it’s not about
credentials, resumes, or prestigious schools, but rather about actually getting out there
and working with dogs whether they’re gentle and calm or in a highly agitated and
aggressive state.

Prong collars are safe, humane, and effective. Out of the thousands of dogs I’ve used
prongs on, I’ve not once, seen an injury or broken skin due to their use. If you would like
to read more about prong collars specifically, check out one of my previous blog posts
HERE.

You see, I believe in dogs. I believe in dogs whether they are eager two- month- old
puppies or highly aggressive dogs with extensive bite histories. I believe in their
intelligence, their ability to listen, their need for guidance, and mostly, I believe in every
dog’s true potential and future. I want each dog I work with to have the best possible
outcome: a life of structure and fulfillment, his owner’s confidence, and the luxury of
being involved with his family in ways the family may have never imagined possible. I
want the relationship between human and dog to transform onto an entirely new level so
both can benefit from each other for years to come.

Some may not agree with my methods due to being misinformed, or maybe don’t
understand how and why these methods work, and that’s fine, because the outcome of my
methods shows in my results. The results speak volumes in my clients’ lives, their dogs’
lives, and both of their lives intertwined. This isn’t just about real world training so your
dog can stay in a command, but also about using logic and compassion to save lives in a
time when millions of dogs need our leadership and we must unite and help one another
as a nation to give each dog the best life possible. With all that they give us, it’s the least
we can do for them.

There will be more to come on this important topic.

If you have any questions, and want to speak to professional dog trainers in Rhode Island,
please contact dog trainer Jeff Gellman at 401.527.6354.

Jeff Gellman
Solid K9 Training Providence, RI (401) 527-6354

You should follow me on Twitter HERE