Dog Training Blog: Expert Advice

By Pro Canine Trainer Annie Phenix, ACB-KSA For years, I have belonged to several text and messenger chains with my fellow force free trainers. We send each other encouragement, share client cases, get the experience of other canine professionals and we also cry a lot together as our hearts keep getting broken in two. Let…

“The only constant in my young life was my dog named Cricket. He found me. And then he saved me. Cricket was the first evidence in my young life that love existed. ”

Dogs need to feel safe and especially in their own homes. None of us are good learners or even well-adjusted companions if we are walking on eggshells, living a hypervigilant lifestyle or we are stressed out.

By Pro Canine Trainer Annie Phenix, ACB-KSA Years ago, I had the pleasure of working with an absolute gem of a Golden Retriever named Sola. She was a dream – as bombproof of a dog as I have ever met! She was so smart (and beautiful!) and so willing to learn that her owner was…

I repeat this mantra daily:  it does not matter if you perceive your dog to “be friendly” or that “he loves other dogs.” It does not matter because the dog you have no voice control over is daily hurling himself into the faces of dogs who very well may NOT be friendly to other dogs.

“Dogs need to feel safe – first and foremost,” says Pro Dog Trainer Annie Phenix

A recent study by an international team of researchers led by Elizabeth Ann Walsh of the Cork Pet Behavior Centre in Ireland revealed that owners still are not able to accurately judge the meaning in many canine behaviors

Dogs stuck in shelters taught me more than just canine body language however. I learned about perseverance, especially from dogs who had no true behavioral prob- lems but were passed up every day because of human dislikes, such as being the wrong color, the wrong breed or mix, the wrong size or the wrong age.

by Pro Trainer Annie Phenix, ACB-KSA I am a professional canine behavior expert and I share my life with two dogs who have – or shall I say HAD – extreme car phobia. My two heeler-border collie brothers suffered an enormous trauma early in life that affected them for years afterwards and their trauma centered…