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Training with compassionate Knowledge

Choose to Train Humane Blog

Read more about Annie’s work with dogs in the blog posts below.

  • Pro Dog Trainer Annie Phenix's first dog Cricket showed her love when her dysfunctional human family couldn't.

    Dogs Gave Many of Us the First Evidence of Love (Thanksgiving Edition)

    “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. “

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  • Your Dog Hates the Holidays!

    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.

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  • Dogs do not understand our need to put out scary Halloween decorations. we have to keep them safe says pro trainer Annie Phenix.

    Spooky Season: 3 Ways to Keep Dogs Safe During Halloween

    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…

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  • Four Ways to Protect Your Dog on Walks

    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.

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  • Dogs Need to Feel Safe Above All Else

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

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  • The Subtlety of Canine Body Language

    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

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  • What I Learned from Shelter Dogs

    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.

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  • Happy dogs in a car

    Is Your Dog Afraid to Ride in the Car?

    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…

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  • How Writing a Book on Canine Behavior Changed My Life

    By Annie Phenix, ACB-KSA https://barksmagazine.com/how-writing-a-book-on-canine-behavior-changed-my-life When my publisher’s acquisition editor called me out of the blue in July 2021 to ask if I would write a second edition to my first canine behavior book, The Midnight Dog Walkers, my immediate response was a firm “no.” I had many reasons to decline. I had removed myself from…

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