No Free Lunch

When we bring a dog or puppy into our home, we get ready just like waiting for the arrival of a baby; We have Everything in place; the crate, dog bed, a bunch of toys in a basket, a cupboard full of food and tons of treats.

We greet our bundle of fur of whatever size with open arms and opened house; Nothing is too good for our new member of the family and we'll gladly give it to them.

Then over time, we notice our dog isn't quite turning our to be the loyal companion we had hoped. Some problems seem to be popping up; Not listening, kind of crazy, out of control and the rules we had hoped to establish never really took root. We realize we have spoiled our dog with too Much of Everything freely given.

So let's fix this!

Here is how...No Free Lunch.

What does this mean? No Free Lunch is your opportunity to take the entitlement from your dog that believes they "Own the Place" by making them Work for their food. It means not just asking for One Sit and then released to eat their whole bowl of food. It means asking your dog to work for each mouthful until their portion is finished.


By changing how you feed your dog, you can teach your dog to pay more attention to you and be more cooperative. You also will be able to teach them more by hand feeding instead of just giving a Hand Out. You will have a dog that wants to work for you and you will be happy to Pay your dog for their good work.

What kind of work will you ask your dog to do?

Out of the DogHouse LLC website www.ohiodogtrainer.net
Any Questions? Contact Dru Therrian 440.286.9070

Opportunity Lost

O Dear....You're running late, hurrying down the hallway, and the doors to the elevator shut before you get there....Bummer. Is this detrimental? No, but it would have been nice and made your day run smoother if you got in before the doors closed. Yes, that's the way it is with puppies too! That darn Window of Socialization seems to close faster than we expect and then the Opportunity is Lost.

We have only a short amount of time (when puppies are 8 to 16 weeks old) to socialize "Everything" our puppy needs to know to be a well adjusted adult dog. What are we doing during those critical weeks in our puppies' lives? You may think you are doing enough but are you? 

What if?
1. Your puppy doesn't get to be around children. Will they afraid of kids?
2. Your puppy has not gotten  to swim and you own a cottage on a lake.
3. Your puppy has not left your property but you want a therapy dog.

By missing those things, will this mean your puppy won't be well adjusted? Maybe not but there is no guarantee except it would be better to do everything you possibly can to get through that Opened Doorway rather than having the doors closed forever.

Today people are taking advantage of the Window of Socialization by going to Puppy Primer Workshops with Linda Kaim. You can too, because Linda will be here in Ohio. Here is the info:
http://www.lionheartk9.com/dog-trainers-in-maryland/ohio-seminar/

Don't get caught with the door closing on your puppy or the Ohio Puppy Primer Workshop; the deadline for registration is April 10, 2015.

Out of the DogHouse LLC website www.ohiodogtrainer.net

Contact Dru Therrian with any Questions 440.286.9070

Got Puppies?

I love this quote from the Bugs Bunny show "I will name him George, and I will Hug him, and Pet him and Squeeze him" . If you aren't old enough and haven't had the pleasure of viewing this or are a tad bit older and don't remember, look on Youtube "The Abominable Snow Rabbit". It's a Classic!

Yup, isn't that what we think we will do when we get a puppy?! Love 'em, Hug 'em and Squeeze 'em until they are a great adult dog. Yes siree, and our new puppy will certainly love us just as much and be as Sweet as Pie. UM/HUM... our new bundle of fur is gonna show us how much they love us by not being able to keep their needle sharp little teeth off of us!

But we know better, we all know having a puppy means Responsibility! That's what we tell the kids anyways. So our 8 week old puppy comes home to join our family and we hop right online to Google what to do next. With no easy answer to our questions, we find we are confounded by all the conflicting information along with what we heard from our breeder, vet, groomer, family member, friend and next door neighbor.

Want an easier way to learn?  We want to teach you what is takes to START RIGHT and STAY RIGHT from the day you bring your puppy home until his first birthday and beyond. Puppies don't come with manuals but they sure create a lot of opinions!

Here is how. SAVE the Date; April 18 -19 come to our two day workshop called Ohio Puppy Primer. We want to Show and Tell you what to do, how to do it and when is the best time to start.

No more guessing or being confused because Linda Kaim of Lionheart K9 from Maryland, is presenting on how to raise the smartest puppy ever. And even if you have had your new puppy for a few weeks or months, Linda has developed a program called "Resetting for Success"; Working with an older puppy past the Optimal Socialization Window.

With "Hands On" puppies and lecture, Ohio Puppy Primer will provide information, methods and strategies that will guide you and your puppy or puppies you work with through the Critical 8 - 16 week Socialization Window.

Check out our Flyer and then click on the link to register! Your puppy's future as a Great Adult dog is in your hands.

 http://www.lionheartk9.com/dog-trainers-in-maryland/ohio-seminar/

click on photos to view larger

Out of the DogHouse LLC website www.ohiodogtrainer.net
Contact Dru Therrian 440.286.9070

Motivating Different Personality Types

I get all sorts of dog personalities in for training. From Shy to Bold, dogs are unique individuals just like people. The type of dog you will have in front of you will be impacted by Genetics, Breeding, and Social Development.

To start dogs learning, I need to understand where the dog is coming from and teach within that scope of their personality. Is the dog scared and afraid to try or so bold and brassy you can't keep up with them? Sometimes it is easy because the dog is willing by nature to learn; Sometimes a bit harder because the dog has not learned how to learn as a puppy.

No matter what their personality, one thing that I have found to help most dogs is movement. Don't dogs love to run, jump and play? I incorporate activity to accelerate learning. Jumping helps motivate most dogs of any personality. It's Exciting and Fun! Getting emotions turned up to Happy, will get the dog doing better faster.

Want a Happy dog? Move with your dog by having them jump over something; You and your dog will have Happy Attitudes when training is playful and fun.


Out of the DogHouse LLC website www.ohiodogtrainer.net
Contact Dru Therrian 440.286.9070

A Special Field Trip

So what do you do when you have weeks of freezing weather and you need to proof your recall? You gladly accept an invitation to practice at an indoor riding arena!

My good friend, Michelle, invited me out to her barn to use her indoor riding arena. What a great opportunity for me to bring the pups out for a training session.

Not only was this a terrific place to practice Off Leash Recalls but the better, bigger, bonus was socializing the dogs to sights and sounds that they probably hadn't been around before; A new environment that included horses!

Michelle's barn is not only beautiful but immaculate! She uses a special sand for the riding arena; good for horses and the dogs! The dogs had a blast racing in a full out run across the arena. This is something they haven't been able to do outdoors lately because of the sub-zero temps here in NorthEast Ohio. After a bit of "Shake Your Sillies Out", we got down to work doing recalls and obedience.



Thank you, Michelle, for the awesome time and your help!
Here is a slideshow of our adventure!



Out of the DogHouse LLC website www.ohiodogtrainer.net
Contact Dru Therrian 440.286.9070

Trick Day Wednesday

Hey! It's Trick Day Wednesday! Time for some middle of the week fun!

Lots of folks teach their dogs tricks. Mostly, I hear they taught them "Paw" or "Shake". Sometimes they say "Rollover" or "Play Dead". If you haven't tried to teach these tricks to your dog, just ask, I'll help you!

But in the meantime, let's have some fun teaching our dogs to spin in a circle. Some dogs may naturally do this trick already by chasing their tails. I wonder, if when they are spinning, they feel like children twirling? I think dogs do it because they enjoy spinning or chasing. But if your dog spins uncontrollably as in OCD behavior; Stop them. That type of spinning is not healthy.

The best time to teach tricks, as with obedience, is when your dog is hungry. Use your pup's mealtime to train. Don't put the full bowl on the floor in front of them or it may be gobbled up before you have the chance to try anything. Set the bowl on the counter and grab a few pieces out for each attempt.

When you begin to train this trick, keep in mind  what it will look like when your dog can do it successfully. What will you call the trick? What hand signal will you use? I wanted to teach Daisy to spin in both directions so I named them "Clock" to go to her right and "Counter" to go to her left.

You may be thinking, great, just another Silly Pet Trick. Well, maybe, but if you are doing agility with your dog, it is important for your dog to understand directional turns. This is a great way to start.


Tricks are a lot of Fun! And great brain builders. I am all for a Smart Dog, you too, I bet!

Out of the DogHouse LLC website www.ohiodogtrainer.net
Contact Dru Therrian 440.286.9070

Ticklish Toes

Recently I was helping another dog owner with her dog's nail trim at the groomers. The groomer, Pam, who owns Shaggy Dog, here in Chardon, said that sometimes dogs' feet and toes can be ticklish. I hadn't thought of that?! Makes sense because we know that a lot of dogs have a "Sweet Spot" when we scratch them; why couldn't they be ticklish too?

I did read why dogs start to scratch when we hit that Sweet Spot. It is because of their Scratch Reflex. Dogs shake or kick their legs when you scratch them because of a completely involuntary reaction. When you scratch that Sweet Spot it activates nerves under the skin that are connected to the spinal cord which relays messages to leg muscles to kick in an attempt to relieve the itch. Since you are already scratching you are relieving the itch; therefore the dog only "Air" scratches. Ticklish toes must be the same way?

Dogs' feet are suppose to be sensitive to protect themselves. So it only makes sense that they have a lot of nerves down there. But with ticklish toes, a dog will more likely try to pull their foot out of your hand when you are touching them. They may be annoyed or irritated by the tickling feeling.

This is where things can get troublesome, especially when you are trying to trim your pup's nails. Now of course, your dog just might not like having their nails trimmed because they are afraid. Both are situations of sensitivity and with this practice that I will show you in the video clip, your dog can learn to at least tolerate paw handling and nail trims.




Start out slow. Do one paw and see how your dog reacts; be sure to squeeze and use gentle pressure on each toe nail. From there you can choose to do the next paw. By being deliberate and purposeful, not ticklish or silly, your dog will know and learn that you are trying to help them by doing what is best for them.

Out of the DogHouse LLC website www.ohiodogtrainer.net
Contact Dru Therrian 440.286.9070