Petopia DDO

Haik cone break

INTRODUCING LIAM Liam is new to the petopia family say hi everyone

Ryu getting belly rubs

Frosty Birthday Celebration for Stephanie!

Positive Reinforcement is great...when used in the proper context. The problem becomes professionals who claim that using positive reinforcement is the ONLY way... to train a dog. What dog? What's the behavior? How intense? What moment? Is the dog front, middle or back? Are they in fight state? Flight state? How many times have they practiced this behavior? What is the humans energy? These are just the beginning of the questions I begin to ask before formulating a strategy to achieve a balanced relationship between a dog and human. I really don't enjoy getting involved in speaking about other professionals but the amount of clients I get who have been failed by "positive reinforcement trainers" "positive only trainers" or anything along those lines is astounding. Something needs to be said to cut through all the bullshit. People are spending money and getting little to no results because many have been fear mongered into thinking saying "no" and addressing a dog for being disrespectful will "make the behavior worse." Again, what behavior? The generalization of saying Positive Reinforcement is better than X, Y or Z is so generalized that to me, it just shows a lack of understanding of Dog Psychology and what it takes to build a healthy relationship between a dog and a human. Remember, I was a consumer at one point. I bought into the play on words, "positive training." Sounds so positive and upbeat! The truth is it's a play on words to sell the public who doesn't know any better. Positive reinforcement just means the addition of something to reinforce a behavior. The scary part is, what so many of these trainers don't realize is they are positively reinforcing and excited state of mind when the very problem with SO many cases is uncontrollable excitement. Let's be clear, I use a TON of positive reinforcement. It's extremely effective in so many scenarios. But the only way? Not even close. What about the dog who's been practicing lunging at other dogs/humans on the street for years, with intent to harm? Ignore it? Then give treats when they stop? Good luck with that. In that context, the fight state MUST be addressed and THEN... replaced with a better option like being calm and following the human who motivates them to follow. The problem becomes the other side of the spectrum who correct and punish the hell out of dogs for any unwanted behaviors, shut them down, suppress the behavior and put the dogs into a state of learned helplessness. These people give ammo to the "positive only" crowd to prove their way is so much nicer. The truth is they're both extreme types of training. These two extremes have been battling for years. Before I even started. So many are close minded and just want to attack the other side. They want to defend "their way" no matter how ineffective it may be at times only to make excuses and play the blame game (usually at the owner or dog). Can we get back to actually figuring out what is best for dogs, humans and their relationship? Not what is better for a particular trainers ego, method or certification. I feel for my clients who have been through these experiences on both extremes. The stories I hear are mind boggling at times. "Positive trainers" firing food at an aggressive dog, aversion trainers sticking a prong on an insecure back of the pack dog and correcting the hell out of it. My dream is to bring this dog world back to a calm, reasonable, positive place where professionals can communicate calmly, stop judging, stop attacking, be open minded, think about energy and how real it is and remember that the real way is the way Mother Nature intended. There are too many dogs being medicated, isolated and euthanized on our planet. The positive only play on words, the heavy punishment, focusing solely on the dog and not on the human, the egos, the agendas, the sponsors, the followers, the attacking, the negativity...all that shit needs to stop. Human's are struggling with their dogs and millions of dogs are dying a year because of behavior issues. Things need to change. We need to start spreading more positivity and support for one another instead of judging and attacking to support egos and agendas. I hope that I can help you all, my pack, bring clarity to this world from both the dog perspective and human perspective so you can be a positive (not addition) influence on your community by helping people connect back with themselves, Mother Nature and their dog so the world can find confidence, calmness, happiness and love!

Kiwi and a bone

INTRODUCING KIWI Kiwi is new to daycare and she is a spitfire

INTRODUCING PIXIE she came to daycare to see how she's be with her sister (Jett) and the 2 are amazing

INTRODUCTING KOBE! Kobe is new to daycare and is gonna have a blast with everyone look how cute he is

Wrestling to warm up on.a chilly day

Super interesting article about the different type of collars our there

When it's -25C outside and dogs need to burn that extra energy NO PROBLEM, TREADMILL TIME!! featuring; Buck, Reina, Narcan, Moxxi, Ryu & Beast