Worried about how to manage on-leash greetings? Chances are, you’ve searched online how to do it, and I’d be willing to bet the farm that you’ve come across a whole bunch of articles saying that dogs should never meet each other while they’re on a leash. This is ridiculous. It’s just another example of the…

There’s a balanced training bashing article that’s been making the rounds lately. It’s just one example of a growing number of blog posts and articles put out by the purely positive movement. For the most part, these pieces are stuffed full of misinformation and misinterpretation of data, which is why I wanted to take a…

Dog Parks. I have mixed feelings about dog parks. On the one hand, they’re often the only place people in the city have to let their dogs really run. But on the other hand, they can be cesspits of disease (giardia, anyone?), dog maulings waiting to happen, and insane asylums for crazy dogs and their…

The Doorbell Problem: How to Stop Your Dog from Barking. If I had a nickel for every time someone asked about how to stop their dog from barking when the doorbell rings, I could hang up my training leads, retire to the Bahamas, and live out my days snorkeling and drinking margaritas. This article has…

Heel to Heal “Heel” is the single most under-taught, under-practiced, and underused command in existence. Most clicker training people don’t do it. Pet training organizations ignore it. But it is the foundation of everything we do here at Nitro K9 and it’s the cornerstone of any real dog training program. One thing that almost every…

I can’t even begin to tell you how much I hate head halters. It boggles my mind that so many trainers call prong collars cruel, and have clients strap these devices on their dogs—and then call it positive training. I’m talking, of course about Gentle Leaders and Haltis. There are a couple of design differences…

Dog Aggression and Anxiety I have focused the vast majority of my career toward the betterment of aggressive and anxious dogs. Over the years, I have diagnosed, trained, or worked with literally thousands of them. On an average day, I see anywhere from eight to ten aggressive or anxious dogs through consultation or as we’re…

Why Positive Dog Training Fails You may have picked up on the fact that I don’t like so-called positive dog training. For the record, I call it so-called positive because … it’s not. The tools many of these trainers recommend are like medieval torture devices from a dog’s perspective. Positive? Not so much. If their…