Roller coaster

Roller coaster

Backslides in any type of dog training can be difficult. Frustrating. Demoralizing. Heart-breaking. And the more difficult the problem, the more difficult the backslide becomes. The more progress you make, the harsher the backslide feels. I know this all too well. In...
From long line to no line

From long line to no line

Want to hike your dog off-leash, but have too many worries to do so? I used to be the same. Some people can unclip the leash without too much thought or anxiety, but after one of my dogs disappeared for three hours, that wasn’t me. But about a year later, Oz wiggled...
My dog reacted to something (and it’s fine)

My dog reacted to something (and it’s fine)

As much as I once thought I would like to be, I am not superwoman. For a time, as much as I would have liked to have been able to see every possible trigger and protected my dog from it, I could not. And yet, many months ago, someone told me that I should and as a...
What if?

What if?

To me, off-leash hiking used to be full of what ifs. There were the “normal” ones, like what if my dog runs off after a deer and doesn’t come back? What if he gets hurt? What if we run into a coyote? A bobcat? A mountain lion? What if something happens to him while...