Be Careful of Guarantees
By: Melissa Kolmar, CPDT-KA, SBA Many potential clients ask me if we offer a guarantee or how many sessions it will take to “fix” their dog. Here are my answers: …
Improve the Life of Your Dog
By: Melissa Kolmar, CPDT-KA, SBA There are so many ways we can improve our dogs’ lives! Here are my top 8. Do you do any or all of these? 1. …
Always Learning
By: Melissa Kolmar, CPDT-KA, SBA Your dog is constantly learning and training. Your dog is learning from every interaction with you. I am going to repeat that: Your dog is …
Importance of Puppy Socialization
By: Melissa Kolmar, CPDT-KA, SBA If you’ve ever had a puppy, you may have heard that it is important to socialize them. But what does that mean? How do we …
Take a Break!
By: Melissa Kolmar, CPDT-KA, SBA This past Saturday I took the day off to celebrate my birthday. It was the perfect day: we went to the beach and then had …
Questions for a Potential Daycare/Boarding Facility
By: Melissa Kolmar, CPDT-KA, SBA I am often asked what to look for when choosing a daycare or boarding facility for a dog. We want to set our dogs up …
Language Matters
By: Melissa Kolmar, CPDT-KA, SBA If you have taken classes with me (especially Puppy Pre-School and Advanced Manners), you probably have heard me talk about the importance of language. The language we …
The Value of Hand Targeting
By: Norris Boyd, Volunteer with New Dawn Animal Behavior Center When I was first introduced to hand target training at New Dawn, I couldn’t see a clear purpose for it. …
Questions for Your Dog Trainer
By: Melissa Kolmar, CPDT-KA, SBA There is another case in the news of dogs suffering at the hands of a dog trainer (this time in California). As I’ve talked about …
Confidence-Building with Nose Work-Cory’s Story
By: Cathy Slusser The best gift I ever received arrived on my 55th birthday in the form of an eight-week-old Chesapeake Bay Retriever. I named my gift Encore Performance. Her name …