Every week, as part of my Novice to Expert online LGD training course, we hold weekly live Zoom sessions where questions are answered and a dynamic learning process takes place. Graduates of my courses often attend to offer support to new students, and to share their stories of successes and challenges. When time allows, we use videos to take a deep dive into what drives behavior and learn even more; students contribute videos of their dogs, and I often use my own. Students a

My beloved old girl, Sarika, and I have a cuddle. Life is such a journey, a soaring and then crashing and then soaring again bumpy ride. I wouldn't want to miss a moment of it, and I know that learning from these experiences is part of my responsibility as an intentional human. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a pretty big crash for me to stop, pick my head up, and take stock. I tend to have these great big goals, believing that if I push myself hard enough and want it badly

Yeti is a bit too big to ride with me anymore! Something wonderful happened on social media tonight that I find so encouraging. There is an LGD organization in Texas that I pretty much stay away from because I disagree with their training practices. I have spoken with the man who runs the program and was told that positive reinforcement training was too slow, impractical, and that the ranchers he deals with would never put up with it. He is entitled to his opinion. This organ

In this video, I will show you the training steps I use to build confident, discerning livestock guardian dogs.

It isn't possible to actually, for sure, know what a dog is feeling. Assumptions are made based on the body language of the dog, and possibly the environmental circumstance, and this absolutely pulls from the person's learned history with dogs and other animals.

Learn how to deal with an LGD barking at new livestock without using aversive training methods.

It is important to stay with dogs while they eat if resources are a concern for either dog. In this instance, I am giving Yeti a cue to go back to his bowl and eat. In the following frame, he does so, tail wagging as he goes. As a dog trainer, my goal is to protect dogs and empower owners on their behalf. In order to improve the quality of an owner’s dog’s life, I first need to be able to communicate accurately with the dog’s owner. We have a common language, right? Well... S