Kiki Yablon is a dog trainer (KPA CTP, CPDT-KA) from Chicago. A former newspaper and magazine editor who grew up in a mostly animal-free household, she adopted a life-changing dog in 2005. Her burgeoning interest in training led her to Laura Monaco Torelli, with whom she worked as a client, intern, and then trainer (until […]

Lucy Newton has a lifetime of experience working with and training a variety of animals. She is a professional working dog trainer and instructor as well as a lifelong student of dogs and dog training. She is also a NACSW and AKC Nosework Judge. Lucy was involved in search and rescue for over 15 years, […]

Julie Norman Jenkins is a multi-sport dog trainer and owner of Quicksilver Canine in Julian, NC with a passion for teaching people and dogs. She has trained and showed her own dogs in obedience, conformation, herding, agility, flyball, freestyle, and disc. Julie’s flyball team, Fur Fun, has proven success racking up 25 Regional Championships and […]

In this episode we discuss: How you think you know, but you have no idea… What the Dunning-Kruger Effect means How this phenomenon plays out in the dog training world How to avoid falling into the cognitive bias trap and keep growing as a trainer Links mentioned: Self-assessment   This podcast is supported by the […]

Confidence sounds so good. It’s something most of us want in our training – both for our dogs and ourselves. We talk a lot about building confidence, or at least I do. It’s a major component in my Zero to CD program because teaching behaviors on a surface level is relatively easy. But building the […]

Podcast Guest: Lori Stevens Lori Stevens (CPDT-KA, SAMP, CCFT, CPBC) is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer, a certified Small Animal Massage Practitioner; a Certified Canine Fitness Trainer, and a Certified Behavior Consultant. She is also a Senior Tellington TTouch practitioner. Lori uses humane and scientific methods to improve the health, behavior, and performance of animals. […]

In this episode we discuss: What is “errorless learning”? What is the history behind it? How does this apply in real life? What takeaways can we learn from the scientific evidence? Links mentioned: Discrimination Learning With and Without Errors by HS Terrace Teaching Dogs the Clicker Way by Dr. Jesús Rosales-Ruiz Tsk, No, Eh-eh: Clearing […]

There is an important connection between your dog’s motivation in a training session and your own training mechanics. Good mechanical skills are critical to communicating clearly in any training interaction. Take out all the soft skills (observing, making decisions, “reading” your dog, etc) and your training centers around the core motor skills of being able […]

Podcast Guest: Morten Egtvedt Norwegian dog trainer Morten Egtvedt and his wife Cecilie Køste have written three best-selling books about clicker training. They have also published the Nordic dog magazine “Canis” for exactly 20 years this winter. They are the owners of Canis Clickertraining Academy (the leading clicker training dog school in the Nordic countries). […]

This week we are doing a sort of grab bag Q&A. You asked the questions, and I did my best to answer them. If you have a question you’d like to submit for the next round, make sure that you’re following me on Instagram here and keep your eye out for the next announcement. The […]

Podcast Guest: Dr. Jessica Hekman In this episode, we’re diving into the connection between behavior and genetics in dogs. I’m joined by Dr. Jessica Hekman, who is a postdoctoral associate at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where she researches how genetics affect behavior in pet and working dogs. She is the team lead […]

Podcast Guests: Eva and Emelie of Carpe Momentum This week we are returning to our series all about Foundations and talking about Foundations for Agility. In fact, we are hanging out with my excellent Swedish friends again, Eva and Emelie from Carpe Momentum, and the authors of the book Agility Right From the Start, which is […]

This week we continue our conversation about that mystical dog training unicorn: Loose Leash Walking. Loose Leash Walking is so hard because it really is the ultimate conflict between human behavior and dog behavior. For it to work, and that leash to actually STAY loose, both members of the team have to be on board. […]

This week we are talking about a topic that I get a TON of requests for. It is hands down, the most requested behavior of all time from pet clients, and it is a topic of much debate on dog training circles. I am talking, of course, about the holy grail of dog training: Loose […]

 Podcast Guests: Steve White Steve White was raised with dogs, but his love of actually working with them began in 1975 when his obedience instructor introduced him to the world of K9 Search and Rescue. Steve was hooked and soon joined the US Army as a Military Police working dog handler, since then most […]

Podcast Guests: Eva and Emelie of Carpe Momentum and Agnieska Janarek of Tromplo If you follow me on social media, you may have caught a few of the impromptu facebook live sessions I was invited into with some of my geeky training friends over in Europe in the last couple weeks. Those conversations got pretty […]

Podcast Guest: Peter Amelia Peter Amelia is from Seattle and started working with birds over 15 years ago. Peter’s goal is to improve animal welfare by creating choice and encouraging voluntary participation from learners in as many situations as possible. They began training early on and started the journey toward positive reinforcement based least intrusive […]

Podcast Guests: Bobbie Lyons Bobbie Lyons is a Karen Pryor Certified Training Partner and has been teaching Fitness for 15 years. She was an agility competitor for many years and now dabbles in Flyball, Dock Diving, and Obedience. She has a wealth of knowledge obtained through observations working with thousands of dogs and handlers spread […]