Navigating Life with a Dog Who Bit Me. Woof : (

To keep it 103% real with you all, I get scared and mostly upset with a dog when it bites me. I does not happen often, but when it does; I feel some type of way. For a moment or maybe sometime, I do not like the dog. This is something I have learned not to be ashamed of.

To keep it 104% real with you all, everyone feels scared and upset when they are bit by a dog. I wouldn’t be able to understand or believe a person who would who say they would not.

I feel it is important to be not only be aware, but honest about the validity of those feelings.

I found myself entangled in a complex web of emotions with a dog proven dangerous who would be euthanized if he didn’t get better. He bite me on the first date when he was surrendered. It will leave a permanent mark on our future bond, which makes me grappling with a mix of feelings, hurt, and a tinge of fear and hope.

However, as time has unfolded, I discovered that love has the power to transcend even the most challenging circumstances. I get the opportunity to wake up every morning, jump of bed at 4am and step into my actual dreams…

I am a advocate for dogs and the planet. I raise dogs that have be tossed to the side or surrendered based on their behavior. Enzo was and is undoubtedly part of that dream’s journey. This is what made forgiveness possible for me.

Loving a dog who has bitten you requires a deep understanding of the complexities within the mind of a canine. Dogs communicate through body language, and aggression may stem from fear, anxiety, or a history of trauma.

It became crucial for me to approach the situation with empathy, seeking to understand the root of this dude’s behavior rather than reacting or punishing out of resentment.

By investing time in positive reinforcement training and patiently rebuilding trust, I began to witness the transformative power of showing love to a dog who bit me. Our journey together became a testament to the resilience of the human-canine connection, proving that love can heal wounds and bridge the gap between fear and affection.

We make sit happen. #k9dlc

Through this experience, I learned that embracing a dog who has bitten you is not only an act of courage but an opportunity for profound behavioral growth (on both ends of the leash, ya digg?). It all fosters a bond that transcends the scars of the past.

Follow our journey on social @k9visionbuffalo

Exploring Emotional Relationships with Dogs

This is a post meant to support dog owners and families who may not be aware they have signs of a toxic relationship with their dog.

I believe the most important thing to keep in your mind is that I am proud of you today for trying you very best to do better.

Dogs are often referred to as "Human's best friend." They provide us with companionship, loyalty, and unconditional love. However, just like any other relationship, the bond between a person and their dog can sometimes become unhealthy.

While it may be challenging to believe that a toxic relationship can exist between a people and their furry friend, it's essential to recognize the signs and address them for the well-being of both parties involved.

#1 question/comment I get when working with good people who have not so great relationship with training their pup:

Client: Well Myles, I just do know what to do when my dog does [fill in your truth here]. I know dogs shouldn’t do these things, but I feel bad saying no.

Me: I feel ya… it sounds like you are looking to set some boundaries but want to avoid hurting your dog’s feelings?

Client: That’s right.

Me: Ok this is suuuuuper common and has simple solutions. FIRST and foremost while you are actually training or leading Buddy, I want to empower you to stop negotiation your feelings and try much hard to make the necessary adjustments.

Here is where we would sit down and talk about signs of relationships could be out of balance.

I remind them that there is no such thing as a perfect relationship. But there are some common signs sign among the on the unhealthy side.

1. Neglecting Basic Needs: One of the most apparent signs of a toxic relationship with a dog is neglecting their basic needs. This can include excessive or insufficient food, exercise, or social needs. A healthy dog requires proper meals and food rewards, regular exercise, and routine socialization with people and dogs.

   If these essentials are being neglected, I worry this sign that something is amiss.

2. Lack of Socialization: Dogs are social creatures that thrive on interaction with their human companions and other animals. If you isolate your dog from social interactions, it can lead to behavioral issues and anxiety. A toxic relationship often involves keeping your dog isolated from other dogs, people and things outside of the home. There is also overexposure to scary situations - high levels of stress and anxiety.

3. Harsh Punishment: Another sign of a toxic relationship is the use of harsh or abusive methods discipline their dog. Yelling, hitting, or using physical force to discipline your dog can cause them physical and emotional harm. Effective training should be based on positive relationships, balanced, patients and love.

4. Ignoring Signals of Fear or Discomfort: Dogs communicate their emotions and needs through body language and vocalizations. Ignoring signs of distress or discomfort is a clear indicator of a toxic relationship. If your dog is exhibiting signs of reactivity, fear, aggression, or anxiety, it's crucial to address the underlying issues rather than dismiss them.

5. Lack of Facetime and Play: Busy families are often not home. During the first 2yrs and training phase, lack of facetime and social bonding with your dog can be detrimental to your relationship. Dogs need love, attention, and intentional playtime to thrive. If you're indifferent to your dog's emotional needs or constantly neglect their desire for balanced socialization and exercise, it can lead to a toxic relationship.

6. Overwhelming Expectations: Sometimes, people have unrealistic expectations of their dogs, pushing them to perform beyond their capabilities. This can lead to excessive stress for the dog, affecting their physical and mental health (it is also kind of cringe to watch!). Understand your dog's limitations and provide them with love and support rather than unrealistic demands.

If you suspect that you might have a toxic relationship with your dog, it's never too late to make POSITIVE changes!

Seek guidance from a friendly neighborhood dog trainer, a veterinarian, or an animal behaviorist to help address any issues in your relationship. Remember that a loving, healthy relationship with your dog is built on trust, understanding, and mutual respect. Your dog relies on you for their well-being, and it's your responsibility to provide them with the care and love they deserve.

~Myles DBG

Fun, Food and Puppies. WOOF WOOF!

Your puppy has to eat regardless…. There is ALWAYS a way to motivate positive behavior use food.

START TRAINIG at 10-12 weeks old, it is important to begin to teach your pup how to “Learn to Earn”.

Using a dogs meal time food for learning is a positive and fun introduction to training. The puppy has to eat anyway, right?!

• Train and play with your puppy everyday- you can thank me later.

• games during meals is MAJOR win!

  • Breakfast - Play the “touch game” and/or “Focus” at look at me.

  • Dinner (lunch) - Practice grooming/handling head, ears, paws, nails… and tons of holding the collar and rewarding for giving you positive control of their body. Holding your collar is a good thing : )

• Keep your session short people!! 5 - 10 mins. These pups have a short attention span and they will need time in between learning. This will give your dog time to rest their BRAIN and BODY.

• Meal time is a great place and time to introduce a clicker for training or working on a positive association (good feels) with the dogs name… “Sadie! …. Dinner” feels gooooood : )

• Puppies can be a hand full for even the most experienced of dog pros in the world…so do not forget to GIVE YOURSELF GRACE. Take your time, be patient and avoid negative thinking traps.

Have a great everyone!

Trainer's Orders... PLAY w your dog. You will feel better!

At the heart <3 of a satisfying relationship with your dog is playing and having fun.

So why don’t we do it everyday??

“It sounds good on paper” but…

9 out of 5 pup parents struggling with misbehavior are not likely making play and having fun a priority.

Whenever we put in time and practice, there will be results. Teaching play is one of many ways I help people raise happy + balanced dogs. Check out these tips below:

Write out daily schedule.

• This should included (but not limited to) wake time, feeding, potty breaks, social time and PLAY!

Play with other dogs

• Play among doggy friends includes a lot of chasing, shadow boxing and neck chewing. Keep a close eye on games of tug-of-war. Do make sure things do not escalate to scuffles!

• Most puppies and dogs naturally enjoy interacting and playing with other dogs. So let’s make that a thing that we do BEFORE YOUR DOG TURN INTO REACTIVE, SCARED or JUST MEAN CREATURE FROM HELL : )

• Some male dogs will only be interested in playing, as a form foreplay to mating. There will be insecure dogs that will avoid dog interactions, at all cost- most of these scared dogs will certainly BITE out of fear.

  • If you are dealing with this type of canine, please, please PLEASE consult with your local professional trainer or behavior expert. Avoid trying to fix this on your own if you do not know what you are doing.

Play and move! You will feel better!

• All games have rules. This is powerhouse of influence you can use to motivate your dog to be well behaved. Make a constant and intentional effort to train your dog to PLAY BY YOUR RULES. They will be your best of friends for this.

• Playful behavior with your dog is a lifelong activity. Play provides you both with physical and mental stimulation.

  In a world dominated by screens and sedentary lifestyles, I have yet to meet a dog owner that could not benefit from some play time. (do you truly believe you are the one exception lol).

That’s it friends! Now, take 5-7 days and follow these tips to start building a genuinely satisfying relationship with you canine companions .

Having NEGATIVE results with "POSITIVE Training" methods? Try this before you give up!

Pro Trainers and dog people can get mixed up in this whole reward vs reinforcement vs validation anxiety and fear debate.

At the end of the day, EVERYONE should look forward to and want to train all dogs with treats only. The reality is that no dog dog training method is perfect. The sooner we share our intent and commonalities- The sooner we can see safer dog communities, both private and general public. Humane training collars, leashes and other corrective methods have high probability to create and leave behind some associated life-long fears, when the equipment is used inappropriately ( or in a punitive manner).

HERE’S WHAT TO DO WHEN FOOD AND TREATS DON’T WORK :

When it comes to “positive food based reward ONLY” approach these are the most common things our incoming client tell us fail them when relying solely on rewards for raising or training their pup.

PROBLEM: My dog only listens to me when I have a treat or a toy.

Why it happens: Owners inadvertently teach dogs to listen only when they have something in their hand (e.g., a treat), are standing near the treat jar or wearing a treat bag, so that is the only time that their dogs listen. Possibly we can be triggering responses with even more specific or vague behaviors we are doing- Something like using hands signals standing vs. verbal cue in a seated position .

Dogs are excellent at reading their environment. They may not be always be looking, but they are always paying attention and learning.

If each time that you train with treats, you wear a treat bag or you stand near the treat jar, your dog will learn that she only has the opportunity to get treats when you give that additional signal. By the same token if you always hold a treat in your hand or reach into the treat bag when you give your dog the cue to sit, she will only sit when you give those extra signals.
If you teach your dog that when she refuses to sit on the first request, you will reach in your pocket for a treat to lure her into the sit, she will only respond when she sees the treat. Why should she waste her energy?

Finally, if you only use treats at home and never out in public, your dog will only respond to you at home because that is the only place where she was rewarded. (And yes be prepared for ALLLL of the worlds distractions. Just break down the challenge it in remedial steps and keep the rewards high value)

HOW TO FIX IT: Teach your dog that there is always an opportunity for reward by trying the following exercises once you feel like your dog has a good understanding of the behavior.

We are going to use "sit" as the sample behavior. Ask your dog to sit randomly throughout the day or evening without moving your hands. Wait at 10 seconds for her to sit. If she sits in that time, praise her and give her a treat. If she doesn't sit in that time, grab you closest leash and attach it to her collar or harness. There is a good chance she’s not focused on the task at hand. take a lap around the room. As she chooses to follow encourage her with calm genuinely praise. Take last than a minutes and try the “sit” command again (stand straight up, hand to your sides). If she responds, reward her.

You are teaching her to respond even when you don't move your hands and she doesn't see a treat. Incorporate the behaviors that you want your dog to perform into your daily life so that your dog never knows when you will be asking her to perform. This will help her to generalize to many different situations as well as teaching her that there is opportunity to get a reward even when it doesn't look like a training situation. Great to transition to outside.

PROBLEM: I don't want my dog to get fat so I don't use treats to train her.

Why it happens: The fact is that dogs are becoming overweight in the United States in record numbers with and without treat training. We overfeed and under exercise our dogs. Another problem is the size of the average dog treat. Most commercial dog treats are way too large.

The Fix: Crunchy vegetables and turkey hot dog are great low-fat alternatives.

Use properly sized, low fat treats and reduce the amount of food that your dog gets in her food bowl. Treats, regardless of the size of the dog, should be between 1⁄4-1⁄2 the size of a dime.

Owners can use treats that are low in fat such as freeze-dried liver or chicken breast. Higher value, low-fat treats include part-skim mozzarella and white meat chicken breast. **Just as you might have a light dinner if you had a big lunch, keep your dog's dinner light if you used a lot of treats that day in training.

PROMBLEM: I don't want to carry treats forever. I think that my dog should do things for me because I ask her to and she loves and respects me.

Why it happens: Not all training, skills and maturity happen overnight. Half the time I don’t really feel like smelling like a bag of hotdogs , so I just pop on a drag line. It makes things much easier. I use the leash to guide the dog dog to where I literally and meterophorical would like her to be.

A dog's agenda doesn't include sitting down when you ask her to or lying down on cue instead of chasing squirrels. You ask your dog to do completely unnatural things each day and she deserves payment for those things.

The Fix: Temporary and/or condition use of drag leash.

Easy fix is can to be have several small bags or treat jars (outsight) throughout the home and training environment) Understand reinforcement schedules. The most powerful reinforcement schedule is variable reinforcement. This means that you sometimes give a treat and you sometimes don't for each individual behavior. Start this schedule when your dog can perform the behavior 9 out of 10 times correctly the first time that you ask her in most situations. For example: Once your dog knows how to sit, you will reward her with food on every 1, 5, 9 and 10th try and with petting and praise on the 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8th try. Your dog may need treats in certain situations (e.g., the veterinarian's office) forever. Remember if you stop rewarding a behavior entirely, your dog will most probably, definite-maybe stop offering it!

PROBLEM: My dog only performs the behavior when she isn't stressed. She wont eat if she is “put off”

Why it happens: Some dogs are just too fearful and anxious in certain situations to perform. Other dogs have not been taught to perform in that situation and need to be taught to do so. This is called generalization.

FIX: When you teach a behavior, you have to teach it in lots of places so that your dog can generalize. When your dog can perform the behavior in your house, practice it in the back yard, then the front yard, then on walks, etc. The more stressful the situation is, the more likely your dog is to mess up so be patient and don't be afraid to make it easier.

The Problem: My dog doesn't like treats.

Why it happens: Certain dogs just aren't treat motivated. Some dogs are more motivated by toys, sniffing the grass or engaging in play.

The Fix: Get creative.

Try different treats of various value for your dog. If you have been trying crunchy treats, try soft treats of people food (low-fat). If your dog really isn't food motivated, find what does make her tail wag and use that for training.

Some commonly used non-food rewards are: calm genuine petting or praise, brushing, tossing a toy, playing tug, freedom to run in the yard, going on a walk, and playing with another socialized dog. Remember to save your dog's special toy and BIG PRAISE as a reward for training so it will keep its value.