On one of our all-time favorite episodes of The Family Pupz Podcast, the owner and head trainer of From Dusk Till Dog, Erika Gonzalez, explains whether she thinks we need to exhibit dominant behavior towards our dog, in order to show him/her who's the "ALPHA", for fear that they might dominate us first.

Every dog loves a good toy! Here is a dog trainer’s list of favorite interactive and food dispensing dog toys!

For many people who want to train their dog using positive reinforcement methods, the idea of rewarding your dog for behaviors you want to see persist makes absolute and total sense.

For example, you ask your dog to sit, and if he sits, you reward him with a treat in the hopes that he'll reliably sit when you ask him to do so again in the future. But for many, at least conceptually, it's harder to understand how to reward your dog for behaviors you want to see go away, like jumping, biting, and of course, barking.

We’ve recently chatted with Dr. Saunders at Sploot Veterinary Care to discuss the best way to ensure that your pup is ready for his/her first vet visit, as behavioral issues related to anxiety at the vet clinic is a pretty common issue that they encounter at the clinic.

Imagine for a moment that you are casually walking down the street with your spouse, and all of a sudden, you catch a glimpse of your favorite celebrity (i.e. Beyoncé or Brad Pitt), and you literally CANNOT believe your eyes.

Almost immediately, you start sweating uncontrollably in your state of discombobulated excitement (“is it hot in here, or is it me?!”).

Meanwhile, your spouse, who is completely oblivious to your mini freakout, casually asks you where you would like to go for lunch.

Many already know that a doula is a trained professional who provides mothers with continuous physical, emotional, and informational support before, during and shortly after childbirth, so it’s common (and unsurprising) for many to think that a doggy doula™ provides support to an expecting dog, or even that a doggy doula® is a dog that provides this support for her expecting human mom!

On another episode from the archives of The Family Pupz Podcast, we asked board-certified veterinary behaviorist, the owner and lead clinician at the Animal Behavior Clinic, and one of our favorite people, in general, Dr. Chris Pachel, to give us his take on whether he thinks dogs would still exhibit anxiety-related behaviors if all humans on Earth suddenly started treating dogs in a humane and loving way.

With so many choices of dog food available on the market, it can feel impossible to decide which is best for your prized pooch.  But, we’re here to help you understand the world of grain-free dog food; our comprehensive guide will help you to make an informed decision on what to feed your pup.

On the latest episode of The Family Pupz Podcast, we asked the the owner and head trainer of "The Doodle Pro™", the host of the highly-rated and popular, The Doodle Pro™ Podcast, that has most recently ranked #1 on Australia and New Zealand's charts and #3 on the genre's US, Canada, and UK's Apple charts, and generally one of the foremost experts on doodles on the planet, Corinne Gearhart, who just so happens to be allergic to dogs herself, what her opinion is on the popular belief that all doodles are “hypoallergenic”.

On the latest episode of The Family Pupz Podcast, we asked the owner and head trainer of Sit Pretty Behavior & Training, Vanessa Charbonneau, and Tanya, talk about why we love "Before & After" dog training videos so much as a society, why it's so hard to stand by and look at (never mind record) a dog "losing it", and why positive reinforcement dog trainers don't lose sleep over it.

On the latest episode of The Family Pupz Podcast, we asked the owner and head trainer of Sit Pretty Behavior & Training, Vanessa Charbonneau, tells us why she thinks the term "Reactive Dog" is a misnomer.

On the latest episode of The Family Pupz Podcast, we asked the owner and head trainer of Sit Pretty Behavior & Training, Vanessa Charbonneau, explains what "Trigger Stacking" is, and how it relates to reactive behaviors in dogs.

On the latest episode of The Family Pupz Podcast, we asked the owner and head trainer of Sit Pretty Behavior & Training, Vanessa Charbonneau, how she applied the training and experience she gained with working with car reactive dogs to her own life.

On the latest episode of The Family Pupz Podcast, we asked the owner and head trainer of Sit Pretty Behavior & Training, Vanessa Charbonneau, what her training protocol would be to train a dog that exhibits reactive behaviors inside the car towards strangers outside of it.

On the latest episode of The Family Pupz Podcast, we asked the founder of Positive Partners Dog Training LLC, Brianne Harris, what she would recommend to a client who is expecting a large gathering of friends and family, and has a dog that has a bad habit of "Demand Barking" at the dinner table.

On the latest episode of The Family Pupz Podcast, we discussed the importance of focusing on the steps in dog training, rather than the goal, with the founder of Positive Partners Dog Training LLC, Brianne Harris, as focusing on the goal too deeply, like trying to get your dog to stop demand barking for a specific duration or by a specific date, can be counterproductive to the actual achievement of those goals.

When you’re managing and training your dog to reduce their “demand barking”, there will come a time when their “demand barking” will escalate, and the dog parent will believe that all of their efforts were for naught.

But this precise moment is when you know your hard work is paying off, as this rapid escalation of barking is called an “extinction burst”.

For some people, instead of trying to ignore their dog's barking, they'll do the opposite, and try to intimidate their dog, either by raising their voice, using a spray bottle, or god forbid, a can of pennies, to get them to stop.

And in their mind, they may think, "I don't like doing this, but this situation sucks, and at least I'm not causing physical pain to my dog.”

On the latest episode of The Family Pupz Podcast, we asked the founder of Positive Partners Dog Training LLC, Brianne Harris, what the most common piece of advice she hears people using that inadvertently INCREASES demand barking, and makes the training process LONGER, as a result.

Without a doubt, her answer was, "ignoring the barking".

Simply put, in order to stop an undesirable behavior, and create long-lasting positive behavior change, we need to change how the dog feels about the thing in the environment and then teach the dog a different set of skills/behaviors that the dog can perform around their trigger.