CommuniCanine

08/31/2026

This may not look like much but 10 days ago car rides with Rupert required ear protectors and Ativan.

The backstory: Christina recently adopted Rupert. He came with absolutely no training or life experience and some significant health & behaviour issues. To say he has been a challenge is an understatement.

But Christina has been super diligent about working with him and it’s paying off.

Our last training session focused on his behaviour in the car. The second she closed the door, his barking would begin and it would essentially be non-stop the whole drive. If he ever did calm down, the moment the vehicle stopped it would start all over again. So, to get this follow up only 10 days later is amazing!

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Hi Darcie,

Just had to let you know that Rupert is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT dog in the car since your lesson!!!!!!
We drove to Lake Cowichan and back today, he was a champ!!!

Photo attached.

Thank you so much!!!!!
Christina

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Way to go Christina & Rupert!! 🤩🥳

08/25/2026

👉Teaching Back Up👈

Did you know that the muscles a dog uses to walk backwards are the same ones they use to stand up? They are!

Because of this, it’s a really good behaviour to teach and regularly practice because it helps keep them fit and mobile as they age.

In addition, it also builds rear-end body awareness and control, strengthens their core and hind end muscles and it’s also a very useful cue to have in day to day life.

Oswald is not very co-ordinated or body aware, so this has been a slow one for him to learn - and for me to learn with him as he’s very different to work with then all of my other dogs were, so sometimes I feel uncoordinated, too!

We also don’t work on backing up very often so it’s taken longer to make progress then some other things we’ve worked on.

By the way, you can still work on something inconsistently and still make progress. The main requirement is that you keep working on it!

Have you taught your dog to back up? Show us in the comments!

Send a message to learn more

08/22/2026

In case you’re wondering, it’s an unopened can of water chestnuts. 🌰😄

08/18/2026

Helping with simple tasks can be a lot of fun for your dog and an easy way to provide mental and physical exercise and enrichment outside of your regular walks. Give it a try!

08/18/2026

Today was Oswald’s first trip to Costco.

At 6½ months old, he walked in like he’d been doing it for years.

He walked nicely beside me, settled quietly at my feet whenever I stopped, and ignored most of the people, carts and commotion around him. An interesting smell occasionally caught his attention, and when we passed a very convincing 7-foot animated Gargoyle statue with glowing eyes, he stopped to take a look… then carried on.

It looked easy.

And that’s exactly the point.

This didn’t happen because Costco is an easy place to train. It’s actually a pretty challenging environment.

It happened because Oswald had already been prepared for it.

Since the day he was born, he’s been getting the socialization, exposure and training that build the skills he needed for this outing. And genetics matter too—he comes from a breeding program that deliberately selects for biddable, handler-focused, easy-going dogs.

By the time he walked into Costco, we weren’t teaching him how to behave in Costco. We were simply asking him to use skills he’d already learned in a new environment.

And while your dog may never need to walk through Costco, this is still what everyday training should be about.

Teaching your dog to settle while you stop.

Teaching them to walk nicely beside you.

Teaching them to pay attention to you around distractions.

Teaching them that new things can be looked at without needing to interact with them.

Teaching them how to calmly navigate the world.

You don’t have to take your dog somewhere wildly difficult every day to accomplish this. In fact, most of the foundation is built during ordinary life—in your neighbourhood, at the park, outside the coffee shop, while visiting friends, or simply while you’re going about your day.

The goal isn’t to have a dog who can behave perfectly in one specific place.

It’s to build a dog who has the skills, confidence and experience to handle new places and new situations with you.

That’s what all those little everyday training moments are adding up to.

08/15/2026

There’s a misguided idea that if you raise and train a dog right, socialize it properly and love it enough, it will never develop behavioural issues.

But genetics don’t work that way.

Training, socialization, exercise and a good environment can have a huge impact on how a dog behaves. But they can’t completely erase the genetics that influence that dog’s instincts, temperament and behavioural tendencies.

To understand what a dog may be like as a mature adult, you need to look beyond the puppy in front of you. When possible, look at the parents, grandparents and the characteristics of the breed(s) involved.

If one or both of a puppy‘s parents are fearful or aggressive, there’s a greater likelihood that puppy will develop similar tendencies as it matures. Likewise, parents with sound temperaments typically produce sound puppies.

If you’ve ever watched a Border Collie herd sheep, you’ve seen genetics at work. Put a well-bred working-line Border Collie puppy in a pen with sheep, and you’ll likely see herding behaviour emerge with no previous training. No one taught the puppy to have that instinct. It’s there because of genetics.

And sometimes those genetic tendencies don’t show themselves right away.

A livestock guardian breed, for example, may seem like a perfectly social, easy-going puppy, only to become much more protective as it approaches adolescence or social maturity. That behaviour doesn’t appear out of nowhere. The dog simply matured enough for those genetically influenced behaviours to emerge.

That’s why starting with a puppy – whether it’s purebred or mixed, from a breeder or a rescue – doesn’t automatically guarantee you’ll end up with a dog without behavioural problems.

And it’s also why some dogs can have a very poor start in life, with little or no socialization and all the behavioural problems that can come with that, and still develop into solid, stable dogs with the right environment, training and support.

Appropriate socialization, training and management matter enormously. They can help a dog become the very best version of itself.

But they cannot turn every dog into something it was never genetically designed to be.