Tranquil K9

10/22/2026

🐾 THE TRANQUIL K9 TRAINING TIP

Loose Leash Walking: What Happens When Your Dog Pulls?

Here’s a common mistake I see when teaching loose leash walking.

The dog pulls. The owner keeps walking.
The dog learns that pulling gets them where they want to go.

Instead, try teaching your dog that a loose leash is what keeps the walk moving.

When the leash becomes tight:
🐕 Stop moving when it’s safe to do so.
🐕 Give your dog a moment to notice the change.
🐕 Encourage them to reconnect with you if they need help.
🐕 When the leash relaxes, reward and continue walking.

Start practising in a quiet environment where your dog can succeed.

If you’re stopping every two steps, the exercise may be too difficult for the environment you’re in.
Make it easier rather than turning the entire walk into a battle.

And please remember: there’s no need to jerk the leash or physically correct your dog.

We’re teaching a skill, not punishing a mistake.
What’s your dog’s biggest temptation on a walk? Squirrels, smells, or absolutely everything? 😂👇



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10/21/2026

🍂🐾 Sometimes the Best Groom Is Knowing When to Stop. ❤️

Sweet Angel came in for some pampering today! 🥰

As a senior girl, grooming can be tiring, and today we made the decision to stop before her groom was completely finished.

At Tranquil K9, your dog’s comfort and well-being will always come before a perfect haircut.

Angel may not have received every finishing touch, but she’s still absolutely beautiful! 🧡

Compassion over perfection. Always. 🐾❤️

10/21/2026

🐾 NUTRITION TALK: YOUR DOG’S WEIGHT IS ONLY PART OF THE PICTURE.

“My dog weighs 65 pounds. Is that a good weight?”
Maybe.

But 65 pounds by itself doesn’t actually tell us very much.

Breed, build, muscle mass, age and individual structure all influence what an appropriate weight looks like. Even two dogs of the same breed and height may not be at their healthiest at exactly the same number on the scale.

That’s why we use Body Condition Scoring (BCS).
A commonly used system scores dogs from 1–9, with 4–5 generally representing an ideal body condition.

Rather than concentrating only on pounds, we look at the dog.

🐕 Ribs: You should be able to feel the ribs easily with minimal fat covering them.
🐕 Waist: Looking down from above, you should be able to see a waist behind the rib cage.
🐕 Abdominal tuck: From the side, the abdomen should rise behind the ribs rather than continuing straight across.

And don’t let all that hair fool you!

With heavily coated dogs especially, I want to put my hands on the dog. A dog can look completely different once you get underneath that coat.
BCS is also useful because it gives us something we can monitor over time.

Instead of deciding, “My dog needs to weigh 60 pounds,” we can ask a much better question:
What weight maintains an appropriate body condition for THIS dog?

The number on the scale is useful information.
It just isn't the whole assessment.

Next time you look at your dog, try looking at their shape rather than their weight. 🐾


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10/20/2026

🎃🐾 “By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.”

— William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1606)

10/19/2026

🐦‍⬛🎃 “In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright”
— Edgar Allan Poe, The Bells (1849)

10/19/2026

🐾 YOUR DOG IS ALLOWED TO KNOW SOMETHING AND STILL NOT DO IT.

This might be an unpopular thing for a dog trainer to say, but sometimes your dog does know what you asked.

We’ve swung so far toward explaining every missed cue with “he doesn’t understand” that I think we sometimes underestimate dogs.
Dogs make choices.

If I call a dog who understands recall and he keeps sniffing, I don’t automatically assume the problem is that he has forgotten what “come” means.
Maybe sniffing is simply more valuable at that moment.That distinction matters to me.

Because if the dog genuinely doesn’t understand, I need to teach.

If the environment has made the exercise too difficult, I need to adjust the difficulty.

If the dog understands perfectly well but there is very little history of following that cue when something better is available, then that’s the part of the training I need to work on.

Those aren't the same training problem.
I don't think acknowledging that dogs make choices means we need to become harsher with them.
Quite the opposite.

It means we can stop trying to squeeze every training problem into the same explanation and actually look at what's happening.

Sometimes the dog doesn't understand.
Sometimes the dog can't do it under those conditions yet.

And sometimes...

the squirrel has made a substantially better offer. 😂
Knowing which one you're dealing with is part of training the dog in front of you.

10/17/2026

“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,”
— John Keats, To Autumn 

10/16/2026

🧰 THE TRANQUIL K9 TOOLBOX
This week’s pick: Treat Pouches! 🐾
It might not be the most exciting piece of training equipment, but it’s one of those simple tools that can make training a whole lot easier.
Why?
Because timing matters.
When your dog does something you want to reinforce, you want to be able to reward it quickly — not spend the next 30 seconds digging through your pocket looking for a treat. 😂
A treat pouch keeps rewards accessible so you can focus on your dog instead of fumbling with bags, pockets or containers.
I especially like having one for:
🐕 Loose leash walking
🐕 Recall practice
🐕 Working around distractions
🐕 Puppy training
🐕 Reinforcing those little everyday behaviours we sometimes forget to notice
And remember, you don't always have to fill it with fancy treats.
If I'm working on something relatively easy with my own dogs, part of their regular kibble can go straight into the pouch. If we're tackling something more challenging?
Well...the pay scale goes up. 😂
Simple tool. Lots of uses. And definitely something I like having within reach when I'm training.
You can find treat pouches in the Tranquil K9 shop. 🐾

10/16/2026

🐾🐕 Fun Fact Friday
Since 2018, a Weimaraner named Riley has worked at the museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He sniffs out rats, moths and other pests before they can damage the artworks. 🐀

https://www.mfa.org/about/riley-the-museum-dog

In January 2018, a Weimaraner puppy named Riley joined the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as a volunteer. A working scent dog in training, he will provide assistance with pest detection behind the scenes at the Museum.

10/16/2026

“The crows above the forest call;
To-morrow they may form and go.”

— Robert Frost, October