Some Minor Dog Training

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Some Minor Dog Training Allen and Shalene Minor are dog trainers in Florida that do in-home training and board-and-trains.
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10/14/2026

Dog training isn't just about teaching your dog what to do. It's also about controlling what they have the opportunity to practice.

You can teach your dog every obedience command in the book, but if their environment constantly encourages the behaviors you're trying to eliminate, you're fighting an uphill battle.

A dog that barks at everything outside doesn't need unlimited access to the windows. A dog that rushes the front door doesn't need unrestricted access to it. A dog that gets into everything doesn't need free rein of the house.

Sometimes the solution is as simple as closing the blinds, putting up a baby gate, using a leash indoors, or changing how you handle everyday situations.

That's not avoiding the problem. That's managing the environment while you work on fixing it.

Structure gives us control over which behaviors get practiced, which ones get rewarded, and which ones never get the opportunity to become habits.

And as your dog learns to make better decisions, you can gradually give them more freedom.

Obedience teaches your dog how to respond to you. Structure teaches them how to navigate everyday life.

Good dog training isn't just about what happens during a training session. It's about what you allow to happen between them. 🐶❤️

I've worked with dogs that could be trusted with the entire house without a second thought. I've also worked with dogs t...
10/12/2026

I've worked with dogs that could be trusted with the entire house without a second thought. I've also worked with dogs that needed supervision almost every waking moment because the second you stopped paying attention, they were getting into something they shouldn't.

Neither situation automatically tells you how well-trained those dogs are.

Some dogs are naturally more independent, some struggle with impulse control, some have difficulty settling, and others have spent years practicing habits that make giving them freedom difficult. Age, maturity, temperament, and previous experiences all play a role.

This is why I don't believe in treating every dog the same.

If your dog can't handle being loose in the house without destroying something, getting into trouble, or constantly needing to be redirected, there's nothing wrong with limiting their freedom. Crates, gates, leashes, and designated places to settle are all ways we can manage their environment while teaching them better habits.

But management and training aren't the same thing. Keeping your dog from making bad decisions is only part of the process. We also need to teach them how to make better ones.

As those skills improve, we can gradually give them more freedom and see how they handle it. Sometimes they surprise us. Sometimes they remind us that we're moving a little too quickly.

And some dogs may always need more structure than others. That's okay, too.

Freedom shouldn't be determined by what we think a dog should be able to handle. It should be determined by what they've consistently shown us they can handle.

Train the dog in front of you, not the dog you wish you had. 🐶❤️

10/09/2026

Service Dogs and Emotional Support Animals can both be incredibly important. So why does the law give one public-access rights and not the other?

Businesses don't restrict pets for no reason. Restaurants and grocery stores have food safety concerns. Other businesses have to consider sanitation, allergies, disruptions, and potential safety risks. Those concerns don't magically disappear when a service dog walks through the door.

So why make an exception?

Because the exception isn't for the dog. It's for the person with a disability.

An emotional support animal (ESA) provides comfort and companionship through its presence. A service dog is individually trained to perform tasks related to someone's disability, whether that's guiding someone who's blind, alerting to dangerous blood sugar changes, retrieving items, or interrupting a psychiatric episode.

And yes, psychiatric service dogs are just as legitimate as those assisting with physical disabilities.

The ADA recognizes that some people rely on trained service dogs to access the same businesses and services as everyone else. That's why service dogs generally have public-access rights that ESAs don't.

And that access comes with responsibilities. Service dogs must be housebroken and under control in public. They don't need registration, certification, or special vests, but they must be trained to perform disability-related tasks.

ESAs may qualify for housing protections, but they don't have those same public-access rights because they're not required to have any training at all.

None of this makes emotional support animals less valuable. They can genuinely change someone's life without legally qualifying as service dogs.

The distinction isn't about whether an animal makes someone's life better. It's about whether that animal has been trained to perform tasks that assist with a disability. 🐶❤️

There’s a consequence to misrepresenting a pet or emotional support animal as a service dog that I don’t think gets talk...
10/06/2026

There’s a consequence to misrepresenting a pet or emotional support animal as a service dog that I don’t think gets talked about enough: you make it harder for people to trust legitimate service dogs.

Some people do it knowingly because they want to take their dog somewhere pets aren’t allowed. Others genuinely don’t realize that emotional support animals don’t have the same public-access rights as service dogs. Those are two very different situations, but they can contribute to the same problem.

If a business has enough experiences with people calling pets or ESAs “service dogs,” then eventually employees start wondering who is legitimate. Bad behavior makes that even worse: barking at customers, pulling toward other dogs, having accidents, or interfering with a working dog. After a while, skepticism starts replacing trust.

Then someone walks in with a legitimate service dog, and they’re the one who gets questioned, watched, or treated like they might be lying. They didn’t create that distrust, but they’re the ones who have to deal with it.

And that’s before we even get into the danger of an untrained dog distracting, approaching, or reacting to a working service dog. That dog isn’t just another dog in the store. Someone may depend on it to perform tasks related to their disability.

Emotional support animals can be incredibly important, but they are not service dogs and they don’t have the same public-access rights. A well-behaved ESA is still an ESA, just like a well-behaved pet is still a pet.

If someone genuinely doesn’t know the difference, educate them. But if you know your dog isn’t a service dog and represent it as one anyway, remember that you aren’t the only person affected by that decision.

You might get your dog through the door. Someone who actually needs a service dog may have to deal with the suspicion you leave behind. 🐶❤️

10/02/2026

Dog training is a lot like math.

You can learn it, understand it, and even get really good at it. But stop using it for long enough, and you’re going to get rusty.

Dogs are no different. That’s why “But he knows this” doesn’t always tell us much.

Your dog may absolutely know Place. They may know how to walk on a loose leash, wait at the door, come when called, or stay when you walk away. But if those skills haven’t been practiced or expected in months, you can’t be surprised when they aren’t as sharp as they used to be.

The good news is maintenance doesn’t mean turning your life into one long training session.

It means using what you’ve taught.

Ask for a wait before going through the door. Call your dog to you from across the yard. Send them to Place while you make dinner. Practice impulse control during play. Expect good leash manners on your normal walk.

Those little moments throughout the day are training too.

The goal isn’t to practice something until your dog “knows it” and then put that skill on a shelf.

Make it part of everyday life.

Because dog training is a lot like math: if you don’t use it, you lose it.

You don’t finish training. You maintain it. 🐶❤️

10/01/2026

We're called "Dog Trainers," but we're really PEOPLE Trainers 🐶❤️

Not every training opportunity needs to be a training session. Structured training sessions absolutely matter. That’s wh...
09/28/2026

Not every training opportunity needs to be a training session. Structured training sessions absolutely matter. That’s where we intentionally teach new skills, work through problems, build repetitions, and gradually increase things like distance, duration, and distraction.

But training shouldn’t end when the session does.

There are opportunities to reinforce what you’ve taught your dog all day long. And none of these need to turn into a 20-minute training session. Sometimes it’s literally five or ten seconds.

• Open the front door and ask your dog to wait instead of rushing through it.
• Ask for calmness while you put the leash on before a walk.
• Have them hold Place while you cook or eat dinner.
• Ask them to wait before jumping out of the car.
• Practice a quick recall when they’re hanging out in the backyard.
• Ask them to move out of your way instead of always stepping around them.
• Practice impulse control before putting down their food bowl.
• Have them stay settled while another dog gets attention.
• Ask for Place when someone comes to the door.
• Practice a Leave It when something interesting hits the floor.
• Use your everyday walks to practice checking in, thresholds, and loose-leash walking.

Those little repetitions happen over and over again, and they add up.

That’s what’s happening in this picture. Nobody is actively running dogs through commands. People are eating, watching TV, talking, and moving around the room. Meanwhile, the dogs are practicing Place, settling around each other, ignoring normal household activity, and learning that they don’t need to be involved in everything that happens.

Structured sessions are where we teach and practice the skills. Everyday life is where we show the dog that those skills apply everywhere.

You don’t need to turn every moment into training. Just stop letting all those little opportunities pass you by.

Look for those everyday training opportunities. 🐶❤️

09/26/2026

What grade is your DOG in?

Think about how we teach kids. In elementary school, the teacher is right there. They’re walking around the classroom, sitting beside students, checking their work, redirecting them, and helping constantly.

By high school, the teacher is usually spending most of the time at the front of the room. The students have more independence because they’ve spent years learning how to work without someone standing over them.

Then you get to college. The professor teaches, but most of the responsibility has shifted to the student. You can sit in the back. You can leave. You can even skip class. Nobody is following you around making sure you do what you’re supposed to do.

We should build that same independence in our dogs. And that’s where the 3 D’s come in: Duration, Distance, and Distraction.

A dog in “elementary school” needs you close. Short duration. Low distraction. Lots of guidance and feedback.

As the dog gets better, you start stepping away. You ask for a little more time. You add distractions. You become less involved because the dog is becoming more capable.

Eventually, we want a “college-level” dog. A dog that can hold Place while you walk into another room. Stay calm while guests come through the door. Walk past a distraction without needing constant reminders.

The mistake is expecting college-level independence from an elementary-school dog.

Your dog holds Place for two minutes while you stand beside them, so tomorrow you try 30 minutes while you cook dinner.

Your dog walks nicely in the driveway, so you take them downtown and wonder why they suddenly “forgot” how to walk.

They didn’t forget. You changed the grade level.

Every time we increase Duration, Distance, or Distraction, we make the assignment harder.

So if your dog struggles, don’t immediately assume they’re stubborn or that the training isn’t working. Look at the assignment you gave them.

Maybe they’re not ready for college yet.

That’s okay. Teach elementary school really well first.

Train by progress, not time. 🐶❤️

09/23/2026

A tired dog isn’t necessarily a dog with good impulse control. That’s why when we use a flirt pole, we don’t just let the dog chase until they’re exhausted. We mix training into the game.

Chase for a little bit, then stop. Sit. Down. Wait. Hold yourself together even though the thing you REALLY want is right in front of you. Then you get released and the game starts again.

That’s where the real value is.

The dog is still burning energy, but they’re also practicing going from excitement back to control and learning that listening to us is what makes the fun continue.

And just as importantly, we want this to be a game between us and the dog, not a game between the dog and the toy.

The flirt pole is the toy. We’re the ones making it come alive.

That distinction helps build our value in the dog’s eyes while teaching them that even when they’re excited, they can still think and listen. 🐶❤️

Your dog is paying attention to more than what you say. They’re also learning from how you respond when things get diffi...
09/21/2026

Your dog is paying attention to more than what you say. They’re also learning from how you respond when things get difficult.

When your dog gets nervous, excited, frustrated, or overwhelmed, adding more intensity usually doesn’t help. What they need from you is clarity and predictability. Slow things down. Give them something they understand. Create enough space for them to think. Then guide them through it.

That doesn’t mean you have to be perfectly calm every second, and it doesn’t mean your dog’s emotions are caused by yours. It means that when your dog is struggling, being a steady and predictable part of the situation can make it easier for them to work through it.

Over time, those experiences add up. Your dog learns, “I’ve been here before. I know what to do. My person will help me through it.”

That’s how confidence gets built. Not by avoiding every difficult moment, but by helping your dog successfully navigate them. 🐶❤️

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Deland, FL
32720

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+13863016079

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