Mind Your Pawz

06/03/2026

Two of our amazing clients Bonnie and Brisket (aka The Boykins 🥰) on their way to MYP Day Camp 🐾🙌

06/03/2026

When I asked animal professionals how often they see fear-based avoidance of humans, the most common answer was every day.
That should make us pause.

Fear-based avoidance is not just “an animal being scared.” It is behavior with observable patterns, antecedents, and consequences. Fear is a product of the environment and learning histories. Fear can also be a lack of information. Fear doesn't need to be. Information can be given through teaching and training.

Calling the animal “fearful” does not tell us what to do next. It doesn't tell us 'of what', 'why', and 'how can we change this'.

When we answer these questions, we can better understand the animal and our next steps. Understanding the environment, and changing it for better approaches is a strong foundation for better animal welfare.

Behavior doesn't lie. When a caretaker is passionate about the overall care of animals, it shows. I do see it and it's obvious. I just wish I saw it more often.

06/01/2026

A few of our day school pups on a field trip to practice their skills in public 🐾🎉💗

05/27/2026

We offer a Puppy Day School Program on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Pups are dropped off here at our location between 7 and 9am and picked up between 4 and 5pm

They spend the day practicing valuable life skills like recalls, stays, waiting at doors, walking on a leash, resting in a crate between turns, interacting with other appropriate puppies or dogs, and much more!

Several of our puppy campers started with us at 10-12 weeks old and are still part of our program at age 2! 😍🐾

We are a local small business, and our program is small enough to customize the skills we work on to each individual pup 🐶

If you have a puppy under 6 months old and would like to learn more about our puppy day camp program, please give us a shout!

We are still accepting summer registrations☀️🐾

Training @ mindyourpawz.com

05/27/2026

Are you familiar with our Stay & Train Program designed for puppies?

If you have a pup in need of some extra help on life skills like leash walking, stays, recalls, sport puppy foundations/body awareness, or may be in need of positive socialization experiences….our program might be a good fit for you.

All stay and train packages include followup lessons to teach you how to support the learned behaviors.

Our training is done with positive reinforcement methods. There are no special collars used in our program.

Stay and Train pups will stay in my home with daily training and social outings. This program is only offered on limited basis after an assessment since the guest dog lives in our home, as part of the family.

We still have a couple more openings this summer!

Message or email us directly if you have interest or if you would like more details about one of our puppy programs or packages.
Training@ mindyourpawz.com

05/13/2026

Positive reinforcement with cooperative care techniques at its finest!! 🙌😍

05/13/2026

MYP “Kit” gives our Stay & Train Guest “Archie” 2 Paws Up🐾😍

05/04/2026

I cannot say enough great things about this organization and how highly I recommend them if you are starting a new family or are raising toddlers and dogs together 🍼🐾

As hard as we try to be perfect as parents, the reality is that sometimes accidents happen… We are only human after all!

Someone left the gate open, the dog nudged the x pen and came into the room, you looked at your phone for 2 seconds and now your baby is approaching your dog…

This is what we call Reactive Supervision which is exactly what it sounds like: When your dog and baby get too close to eachother and you need to respond to the situation! 👣

Here are some tips of what to do in a situation like this:

1️⃣ Try to remain as calm as possible and redirect your baby (try not to pick them up unless you absolutely have to as dangling feet and fast movements can cause some dogs to nip out of fear or excitement)

2️⃣ If your dog knows a reliable “place” cue and they have enough room to safely move away, ask them to go to place and then heavily reward them with a chew or other high value treats away from your child

3️⃣ After the situation happens, take a deep breath, take a step away and think “what can we do differently next time to prevent this from happening?” How can we move from REACTIVE supervision to ACTIVE supervision next time?

Looking for more tips on how to create a safe space for your dog and baby to thrive in?

Follow and share to help yourself and others become more dog aware 🐾

✏️

05/03/2026

THIS ⬇️💯🐾

The issue? They’re myths.

We presume a wag and a sniff is consent for a pat.
Dogs just aren’t that simple.

They can wag their tail in every emotional state. It tells you something is happening.
So which emotion has caused that peaked interest and change?
That’s often trickier to see.

Sniffing you is also not consent to touch.
It’s a quick check of who you are and to gather that further information many dogs need.
To do that, they need to get very close or even touch you with that nose.
That is not permission.

And that moment gets misunderstood all the time.

People move closer.
Hands come down.
Decisions get made based on myths.

Those signals?
They’re just pieces.

With tails? It’s the speed of the wag.
The height and tension of the tail.
The looseness or rigidity in the body.
Is there a stillness, pause or hesitation?

It all matters.

With scent? Some dogs will approach, sniff, and leave.
Some will stay close but are still unsure.
Some will give you a clear “that’s enough” and move away.

None of that is a guaranteed “you can now touch” .

The problem really isn’t the tail or the sniff at all.
It’s what we assume they mean.

Because once you act on the wrong assumption, you’ve already stepped way past what they were comfortable with.

Slow it down.
Watch more and touch less.
Let them lead the interaction they want.

It’s well and truly time we busted these myths.