House Stark Dog Academy

08/19/2026

Working on implied stay downs is always a great obidence drill in public but it’s even more impactful to practice when training with another dog!

Too often people are caught up in this idea that all dogs that meet in public should be playing together or running around with all this hyped up energy and constantly being excited instead of calm, obident, and already fulfilled and focused on their owners leadership.

Dogs in every public situation, especially around other dogs, are not a when they have positive experiences like this when their focus is soly on their owners leadership and the other dog is just background noise.

Any that constantly shows their dog that there is nothing but excitement and amped up energy around other dogs unknowingly teaches their dog to expect that same level of excitement around every dog so instead every dog owner should focus on training their dog and fullfilling their drives with their human and when around other dogs they are both calm, already tired, and fullfilled and start to associate other dogs with calmness and neutrality instead of excitement and amped up energy

07/24/2026

Anyone looking to take an amazing portrait picture with their be ready for a lot of repetition and ensure to have plenty of patience, especially when dealing with two hyper

The first step is teaching “place” via a balanced method, preferably reward based! As I have pointed out in several of my other videos (and plenty more to come on this subject) teaching “place” can’t be purely positive only and needs to be reinforced with some type of respectful and fair boundary! If not the dog will never relax and calm themselves and only stay in a hyper state of mind demanding for the next treat. “Place” is not meant to be taught as just another entricment activity but instead an implied down stay technique that teaches the dog “the art of doing nothing” and how to be calm in every situation and with that desensitizes them to any environment.

With that being said one of the most important parts of “place” is remaining in an implied stay down until released (more to come on that process and reasoning)

Now both these Cavapoos have been through over a month of training before practicing for this picture at bass pro but being in a busy environment (which isn’t new to them as we have practiced here before) is always a challenge especially tying to accomplish a new task of “place” together on the same bed as we usually do separately.

The most important thing to remember is patience and remaining calm yourself as a dog owner and in situations like this because you want to be patient with the dog while still being firm and as fun as possible!

Remember good is always about being as fun and positive as possible with setting safe boundaries with conditioned tools that stop the dog from making decisions that put their life in jeopardy. Anyone not willing to set boundaries with their dog or use safe physical communication limits their dogs ability to live and go to fun places where you can trust them to behave and not get hurt!

As I always tell my clients proper dog training is like the process of Alchemy to make gold; the right pressure and heat turns the dross into gold while too much heat or pressure and it melts or too little and it remains a less valuable mineral.

Another analogy would be lifting weights! Too much and you break your shoulder, too little and you never gain muscle mass!

As good dog trainers we should always be thinking and teaching in facts, logic, and evidence and not on emotions!

07/24/2026

A quick clip of the transition from a tight leash heel to a focused heel! I will explain more in future videos the point of a tight leash heel, how to teach it, and what it is but I already have 15 plus recent videos on focused heels to be reviewed how to accomplish this style of structured walking and what is the purpose of it.

To be brief focused heels are a fun engaging walking style that keeps your dog in a dedicated position based off a multitude of steps of building lure drive when a tight leash heel is not a fun walking style but just a safety net using the leash to guide the dog through tough situations

07/22/2026