Modern K9

06/18/2026

Silly boy.

06/17/2026

I get asked all the time if I use verbal praise. And the answer to that is, Absolutely. In fact, I use it all the time. Every single day. I just don’t really use it in a training session.

Why?

Because verbal praise will only take you so far.

If I’m just asking my dog to do one or two easy tasks at a time, I don’t need to give them anything for that. I can verbally praise them and be done. So I tend to use this more during our ordinary daily routine.

But if I’m teaching them something new, or asking them to do something repetitively or super challenging-I am going to use what that dog loves most (food or toy). It just only seems fair.

So this is not saying that verbal praise isn’t useful. It’s that it has to match the task. In some scenarios, it can be perfect. But in most behavior modification tasks, it holds little to no value. And other times what I am asking them to do is annoying-so I want to keep them highly motivated.

06/16/2026

Jean Donaldson-Dog trainer & author of “The Culture Clash” stated: “Dogs are completely and innocently selfish”. And I can’t see the lie.

One of the first points I drill into my clients’ minds is that dogs will do nothing, and I mean nothing, to please us.

Every decision they make is based off of how it benefits them, not us.

I know this makes them sound awful but it’s not meant to. We know dogs are precious and loving but we can’t pretend that they are going around all day thinking of ways to put a smile on our face. The sooner we can accept this, the easier it becomes to work with them because now we understand WHY we need motivators.

Furthermore, humans are not any different. When’s the last time you met someone who worked every day for nothing? Yea, me neither.

The trick to having success with your dog is knowing what they like AND what they don’t like-and then tying those into their training as motivators.

Because the truth is, if dogs were just wanting to please us, there would be a lot less behavioral issues and less of a need for dog trainers.

06/15/2026

06/15/2026

Google says that guilt is “a self-conscious moral emotion that occurs when you believe you have violated your own moral standards, compromised your values, or caused harm to others.

So the question is, do dogs feel guilt?

Dr. Alexandra Horowitz conducted an experiment to find out.

The canine cognition scientist set up scenarios where an owner told their dog to not eat a treat that was left on the floor. The owner then left the room. When the owner returned, they were either told that their dog had taken the treat or had not taken the treat.

The caveat is that sometimes the owner was told that the dog had eaten the treat, even though he didn’t. And other times, the owner was told that the dog had not eaten the treat, even though he had.

What they found was that it did not matter whether the dog had taken the treat or not. They always showed that “guilty” look (lowered head, averted gaze, pinned back ears) if the owners were told they had disobeyed. That is because when the owners were told this, they used a stern or disapproving voice to scold their dogs. Therefore the dogs were simply reacting to the owner’s behavior in that moment.

Dr. Horowitz determined that it was not guilt that dogs experienced. It was an appeasement response to the owner.

So what does this mean for us and our pet dogs?

It’s normal to be upset when our dogs make mistakes. But just understand that getting upset, yelling, or punishing more than 1–2 seconds after the offense will not have the effect you are hoping it is going to have. In the long run, it will likely make things worse for you and your dog.

And if you still need some more convincing that dogs do not feel guilt -remember that guilt is a complex emotion that acts as a moral compass driving accountability, empathy, and positive change.

So if our dogs felt guilt, wouldn’t it motivate them to obey and not repeat the offense in the future?

06/14/2026

Gus is such a sweetheart. He absolutely loves affection & attention from his people. He doesn’t bark much, isn’t reactive on leash, and settles well.
But sometimes an easy-going dog like Gus can still need guidance from us.

Our main goal with Gus is to help him to tolerate chaos. He is such a chill dog that when anything seems to get a little crazy, he just doesn’t know how to handle that and often makes poor decisions.

One of the areas we are looking to improve is his impulse control. I like to define this as “a dog‘s ability to follow through with any given task no matter what’s going on around them”. But in order to increase his impulse control, we have to incorporate real life, scenarios, real life struggles, chaos, excitement, etc.

One of those activities is what you’re seeing in this video. Chaos from dogs seems to trigger him most. So we are incorporating a helper dog (Lincoln) to help us create a little chaos. We need this chaos so we can show Gus what his choices are on how to respond to a situation like this.

Throughout his training, we will continue to add in different types of scenarios so that in real life, when something unexpected happens, he’s more likely to look to his owner for guidance and not try to settle it himself.

06/13/2026

I never laughed so hard…

06/12/2026

I have high expectations for my dogs, but those expectations will fluctuate based on what we are doing or where we are.

In this video, we are on vacation. We rented a lake house and there are dirt roads throughout the area. And along those dirt roads are trees with lots of wildlife.

My Doberman, Lincoln, has an incredibly intense prey drive. Which means during our walks at this new location, he is highly stimulated. And when a dog is in that state of mind, it can be very difficult for them to follow through with any cues.

To the average person, it may look like Lincoln is pulling and being disobedient-to me I see all of our hard work paying off.

I see a dog who’s capable of being highly stimulated, but still holding it together. I see a dog who can still follow through with cues. I see a dog who does not let those intense emotions take over. I see a dog with an incredible amount of impulse control.

So yes, in this moment, I don’t care that the leash is getting tight. I don’t mind that our walks are a little more chaotic.

Don’t get me wrong. If it escalated to a point where he was actively pulling me or lunging, corrections would be given-and I would reconsider our walks.

But I think it’s important for dog owners to see that even well trained dogs are not going to be perfect all of the time. They are going to have good and bad days just like us… and some days, they may need a little more grace than others.

06/11/2026

While this video shows growling, growling during play is completely normal-play is just pretend fighting, after all.

But outside of play, aggression is a serious issue. Many dogs will give us early warning signs that often are misunderstood or ignored.

Some of those early warning signs can be a tense body, low wagging tail, wide eyes, avoidance, freezing in place, pinned ears and even growling.

Personally, I appreciate a dog who can give me these cues so I can respond appropriately. But what is an appropriate response?

When a dog growls at a human, sometimes humans will take that as a personal threat as if the dog is saying “you better watch out because I’m going to bite you.”

While it is very likely a bite could follow a growl, that is not what the dog is trying to communicate.

Most of the time a growl is not to create conflict – it’s actually to avoid it. The dog is giving a whole bunch of cues to say “leave me alone” or “I’m uncomfortable”.

Unfortunately, many humans don’t see it that way, and they move forward with their interactions with that dog. The dog then realizes that cue was ineffective. And now they must choose a less subtle, harsher cue.

And when a dog consistently experiences a human that ignores their subtle cues, they will eventually stop giving those warnings and go straight to the harsher warning that becomes effective for that individual dog.

So while we should take growling, snarling, air snapping, seriously we should also be extremely thankful. Consider yourself lucky that the dog didn’t feel the need to take it any further than that.

06/10/2026

We often see a dog wagging its tail as a sign of a happy dog but that is not entirely true. Yes, dogs may wag their tail when they are experiencing pure joy and excitement. But there are also times they will wag their tail due to anxiety, stress, or even aggression. The direction, speed, and position of the tail matter.

Here are the different ways that a dog might wag their tail and what it could mean -however it is always important to take context into consideration.

*Fast but loose wag: this is probably the most common way we perceive a wagging tail. It is so fast that it often makes the dog’s hips wiggle. This shows that the dog is happy, relaxed and feeling social.

*Fast but stiff wag: when a dog is highly aroused or alert they will often move their tail in this way. If the tail is held high, it can be a warning sign of aggression or a challenge.

*Low & slow wag: if the dog is feeling insecure, cautious, or submissive, they will hold their tail lower with a slow movement.

*Tucked tail: indicates that the dog is nervous, uncomfortable, or scared.

*Some resources state that the direction (left or right) also signals a difference in emotions. A tail wagging more to the right means the dog is feeling positive & relaxed. A tail wagging or leaning to the left can indicate stress, nervousness, or a desire to withdraw.

However, one of the main reasons why I suggested paying attention to context because in this video, you can clearly see a difference in the tail movement between the one being “attacked” and “the attackers”. The attackers have a very slow wag but it doesn’t mean that they’re feeling concerned or insecure. They are playing and essentially pretending to fight while playing different roles but with no aggressive intent behind it.