TOLO - They Only Live Once, 15018 North Maribel Road, Maribel, WI (2026)

08/31/2026

I’ve had a lot of questions about off-leash work this last week.

“How do you teach the check-in?”
“How do you get your dog to stay with you?”
“How do you know when they’re ready to be off leash?”

And watching this video of Kuzi reminded me that my answer is probably a little different.

I didn’t teach the check-in.

My off-leash work starts the day I bring a puppy home.
When they’re tiny, I use that natural desire to follow me. We walk together. Sometimes I lead. Sometimes they lead. We explore. We experience fun things together.

Eventually, the environment starts becoming more interesting than I am.
That’s when freedom starts becoming a sliding scale.

6-foot leash → long line → off leash.

Can you comfortably exist within a six-foot radius without pulling, vocalizing, or demanding to get somewhere?
Great. Your world gets bigger.

Can you handle the long line and continue making good decisions?
Great. More freedom.

Can you handle that freedom?
The leash comes off.

But here’s the important part:
The scale moves in both directions.

If a puppy is off leash and makes a decision I don’t want repeated—maybe they follow their nose and stop responding—the long line goes back on.

If they still can’t make good decisions with that much freedom, we go back to six feet.

Their choices have consequences.

Good decisions create more freedom.
Poor decisions create less freedom.

And we practice that relationship over and over and over throughout puppyhood.

Which brings me back to this video.

I noticed Kuzi stopping to check in with me at almost exactly the same distance each time.

And then it hit me.

That’s about the length of our long line.

I never intentionally taught her to get that far away and look at me.
But I did give her thousands of opportunities to learn that her decisions affect her freedom.

Today, she gets to that invisible line and checks in.

Can I keep going?
Yep.
And off she goes.

That’s why I think the process matters so much more than asking:
“How do I teach my dog to check in?”

The check-in wasn’t the lesson.
It’s evidence that learning happened.

This is what I mean when I say puppyhood is a practice.
We’re not just teaching individual skills.

We’re giving puppies thousands of opportunities to learn how their decisions affect the life they get to live.

And someday, when the leash comes off, all of that practice comes with them.

08/28/2026

One of the first questions I ask when a parent tells me they’re struggling with their teenage dog is:

“When does your dog get to really RUN?”

Not a five-minute game of ball.
Not an hour-long walk on a six-foot leash.

I mean run.
Sprint. Chase. Explore. Move their body at their speed.

I think of drive like a tank.

Some puppies have little tanks. It doesn’t take much before they’re ready to come home, curl up, and call it a day.

And then there are dogs like Ruby.

Ruby has a TANK. 😂

When that tank is full, all of that energy has to go somewhere.
Sometimes we see it on the leash.
Sometimes it looks like jumping.
Pestering.
Zoomies through the living room at 8:37 p.m.
A puppy who seems completely incapable of settling.

And our first instinct is often: How do I stop this behavior?

As a Puppyhood Trainer, I want to back up before we get there.

I want to ask: What is this behavior telling me?

Because sometimes the behavior we’re trying so hard to correct is happening in a puppy whose physical needs and natural drive haven't had an appropriate outlet.

That doesn't mean we exhaust our puppies into behaving.

And it definitely doesn't mean Ruby never needs to learn how to walk nicely on a leash.

She does.

Loose-leash walking is an important life skill.
But think about what we're actually teaching her.

We're taking an athletic young dog whose body is capable of moving like this and teaching her that sometimes, when the leash goes on, she needs to regulate all of that and move at our speed instead.

That's a BIG ask.
And regulation is much harder when the tank is overflowing.

So yes, we'll teach the leash skills.
We'll practice engagement.
We'll reinforce good choices.
We'll teach Ruby how to slow that beautiful Red Lab body down.
But I'm also going to make sure Ruby gets opportunities to be Ruby.

Because good puppy training isn't just teaching your dog how to fit into your world.

It's making room for who your dog already is—and then teaching them the life skills they need to live successfully in yours.

Puppyhood is a practice. 🐾

— TOLO

08/25/2026

Don’t correct the try out of your puppy.

I smiled the entire time I watched this video back.

Denver has absolutely NO idea what “Place” means. 😂

Think about it from his perspective.

There’s a comfy thing on the floor that has never meant anything other than… comfy.

Then I say this completely foreign word—“Place”—and apparently he’s supposed to figure out what I want.

And sweet Denver Doo is giving it everything he’s got.

Was it this?
How about this?
Two paws?
FOUR PAWS?!
Did I get it?!

This is the part of puppyhood I never want us to overlook.

The effort.

Sometimes we become so focused on whether our puppy is doing something right that we forget to acknowledge how hard they're trying to figure us out.

And this is where an important distinction comes in:

There is a time to teach, and there is a time to test.

Right now, I'm teaching Denver.

He doesn't understand “Place” yet. So correcting him for giving me the wrong answer would be correcting him for something he hasn't learned.

Instead, I give him small pieces he can solve in a way that is fun, exciting, and in motion.

Two paws? YES.
Four paws? YES.
Now let's work toward the down.

Little by little, I raise the expectation as his understanding grows.

Later, when Denver truly understands the cue, we can test that understanding. After understanding, we can use fair corrections to narrow in on the exact behavior that earns rewards.

But understanding has to come first.

I'm not removing expectations.

Teach first. Test later.

Build the behavior without losing the puppy who is trying so hard to learn it. 🤍

08/21/2026

What if we’re trying to solve the wrong problem with puppy biting?

When a puppy lacks confidence, we don’t build confidence by making sure they never feel uncertain.

We give them safe opportunities to feel a little unsure… and discover that they can be brave.

When a puppy struggles to settle, we don’t teach calm by making sure nothing exciting ever happens.

We let them experience excitement and help them practice finding their way back to calm.

So why would biting be different?

Biting is natural puppy behavior. It’s social. It’s part of play. And it gives puppies an opportunity to learn something incredibly important:

How to control themselves when they really, really want to use their mouth.

That changes the problem we’re trying to solve.

The goal isn’t necessarily How do I make my puppy stop biting?

It might be:
How do I help my puppy use less pressure?
How do I help them notice when play is getting too intense?
How do I teach them that teeth on human skin require more control?
How do I help them stay connected to me even when their little puppy brain is screaming, BITE THE HAND!

That learning needs practice. And one of my favorite classrooms is play.

When I wrestle with a puppy, I’m not giving them permission to bite as hard or as much as they want. Quite the opposite.

I’m creating an opportunity for them to practice using their mouth without losing their mind.

Too hard? The game changes.
Too intense? We reset.
Make a better choice? The fun keeps going.

Over and over, the puppy gets information about how their choices affect the interaction.

That’s game-based learning.

And underneath all of it, we’re building something even bigger: trust, communication, self-control, and a relationship that gives us influence when life gets harder.

We don’t develop self-control by removing every opportunity to lose control. We develop it by creating thoughtful opportunities to practice control.

That’s puppyhood.

Not eliminating every messy puppy behavior.
Helping them develop the life skills to handle those behaviors better.

Puppyhood is a practice. Sometimes, that practice looks a whole lot like wrestling on the floor. ❤️

08/19/2026

It’s the little moments.

I worked with Ruby girl this morning, and we were getting ready to head into a hardware store.
But before we ever made it through those doors, there was work to do.

Ruby was excited in her crate. Of course she was. New place. Things to smell. An adventure was about to happen.

And it would have been really easy to open the crate and go.

But here’s the thing…

If Ruby explodes out of that crate, what are the chances she explodes again when her feet hit the ground?

And then pulls us toward the door?
And then enters the store already running on excitement?

So we took our time.

Open the truck door. Wait.
Happy feet slow down. Breathing settles.

Open the crate door. Wait again.
Ruby pauses for our signal.

Then we go.

None of this is particularly flashy. It probably doesn’t even look like “dog training” to most people.

But these are the moments that matter.

We’re helping Ruby practice moving through excitement instead of simply being carried away by it.

And that’s a life skill she’ll need far beyond a trip to the hardware store.

The big adventures are fun.
But the little moments are too important to rush past. 🐾

08/18/2026

A few months ago, these two puppies went to the vet. It was chaos.

Barking. Whining. Jumping. Pulling.

When their mom told me about the experience, I could see how much it bothered her.

Not because she expected perfect puppies.
She just wanted to know that she could safely take her babies to the vet.

This week was their birthday, and she wanted to stop in for a weight.
No appointment. No shots. No exam.
I thought, Perfect.

Because sometimes the best time to teach a puppy how to handle a difficult place is when absolutely nothing has to happen there.

So this time, we approached the vet differently.

Before we ever walked through the door, we found some grass.

And we sniffed. That's it.

I wasn't thinking about the scale yet. I wasn't asking for a beautiful “Heel.” I wasn't trying to hurry Jeremiah inside.

I wanted his brain to have time to arrive.

From a little distance, he could watch dogs come and go. He could notice people. Hear doors. Smell approximately 4,762 dogs who had apparently peed in that grass before him. 😂

And I could watch him.

Can you notice all of this and still think?

When the answer was yes, we moved closer.

Eventually, we went inside.

And then? We did nothing again.

I found a spot away from the traffic and sat down.

That's the spot you're seeing in this video.

I call it Home Base.

And here's the part I really want you to notice:

I'm not telling Jeremiah to “Down.”

I'm not trying to put his body into a position that looks calm.
I'm giving him enough time and enough predictability to find calm himself.

When he chooses to lie down?

I mark it.
I reward it.
Yes. That decision right there.

Then we do one little thing.

Home Base → get a weight → Home Base.
Home Base → interact with someone → Home Base.

If Home Base stops working and Jeremiah starts telling me the environment is becoming too much?

We have another option.

Back outside. Back to the grass.
Sniff. Move. Gather ourselves.

Then we can decide whether we're ready to try again.

That's what I mean when I say, “Stop asking your puppy to behave at the vet.”

I don't mean behavior doesn't matter. I mean behavior is communication.

If your puppy is barking, lunging, frantically pulling, unable to reconnect with you, or suddenly seems to have forgotten skills they absolutely know, asking for more and more behavior may not solve the problem in front of you.

Sometimes the better question is:
“Is my puppy still able to think?”

And if the answer is no?

Make the picture easier. Create distance.
Give them somewhere to reset.
Let their brain catch up with their body.

Then try one small piece again.

Because here's the bigger lesson: This isn't really about the vet.

It's the patio.
The pet-friendly store.
The groomer.
The park.
The family gathering.
The busy sidewalk.

Life is going to occasionally feel like a lot to a young dog.

Our goal isn't to make sure they never feel excited, uncertain, distracted, or overwhelmed.

Our job is to help them develop the life skills to move through those emotional states without losing themselves in them.

Hard things can happen in small pieces.

And sometimes the best thing we can do for a puppy isn't ask them to do more.

It's give their brain time to arrive.

Puppyhood is a practice.

– TOLO 🐾

08/17/2026

“I’ve tried everything.” I hear this all the time.

“I’ve tried everything, and he still pulls on the leash.”
“I’ve tried everything, and she still barks at other dogs.”
“I’ve tried everything, and he still loses his mind when people come over.”

And when nothing works, we start looking for an explanation.

He’s stubborn.
She’s overstimulated.
He’s overtired.
She’s fearful.
That’s just his personality.

And sometimes those things absolutely matter.
But there is something dangerous about believing you’ve tried everything.

Because if you’ve tried everything, what’s left?
Nothing.

There’s nothing else to learn. Nothing else to change. Nothing else to try.

So we start looking for reasons outside of ourselves to explain why all of our effort isn't producing results.

Maybe it’s his personality.
Maybe she’s just an anxious dog.
Maybe he gets too overstimulated.
Maybe she’s reactive.
And suddenly, the label becomes the answer.

Please. Please. Please. Fight that urge.

Not because those things aren't real. They are.

But because a label should help us understand the dog in front of us. It should never convince us that we've reached the end of what we can teach them.

When someone tells me, “I’ve tried everything,” I usually hear something a little different:

“I’ve tried everything I know how to do.”

Those are two very different statements.

One closes the door.
The other opens it.

Because if you've only tried everything you know, there are still things you don't know.

Different ways to teach.
Different ways to communicate.
Different ways to set up the environment.
Different ways to help your puppy practice the life skill they're struggling with.

That's where growth happens—for both ends of the leash.

You don't have to know everything.
You just have to stay open to the possibility that there is something you haven't learned yet.

The only limit to your puppy’s training is your ability to teach.

And the beautiful thing about that?

You can become a better teacher.

08/13/2026

Puppies understand imaginary lines.
I know. It sounds a little crazy. 😂

There’s no baby gate here. No tape on the floor. Nothing physically stopping Onyx from walking into the kitchen.

But he knows where the line is.

Why would we teach that?

Because Onyx’s mom told me that when she’s getting his treats ready, he likes to be right at her feet — usually jumping and VERY interested in helping with the process. He’ll sometimes do the same thing while she’s cooking.

We could spend a lot of time asking him to move.

Instead, we gave him a boundary that makes sense.

And this is one of those puppyhood skills I love because it’s not really about the kitchen.

Think about all the invisible lines our dogs encounter in a human world.

The front door.
The garage.
The edge of the driveway.
The sidewalk.
The doorway when someone comes over.

There won’t always be a gate there.

What I want Onyx to begin learning is that sometimes a boundary matters — and he can be on the other side of it without feeling like he’s missing out on everything.

Then Mom says “Break!” and the imaginary line disappears.

That little detail matters, too.

We aren’t teaching him that the kitchen is forbidden. We’re teaching him that the boundary can be there when we need it, and he can trust us to let him know when it’s gone.

That’s the funny thing about raising a great dog.

Some of the most useful things we teach during puppyhood don’t look very impressive while we’re teaching them.

Sometimes it just looks like a cute Pomsky sitting in a hallway. ❤️

But we’re building life skills.

Where would you draw an imaginary line in your house?

08/11/2026

Puppy training isn’t about fixing problems.
It’s about shaping the story before there is one.

This is Onyx.

He’s a teenage Pomsky who has made incredible strides. His impulse control is developing. He’s learning to respect thresholds. He’s making better decisions. And little by little, he’s becoming a really well-rounded young dog.

But part of raising a puppy is looking beyond what they can do today and asking:

Who is this dog becoming?

Onyx has never bitten, and I would not describe him as a dog currently presenting an established resource-guarding problem.

But I also know Onyx.

He likes possession. He has opinions. He’s willing to speak his mind. And I believe that if something mattered enough to him, keeping possession of it could matter a lot.

Those aren't character flaws.
They're information.
And that information changes how I train him.

There’s an important difference between working with a dog who already has an established history of resource guarding and teaching a puppy how to interact with valuable resources as they grow up.

With Onyx, we have the gift of being early.

In this video, I’m teaching him “Out.”

For Onyx, Out means mentally and physically disengage from the thing you value.

And here's the part that's easy to miss:

I don't want “Out” to become a story about loss.

I want Onyx to discover that he can walk away from something incredibly valuable…and it doesn't necessarily disappear.

So he disengages.
We reinforce him.
The bone is still there.
Then we do it again.
And again.

Because every one of those repetitions is teaching something beyond the cue itself.

We're creating a learning history:

When my person comes near something valuable, I don't automatically lose it.

I can move away.
I can trust what happens next.
I don't have to fight to keep control of this.

That is very different from waiting until a dog has an established pattern of guarding valuable resources and then trying to change what those situations have come to mean to them.

And that difference is one of the reasons I believe puppyhood matters so much.

We aren't just teaching sit, down, place, recall, thresholds, or leash skills.
We're helping puppies make sense of their world.
We're teaching them what humans mean.
We're giving them experiences they can draw from when bigger feelings and harder decisions eventually arrive.

Because someday Onyx won't be a puppy.

But the stories he learned during puppyhood?

Those get to grow up with him.

That’s why puppyhood is a practice. ❤️

08/07/2026

Yeserday, Jeremiah reminded me why I don't like the phrase "bad behavior."

When his mom and sister walked outside, he completely lost himself.

He pulled. He barked. He whined. He couldn't settle.

If you had walked into the room at that moment, you probably would have described it as bad behavior.

Two hours later we were walking peacefully through the park together.

Same puppy. Same trainer. Same day.

So what changed?

Jeremiah didn't suddenly become a "good dog."
His emotional state changed.
Once his mind settled, his behavior followed.

That's one of the biggest mindset shifts I try to teach at TOLO.

Behavior tells us what a puppy is doing.
It doesn't always tell us why.

If we stop at the behavior, we're only seeing the surface.
When we look underneath it, we can make much better training decisions.

That doesn't mean we ignore unwanted behavior.
It means we challenge our own intention before we decide how to respond.

Are we reacting because we're frustrated?
Or are we responding because we're trying to teach?

That simple shift changes everything.
Puppyhood is a practice.

TOLO - They Only Live Once

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