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12/13/2025

12/08/2025

12/02/2025

You know those celebrities who are famous for... well, for what exactly? They appear to be utterly free of the responsibilities that shape most people's lives. Trust fund babies have their every material need provided without expectations or even consequences for what they do or don't do.

Turns out dogs have their own version.

Introducing the Trust Fund Puppy!

Like their human counterpart, the Trust Fund Puppy neither toils nor does he spin. A Trust Fund Puppy is one who has no real obligations to behave in particular ways. No matter what the dog does or does not do, life rolls right on.

Ignore your handler? No worries, there won't be any consequences. Feel free to keep doing whatever you like. In fact, your handler will probably just keep repeating signals. Sloppy responses? You'll get praise and some treats anyhow.

But these Trust Fund Puppies can change - enter Puppy Politeness Poker, one of Suzanne's Relationship Centered Training Skills!

With Puppy Politeness Poker, handlers learn to set fair expectations suitable for their individual dog. There is no one-size-fits-all expectation. Each dog sets the bar for himself according to his own abilities.

➡Read more at:
🔗 https://suzanneclothier.com/the-trust-fund-puppy-when-your-clients-dog-has-a-better-life-than-you-do/

11/19/2025

Many years ago, while attempting to demonstrate some no-pulling techniques in a seminar, I was utterly exasperated by a young Labrador.

Clancy had leaped up and head punched me very hard not once but twice, making me see stars and really hurting my nose. Clancy was not malicious or intending harm, he was just an exuberant adolescent who had been taught that leaping around was acceptable. Not being physically sensitive himself, it was doubtful that it dawned on the dog that a head butt was very painful to a human.

I had been patient, kind, vaguely successful but by the second slam to my face, my patience began to shred. I began to think, “One good correction might get through this dog’s thick skull.” I surprised myself by thinking that, but then I further shocked myself (and some of the audience) when I asked the handler explicitly for permission to use a physical correction on her dog.

She agreed, trusting me as a trainer to do right by her dog.

In that moment when she trustingly agreed to let me use force on her dog, I found something in myself that surprised me further: a little voice that challenged me to push myself further, to help this dog without force.

Read more of this article at:
➡ https://suzanneclothier.com/article/i-had-to/

11/14/2025

Dozens of peer review studies have demonstrated the dangers, potential short- and long-term impact of using shock collars (e-collars) on dogs. And just now a $1.9 million consumer class action arising out of misrepresentations and omissions by parent company Radio Systems in connection with its manu...

10/28/2025

Your dog is not a machine.

10/22/2025