Good Sit

05/25/2026

Combining the post from Humboldt County Sherrif’s Office and this post shared on ABC: https://fb.watch/Hjj1c8i_T2/ "The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office’s Major Crimes Division is investigating Miranda's Rescue over credible allegations of felony animal abuse, animal cruelty, fraud and conspiracy, and is seeking additional information from the public.

Anyone with relevant or first hand information related to this case is encouraged to contact the Sheriff’s Crime Tip Hotline at 707-268-2539 and leave a detailed message. This hotline is a secure voicemail system.

Your information could help move this investigation forward.”

Please take care when watching this video. There aren’t images of the deceased dogs but there are descriptions.

05/16/2026

Wondering how pain can impact your dog’s behavior? Check out this webinar HSSV is giving on Monday evening!

Class Fee: $60. This is a single-session webinar that will be held online through Zoom. Learn to make the connection between potential pain, and the behavioral challenges you're seeing in your dog. Identifying and treating physical pain can relieve some difficult behaviors in your dog.

05/12/2026

It got stupid-hot yesterday. Make sure to find shade and have plenty of water when you're out!

05/11/2026

Mary is back! Our local favorite mobile groomer specializing in fearful dogs is taking in new clients!

05/06/2026

Everything is fine why do you ask

05/05/2026

I AM IN LOVE

05/04/2026

Many clients come to us asking for helping their dog make better decisions when playing. "She does great for some time but then starts fights out of nowhere." "He loves other dogs but gets overwhelmed easily." "I don't know what makes her stop playing with other dogs when she's been fine up until now."

One way we help dogs learn how to play with one another is practicing taking breaks. Here, Ozzy and Izzie are playing a game of chase, and Ozzy wants to stop. Izzie wants to keep playing. Using a cue that to us means "stop" but to them means "put your nose to the ground" and using it consistently helps dogs learn to take breaks on their own. All our play group dogs get this cue locked into their brains. It's up to us handlers to be watchful and interrupt before an argument breaks out as well as working up to what you see here in this example, not starting here.

It takes practice! To quote Tommy Kono, "practice makes permanent."

05/01/2026

It’s quittin’ time!

Our fourth and final section shows howLily communicates she cannot continue with her skill practicing. Lily has been demonstrating some stress signals then comes back to keep playing her learning games; now she gives me her clearest “I’m done!” sign. We are always focusing on ways Lily can still use her thinking brain and not revert to her “rude” behaviors. Lily goes 0-100 very quickly. The fact that she is able to bounce around without being destructive, loud, or dangerous? You better believe I’ll reinforce that by ending our session.

If she had done this move like 2 minutes into our session, I would have done de-stressing exercises with her, then try again when I see her body language indicate she can practice again. If she was unable to continuing practicing and instead upping her stress levels, I would end the session, head home, and play simpler trick learning training so she still uses her brain, still works on communicating with me, but doesn’t get so frustrated she can’t think.

I’m looking forward to seeing what she does as we continue on!

04/30/2026

We're pushing it now -- moving from being close to her handler for check-ins to being more "free" on a tieback.

This week I’m sharing Lily’s first day at “work” learning how to ultimately play with dogs politely. Now she’s learning how to meet others!

Section four is a big one -- Lily may feel like she has more agency because we are working within her long-line's space instead of her being within 6 feet of her handler. Sometimes dogs will take liberties and revert to their old behaviors when presented with this amount of freedom. The handler needs to be watching Lily for signs of her past rude behehavior and interrupt as needed in addition to reinforcing everything from the previous three vids.

To help Lily practice her new behavior pattern of approach, sniff a few moments, walk away, I'm interrupting her sniffs with only my voice WHILE ALSO marking and rewarding the behavior I like -- she's standing and sniffing. I like standing and sniffing. I also like her not staying too long. So we practice and practice and practice!

Lily has already met my personal dog, Mindy, for when we tested her for boarding. She definitely wants to be friends but can be very rude by charging, snarfing (not a word but it’s the best way I can describe it,) and being physically pushy. Her family wants her to be able to join playgroups. My colleagues who work with her think she has what it takes to be in a structured playtime with others, as do I.