Compassionate Companion Training, LLC

09/02/2026

Choice

One of the most important aspects of life.

It builds confidence
It builds trust
It builds safety
It builds understanding
It can help alleviate fear and anxiety

In a world where humans make all the choices from breeding, to feeding, to activities and confinement....

Its crucial for the animals we care for to have as many choices as possible that we can provide.

Clover chooses her sleeping locations, type of Chews, walks/adventures, potty locations, how i trim her nails and many more tings than this.

People ask how she is how she is...

This is part of it.

The other is the skills I taught and how, where and when I apply them.

08/30/2026

08/29/2026

You don't know how much choice you have in your life until options are removed.

This weekend I get to experience what most dogs in domestic homeless experience these days. unknowingly.

My car is having problems and I have to limit my use of it and pretty much stuck to not going many places.

To say I feel trapped and restless is an understatement.
All I want to do is drive to a park and run with clover and have fun and I can't.

I had to cancel client sessions this weekend. So that I could change spark plugs in my car.
To only hope that it will fix the problem. I'm having.

Just because i'm missing out, I own some of my normal choices doesn't mean clover has to.

Short trip to the river to allow her to swim and chase sticks to fulfill her needs so that we both don't become unbearable.

Fulfilling your dog's needs could be less about the walks around town and more about sniffing, exploring and doing dog things.

Think and research about what your dog was made to be and do.
Retrieving is less about fetch and more about seeking.
Herding is less about policing and more about the understanding and predictability of movements

Have some fun diving in and learning about the bells and whistles of the dogs in front of you

08/20/2026

Meet yourself and your pups where you're at.
It was too buggy and too humid to canicross at Bond Lake so we went to Ellicott Creek Park instead.
However, road running and trail running are completely different activities. They impact the body in different ways.

Road running is very hard on the body for not only yourself, but your dogs as well.

We could have absolutely run this adventure, but we chose to walk and enjoy the experience.

Attunement, to yourself and your dogs is one of the most important skills that you can have throughout your life

08/18/2026

No focus

All over the place

Wrapping you up in the lead

Barking and lunging at people, bikes, cars critters!

When we are struggling with getting what we want from our dogs we have to first know what it is we Do want.

Not what we Don't want.

Panda's mom wants settled behaviors, peaceful walks and a connected and thoughtful pup.

We have done lots of work inside with these things. Now we are getting outside!

And boy is the outside stimulating for this pup.

A bit overstimulating

Where do we start?

Lots and lots and. Lots of practice in the not so simulating environments.
Then we practice int he stimulating environments.

Distance from the stimulating things. Or as much as we can.

We then identify what she needs to help her settle enough to engage with her human.

We all have our preferences and ways that work. For this pup we identified that she needs some soothing from mom before she can shake off the big feeling before getting to our conversation about the lesson.

This snippet is moments after some soothing engagements when 35 min in we finally saw her settle.

We are not throwing out obedience skills to help her. That will never work. It just becomes nagging and annoying

We watch her and we listen to her needs.

She found the sit on her own with is data for us to further help her progress.

Fantastic work from her and her human companion

08/16/2026

What should a walk for your dog really look like?

Its about diversity not distance.

Its about the senses not the speed

Its about freedom of choice not focus

This walk was just over half a mile and Clover was very fulfilled from the adventure.

We walked a casual pace, sniffed important places and even debated about crossing the street or turning.

Oh the debate.
Choices....

As you all know I provide Clover as much opportunity for her to choose things in life as possible.

Well we came to an intersection I wanted to turn. She wanted to cross.

We stopped per usual at the intersection.
She looked back per usual but her expression was more of a request vs a chexk in.

I said nit today and walked as far as I could go down the sidewalk. I hit the end of the leash.

Today Clover really wanted to go this way.

So we followed her choice.

It was a good choice!

If you're walking your dog, the walk is for your dog.

Power walking is a human need not the dog.
If it is the only experience you provide your dog then they dont know anything else.

Dogs dont need speed or distance.
They need sensory and exploration.

Slow down.

Take 30 minutes to walk a block or an hour to walk two.

A physically tired dog is not a fulfilled dog.

Video in comments

08/15/2026

Draxy Meow Meow is back at Ellicott Creek Park because Bond Lake is hosing a disc golf event. Too many people to ensure his success.

We took a gamble!!

He did so fantastic! Towards the end we were caught in between a couple dogs and he had some big words to say.

But in all I feel it was the frustration of thr leash being a barrier to his "blast off to the dog" to greet.

Sucha. Wonderful session this morning!!!

Great job buddy!!!

08/15/2026

Funny how we feel we will lose our progress with time off four vacations, illness or bad weather. However the opposite is true!

We both felt mych more comfortable with our increased paces and times.

Even beat our time by ten minutes from two weeks ago!!

Same thing for any other learner, human or non Human.

Time off, whether it's days weeks months or years. If appropriate learning processes are applied, the learner is having fun. Nothing is generally forgotten. Just needs reminders and further practice and generalizations to provide the learners, the opportunities to apply what's learned.

One of the most important ingredients for any learning, and all learning is to enjoy what you're doing.

Both the teacher and the learner
Those roles are not major league exclusive to either end of the leash or the treat delivery

We all play roles of teachers and learners