Dog Virtuoso

Dog Virtuoso CPDT-KA Certified. Media Trusted Dog Trainer. Reach out about any type of issue. Focused on Reactivity, Emotional Regulation in dogs. Service dogs. .

Enrichment (cats too), Fulfillment and more.

08/15/2026

This is amazing! Rose Marie Raccioppi

08/13/2026

A live Q&A with an audience talking about something I think gets missed way too often in dog training: the dog’s nervous system.

Training isn’t just about whether a dog can sit, down, stay, heel, or perform a behavior when asked.

I care about whether that dog has self-regulation skills.

Can the dog experience excitement without completely losing control? Can they feel frustration without exploding? Can they encounter something stressful and recover? Can they settle without constantly needing the handler to micromanage them?

Because a dog can be incredibly obedient and still be internally dysregulated.

You can teach a dog to hold a down while their nervous system is screaming. That isn’t the same thing as teaching the dog how to genuinely settle.

A huge part of my work is helping dogs develop the ability to regulate themselves—not simply suppressing behavior until the dog looks calm from the outside.

I’m looking at breathing, muscle tension, arousal, frustration tolerance, recovery time, ability to disengage, and whether the dog’s body is actually beginning to soften.

I also incorporate things people may not immediately associate with traditional dog training: intentional massage, relaxation work, body awareness, the autonomic nervous system, the vagus nerve, movement, environmental exposure, and helping dogs practice moving between arousal and relaxation.

For reactive, anxious, impulsive, frustrated, or hyper-aroused dogs, I don’t only ask:

“How do we stop this behavior?”

I ask:

“What is happening inside this dog that is producing the behavior, and what skills does this dog need to handle it differently?”

Of course I teach obedience, communication, boundaries, reinforcement, structure, and exposure.

But obedience is only one piece.

My goal is a dog who can recover, settle, make better decisions, tolerate frustration, and move through the world without constantly becoming overwhelmed.

**Behavior is what we see.
The nervous system is part of what’s happening underneath it.**

I want to work with both.

Not every pause is stubbornness. Not every look is fixation.Not every slow response is disobedience. Dogs need time to s...
07/29/2026

Not every pause is stubbornness. Not every look is fixation.

Not every slow response is disobedience. Dogs need time to sniff, gather information, process their environment and practice emotional regulation.

Dog training is not about controlling every movement or turning dogs into robots. It is about providing guidance, keeping everyone safe and teaching dogs how to navigate the human world with confidence.

Give your dog appropriate choices. Let them investigate. Let them communicate. Stop treating every natural behavior like something that needs to be corrected.

07/29/2026

Yes, that’s a rabbit ear. Yes, it’s disgusting. It’s also doing exactly what I need it to do.

I’m not asking this puppy to stare at a chicken and perform obedience. I’m building engagement and emotional regulation in the presence of the chicken.

Active chewing can help bring a dog’s arousal level down and support a more regulated state. While the puppy chews, I’m staying involved, creating movement and making myself relevant instead of becoming the useless person attached to the other end of the leash.

I work on engagement with puppies far more than I work on obedience.

A puppy needs to learn how to stay connected to you around animals, people, new environments and every other distraction life throws at them. They should be able to notice the world without completely forgetting that you exist.

And you cannot fake engagement. You have to actually be engaging.

A puppy dragging toward everything while mentally checking out from the handler is the opposite of engagement. I don’t care how many times it can sit.

07/15/2026

Socialization is not just putting two dogs face-to-face and letting them “say hi.”

When I introduce dogs, I create structure first. With this Corgi and Czech Shepherd, we started with parallel walks so they could move together, take in information, and become comfortable without the pressure of immediate interaction.

From there, we added micro-greetings… brief, controlled moments of contact followed by movement and space. That keeps the interaction from becoming overwhelming, overly excited, or forced.

Because they met this way and continued showing appropriate communication, they also earned the opportunity to play together off leash. The freedom came after they demonstrated that they could handle the interaction well—not before.

Here they are continuing to build their relationship on and off the tennis courts, during walks, in the car, and through off-leash play.

Both are service dogs, so the goal is not wild play or instant friendship. The goal is calm communication, mutual comfort, appropriate interaction, and the ability to exist together without losing their connection to their handlers.

Real socialization is not about how quickly dogs interact. It is about creating enough safety and structure for a healthy relationship to develop naturally.

06/17/2026

Part 4: Q&A with Paredes Dog Training

Fun conversation with two dog trainers. Kind of all over the place.

We spoke about owners who say they only want Dalmatians or only want a specific breed forever.

Something about that feels off to me. I try not to judge it, but I think sometimes what I'm seeing is they're trying to replace a dog they got sad about.

They lost one, so they get another just like it. Over and over.

There's value in all dogs and I’m sure they see that as well.

The trainers and owners who stay open-minded are the ones who actually grow.

Now that I am a mentor. I see so many mentors that don’t continue their own education.

06/12/2026

Part 3: Q&A with Paredes Dog Training

I can’t predict the future of Dog Training.

What I will say is this: my philosophy is constantly evolving. 🔥

If you're a trainer and your answer isn't that it's constantly evolving, that concerns me.

If you're really in it for the dogs and you're not constantly evolving, that's scary.

The moment you stop growing is the moment you stop serving them.

You can't be stuck in one method, one tool, one way of thinking.

The dogs don't stay the same. Owners don't stay the same. Science doesn't stay the same.

So why would your approach stay the same?

I look at where I was five years ago, and I do things differently now.

That's not because I was wrong then, it's because I've learned more.

Better information means better decisions.

Better decisions mean better outcomes for the dogs.

That's what this is really about.

06/12/2026

Part 2: Q&A with Paredes Dog Training

Why would I have a favorite breed? 🐶

I love Chihuahuas as much as I love Rottweilers. I can’t stand when dog trainers prefer working with “tough breeds“

I Focus on behavior, not body weight.

Some dog owners let their tiny dogs get away with stuff they'd never allow a giant dog to do.

Like holding a Chihuahua on their chest while it's barking.

That doesn't fly with a 150 pounder, so why does it with a 7 pound dog? 🤔

There is no such thing as a “lap dog”. No dog was born to be on your lap.

If you wouldn’t do it with a Tibetan mastiff then don’t do it with a tiny dog.

Also, it’s not just about the weight. It’s about building emotional autonomy in Dogs.

Imagine if you were owned by another species and they called you a “lap human“ - dogs need dignity.

05/30/2026

Had a great conversation with Paredes Dog Training.

We come from slightly different angles, which is exactly why I enjoyed it.

A lot of the discussion centered around emotional regulation, while his background includes obedience, protection work, and pet dog training.

I've watched his protection dogs work, and it's impressive.

One thing I respect is that he's not one-dimensional. He's got a big dog and a little dog. That might sound like a small thing, but I think it matters. Too many trainers get locked into one world and one type of dog.

I've always enjoyed talking with trainers who don't agree on every single thing. That's usually where the most interesting conversations happen.

We also spent some time talking about Dog Homeskool and one of the biggest challenges in dog training: owner accountability and follow-through between lessons.

That's a big part of what drove me to create the app. Most trainers know exactly what they want owners to do, but knowing and doing are two different things.

Progress stalls because enough work isn't happening between lessons.

Accountability, consistency, and owner follow-through have a massive impact on results, and it was fun getting into that discussion with another trainer.



[dog training app, owner accountability dog training, dog training follow through, consistency in dog training, emotional regulation dogs, dog training between lessons, professional dog trainer tips, obedience and protection training, dog behavior training]

04/20/2026

So glad somebody is helping dogs in all kinds of situations

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