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A Better Dog

Personalized, one-on-one dog training designed to strengthen the bond between you and your dog. Free follow-up support included
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We help solve behavior challenges like anxiety, aggression, leash pulling, and more with in-home, walking, or virtual sessions. ABD seeks to improve relationships between dogs and their owners through focused, attentive training sessions to address a variety of issues including pulling, lunging, jumping up, resource guarding and aggression.

08/24/2026

What “shut down” can look like…

Meet Milly, a 1.5 year old English bulldog at Animal Rescue Project. Every time I’d seen Milly she was in the back corner of her kennel labeled as “sit only” because she would not come out on her own.

Over the course of several days my kids and I would take turns sitting with Milly. She would tolerate pets from them but would not take any treats they tried to give to her. I decided it was time for the wagon. The goal was to get her out of the building (without having to carry her the entire way) to a grassy area near the parking lot.

The next day I put Milly in a wagon and got her outside to the parking lot. From there she walked to the grassy field and away she went! (See comment)

Over the next few days, we made daily trips to see Milly. She was now willing to walk on leash from her kennel to the field for some free time. Milly was a totally different dog outside. On her way back inside Milly got to hang out in the meeting room over the weekend and get attention from different volunteers outside of her kennel.

Today, Milly came to the kennel door to get the leash on and led me out of her kennel to head outside. What an improvement. We also tried introducing her to some new items like a ramp, dog cot and travel crate. All of these items were stressful for Milly to be around as they were new but the exposure was beneficial.

A dog in Milly’s state of mind is hard to see. Recognizing when to apply stress (pressure) to the dog and to what degree is the key to getting that dog unstuck and moving forward.

I will be available to meet anyone at the shelter who is interested in meeting Milly for a meet and greet or assessment.Animal Rescue Project Zhang Animal Rescue Center

08/21/2026

A quick thank you…..

Today we start our 11th year in business.

Thank you to the thousands of owners who allowed us into your homes (businesses etc.,) to work with you and your families to make life with your dog(s) the best it can be.

Thank you to our clients for sharing your questions, struggles and successes as you navigate life with a dog after training. Hearing from each and every one of you helps us learn and grow.

We all get dogs to make our lives better. Do not hesitate to seek professional assistance if you’re not where you want to be with your dog.

Under the heading of “Why not” here’s a video of my GSD Emma as a puppy all those years ago. Because even short puppy videos make everyone happy.

08/20/2026

Lainey is a 14 month old, 75 lb on the go kind of girl. The owners describe her as a hyper dog who doesn’t listen, doesn’t like to be touched and jumps on people and things. After meeting her I can confirm all of these things were true. To say Lainey was “a lot” would be accurate. I swear I heard her say “parkour” as she jumped on and off the couch during the session.

Dogs like Lainey can be exhausting for owners. To get her pointed in the right direction it was time for some changes. The owners were already crating her when they ate & cleaned but that was not enough. We asked for the dog to be in the crate more and not left out unattended at all. That free time was when bad decisions were made..just ask the corner of the couch😬.

The dog was also free eat whenever it liked. A more structured feeding schedule increases engagement and aids in training.

There also was not much on leash walking going on. Walking is beneficial for draining mental energy and increasing leadership.

I asked that Lainey be in the crate when I arrived for more control. We then moved her to a slip lead since she was pretty frantic but after some time on lead the dog did begin to calm down.

We moved outside with a structured walk on the property. We taught Lainey how to understand leash communication making her a walking companion and not a one dog leash pulling machine.

We came back inside to introduce the dog to the Place cot. As frantic as Lainey was when we met she set all of that aside to focus on the food reward and remain on the cot until released. A very impressive change.

We help demonstrate informal recall as way to increase engagement and drain energy in the home. Again, it was another good performance from Lainey.

Lastly was an issue with guarding. When mom and dad would embrace or exchange affection Lainey would object often by nipping at moms ankles. We showed them how to affectively address the dog to end the problem.

Remember, underneath all of the frantic chaos is a sweet Dog who needed to learn that everyday is not about being on the gas..there is a brake pedal too.

08/19/2026

What to do with a day off….

I do not do well with time on my hands. I would rather be busy but when your chores are done that leaves me more time to play with (bother) the dogs.

As you can see Jango would rather I was at training but at least I had a great time. Actually he loves it whenever we play the “grab your face” game.

08/18/2026

Ms. Chloe came to our attention with some serious issues. This 3 year old had become more aggressive around her food and with the young children in the home. She took it upon herself to aggressively bark at their 6 year old child for passing by the room where Chloe would be in her crate eating. Chloe was also nipping the kids during play time in the home.

When I showed up Chloe was in her crate barking and carrying on which I had mom put a stop to. Now, with the dog a bit calmer we could get started with training. I laid out what I wanted to focus on during our session which led to the best client question we had all week, “do you thinks she’s smart enough to do this”? Honestly, we get some version of that question from time to time but in Chloe’s case she did not disappoint!

The theme of the session was structure and teaching Chloe a clear version of yes and no.

We worked a feeding protocol that had the dog focus on eating and not anything else including the 6 year old passing by.

We helped teach Chloe about respecting the personal space of the humans in her home. Important for adults and kids alike. Jumping up was corrected (no) and calmness led to an invitation for affection (yes).

Using a slip lead and her food we introduced her to the Place cot. Chloe learned to focus on the reward and not the kids moving around the home at the time.

We also had a brief word with the children about how they could help with Chloe’s training. We asked them respect the Chloe’s space, especially when eating or sleeping and to follow their parents’ instructions when dealing with Chloe.

Chloe did incredibly well in all aspects of her training. Consistency will be the key going forward.

08/17/2026

Happy Monday…from 3 month old Levi.

Levi has a great attitude and was super fun to work with. He is one of those super confident & busy puppies that loves to jump on things and people and pickup anything within reach so we were happy to be involved sooner than later.

We worked with the family on ways to increase their communication with Levi making sure he wasn’t being rewarded accidentally for unwanted behaviors which is a common issue with puppy owners. We also helped move potty training in the right direction (yes, that means crate training).

Most importantly, we provided ways to increase engagement with Levi using his food as the reward. In one exercise we started in the house before moving to the back yard. Initially, we had Levi on leash to help him stay on task which was focusing on the owner as she would move around the yard. Each directional change that Levi paid attention to food would come his way. He got so good at it that I decided to raise the stakes and ask him to cover some distance going back and forth between the owner and myself for the food reward. This short video also captures a couple of important points that were helpful..using a higher pitch tone and being lower both encourage the dog to come to you. Nothing super formal here. Just a bit of fun with a purpose. Great job little buddy!

08/07/2026

Update: Julian has been adopted. Thank everyone for getting the word out.

For your consideration…..

Yesterday I stopped in to Animal Rescue Project Zhang Animal Rescue Center and made the acquaintance of Julian. This handsome 2 year old was very sweet and easy to get to know. We headed out for a bit of a stroll and potty break. Julian was surprisingly pleasant on leash given it was our first time meeting.

This picture perfectly captures the fun loving demeanor I saw. Julian does appear to be feeling a bit stressed by the shelter environment. When I attempted to leave his kennel he leaned his body into the door so I could not open it.

While I do not know a lot about him at this point he did make a good first impression. I will be stopping in regularly to work with him. If you think you would be interested in adopting him please contact ARP for further details.

I would make myself available to meet any potential adopter at the shelter to assist in any way I could with a meet and greet / assessment.

08/05/2026

Some things just take time…..

We have posted about Penny before. This is a dog that joined her family in January of 2024. Issues with reactivity and aggression towards family members began soon after.

We went with Penny to a Vet visit the following month.

We met with the family to develop a plan for Penny spending time at the family’s seasonal camp site.

We went with Penny to her first store trip to Home Depot.

We met with the family in January of 2025 to start the process of introducing the dog to three new cats that family adopted.

With each new challenge the family worked very hard to make sure Penny was ultimately successful. They worked with this dog on her time table and were consistent with rules and boundaries.

Today I received an update video I wanted to share. It’s Penny playing with one of the cats. Knowing Penny from the beginning as I do, it made me even more happy to see her learn to enjoy all the things her family has exposed her to, cats included.

08/03/2026

We were in Hudsonville this past weekend to meet 5 month old GSD Waylon who likes to practice barking and being leash reactive in his townhome community.

When I arrived we first had to get the in-crate barking under control. Once that was done we did a controlled greeting (on slip lead). This allowed the owner more influence over the dog during this time of high arousal. The benefit of this is a dog that does not get overly excited and make poor choices. After a few minutes together the slip lead was removed. The dog chose to sit near us and chew on a toy or lay down. Getting off to this calmer start set the tone for the rest of the session.

We set Waylon up for a structured walk which has the dog spend more time focusing on the owner than on the environment. This quickly left us with no reactivity to report 👍🏻.

Next, we worked on Place using an elevated cot. Waylon showed he was up to the task quickly grasping the idea of being on the cot until released.

We also helped Waylon understand the value of personal space. He learned to be around us and not jumping on us for attention. This was a great benefit to his overall demeanor during the session. Waylon understood that he can not always be the center of attention.

Waylon turned out to be a very good, young dog who responded very well to structure and engagement. We will be looking for great things from him in the future. Great job!

07/29/2026

Koya is a super sweet Pit mix about 3 years of age. Her mom got Koya a month ago and quickly realized that some things were trending in the wrong direction. Specifically, the dog had just started to become leash reactive.

During our pre-training interview with the owner there were a few things that stood out. The dog was already allowed on the furniture and got to sleep with mom. Koya was also out in front on the walk. More on that later.

When we arrived on training day we found Koya to be as described, sweet and eager to please. Koya came up to me with a toy and initiated a game of tug. No, tug does not make your dog aggressive but there are certain things you want to do (& not do) when playing tug. The dog was very quick to learn the rules of the game and we were even able to incorporate some obedience as well.

As we moved through the session it was obvious to mom and I how engaged the dog was with me which all started out of a bit of play.

On the walk we got the dog into a heel and tooled around the neighborhood looking for trouble. No more having Koya in front. We finally found a tiny dog that wanted to run up and down the fence barking at us. Koya was interested but a leash correction or two was all that was needed to pass by. Mom was quite impressed at the lack of response from her dog. Part of our success was not having the dog in front of the owner. With the dog in front it gives them more of a chance to decide how to respond to something in it’s environment (ie: dog) instead of following the direction of the owner.

With furniture privileges we did suggest not having the dog in that intimate space at this time in the relationship. We also encouraged mom to crate the dog overnight for the same “relationship timing” issue.

Koya was an awesome young lady to work with and I have no doubt she will be a great addition to the family. Great job!!

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Portage, MI

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