Ruff Around The Edges

Send a text Trigger Warning: Behavioral Euthanasia Many of you will know Annie as the author of the book “The Midnight Dog Walkers” and as a dog trainer who specializes in dealing with reactivity and aggression cases and we do talk about that, but in this episode she also talks about life with her own dogs, Radar, Echo , Zimmie , Cooper and Finn (the latter two also being known affectionately as “...

Send a text Remember the star charts for kids?  You only add stars for good behavior and never remove any for bad behavior. How come we don't treat our dog training "star charts" with the same respect? When we are working with our challenging dogs, every setback makes us tear down the star chart and start from the beginning again. Why? And, also... stop it! What's a way to know...

Send a text A travel souvenir from Nicaragua Imagine falling in love with two abandoned 5 weeks old street dog puppies whilst abroad in Nicaragua. The second you lay eyes on them you know you’re in trouble because you’re not going to give these dogs up. So you crowdfund in pre-crowdfunding days to get the money together to bring these dogs to the Netherlands. Once they get there you find out, that...

Send a text Are you always trying to keep everyone in your household happy? I was. In this episode, I talk about how that can backfire and create the opposite of what you want with examples from my own life. Fair warning, it was recorded on the fly, while walking Rusty, so the audio is not awesome, but the message might resonate. If you want to learn how to have a happier household without trying...

Send a text So much good stuff in this episode! I want to turn half of the quotes in this episode into memes. Like, how learning how to do agility with a border collie is like learning to drive in a Lamborghini. Meet Tara Stillwell and her dogs Eva, the red and white border collie, Curri, the sable border collie and Duke the mini-Aussie. It’s absolutely clear to me that Tara has put a lot of effor...

Send a text Do you have a drop it cue? Not your dog, you… Can you drop your expectations? Can you drop your frustration? Can you drop your anger? Can you drop your schedule and improvise when something doesn’t go according to plan? I know that you can. That you can be a champion at “drop it”. What if you could drop the idea of what life with your dog is supposed to be like and take life as it come...

Send a text Nicole den Broeder & Haley Imagine falling in love with a rescue dog from Spain, who started life by the side of a road, and then spent some days in the vet clinic fighting for her life. You decide to help find her a home by spreading her picture online. You then figure, why not foster her? And finally, she just becomes yours, but not without overcoming many difficulties. Imagine l...

Send a text In this episode, I go a little meta on you.  Do you know what frustration feels like for you in your body? I talk about the importance and benefits of being able to pinpoint different emotions in your body. How can being able to describe the physical sensation of frustration help you feel less frustrated about life with your challenging dog? The books I mention in this episode are: Bur...

Send a text In this episode I talk to Liz about her amazing blue heeler Titan. Titan was Liz’s obedience champion prospect and Liz had visions of him and her Shetland Sheepdog Tucker getting along and being best friends. Alas, the universe had different plans for all of them. Liz is able to articulate something that is dear to my heart as well. Teaching “obedience drills” or tricks is very differe...

Send a text In this episode, I get interviewed by previous podcast guest Leana Mayzlina about my dog Rusty, the Mascotte of the podcast. We discuss why I decided to get a puppy from a breeder rather than a rescue. We talk about starting out with positive reinforcement dog training and all the doubts that go with it, and how I wish I would have had more practical advice in the beginning stages. We...

Send a text I loved talking to Hannah on the podcast. She has so much experience both as the owner/guardian of a reactive dog and as a dog walker and trainer. We discuss her move from rural Alabama to urban Richmond, Virginia. This involved shifting from the Alabama mindset of "Hey, I think it's kinda cool you alerted me to the delivery guy, cause we are out in the middle of nowhere&quot...

Send a text Forrest's story is an absolutely lovely one and different from most of the stories so far.  Forrest and his wife did not hire any trainer to help them with Tucker, but relied a lot on their own observations of him, figuring out what worked and what didn't along the way. Absolutely not an easy feat when you consider having to rely on dog parks  (gasp!) for exercising an anxiou...

Send a text Buckle up for a long podcast episode. Listen to it in two sittings if you wish, because there’s lots of good stuff in here. In this episode, we get to know all about Summer, a Singapore Special as rescue dogs are called in the island city-state. Joanne gives us a little background info on what it is like to live in Singapore, and what policies are in place when it comes to stray dogs....

Send a text Trillian shares her and Fenrir’s story, both the training techniques she tried as well as all the management involved. Fenrir is a stunning Czechoslovakian Vlcak (or Wolfdog) who’s no small boy, measuring 29 inches at the withers (if you’ve listened to the podcast you’ll know why that tidbit of information is in here). He suffers from pretty bad anxiety of which Trillian gives some exa...

Send a text After several years an MRI finally reveals brain abnormalities in Black Mouth Cur Darwin’s brain. Rather than give up and accept the status quo, Vanessa keeps trying out new training ideas and management strategies to improve quality of life for everyone in the multi-dog (and cat!) household. Strap in for another long episode people. Follow along as Vanessa recounts how a perfectly beh...

Send a text In the first episode of Ruff Around The Edges I talk to Kate Oates about her Australian Shepherd Vader. It seems only right she be the first to be featured on the show as she inspired the name. We talk about all the small things that in combination led to his reactivity, and about the the stress she felt when she got a warning from the municipality threatening her with a $2000 fine if...

Send a text On this episode I talk to Elissa Chasen about life with her leash reactive dog Bodhi. We talk about the concept of “socialisation” and how we’re still not clear on it but that we’ve found out the hard way that it does not mean “meet every dog”. We discuss the differences we see in our dogs when we move them out of the trigger-rich city environment. Elissa mentions how she regrets not h...

Send a text Sooooo…. this episode is a long one, but in my humble opinion it is worth a listen. Though we talk about Atlas’ story, for the bigger part of the episode the talk is about acceptance and personal growth. Leana fell in love with the gorgeous black pup with the recently operated on, crushed, leg being fostered by her brother. That leg caused him to be on house rest for half (!) of the fi...