The Bitey End of the Dog

A bite from a dog can have many ramifications . These can include the emotional impacts on the dog’s guardians, or the dog practicing an undesirable behavior, or even the potential fate of the dog. And of course in our litigious society, we often will see civil and even criminal ramifications when a dog inures a person or other animal. For this episode of Fresh Bites on The Bitey End of the Dog ,...

Have you ever wondered what it is like training, working with, and living with a police dog? If so, then this is the episode for you! I have the opportunity to chat with Alex and Will Sessa for this episode of Fresh Bites on The Bitey End of the Dog . Alex is an experienced and successful dog trainer who owns Peach On a Leash , and Will is a an experienced and successful police canine trainer with...

This is an excellent episode with another awesome team member from Behavior Vets . For this episode of Fresh Bites on The Bitey End of the Dog , I have an enjoyable conversation with Bobbie Bhambree, the director of behavior services at Behavior Vets, about veterinarian and trainer collaborations . An often important and crucial aspect of working with dogs who have aggression issues is this team a...

Did you know that children under 10 are in the age group for the highest risk of a dog bite? In this episode of Fresh Bites for The Bitey End of the Dog , I chat with Debby Lucken who is the founder of Kids Around Dogs (KAD) . We explore why children are more likely to be bitten, discuss risk assessment in dog to child directed aggression cases , and take a deep dive into the many ways we can prom...

This is a great episode where I get the chance to chat with a fellow behavior consultant about, well, a whole bunch of topics! Lauren Novack from Behavior Vets joins me in a fantastic conversation where we go down rabbit holes in applied behavior analysis, consent-based training, trauma in dogs, and a whole lot of other behavior geekery. For additional resources on helping dogs with aggression, vi...

We’ve had some fabulous conversations on this show about aggressive behavior and how much a dog’s breed might influence these cases, and for this episode of Fresh Bites on The Bitey End of the Dog , I chat with Saara Uljas who specializes in herding breeds . We chat about a variety of breed specific behavior tendencies in herders , and how they might impact aggression . It’s an excellent episode p...

Dogs that bark, growl, lunge, snarl, and snap when on-leash. Also known as leash reactivity, this is one of the most common issues a dog trainer may be asked to help with. In this episode of The Bitey End of the Dog , I have the pleasure of chatting with Jessica Wheatcraft, who I consider one of the best out there on understanding and working with this issue . Jessica and I take a deep dive into t...

This is a really fantastic episode of Fresh Bites on The Bitey End of the Dog , as I have the opportunity to chat with Lorenzo JW Fox from Synergy Behavior Solutions . Lorenzo brings into the conversation a diverse background in not only animal behavior, but an investment into mutual aid, abolition, and liberation for humans and animals. This all blends together for a great chat about relationship...

In this episode of Fresh Bites on The Bitey End of the Dog , I chat with Jessie Kasper who has an extensive background in all aspects of the rescue world. A very common issue we can face is making decisions about dogs in a rescue or shelter system that have a history of aggression . Difficult conversations are likely needed when considering the potential outcomes for dogs that do have such a histo...

If you asked me five years ago to work with an aggression case completely online without ever meeting the dog or client in person, I would have said, "not a chance!" Fast forward to today and I've realized that you can absolutely work with an aggression case successfully from start to finish --- all remotely. Karishma Warr is my special guest for this episode, and we chat about a nu...

One of the most atrocious activities that I can think of that humans have asked dogs to take part in is --- illegal dog fighting. My special guest for this episode is Dr. Victoria Cussen who is the Senior Director of Applied Behavior Research for the Behavioral Sciences Team at the ASPCA. Victoria has incredible insight into the behavior and welfare of fight bust dogs , and this episode is packed...

Have you ever lived with or worked with dogs that are fighting in the same home ? Also known as intra-household dog to dog aggression , these can be incredibly stressful cases for all involved because the dogs are living under one roof together, so it can feel like you never can get a moment of not worrying about when the next fight might happen. In this episode of Fresh Bites on The Bitey End of...

When we are thinking about positive reinforcement based training, we often envision food as the reinforcer we are using . Or perhaps we might use toys or other reinforcers such as giving attention to a dog when they keep all four paws on the floor instead of jumping up. But what about play? Just straight up play with your dog without toys. In this episode of The Bitey End of the Dog , I have a fun...

This is a great season for learning about systems based approaches to working with aggression cases. For this episode of Fresh Bites on The Bitey End of the Dog , I chat with Cat Harbord about her THRIVE system which focuses on using systems and linear problem solving approaches to help understand the dynamic interaction between the whole dog and the whole environment . Yes, that’s’ a mouthful and...

What do you do with a dog that chases or hunts critters or other things in general? What do you do to work with predatory behavior or predation? A prevailing mindset is to stop those behaviors using an aversive or punishing the behavior.  I’m joined by one of the experts on this topic, Simone Mueller, and we discuss many alternative options to punishment using positive reinforcement based strategi...

If you’re on social media, or just have an interest in dog training and behavior in general, you might have seen the controversy surrounding a research article that was published around the end of April, so just a couple months before the release of this podcast episode. The paper is titled "Ancestry Inclusive Dog Genomics Challenges Popular Breed Stereotypes". It’s a bit of a mouthful,...

Have you lived or worked with a dog who is blind and/or deaf? It can present a training challenge all on its own when we are working with a dog who has a disability. And when we also have a dog who has aggression issues, it can create a really challenging situation for both the trainer and the dogs guardian. Tiffany Baker joins me for this episode of Fresh Bites and shares her fantastic insight wi...

Stress, hormones, emotions, impulse control, arousal, cognition --- a lot of different words that get thrown around in our conversations about dogs and behavior. In this episode with the incredibly informative Dr. Kristina Spaulding , we unpack many of those terms, and why they are so important to define correctly when discussing aggression in dogs . Kristina does an amazing job of breaking down t...

Hey friends, thanks for joining me for this episode of Fresh Bites where we chat with rising stars in our community and hear new ideas and concepts to working with aggression in dogs . I have the pleasure of having a great conversation with Pine Irwin in this episode about determining outcomes in aggression cases, and realistic expectations formed through using objective measures. Because let’s fa...

You might have heard the saying that " dog training is both an art and science ." And I kind of agree with that statement because training plans, even when rigorously based in science, can often benefit from creative thinking. I can’t think of any other trainer that thinks more creatively in the work she has done with dogs, especially the dogs who have issues on-leash. Leslie McDevitt&ap...

Hey friends, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a many of the wonderful takeaways for me from recording The Bitey End of the Dog, and I can truly say I really am so grateful for this opportunity to learn from my guests. And two of the things that are top of mind as far as value to me are bringing in new concepts that can often be desperately needed in our work with dogs, and of course, learning...

You guys have heard me say it before, but so much of what I have learned to help dogs with aggression issues has come from amazing icons in our community who have been so generous to share their knowledge and insight with the world. One such amazing trainer is none other than Trish King . Have you heard of the umbrella method to deal with off-leash dogs trying to harass or attack your on-leash dog...

In this season, you might have noticed we’ve talked about systematic approaches to changing behavior several times, which is exciting for me to see happening as we can sometimes witness spaghetti on the wall approaches in dog training . Daniel Shaw joins me for this episode of Fresh Bites on the Bitey End of the Dog for a wonderful chat around his systematic formulation approach to working with ag...

This show would have never been possible without all the learning I've been fortunate to do with so many incredible trainers over the years. I’m definitely standing on the shoulders of giants, and one such giant in our community is Sarah Kalnajs of Blue Dog Training. Sarah and I chat about a number of interesting topics during this episode, including building trust and rapport with our client...

Sometimes as dog trainers, we focus much of our attention on the dog , and meeting the needs of that dog in front of us. Though, we can sometimes lose sight of the person on the other end of the leash, and accommodating their needs as well. In this episode of Fresh Bites on The Bitey End of the Dog I have an educational conversation with Abigail Witthauer about effectively working with people with...