What is 2+2?


If I asked you "What is 2+2?", you could probably tell me. You probably don't have to think hard before answering, even if you were busy or stressed. Even in a difficult situation, you likely know the answer.

Why can you so easily recall the answer to 2+2? Because you did many repetitions on a daily basis for a long time. And once you knew it, other skills were built upon that skill. It became routine.

This is what we need for our dogs!

With dogs who struggle with fighting in the home or with reactivity, we often focus on training those situations. The challenge though is that we end up asking them to learn in stressful situations, when memory and concentration abilities are compromised.

The key to helping our dogs is to make the skills they need to cope with the world as simple as 2+2. For dogs who fight, let's make moving away from excitement a part of daily routine. For leash reactive dogs, let's make relaxing and thinking near exciting things a part of daily routine.

This is what we focus on during my Deep Dives. My current Leash Reactivity group is having great success! I couldn't be prouder of all of the teams in the group!! And we are having so much fun =) A Deep Dive focusing on dogs who fight in the home opens on Thursday!

Cookie Challenge Update

Riker's second lesson has new been posted in the group!

If you have a reactive dog or dogs that fight in the home, this challenge will help you build a relationship with your dog where they can show patience, impulse control, self control... (or whatever you want to call it).

Dogs who learn to offer calm behaviours around exciting things have better foundations so we can train the hard stuff!

One more thing!

Don't forget the Free Webinar this Thursday at 4:30 PM PST! It's going to be fun and informative. After the webinar, the Peace at Home - Deep Dive opens for registration and those who sign up in the first 48 hours recieve a special bonus!

2738 Holden Corso Rd, Nanaimo, BC v9x 1n5
Unsubscribe · Preferences

Positive Dog

Subscribe if you'd like to receive my somewhat regular emails including training tips and concepts as well as info about my upcoming freebies and programs!

Read more from Positive Dog

Tethered Cord Syndrome This post is intended to help others who are choosing not to pursue surgery for TCS, and to help people who care about Jubilee understand my 'why'. Jubilee has struggled with lameness and GI issues her entire life. She’ll turn seven in January. After seeing a top neurologist, we now have a probable diagnosis of Tethered Cord Syndrome. I’ve decided not to pursue surgery. Without surgery, I know she is unlikely to see her eighth birthday. That’s really hard. It sucks....

Engaged training Resilience * Emotional Regulation * Self Control I've seen a few posts going around lately advocating for use of tools that use pain or fear to apply stress to a dog to help them learn. The trainers promote the idea of a false dichotomy - either you bubble wrap your dog and never progress.. stuck in ineffective training, OR you use e-collars, prong collars, and other tools to either apply stress or to suppress behaviours when a dog is put into stressful situations.. Stress...

New class! Engagement, Resilience, Emotional Regulation ❄️ Winter Blues? 🐶 Want your dog to thrive, not just “get by”? Looking to fill in the gaps in your training program? Check out my NEW Foundations to Thrive class! I have a few spots available in-person as well as on-line only. It’s a 6-week online class (spread over 8 weeks) that teaches the core skills so many dogs are missing: playful self-control, confidence-building, resilience, and emotional regulation. ✅ Perfect for puppies, adult...