Solid K9 Training

2 of my favorite things, kids and dogs

GSDJeff — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:39:00 GMT

I love working with my clients that have children, having 6 of my own kids and lots of dogs, who woulda thunk?

One of my clients who had a baby 6 months ago had a training session with me this week....working in giving her confidence to heal her dog properly with a double stroller as well as managing her household with 2 kids and her dog was so much fun...below is some pictures from the session. I sometimes think of video taping every one of my clients each week...lately I have been seeing about 30 clients a week along with a full kennel it makes for lots and lots of dog training stories. Changing the lives of so many people is so rewarding for me, changing the energy in a household, in a family, it is almost like taking this heavy burden off of the shoulders of people. Training dogs is one of the most fullfilling things that I have ever done.

I bring MO around to alot of my clients..he is doing great.. no more snapping..gets along with every dog he comes into contact with....SOMEONE ADOPT THIS DOG....so i can get another one in whose life needs changing.

Clients dog in a rock solid PLACE command with the new baby...this way Ollie can be involved with the family without getting in the babies face.

Max is so good with the kids...this young man loves dogs and is such a good dog player...goes around picking up balls to through to the dogs.

yes that is Ollie flying through the air...the little boy throws the ball and the dog jumps....easy peasy

He wanted to play with MO in the worst way....I did not want him rushing up to MO but he did interact and MO had no issues with him.

Max loves coming to clients houses and hanging out. He helps me out with both humans and dogs alike.

4lb Chihuahua Mauled by dogs

GSDJeff — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:16:00 GMT

So yesterday Kaiser who is one of our new house dogs is a 18 week old 4lb little black Chihuahua, check out to see what happened when he went into the play yard to learn the rules of the play yard.

Thank you all who voted me for the Best Board and Train of 2009 for the second year in a row.

PETA

GSDJeff — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:10:00 GMT

I get many news feeds weekly and one of received this morning I found interesting, since most people are usually not aware of what an organizations true mission is and only look at the marketing campaign.

PETA Killed 97 Percent of Adoptable Pets in its Care During 2009
Hypocritical Animal Rights Group’s 2009 Disclosures Bring Pet Death Toll To 23,640
Washington, DC — Today the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) published documents online showing that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) killed 97 percent of the adoptable pets in its care during 2009. Despite years of public outrage over its euthanasia program, the notorious animal rights group has actually increased the number of adoptable animals it kills at its Norfolk, VA headquarters, to an average of 44 pets every week.

According to public records from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, PETA killed 2,301 cats and dogs last year while only placing eight in adoptive homes. That means PETA found a home for only 1 out of every 300 animals at its headquarters. Since 1998, a total of 23,640 pets have died at the hands of PETA workers.

"PETA hasn’t slowed down its hypocritical killing machine one bit, but it keeps browbeating the rest of society with a phony ‘animal rights’ message," said David Martosko, CCF’s Director of Research. "PETA is more concerned about funding its advertising and media antics than finding homes for the animals.
On that note..check out the pictures from today of MO, he rode shotgun with me today which was great since I was able to see the fruits of all of my staff and my labor with Mo. He loved having me reach over and have me pet him, he was so comfortable and silly. He is learning to trust hands approaching him.

YO MO, he will be riding with me alot this week, it is a big confidence booster for him. If anyone wants to adopt him let me know. He will be ready to adopt out at the end of the week, and remember I do not charge for any of my dogs.

Mo just relaxing, he is making great progress. He was in a shelter for 3 years prior to meeting me 10 days ago, we are into our second week of training and he is going to make someone a great dog. He does not need a ton of exercise, though daily walks will be necessary, he has been good with all of our staff both men and women and I am having him flooded with my kids this week to see how he does. He is INCREDIBLE with other dogs. It seems that he may have a vision issue but the original problem with his eye infections seems to have gone away. we have been treating him 3 times a day since he arrived with an eye cream as well as putting warm compresses on his eyes about 5 times a day.

Mo went with me to a clients in Newport today, we were working with some off leash recall with the client, I kept MO with a leash dragging on him, we have not worked a lot with recall yet, that was not a priority. He had a great time bopping around the field wtih us.

Mo week 2

GSDJeff — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:09:00 GMT

I made a quick video of Mo working with my kids directly, so what do we do we put a muzzle on him and start working the kids around. We need him to be immune to the children's contact, the way they run around and pet him. So today starts week 2 of MO-world at Solid K9 Training.

Dont forget to get your ticket to my latest event which is coming up on May 16th, you can purchase a ticket by clicking on my blog in the upper right hand countdown banner.

RI Pet Show Day 2

GSDJeff — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:39:00 GMT

What an incredible day 2 was of the RI Pet show. The folks at Jenks productions put on a great pet show. The day started out so nice with lots of play and training before the trade show. Kaiser, Linda's 18 week old Chihuahua played outside with the dogs and had a great time. All of the dogs both large and small played so well with Kaiser.

Max giving Kaiser some play yard advice...what is the wise advice that Max gave Kaiser "stay away from me"

Watson with an award winning play bow..

Kaiser and Watson have become best buddies...Watson loves to run and play...

When the kids aren't folding laundry you can find them sitting on the couch reading books...

with a wonderful helper from the audience..Uma always does great both on and off stage

RI Pet Show Day 1

GSDJeff — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:59:00 GMT

What an awesome day day today was. Not only did I start my new radio show format today, from 9-11am..it was great..2 hours was much more relaxing I was able to answer so many more questions, have more phone calls, It was so much fun..i am liking this new schedule and the new format...the pet show was also incredible. I always love talking to my radio callers as well all of the lives that I have touched over the years.

There is a dog in there somwhere

MO end of week one

GSDJeff — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:19:00 GMT

MO has been with us for 1 week and if you go back and look at the first video of MO you will see how he was extremely difficult to manage. He had massive eye infections and would go crazy if you tried to go near him..lunging and biting..I mean really biting and hard. Todays video shows myself going up to MO having him come out of his kennel, applying a warm compress and then putting his eye meds..no growling, no biting....keep in mind that I never use food for any training ever. That does not go with my holistic real world approach to dog training.

The issue that I am seeing with MO is that he has lost some of his sight, I am not a Vet but judging by his not quite seeing the door to the kennel or his individual kennel and sometimes walking into doors and walls it looks like he has had some vision loss..I am doing all of this training, feeding and boarding on a Pro Bono case and do not have the budget to look farther into this.

I am going to to set up a donation page I have decided. We so about $5,000 a month in pro bono work. It would be great if I could get all of my readers to donate $5-10 a month to help offset these costs. I would be able to keep up with the cost of the rescuing that I do and possible even be able to do more rescue. I turn down dogs every week because I just do not have the resources at the moment. My model for rehabilitating shelter dogs in an efficient way in order to get them adopted into forever homes is incredible.

The above video is of MO and me doing our 3 X daily routine. we teach the dogs not to come rushing out of the kennels when the doors are open. This is our standard default waiting at thresholds training. MO overdoes it a little bit.

Don't forget tomorrow my radio show moves to a new time 9-11am on AM790. Feel free to call in to ask your dog training questions 401.437.5000. I will also be at the RI Pet show at the Convention Center.

New Seminar Date, Yahooo!

GSDJeff — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:07:00 GMT

I made a decision yesterday to change the date of the seminar. there was a few decisions to do this but one of them was we have the opportunity to do it on a Sunday and I would have some time prior to the seminar to work with youth groups which is very important to me. I wanted to be able to work with kids on proper dog handling and having it mid week would not work..The Westin Hotel has been an awesome venue for us to do these seminars and offering us more space on Sunday afternoon/night is a great benefit for us as well as my fans.

If you already purchased a ticket you should have already gotten a replacement ticket by email with the new date and time.

The new seminar date is May 16th from 5-7pm at the Providence Westin Hotel.

You can click on the below link to register for my seminar

Lets all make sure we tune into my radio show this weekend..it is at a new time and also will be 2 hours long from 9-11am every Saturday. I am looking for current and past clients to do a live interview on my show. The basic format is for us to talk about your BJ experience and your AJ experience. Before Jeff/After Jeff. Interview will last for about 10 minutes and it can be done by telephone.

Beautiful Long Sunny Day

GSDJeff — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:44:00 GMT

What a crazy busy day...I left the house at 6:30AM and finally came home from CT at 10:30pm, in between I had lots of clients, spent lots of time training kennel dogs and hanging out with the kids, got some good photos on such a sunny day. The kids were playing outside, the dogs were all out..I had an emergency bite case in Warren with 2 big dogs which is always fun for me to work with...since I know that dogs fighting in households is mostly just household management that needs to be put into place and it is mostly a human issue.

I went and saw Remy at his new home in East Hartford, CT as my last client of the day. He is doing so incredibly well...going along with my theory about there is some great kennel dogs out there and there is no reason to purchase a dog from a pet shop..remember "Adopt, don't Shop"

From a kill shelter in NYC, rescued by the Monroe CT SPCA, put into a 2 week Boot Camp at Solid K9 Training and into a wonderful home whith a wonderful mother/daughter household. Remy has an awesome new life.

Clover is so happy that she can pump on the swing all by herself.

Mo and Kishmish hanging out in the play yard..MO is doing awesome....he is a very friendly dog with a great personality. His eye medication is helping and he is allowing us to put it in 3 times a day with no problem. He has been great around my kids , great with the training, eats his meals properly, is good at going into his kennel at night, so who wants him? He is a 5 year old dog, who appears to be in great health..he may have an underlying eye issue which we will get checked out once his eyes look better

Kaiser who is Lindas new 4lb 16 week old Chihuahua had his coming out party yesterday in the play yard....she just put him in the play yard to see what would happen. I had total confidence in the dogs to give her a proper greeting.

Kaiser has also grown up over the last 6 weeks and has become a really good greater of other dogs and fits right in. The dogs are very curious of Kaiser, and just because of his size it makes no matter.

Kaiser in the Place command with high levels of distractions..He has been working on the Place command, proper heeling and also Recall.

Mo in a sit/stay in the middle of the play yard while 8 other dogs just run around and play. The ultimate distraction training. Mo is coming along so well with his training.

Max and Uma in a downstay while Kishmish tries to distract them...he loves to come up to them and get in their faces

the in the face activities start

Clover loves to swing on the rope, Roca loves to bite on the rope....trying to think if I trained Roca to not bite the kid on the rope....I'll let you know tomorrow

Bam and Leia enjoying a nice warm day in the play yard...

Dont forget that my radio show switches times this week...moving forward I will be on AM790 every Saturday morning from 9-11am and I will also be at the RI Pet Show this weekend doing all of the dog training demos and also having a booth.

Mo Rehab day 2

GSDJeff — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:58:00 GMT

Today was an awesome day for MO, I have a quick video of the progress we have made within 48 hours....MO came to me a mean little biting machine, and look at him today....

Yes this is the same dog that I featured in yesterdays video...yes my training is that effective, you can talk to any of my clients after the first time I worked with their dogs i can change the life for the better. not many trainers can do this. my training system works...it is effective and it is life changing.

If you want to see me in action you can come to the RI Pet Show this weekend at the Rhode Island Convention Center

First video of MO

GSDJeff — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:18:00 GMT

I am putting up a quick video of MO, i drove through a snowstorm that affected NYC and southern CT on Friday to get him, it was my only free morning and I had to get him no matter what the weather was. One of his big issues is his biting whenever anyones hands go towards his face...he also has a nasty eye infection which makes it difficult to apply his eye meds. So the first order of business is to get the meds in his eyes...this needs to be done 3 times a day. Once that is done Mo will be a much better dog, and along with the training and rehab we are going to do we will be able to get him adopted out.

Yesterday (Sunday) was a great outdoor training day..I was at Narragansett beach for a 3 hours working with 2 different clients on recall training. It was incredibly crowded with people and dogs and made for great distraction recall training.

Max and Uma in a downstay, I put them there for about 15 minutes so I could focus on the clients dog. This is also great training for Max and Uma since so many dogs come by them.

Dont forget my radio show starts at a new time this Saturday. I am on the air from 9am-11am every Saturday on AM790. Also this weekend I will be at the RI Pet Show at the Rhode Island Convention Center. I will have a booth and I will be selling discount tickets to my upcoming seminar as well as doing dog demos all day long.

I am also going to be having a different client on the air every week to discuss how I have effected the life of the family with my dog training.

More Mo, More Mo

GSDJeff — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:42:00 GMT

Yesterday I drove down to Monroe CT SPCA and picked up another shelter dog. Mo is a 5 year old Lhasa Apsa with some Pekineese in him. He has been living at the shelter for 3 years and has a little biting issue. One issue is that Mo needs to have eye meds put in 3 times a day..meanwhile he attacks you when you try to put the cream in his eyes...so we are in for some fun.

Mo with his eyes all cleaned out and eye meds in...get your emails in...this little man MO is up for adoption..I really feel that once we get this eye issue taken care of ..Mo will be showing the love... he is already warming up to us and is great with other dogs. I will have some video up by the end of the weekend...

I was at the Chili Festival at the Convention Center. Just helping out a friend who has started out a cookie company. Uma was a great pull into the booth . Lots of people hung out petting Uma and tried Eric's Cookies.

Who has time to train?

GSDJeff — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:39:00 GMT

I hear it all the time, people telling me that they are busy and don't have time to train...I understand we are all busy...I am posting a video that I took yesterday of me working 2 dogs while I was doing work on my computer. It is a combination of the following commands: Place, sit/stay and down/stay. Though the video is only 10 minutes long I actually worked the dogs for 60 minutes. I edited the video down and at times I show it at 4X the normal speed. The concept is the same though..if you are sitting on your ass reading a book, watching TV, on your computer or playing video games you have time to train dogs.

I will be at the Winter Chilli Festival this Saturday from 11-5 helping out my friend Eric Weiner who was the Small Business Person of the year last year and who was voted the Best Limo Company in the USA. He has a new venture, a cookie company (human cookies) and he is launching his product at this show. I will be at the show since I do trade show consulting and I will be doing dog demos as well selling discounted tickets to my upcoming seminar at the Westin Hotel. So stop down it is at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

I also will be picking up another rescue dog from the Monroe CT SPCA tmrw morning..Holly was adopted out this week to one of my clients who wanted another dog. I do all of this rescue Pro Bono, so if you want to help out with this you can purchase a ticket to my upcoming seminar. Part of the funds is used to pay for these dogs.

My trip to the ER

GSDJeff — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:42:00 GMT

So I am in a room in the ER awaiting to get a chest Xray...why you ask..because i had to wait until all of the dogs finished their work day and got put to sleep, so I could go. About 5 days ago I was going down my front steps the night it snowed..i had my furry slippers on, which obviously have no traction and up and up I went and landed on my side right on a step, which my ribs do not fit into nicely. The pain has been bearable until today...I was hoping that it was just bruised ribs and nothing internal...knowing that not much gets done for bruised ribs I did not go in...it was laborous breathing today and lots of pain when I moved...so I went....therefore I blog. An interesting thought crossed my mind as I was sitting in an exam room in this nice sterile waiting room, I really stink, I smell like ass and dog and in that order I think. I big thank you to the folks at Miriam Hospital for taking such great care of me

Leia who came to me a few days ago rocking a down/stay in the training yard...

If you look carefully you can see Leia in a downstay. She is coming such a long way

Berger and Lilly have a great time playing...Berger spent 2 days in the ER because he had an appetite for mulch and it caused a blockage..so this is his first day back training..and we keep a muzzle on him so he does not eat any unauthorized items..but it does not stop him from playing

Holly is keeping a great sit/stay in the play yard while Leia just checks things out...

Even with Berger and LIlly running around playing in the background Holly keeps her downsaty...what a great way to spend her last few days with me....training hard. I will be getting another dog from the Monroe CT SPCA on friday.

One of the most important parts of our boot camps is dog/dog socialization. It is so important that the dogs learn proper social skills, dogs should not be too submissive or nervous nor should they be too dominant and being a bully with other dogs in the play yard.

I had to go to the Apple Store at the Providence Place Mall since I was having problems with my IMovie, I was able to figure it out with the great help of Jason and I also figured out how to do IChat which means I will be able to one on one training internationally. I should be setting that up by the end of this month hopefully...

we did a nice little 4 miler today as usual with 7 dogs...the white dog in the middle is Holly, my pack has helped her out so much with her nervousness and lack of trust in people

Holly loves to ride next to my seat in the van...she has come so far. I am so proud of her

1/2 way through or walk I stop so the dogs can go to the bathroom, this is how my pack goes to the bathroom.we stop i give them the "go potty" command and they go and then we start walking..total time about 30 seconds.

Holly is getting adopted

GSDJeff — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:47:00 GMT

Today I had someone come to my kennel to look at Holly and they are going to adopt her. I have made about 5 videos of her in the last 2 weeks and belove is a short one from today...you can see how much she has changed. The biggest thing for all of this is that I have developed the perfect training program for shelter dogs. Most shelters only have volunteers that go to them and give them love and affection and lots of treats..that is the last thing they need...the dogs need incredible structure and exercise.

If you recall this is the same dog that attacked me the first time that I met her just 2 weeks ago. All of my training is without any food or treats. We do not bribe dogs to behave and we do not punish dogs if they don't. The Solid K9 Training approach is a holistic approach to dog training. Just think what it can do for your dog.

BBB

GSDJeff — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 03:01:00 GMT

Got a nice little surprise in the mail yesterday... a certificate from the BBB. This has some meaning to it as it is important that when you are in a service oriented business that you excel at customer service. I am a member of the BBB from the day I started my dog training business. I am also insured and bonded and my kennel is licensed by RI DEM. All of these things are very important in my business..and you should make sure anyone coming into your home to do work is both insured and bonded

The Place Command

GSDJeff — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:21:00 GMT

As promised I put together a video for the Place command....it is one of the most popular training advice that I give on my weekly radio show. Everyone should work on this and train all of their dogs this command..it will change your life.

To go along with my big announcement tomorrow about my new contract with the radio station is a exciting new bumper sticker campaign. Seems like some other dog trainers are spending a little too much time trying to derail my success and hard work. I have always had an issue with someone who tries to take away or destroy my livelyhood. I have a wife and 6 kids and a mortgage to pay. If you don't like someone or what they stand for fine. It is okay to disagree but to make an all out effort to rally other trainers to keep me down is just not right....how ironic that the more the other trainers try the bigger and bigger I get. A new radio show, more training seminars around the country and I am busier than ever.

So my little contribution to all of the haters is the bumper sticker campaign that I will be launching at the upcoming RI Pet Show at the Rhode Island Convention Center on the 6-7th of March. We will have a booth as well as doing all of the obedience demo's with a specail surprise guest at the show. You will be able to get your bumper sticker at the show.

LIttle Dog gets eaten by big dog

GSDJeff — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:31:00 GMT

So many times I hear that owners are afraid that their dog is going to get hurt by a bigger dog...most dogs that are well socialized would not do that...I have a video below of Uma who is one of my dogs playing with Kaiser who we just got into our home...Linda adopted this dog and he is 14 weeks old. Uma plays with him and will actually even put her mouth on his head and trap him on the ground...but you can tell from their interaction that they are just playing it is so important that we understand dog body language and proper play. Kaiser also likes the interaction with Uma.

This is s a fun video...10 minutes long..but for those of you that like watching dogs play you might get a kick out of it..the last few minutes are of a dog that is in for board and train and is also playing with Kaiser

Winning another award

GSDJeff — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 02:55:00 GMT

A few things worth talking about that have happened in the last few days..I got a wonderful thank you card from the 4H group that came to my last seminar...it was so nice of them to do that.....

The Animal Print Magazine Best Of issue is coming out in a couple of weeks and word has it I won something. We will announce what I won on the 6th of March at the RI Pet Show

I had a dog that I had to get to the ER today, one of the dogs was a little lathargic and throwing up water....so just to be careful we went to the vet...Berger has been with me for about 10 days...he came to me a 6 month old out of control puppy.

Check out this downstay, not exactly the place I wanted to be practicing this but we do all of the training so when we need it the dog does it...Berger you are doing great...keep it up

Just picked up Leia yesterday and she is doing well ....this is the first time she was in Place while I ate dinner....it was a new concept for her..she wanted to sniff around the kitchen..see what all of the nice smells and sounds that were in the house.

Make sure you tune into the radio show this Saturday from 7am-8am on AM790 to hear about the latest changes happening with my radio show. Feel free to call in at 401.437.5000...you don't even have to have your radio on..just call up the show and ask your dog training questions.

Holly Rehab week 2

GSDJeff — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:11:00 GMT

We are into week 2 with the rehab of Holly who came to me from the Monroe CT SPCA, they gave me their most difficult dog they had..a dog that pretty much was deemed unplaceable. I am doing all of this Pro-bono and will always have a new dog from them every 2 weeks.

What is the secret to the success of my training? Structure, Structure, Structure. It has been incredible to see change in her...she has turned into a fearful dog that would bite anyone in site to a dog that can trust humans and learn to love and respect us.

Don't tell anyone this but last night I went into her kennel, sat down on the floor she came over to me and layed down, put her head on my lap and I stroked her head and we talked about the past 10 days. I told her how proud of her I was of her. I told her that this was just the start of a new life for her and that I was going to find her a home. She looked up at me and smiled. 10 days ago when I entered her kennel she tried to rip my face off.

Dont forget to purchase your tickets to my next upcoming seminar. Tickets are available online and you can buy them by clicking on countdown link at the right side of the page.