Well, October sure crept up on us quickly, didn’t it? I took the summer off from group classes and only did a couple 1:1 sessions. I spent most of my summer focusing on my kids, the house, my weekend job, and my weekly volunteer time doing Pack in the Park. Shannon helped me with hosting this summer and it’s been so great having her part of the Pack in the Park team! She hosts most Sundays at 11am (check the Fort St. James Dog Owners Facebook Group for current dates) and I spend those mornings happy at work knowing you’re in good hands with Shannon!
My weekly Pack in the Park date had to move around a bit with changes in my childcare, but currently they are held most Mondays at 11am (please note this is subject to cancellation due to poor weather).
I’ve been slowly editing my Dog Guides (I have yet to come up with a better name for them than this) and have early released a mini guide titled “Dogs and Children“. This mini guide is a portion of Guide 1: Safety, Bylaws and Care. Safety between dogs and kids is important to me, which is why I created such an in-depth section about them in Guide 1. As part of this mini guide’s early release in my shop, I’ve been posting some facts and information about dog and children safety on my Facebook Page.
Bite prevention is so important to me that I added Bite Prevention Educator to my list of certificates and this spring April and I brought the Be a Tree program (with FSJDT flair) Girl Guides and Nak’albun Elementary kindergarten students. We are reopening these presentations for the new school year! Educators and program directors can get in touch to book a presentation with us. I am currently seeking sponsorship for this program, so if your company is interested or you know of a company that may be interested in sponsoring this type of program please do get in touch.
I decided to run another Basic Obedience workshop this fall, to test the waters on how receptive they would be for this time of year. It was a struggle and I still did not manage to fill the class 100% and offered drop-in. There were no drop-ins during this time, just one person who signed up late. This class was both fun and challenging with mostly puppies/young dogs with a bit of reactivity.
I’ve had a lot of interest in these group classes but unfortunately, not enough commitment. Due to this fact, I will not be offering group classes again until next year. Winter is a busy time for us with our kids, we have two birthdays and Christmas all one after the other, so I’d like to take the next couple of months to focus on those special events and make memories with my family.
I am always available for over-the-phone or email consultation. If you need help with your dog this winter while I am not offering 1:1 or group classes, then a consultation is the next best option.
I took a bit of a break this summer. Consistent childcare, access to a vehicle, and finding the right training space are all challenges that make 1:1 training difficult. On top of that, after running five group obedience classes back-to-back in the spring, I was feeling pretty burnt out. Taking the summer off gave me the chance to recharge and enjoy more time at home with my kids.
While I was home, a few realizations stood out:
Group classes are definitely in demand here.
Without reliable childcare, a car, and a consistent training space, 1:1 clients are nearly impossible to schedule.
It’s okay to ask for help.
GROUP CLASSES ARE COMING BACK
As I shared in my last post, group classes were a huge hit this spring, and I’ll absolutely be bringing them back this fall. If you’d like to join, make sure you’re on the waitlist — I’ll email you as soon as the dates are finalized.
PRESSING PAUSE ON 1:1 TRAINING
As much as I love working with 1:1 clients — it’s where my training techniques really shine — I’ve decided to temporarily suspend private sessions. This includes:
Puppy Training Sessions
Obedience Training Sessions
Problem Behavior Sessions
Trick Training Sessions
The 1:1 option of the Boundary Training Workshop
If you’re already a 1:1 client or have upcoming sessions booked, nothing changes. I’ll honor all current appointments and contracts. Starting today, though, I won’t be accepting new 1:1 clients until my schedule is more flexible.
A HUGE THANK YOU TO SHANNON
I have to give a huge shout-out to my friend and fellow certified dog trainer, Shannon Joe, who stepped up to help with Pack in the Park. She’s been an absolute delight — showing up consistently, creating her own event pages, and even taking and sharing photos in the Dog Owners Group afterward.
Because of Shannon, Pack in the Park continues to run weekly. She usually hosts Sundays and often covers weekday events if I can’t make it. I honestly couldn’t keep it going without her. Thank you, Shannon!
TRICK TRAINING: A PERSONAL PASSION
Shannon and I have also been tossing around the idea of starting a Trick Training Club in FSJ. While I’m not sure I have the time to commit to a full club, I will be adding a trick training class this fall — so keep an eye out for announcements!
Trick training has been one of my favorite things since I was a kid. Between ages 11 and 16, I taught my dogs an impressive number of tricks — all without formal knowledge. I learned by breaking behaviors down step by step. My dogs could grab drinks from the fridge, vault off my back to catch a Frisbee, balance on my feet — you name it. While other 13-year-olds were exploring makeup and hanging out with friends, I was at home teaching my dog to perform circus acts.
These days, I’m working toward earning my dog Zelda’s Novice Trick Dog Title. We already have enough tricks to qualify, but I’m polishing them up before submitting. Once Zelda earns her title, I plan to launch a trick training class designed to help owners do the same. By the end of the course, you’ll have enough tricks to submit to Do More With Your Dog for your own Novice Trick Dog Title!
Designing the class and all the supporting material will take some time, but I promise it will be worth the wait.
WHAT’S NEXT
Before trick training begins, I’ll be running more Group Obedience Classes — as many rounds as there’s demand for. Right now, I’m updating the class material. Once that’s ready, I’ll confirm dates with the United Church.
I know this post is a lot of “what’s coming soon,” and I wish I had exact dates for you already. My best guess is that group classes will start rolling out in late September or early October.
Thanks so much for your patience and continued support — I can’t wait to get back into training with you and your dogs!
This was my first year holding successful group classes and you guys exceeded my expectations. Last year I tried to do a group class and only had one person sign up. This year I thought, “what the heck, throw it out there one more time…” and the response I got was overwhelming. Not only was I able to put on a group class but I was able to put on FIVE of them!
Each class had 4 dogs with their handlers and was held at the United Church. I’m so grateful to the United Church for giving me the chance to hold my classes there. They’ve been accommodating and forgiving (especially of the spring-time dog hair shed about the room). I worked hard to clean the room after each class to help lessen my lease and to show respect towards the Church. All of my students were also very respectful of the space. It turned out to be a great place to run a small class. However, I certainly wouldn’t want more than 4 dogs (and my Zelda) in there. To hold a bigger class comfortably, I would need a bigger space.
Throughout these 5 classes I’ve fine-tuned my methods and curriculum to the point I feel quite confident that the Basic Obedience Workshop is exactly what the average dog owner wants. It’s really more than just a basic obedience class; it’s an “everything you need to know to comfortably live with your dog” class. It covers all of the foundations you need to build strong, reliable obedience.
WEEK ONE: FOUNDATIONS
The class kicks off in week one with Foundations. It starts with a main focus on two of the 5 basic obedience commands: sit and down. Most dogs already know at least one of these by the time they come to my class, but not always.
Other topics covered in this first class are:
leashes and collars terminology and tips off vs down a note on consistency
It’s a lot covered in the first lesson, but all the other classes are built off this first one. As the weeks go on there are less subjects covered in each class because with each subsequent class we are reviewing everything from the previous class, every week. Week One Foundations is definitely a class you don’t want to miss.
WEEK TWO: IMPULSE CONTROL
Impulse control in dogs refers to their ability to resist the urge to act on a desire or instinct and instead choose a more appropriate or desired behavior. For example, stay instead of chase a squirrel. It’s essentially teaching a dog to pause, think and make a more deliberate choice rather than reacting automatically. It’s a skill that is crucial for safety, preventing accidents and enhancing overall training. All dogs could use impulse control training to teach them to think before they act. Heck, most people could use it too. Week two gets right to the nitty gritty of impulse control with a heavy focus on the basic obedience command stay.
Also taught in this class are:
stay circle jackpot rewards distractions and challenges
Newly added to this class is also impulse control games! Games you can play with your dog at home that will help them hone their impulse control skills.
WEEK THREE: FOCUS AND RELIABILITY
Week three takes the skills we’ve learned in the first half of the workshop and builds off of them to step it up with one of the most important basic obedience commands that all owners want their dog to learn: come (recall). In this class we teach our dogs to focus on us and what the key is to more reliable obedience.
Also covered in week three’s class:
watch command automatic sit
WEEK FOUR: REAL WORLD OBEDIENCE
The fourth and final week of this workshop teaches you how to apply all of the skills you learned into the real world and your every-day life. The basic obedience command we focus on last is heel, with an optional “loose-leash walking” for those who don’t really care if their dog walks right beside them, but want them to learn not to pull on the leash. Heel is a great command for learning to navigate the world with your dog as your partner at your side.
Also covered in the last class:
phasing out treats the key to reliable obedience
JOIN THE WAIT LIST
If you missed out on the fun this spring and would like to be a part of my next obedience class, you can join the wait list and I will contact you once I have a date set for the next class.
I wanted to end this post with a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who helped make these 5 group classes a success. My family for putting up with my insane work schedule during that time, and of course, to my clients and their wonderful dogs. Thank you to every person who filled these classes. You all taught me as much as I taught you. I truly enjoyed every moment; every challenge, every celebration, every moment of comradery as we were all in it together. You all made this experience extremely special to me. Last, but certainly not least, I want to thank my beautiful demo dog Zelda. I couldn’t have done this without her by my side every class.
As the end of the year gradually races towards us, I find myself reflecting on the past year and considering the year ahead. Last year, dog training was a whirlwind of client after client. This year was a slow business year. I think a part of it is that this is a small town and eventually clientele will slow down no matter what, but also I think a lot of it has to do with my own time management.
We started FSJ ACTS in February/March this year and we hit the ground running. I could probably write an entire blog on just this year with ACT. I am constantly feeling pulled between my family, my jobs and my volunteer hours. I love all of it, but I don’t really have time for all of it. I’m so exhausted all the time that I don’t push myself as hard I could to make my dog training career more successful. I keep telling myself it will come with time as my kids get older.
That being said, when I look back on this year and everything I’ve done and learned I realize it’s been a pretty big year too. Just in more subtle ways. I did my first group class in June, which flopped as a group class but I met one wonderful person and her spunky hound dog pup and we still connect and stay in touch. My ideal client is one who shows up on time, does the work with their dog and stays in touch to let me know how it goes in the long-run. I don’t want to ever have a client tell me their training didn’t work out (or worse, hear it from someone else) when I could have been there to help guide them in a different direction. Dog training is kind of a mix between science and art, it isn’t always so black and white. Some things will work with some dogs but not others. Sometimes it takes a bit of trial and error to find what does work.
2024 also taught me how important Pack in the Park is, and it breaks my heart that I haven’t been able to host one in months. I’m currently putting together a new Host training program, so if you’re local to Fort St. James and would like to try to host a Pack in the Park let, me know! I wish I could be there myself, but I just can’t at this time in my life. So I’m hoping to find one or two more individuals who’d like to host it.
I took on a foster puppy for the first time since I was involved with the humane society in 2008-2012. It was extremely challenging. I underestimated how chaotic our house would feel with one more young being in it. Boss was such a great foster pup, the best I could have asked for. So chill, calm, and happy to please. But even with all those wonderful traits it made my house feel more chaotic. I’ve learned that if I do take on a foster dog it has to be limited to the summer when I can utilize my outdoor kennel more. I don’t know if my family will even be ready for another foster dog by next summer, though. Saying goodbye to Boss was really hard. Luckily, he is with a really wonderful family and I still get to see him on occasion when he comes for play dates with Zelda. Boss taught me it’s possible and completely okay to love a dog that isn’t part of your family.
I helped spearhead the Art for Animals Gallery Fundraiser and we learned so much from that. It wasn’t just about the money, it turned into this amazing opportunity to connect with the public about what ACT does. We reached a lot of people and taught them who we are and what we do. We had students come through the gallery and learn about art and our cause. For the amount of work and time it took, it wasn’t exactly the most profitable fundraiser but it turned out to be so much more than a fundraiser. I’m really proud of this one.
Last Sunday we had the first Annual Santa Photos fundraiser; which was so much more than just Santa Photos! We also had a little Christmas pet shop, nail trims by Katie, Dog Training Consultations by me and live music by Natile, as well as a few cool door prizes! We raised $790 and had a total blast meeting everyone and their furry family members. I think with more time to plan it next year we will bring it back next December, even better!
At our last ACT meeting we established the roles we would all like to play. I am now the Humane Education Coordinator. I joined Doggone Safe and am currently enrolled in a course so that I can be certified to teach dog bite prevention. I’m about halfway through it, as I write this, and I’ve learned so much already. It’s a very thorough course and I highly recommend it to any dog enthusiasts or anyone who works with dogs. I have plans to upgrade my education with more than just bite prevention as well. With these upgrades, I can’t wait to bring more humane education programs to Fort St. James in 2025.
I will be closed from December 19, 2024 until January 7, 2025. Happy Holidays!
FSJ ACTS will be closed from December 21, 2024 until January 2, 2025.
I’m going to quit promising any kind of posting schedule or content because it’s clear I can’t keep up on it long-term. I will post when I can or when I have anything worth posting about.
Dog training has been slow for me, but not because there aren’t dogs who need training. I have myself invested in a lot of places. I have two kids (7 and 2) and since school just started back up we’ve had back to back sicknesses. We’ve just started potty training the two year old and that’s a whole new level of challenge. I am on the board of directors of the Fort St. James Animal Care Team Society (FSJ ACTS) and the animals of FSJ keep us very busy. I just started working weekends at The View Hotel, which means I no longer have availability on the weekends for dog training. My husband drives logging truck and his hours are long and all over the place which also makes scheduling difficult. As a side project, I’m also helping put together an art show for FSJ ACTS and (separately) I have put my crochet critters at So Divine Artisan Boutique. Not to mention, the kids activities, taking care of our home, and dealing with my injured foot for going on 16 months now.
I don’t normally air my personal life on here, but the reason I am explaining all of this is to ask you to please be patient with me. Scheduling is difficult right now, but I hope that by next summer I will find a new rhythm that will fit dog training into my life more. One of the things I really wanted to do was to check in with past clients. It’s been a year of dog training (already!) and I haven’t heard from most of you which I hope is a good thing. I would love to reach out to every single one of you. If you are a past client reading this, please feel free to get in touch with me and let me know how you and your dog are doing. I really love hearing updates. I love the good updates and I want to hear the bad updates so that I can help support you further.
FSJ Animal Care Team Society and Pope Mountain Arts are teaming up together to put on a group art show that will benefit the animals in the care of FSJ ACTS.
It’s open to all artists and all mediums. There is no theme, but an animal them or inspiration is encouraged. There’s no limit on the number of pieces to submit, but do keep in mind that this is a group art show and there is limited space.
For more information you can download our Information Package or email fsj.act@gmail.com
Once again, I’m slightly restructuring how I offer my services. There will be no price changes though, if anything, I am expanding my services. Since it’s become quite difficult for me to schedule training sessions and my space to train in for the winter is not ideal, I’ll be focusing on offering training consultations over the phone, Facebook messenger or e-mail.
Not to be confused with my previous consultations offered to help structure your training session to meet you and your dogs unique needs. To avoid confusion, the Over-The-Phone Consultation will now be known as a Phone Evaluation and the Online Consultation will be known as an Online Evaluation. The price of the training session will still be broken up between the Evaluation and the training session and will remain at the same price.
So what will be involved in a consultation that makes it different from an evaluation?
The evaluation is there to help make the most effective training session I can offer by evaluating your dog and your goals and values. With this information I will create a hands-on training session that will benefit you the most.
The consultation will include the evaluation but will also focus on advice I can give right away and a back and forth conversation that will help me determine the best advice I can offer over the phone or online. There is no broken down price because there is no hands-on training session. I may advise a training session for a later date, but the consultation will involve planning and create a training plan that is just for you that you can start right away on our own at home with your dog. The price for a consultation is $50 and includes a phone call or online based conversation that will cover the evaluation and then continue on with advice I can give right then and there. A follow up e-mail will be sent to you with a breakdown of what we discussed and any files or links to resources you may find helpful. If you require additional help then another consultation may be scheduled or you may schedule an in-person training session, if both parties agree that it is necessary.
I hope that with this new service I will be able to help more people shape desired behaviors in their dog and build healthy, long lasting relationships built on trust and respect.
Apparently, after promising to at least commit to the monthly updates I completely skipped June. I really didn’t have a whole lot going on in June, to be honest. My group class (that only had one person) ended in the beginning of June and then I just focused my time on my family for a little while.
Dog training picked up in July and I’ve been semi-consistently busy this month. LOTS of puppies! Which is always fun, I love working with puppies (I mean, who doesn’t?).
FAVORITE NAME FOR JULY
I feel like I should say my favorite name for July is Nova, since that is my youngest daughters name, but I sorry Nova, I think I have to go with Mungo for my favorite dog name of July. It’s honestly just so fun to say. I’m not sure if it has any sort of meaning behind it, I really should have asked the owner. But it doesn’t even have to have any sort of meaning, it’s just fun to say.
Mungo is one of the puppies that our Animal Care Team took in. In our care, his name was Dusky. He was a foster fail, and his new family just adores him and gave him the name Mungo. Which I think really suits him.
I didn’t get any photos of Mungo during our training session, but I did get the above photo of Mungo and his owner working beautifully together during Puppies in the Park.
FSJ ACTS UPDATE
FSJ ACTS officially has Society status now, which is so exciting. It means we will have access to a lot more funding. Unfortunately, we are still not a registered non-profit and can’t issue receipts for tax purposes, but with society status we will be able to help the animals just a bit more.
On July 7th I picked up my foster puppy Boss. FSJ ACTS has lots of puppies looking for homes that are currently in foster care. We have an awesome team of volunteers to help with kennel duty, but we wanted to give our volunteers a break and give our puppies a chance to learn how to live life in a family and home environment.
Boss has fit in really nicely. Zelda wasn’t too sure about him at first but he slowly grew on her and now they are Besties. He’s great with my two girls (7 and 2 years old) and is learning not to steal snacks or toys. He’s learning a lot of things in our house and I’ve given him a slow adjustment to house life. To make this easier for him to learn the rules (especially for house training) I have kept him on leash in the house a lot of the time. He gets leashed to either myself or a study piece of furniture so that I can keep him within eye sight at all times. He’s also been introduced to the cats. My older cat Jarroko has been extremely patient and the best cat to teach him the ropes about cats. My poor younger cat Alice is terrified of him and has been living behind the hot tub for the last couple weeks.
Boss knows how to sit, down and “go kennel”. He’s learning to sit at doorways and gates (this is very tough for him), he sits for his meals and he sits to be leashed. He is a very sweet boy who loves people and wants to please. This makes him quite trainable. He has the sweetest disposition and loves catching a nap in a good sun patch. Boss is also really great on leash and responds well to loose-leash training.
If you’re interested in adopting Boss, please let me know if you’d like to arrange to meet him!
FSJ ACTS FUNDRAISERS
For the month of July the Fort St. James Bottle Depot collected donations for FSJ ACTS. The total raised in the month was $1,000. Thank you SO much for your generosity. This money will go towards our vet bills.
There is a fundraiser through As You Wish Custom Designs (based in Prince George) where $2 for every purchase goes to FSJ ACTS. FOLLOW THE LINK to order yours! Here are some handsome pooches with their stylish custom tags…
PUPPIES IN THE PARK
On July 20th I hosted the first Puppies in the Park; a spin on our classic “Pack in the Park” but it was for puppies up to 10 months old (who have been vaccinated). There’s a lot of fear about Parvo (and for good reason) so I had a lot of interest but a lot of puppies who aren’t vaccinated enough yet to attend public dog events like this. I had a couple of people attend and it was a blast of course, puppies always are, but there is a definite need to do this again next month once more puppies have had their shots.
I’ve had tons of people ask me about when I’ll do another Pack in the Park and I decided to create a texting list for those who want to be notified when the next Pack in the Park is happening. If you’d like to join this list, please let me know.
I promised this long list of upcoming articles and then completely fell off the face of the Earth. I thought if I had a schedule of articles to stick to it would help me post consistently, but it did not help at all. Spring hit and I’ve struggled to even open my laptop ever since. After some self-reflection, I’ve decided that the only blog posts I’m going to commit to posting is the monthly updates. I may throw in other posts here and there, depending on my time and mood. However, I think for the summer it would be best to cut back on my post commitments.
BASIC OBEDIENCE WORKSHOP
May was a bit of a slow month for me, when it comes to training. I had one private lesson and launched my group class which, unfortunately, only had one person sign up. I’m struggling to get commitment from Fort St. James dog owners and I’m wondering if it’s the same Spring time struggles I’m facing with committing to anything consistently myself, right now. Whatever the reasons, I’m still going through with the class. I designed the price so that if this happened I wouldn’t be losing money and it still felt somewhat worth going. My one client in this group class has the most amazing soft, floppy hound pup so that definitely makes it worth-while.
The United Church has been awesome to rent, though. I’ve rented the space in the past for the K9 First Aid Course and it’s very affordable (especially if you provide clean up afterwards, which I totally don’t mind doing) and they allow dogs. When I started phoning around looking for a space to do a group class in, the United Church wasn’t my first pick, simply because it’s not the biggest space and wouldn’t allow for very many people and their dogs. However, I ran into issues with many places not wanting dogs in them and/or issues with insurance. The United Church is very accommodating and laid back to deal with; they’ve been fantastic.
Since I was unable to fill the class up, I do have a few spaces available and am opening it up to Drop-Ins.
Drop-ins can attend any of the following classes, and do not need to commit to the whole course. It is $40 to drop in, and I take cash or debit.
Saturday, June 1st
10am-11am
Stay
Stay Circle
Jackpot Rewards
Distractions and Challenges
Saturday, June 8th
10am – 11am
Watch Command
Automatic Sit
Come (recall)
Saturday, June 8th
10am – 11am
Heel
Phasing Out Treats
FAVORITE NAME FOR APRIL & MAY: ZERO
I actually didn’t really have a favorite name from my clients dogs (sorry!). I only had a few clients and all of their dogs had pretty normal names that could even pass for people names. I like quirky or weird names on animals… We have a Zelda, Jarroko and Alice (named from Alice in Wonderland by my daughter) in our household. So, while I thought those dogs all totally suited their names and they are great on them! There aren’t any that stand out as a favorite…
Except Zero, whom is a dog I met but did not work with. I love the name Zero on a dog because I have always adored The Nightmare Before Christmas and the ghostly dog Zero. My sister used to have a dog named Zero that I adored, a well. I did not get a picture of the Zero I recently met though, I wish I had as he was a beautiful dog. Here’s a photo of my sister’s Zero dog with my two (who have since passed a long time ago). Left to right: Coal, Linkin Bark and Zero.
FORT ST. JAMES ANIMAL CARE TEAM SOCIETY
The FSJ ACT is becoming FSJ ACTS! We are getting our society status. We still won’t be able to write receipts for donations as we won’t be a non-profit, but as a society we are eligible for more funding that we desperately need.
FSJ ACTS took on a one-time difficult case with a dog named Meeko who needed some medical care and we decided to take on the challenge to help. He is a very special dog and worth the care and effort. A great big THANK YOU to our team members Shannon, Katie and April for taking care of Meeko. Shannon has fostered him and cared for him and Katie has helped with his daily bandage changes and medical care. April helped bring Meeko to the vet every week, which is a couple hours from our community. We really need help with his overwhelming vet bills. Please read more of his story HERE and if you can contribute anything (even $5) to help with his medical costs we would greatly appreciate it.
We’ve also been working hard at fundraising, spay and neuter trips, vaccine clinics and general animal emergency help. To be honest, I could very easily write a whole separate blog about the Animal Care Team and what we’ve been up to. The animals are keeping us busy!
Every single one of our Care Team members is so valuable and every single person who helps volunteer and connect us to the resources we need are the blood pumping through our team’s collective veins. The individuals on our team bring so much skills, knowledge, heart and determination and the community helps support us in reaching our goals. It’s been amazing to be a part of and watch what people are capable of when we put a little effort and cooperation in.
TRICK OF THE MONTH: CENTER
Definition: the dog approaches from behind you, goes between your legs and stands shoulder to knee between your legs
Use: a great way to keep your dog very close to you. It can be helpful in crowded or small spaces (ie; an elevator)
How to teach “Center”
Teaching your dog requires a lure (I use a bit of a tasty treat) and you need to start from the end result and work backwards. First you will stand right in front of your dog (facing away) and lure/call them between your legs.
Once your dog is understanding that you want them to stand between your legs and stay there, you can start to add in distance and different angles to approach from so that you can call your dog to the trick from anywhere.
Instead of standing (with your back to the dog) directly in front of them, start a little ways away from them and start to creep to the side a bit. Keep adding more distance and different angles until you can call your dog to the center position from anywhere (with them in front of you too). It just takes adding that distance (and angles) very slowly and gradually over time.
You will also need to gradually increase the amount of time your dog spends staying in this position. Once rewarded, dogs often consider their job over. Remind them that you would like them to stay in this position until released. If they break too early (whether you rewarded them or not) get them back into position and try again. Give your dog the release command and then toss a jackpot reward a little ways away from you, so that your dog knows it’s time to leave the position. When you reward your dog for staying in position you can slip little tidbits down to them so that they don’t need to move to get their reward. After several repetitions of this, your dog will learn the difference and learn to stay in position until a release command is given.
I’ve done a brief video to demonstrate how to train this trick. I hope it helps! It was my first time doing a video like this and it came with it’s own unexpected challenges. Hopefully next month I can come up with something a little better. Please let me know if you have issues playing it due to Instagram, and if so, next time I’ll load it to YouTube to embed it better.
I get a lot of confusion on how my dog training is set up. I don’t have group classes (at this time), you don’t get a certificate of completion when your dog is done training with me, there is no structured repeated sessions unless you want them. What I do is customize your training session so that you get the most success out of it. I do not stick to one type of training method, I use many methods and many training tools to help support the owners training goals, their dog’s individual personality as well as the personal morals of the owner. If you don’t want to use a training collar we will find another way. If you don’t like using treats we will work on phasing them out and relying on other forms of praise. I’m here to help you and support you during your training journey with your dog.
My name is Shara and I run Fort St. James Dog Training. I got my certification for Advanced Obedience & Kennel Management and Master Dog Trainer in 2007, and my certificate for Behavior Evaluator in 2008. I stopped training for a long time and focused on starting my family and my artwork until 2023 when I jumped back into dog training. I was certified for Canine CPR and Emergency First Aid in the summer of 2023.
There are several steps to getting a training session set up with me, and I will walk you through the process below.
Step One: First Contact
It is up to you, the owner, to contact me. There are many ways people do this, but my preferred method of contact is via email (slsartistryinfo@gmail.com) or Facebook Messenger on my Fort St. James Dog Training page.
When you first contact me, there really isn’t a lot of need to go into too much detail about your dog and any problem behaviors you’re experiencing. We will cover all of that very soon. All I need to know is that you’re interested, you’d like to get some training on your dog, and whether you live in Fort St. James or one of the surrounding towns and communities.
I will give you the same speech I give everyone who contacts me, I want to be upfront and transparent about my style of training, the cost, and what my training sessions feature. For the sake of this post, I will get into more detail on these features below.
Step Two: Consultation
Before your session can be booked you will first need to do a consultation. The consultation helps me understand what your goals are for your dog, your morals around different training methods, and information about your dog so that I know what kind of training methods they may respond to best and where any problem behaviors may be stemming from. All of the information I gather during the consultation helps me to put together a training session for you that is custom-designed to meet your needs.
There are two ways to complete the consultation.
The Online Consultation is $20 CAD and most convenient for you and myself because you can fill it out whenever and I will take the time to go over it when it’s best for me (I usually go over it within 24 hours of you submitting your online consultation).
The Over-the-Phone Consultation is $40 CAD and because we get to talk over the phone there is more back-and-forth, allowing follow up and extra questions that I may come up with as we go over the consultation questions. You also get a chance to ask me any questions you may have and I am able to get a little more in-depth information to best create your training session. The over-the-phone consultation sometimes takes longer to take place due to scheduling conflicts.
The same questionnaire is used for both consultations, but the over-the-phone consultation allows for back-and-forth conversation.
Step Three: Book The Training Session
The training session can be booked at any time, but if you do not pay for and complete the consultation by 2 days before your scheduled session, then it will be canceled.
My current available times are Tuesdays and Thursday 11AM or 1PM. If these times don’t work for you I can make arrangements to book on the weekend or a different day, but it may take me time to arrange childcare (whereas I already have it lined up for Tues and Thurs).
Step Four: Your Training Session
The type of training session you receive will be decided by me after reviewing your consultation. Most owners have an idea of what type of session they will need before I tell them, though. Each training session is 1-hour long. This is a very long time to train a dog for (you usually want to spend 5-10 minutes on it at a time) but we spend a lot of time discussing a lot of things and we will spend 1/4 to 1/2 the session actually working hands-on with your dog.
Puppy Training Session is for puppies between 10 weeks and 11 months. It covers all the common puppy topics such as crate training, house training, nipping/chewing, jumping, barking, and introduction to training. We usually cover recall because it’s the most important to start building towards right away. A puppy training session is $40 CAD.
Obedience Training Session covers the 5 basic commands and is for any puppy that has already completed my puppy training session and is ready to move on to more advanced lessons, or any adult do that needs a refresher or is just learning basic obedience commands. The five basic commands are sit, down, stay, heel and recall (come). We will try to cover all five in the one hour, but this is entirely dependent on the dog. Some dogs may already have a good understanding of most of the commands, some may be learning all from scratch, some may need to just start over due to bad habits already developed. Depending on the methods used in training, we may discuss ways to safely use training collars and how to eventually phase treats out of training. The obedience training session is $50 CAD.
Problem Behaviors Session is for any behaviors that are causing problems, undesired, or concerning. This may be something like jumping, digging, barking or dog reactivity, separation anxiety etc. A problem behaviors session is $60 CAD. Puppies tend to display problem behaviors because they’re simply untrained and don’t know any better. It is a lot easier to teach a puppy what not to do vs trying to train that undesired behavior out of a dog who has already been doing it a long time and developed bad habits. Puppies with problem behaviors will not fall under this session and will receive a puppy session.
A Note on Articles
I write a lot of articles to go with many common topics. I will give you either a paper copy or PDF digital copy of these articles based on your consultation and your training session. It will be on topics that relate to what we discuss and what you and your dog are learning.
Most of these articles are still heavily in the editing phase, so I ask all my clients to ignore basic typos and grammar errors, but to let me know if the wording doesn’t make sense or something isn’t explained very clearly.
Step Five: Follow Up
I am here to help you with your dog. I want to know if you run into any problems or the advice I give you doesn’t work. I also want to know if it does! I have no way of knowing if you’re successful in reaching your training goals with my aid unless you keep in touch and tell me. I always love hearing updates from my clients.
If something isn’t helpful or your struggling with it then I want to know so that I can further help you. Once you are signed up for dog training with me I am committed to helping you for the rest of your dogs life! You can contact me any time with any problem or success. If I feel like you have a lot of problems or particular things to work on, or that it might be more helpful for me to be able to demonstrate with your dog in-person then I might suggest another training session.
If you need additional sessions, the type of session will be decided on after a brief conversation with you during booking. A consultation is not required for additional sessions that are within 6 months of each other. If it’s been 6 months or longer you will need to purchase a consultation again.
I was going to post something different this week; I wanted to post a blog I have written about what to expect from Fort St. James Dog Training. It covers everything from first contact to the consultation, session and follow up. However, since I missed posting the last two weeks that bumped us into the middle of the month faster than I expected and it’s time for another monthly update! The post I had planned for today will instead be bumped to next week.
So far, the month of March has been pretty quiet. My family have just been battling one cold after another. I think I spoke too soon when I said we got away with less sickness this winter than last and the germs are trying to show me to put my foot where my mouth is. It’s like we suddenly got hit with all of it in one month. Which is why I missed posting the last two weeks.
In February I had set the goal of doubling the amount of dogs I trained vs the month before, and I not only met that goal but surpassed it. I knew that setting a similar goal for March would be unrealistic as I just don’t have enough available hours for training to work with 20 dogs in one month. I’m fine with that, sometimes we need our goals to be realistic so that we don’t become overwhelmed in reaching them. I’ve trained a handful of dogs so far this month and each one is always so special to me. Even if I only trained one dog in the month I’d still consider it a success because I was able to help someone with their dog. After all, that is what I’m here for.
Favorite February Name: Tyrion
One of the many little delights I’ve found in dog training is learning what people name their dogs. My favorite dog name from February was a sweet little dog named Tyrion. As a Game of Thrones fan, this name is an absolute hoot (especially on a small dog).
Tyrion’s owners were also very enthusiastic about training; they are working hard to reach their training goals and I loved seeing them attend Pack in the Park and really put in the work. Way to go guys!
A close second was a corgi named Kevin.
Business License
Fort St. James Dog Training was supposed to start as an official licensed business March 1st. I was sick leading up to March so I didn’t get a chance to get to the District Office before March 1st but went in on the day of. It was my experience (from eons ago) that you could get a business license the same day. I even downloaded their form from the District website and filled it out beforehand to save time. When I brought it to the office I was met with a lot of confusion. I was told they couldn’t do it that day. When I expressed my surprise, I was told ” yeah, we have to do it the right way now.” I was a bit shocked at that answer. “You weren’t doing it the right way?” I asked and the answer I got back was “no” and then a mumble about high turnover. So I think maybe the people at the office just didn’t know how to do it? I was told they’d be in contact with me after looking it over. It’s been almost 2 weeks since I dropped it off, how long does it take to look over one sheet of paper? I phoned this morning and was told they e-mailed me, but I never got it. I don’t understand why they didn’t phone. I feel like people have lost the art of the phone call these days (does complaining about that make me old?). They needed my registration number and I don’t understand why that wasn’t an option to fill out on the application. At any rate, I am annoyed and I have to say, after that experience I’m really not left with a lot of confidence in our District workers.
animal welfare updates
Our little group has been working really hard to re-establish the Fort St. James Humane Society. We’ve dotted most of our i‘s and crossed most of our t‘s but there’s still a few little things to work out so we’re keeping our rescue missions on the down low until they are finished so that we don’t become overwhelmed. There are a LOT of animals needing help in our community and a lot of owners who need help with their animals. It’s going to take time to really start making an impactful difference.
Last week we executed our first big rescue mission since re-assembling an Animal Care Team. It was a drop in the bucket of a larger issue, but we changed the world of 17 puppies and that’s amazing. People from difference communities all came together to make this mission a success. In honor of an Animal Care Team member who passed away recently, we named this first rescue Mission Chantel. Chantel loved animals and really wanted to see our efforts in animal rescue be successful.
One Saturday, March 9th, 16 puppies (one ended up being adopted by one of our members) were loaded up and transported to Quesnel, where the Victoria Humane Society transport driver met our driver with their beautiful van and the 16 puppies were transferred from one vehicle to the other. VHS drove them back to Victoria where they were all quickly bathed, vetted and placed in foster homes.
As I said, a lot of people were involved in this rescue mission and it went quite smoothly and I would say was a total success! A huge thank you to the people who worked hard to orchestrate the whole thing and cared for these sweet little babies while they waited for transfer. This mission would not have been successful without everyone who played a part.
You can learn more about Mission Chantel on Facebook here and here.
If you would like to be a part of the solution get in touch with the Fort St. James Humane Support Group and see what you can help with! One thing we never seem to have enough of is foster homes. Since we don’t have a physical building to house animals, we need people to open their hearts and homes to house any animals we take in. If we don’t have a place for them to go, we can’t help them.
Novice Trick dog
One of my goals with Zelda is to get her a Novice Trick Dog (NTD) title. I love training tricks to dogs. I love the way they need to be broken down into different behaviors that you then shape together.
Trick dog titles can be obtained through Do More With Your Dog. For a NTD you need 15 tricks to be evaluated by an evaluator either online via video or in-person. Some basic obedience counts and advanced and expert tricks count as two towards the NTD. For more information, check out their website.
Zelda’s trick list currently consists of:
(1) sit
novice
(2) down
novice
(3) shake hands
intermediate
(4) sit pretty/beg
intermediate
(5) spin circles
novice
(6) roll over
intermediate
(7) leg weave
intermediate
(8) center
novice
(9) stay
novice
(10) touch hand (nose touch)
novice
(11) focus (watch me)
novice
(12) drop on recall
advanced
Trick of the Month: Center
Definition: Come from behind and stand between the handler’s legs (shoulder to knee)
Command Variations: “center”, “peekaboo”
Behavior: Break down into two parts: dog stands between your legs and dog moves from in front to behind you
Use: To position a dog where you want them
This trick doesn’t have a lot of practical use, but is a fun extra to train your dog. It can act as a party trick or can come in handy when participating in dog sports, such as dog agility, where you want to get your dog set up in a specific spot to start.
How To Train “Center”
Stand in front of your dog but facing away. Bend down and hold a treat in one hand and motion with your hands for your dog to come through your legs. As soon as the dog is in position reward them. Keep practicing until you feel like your dog understands to stand between your legs. Start connecting your command with the behavior.
Next you will need to teach them to go to that position from anywhere and facing you from any direction to start. Since you started teaching this trick with your dog behind you, gradually start to turn your body so that they’re approaching from the side. Practice many times until your dog is doing it smoothly. Try again after turning your body a bit more and continue to train this way until you have turned enough to be facing your dog when the command is given. The dog must go around and then get into position from behind you.
Add Distractions
It’s important to always gradually add distractions when training any new command. Once your dog is understanding without a lure in a quiet room move on to a less quiet room. Start throwing in distractions of other people, animals, and different places. You can test your dog by throwing a small box across the floor, have someone else blow a whistle, roll a ball past the dog, throw a treat etc. There are endless ways to test your dog out. Create the distraction and give the command, “center” and if your dog struggles to look at you despite the distraction then you need a bit more work in the quiet room or with a less challenging distraction. Slowly build those distractions inside your home and then try outside your home. Try in your yard and then move on to a local park, beach, down town etc. If your dog struggles with the new level of challenge then you need to take a step back and work a bit more at a lower challenge.
We’re almost halfway through the month so I figured it was time for my monthly update.
In January I helped 4 people gain new skills with their dogs, and for February I’d like to double that number. I’m establishing a weekly routine for dog training now that I’m feeling like I’m starting to get into the swing of. I was mostly a stay-at-home-mom for over 7 years so having a schedule (outside of my kids schedule) has been challenging to stick to. I keep track of all my clients by their first name and their dogs name because I’m more likely to remember their dog than them. Sorry, but it’s the truth, no offense intended.
One of my favorite things so far about training dogs again is learning what people name their dogs. I think this sparks an idea for a new monthly segment on the blog: favorite dog name! My favorite dog name for January was Darla. I know she’s named from the Little Rascals (which in itself is great), but I’ve been re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel for a while now and one of my favorite characters is Darla.
Last month’s update I mentioned changing my prices. I am still planning to raise my prices to help balance my cost after adding the online consultation. Because I had worked my prices to include the phone consultation as part of it, when I added the online consultation I lost $20 off every session. I will be recouping that by adjusting the prices of my sessions. This price change will be in effect starting March 1st, which is our official business launch date! So book now, if you want to take advantage of my current low prices.
On Sunday we had our first meeting for the Fort St. James Humane Society. Currently, just an idea and a dream, but we’d love to re-establish the humane society in our community. The Humane Society was established in 2008, did a lot of good in our community and had a lot of community support, and then it was dissolved about 5 years ago after the founder and some board members moved or experienced burnout. Since then it’s been a small handful of people just trying to do right by the animals. I think we’re in a position now where we have more people to help, more support from community leaders, and people have seen how much these issues have compounded in the last couple years. Heck, it’s why I got back into dog training. I was just tired of people complaining but never trying to fix the problems; I decided I’d actually do something and it all started with Pack in the Park.
You can view the meeting minutes here and the next meeting is February 25th at 1PM at the View Hotel. We had a good turnout last time and I’d love to see even more next time! A special thank you to April, Monica and Lesley for bringing this meeting together and spearheading this project. Another thank you to Diane who couldn’t make it to the meeting but has been doing so much for animal welfare that I feel she deserves a thank you too.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
I can’t talk about local animal rescue without also talking about volunteer opportunities. Want to help and get involved?
There is a raffle for Bingo at Kwah Hall February 22nd, donations can be dropped off between 4 and 5PM. Food and raffle items are needed. Popular foods: soup, chili, chow mein, jello cups with cool whip. Contact the Fort St. James Humane Support Group for more information or to find out other ways you can get involved.
Trick of the Month: Target
I tried to do a “trick of the month” for a trick training club last year and struggled to get interest in it. I think I’ll just be sort of adding it onto my monthly updates as I’m working on them with my own dog Zelda. Right now I am capturing the behavior with “yes” every time she touches the post-it with her nose. We are just starting this trick, but I’ll post progress as we go.
Teaching a dog to target your hand with their nose (touch your hand with their nose) is a behavior that can be shaped into many other tricks such as closing a door or turning on a light switch.
I like to use a Post-it (sticky note) to help make the transfer between your hand and other objects easier. When I first taught my dog this trick, I wanted him to close a door. I first taught him to touch my hand and then when I tried to get him to target the door he just kept booping my hand. The sticky note made it so much easier to communicate to him that I wanted him to touch his nose to something other than my hand.
The command you use should be something simple and easy to remember. You can use “target”, “touch”, “nose” or whatever makes sense to you. You can either start using the command right away, or start incorporating it once your dog is making the connection.
Stick a sticky note to your hand and hold it out to your dog. When they sniff at the sticky note say “yes!” (or use a clicker) and reward them with their favorite treat. Keep repeating. If your dog no longer seems interested in the sticky note at all, you can try holding a treat under your thumb in the sticky note hand or rub a treat on the sticky note to make it smell good. Some dogs may try to bite or take the sticky note; discourage this. Only reward for the dogs nose touching the sticky note. You can also sort of wave the sticky note in front of them, or move it a little closer into their view. Basically, you’re hinting “hey, it has to do with this thing”. Make sure to give them time to work the problem out in their mind. Hint at the sticky note and then wait and see what they figure out. If they don’t seem to be getting it at all then hint harder, maybe use a treat in that hand etc. but try to give the dog time to figure it out first.
Once your dog starts to make the connection that they need to touch their nose to the sticky notet, try moving your hand away from them a bit more, maybe a bit higher or on the ground. Move it around to make it more challenging.
When you know your dog has figured it out then it’s time to try transferring the sticky note to whatever you want them to do. Whether it’s to close a door, flip a light switch or push a ball, use the sticky note to let your dog know it’s time to touch their nose to something other than your hand.
At this point you can also stop using the sticky note and get your dog to touch your hand with their nose without it.
Shara Walsh 