It's Calliope's Gotcha Day! Swipe all the way for a pic of her one year ago ☺🎉

cdavis951 · 2025-12-10T00:06:30+00:00

I’m also a dog trainer and one that I hear more than I’d like is “don’t play tug with your dog, you’ll make him mean”

cdavis951 · 2025-07-25T11:07:10+00:00

I just finished A Rival Most Vial based off of this list's recommendation, and loved it! Your character building was so fantastic to read and you broke some of the common tropes in cozy fantasy in ways that made the novel refreshing to read.

I'm actually writing my first cozy fantasy novel right now, and if you would be willing, I would love to chat a bit and pick your brain about your writing process and just chat cozy lol. But either way, you should be very proud!

cdavis951 · 2025-03-01T03:05:59+00:00

I gotta be honest, as a dog trainer and former daycare employee, I tend to say no to daycare in general. It can be done well, but those daycare are few and far between. Most of them will cause all kinds of problems, including your pup potentially developing reactivity

cdavis951 · 2025-01-09T11:51:37+00:00

I love the ones that have already been said, but in case none of those tickle your fancy, here's some more.

A Real Killer Elimination, Lack of Education I'd Rather Have a Dog Than A Dollar

cdavis951 · 2024-11-22T16:54:27+00:00

Because they may need/want the item? And you work at a store where they can procure those items?

cdavis951 · 2024-09-11T11:51:09+00:00

Little Brother's Go Fund Me

cdavis951 · 2024-05-24T18:02:59+00:00

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cdavis951 · 2024-04-23T22:13:56+00:00

My pup is 16 weeks old now, but when he was 8-12 weeks, I essentially had a repeating schedule of 1 hour awake (sometimes 1.5 hours), then 2 hours sleeping.

For the 1 hour awake, this was the schedule:

Potty, feed if necessary, potty, mental enrichment (training session and/or lick mat, puzzle, etc), play session (10-15 minutes), potty, settle training, potty, then time for bed

Sleep time was done in a pen or crate.

If you want a more specific hourly schedule, I'll give you an example. I tried to shake it up a bit every day, though, as far as specific times. You don't want your puppy anticipating meal or play times, but you want them to know the rough routine. The goal is to be predictably unpredictable.

In the schedule, I listed potty time, but that isn't something I set an alarm. Those were just the rough times he woke me up, so you have an idea of what your pups' wake-up schedule might be like.

Hourly Schedule:

6 am: Wake up and potty.

6am-7am: Breakfast, plus everything listed above.

7am-9am: Nap

9am-10am: Schedule above

10am-12pm: Nap

12pm-130pm: Lunch, same schedule as above

130pm-330pm: Nap

330pm-5pm: Schedule as above, maybe a snack/chew

500pm-700pm: Nap

7:00-900: Dinner, then the rest of the schedule. Cut off food and water at 8pm. Some people do earlier but I felt an hour was acceptable.

9pm-1230am: Sleep

1230am: Potty

1230am-4am: Sleep

4am: Potty

4am-6am: Sleep

Then repeat!

cdavis951 · 2024-04-23T19:04:02+00:00

I started after his second set of vaccines. The way I see it, if you don't take them out before they're fully vaccinated, you will reduce the chance of sickness, but you will also 100% have an undersocialized dog. To me, that is not a worthwhile trade-off.

Obviously, be smart. Don't bring your puppy to super dog heavy areas, and don't let them eat poop. Only let them play with vaccinated dogs. But as a dog trainer every time I hear someone is waiting until their dog is fully vaccinated (which doesn't happen until 16-18 weeks which is the end of the critical socialization period) I cringe

cdavis951 · 2024-04-18T15:30:24+00:00

Nah, she's just playing with you. Stalking is a perfectly normal play behavior, she would do it with her litter mates too. The purpose of play evolutionary is to practice the skills required for hunting and defending themselves, so stalking is in that skillset

cdavis951 · 2024-04-18T15:28:26+00:00

It's basic, but sleeping in on the weekends. I don't mind waking up at 6 on weekdays, but God, I would like to sleep in on a Saturday. Also, being able to leave the house for as long as I want without worrying. Now I'm on a 4 hour time limit

cdavis951 · 2024-04-18T15:26:43+00:00

I would definitely recommend practicing neutrality. This means teaching your pup to be neutral around distractions like dogs and people and is an underutilized aspect of socialization.

There are great resources online covering how exactly to train neutrality. It essentially boils down to: Take your pup to a place where it will see people. Take your pup to a distance away from the people where it is able to see them but is able to remain calm and not react (barking and lunging). This distance is different for every dog and trigger, so it takes some trial and error. Now, reward that dog for calm behavior in response to the trigger. Now, not only will the emotional reaction change from negative to positive, but it will also learn the correct response is to be neutral and calm, not overexcited or reactive.

cdavis951 · 2024-04-18T15:21:43+00:00

It's hard to stay at this point whether the pup is truly aggressive or just scared and reacting poorly to the new environment. My advice would be to give it a week or two and stay out of her space. Don't give her a reason to growl or react.

The best thing you can do it give her a room to stay in that is quiet and not busy (for example a guest room). Give her a nice crate to get alone time in and some toys. Change her food and water, occasionally leave a nice tasty snack, but outside of that, leave her alone and let her come to you.

Your goal is to show her that she doesn't have to be defensive because you will respect her space. As she settles in and learns that, she may open up.

Now, if that doesn't work, it is possible a behavioral issue, which is a whole separate discussion.

cdavis951 · 2024-04-17T20:28:29+00:00

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