On a daily basis at our dog training facility in Northern Virginia, I tell people, “My first piece of expert advice is to go home, throw away this retractable leash, and buy a standard 4′-6′ leash.” In my blog on The Key Elements To A Proper Heel, I discuss in more...

  Anytime someone is not located close to our dog training facility in Northern Virginia, we always get asked if we can recommend a good certified dog trainer.   This is something that always amuses me. People do not realize, there is NO “real” dog trainer certification.  Meaning, if...

    Every single day at our dog training facility in Northern Virginia we hear people say, “My dog listens to my husband (or wife), but he doesn’t listen to me.” So, what we immediately begin doing is asking them questions to see “why” the dynamic of your relationship...

  Three OLK9 Trained Pit Bulls   At our dog training lessons in Northern Virginia, we always cover the things you should and should not do while working with your dog in-between sessions.  We will cover a few of these things in this blog. Overtraining: Regardless of what training method you...

At our dog training facility in Northern Virginia, we do everything from personal protection dogs (bite dogs), drug dogs, basic/advanced obedience, and behavioral issues. So naturally, people see our numerous videos on YouTube of our trained dogs doing bite work and they call us or email us to because...

    At our dog training facility in Northern Virginia, we always get asked about foods that people should avoid their dog eating.  There are quite a lot of of them, actually.  Anyone with a dogs knows that it can sometimes be hard to completely prevent your counter-surfing dog from snatching...

  Training a dog to heel is one of our most requested and needed commands at our dog training facility in Northern Virginia.  We currently have over 430+ Before/After videos on our Youtube Channel, most of these videos show dogs we have trained off-leash heeling with distractions.  The picture above...

Toy Aggression is a behavioral issue we deal with a lot at our dog training facility in Northern Virginia. First, we will start with prevention, to ensure you never have this problem with your dog. Anytime we do our puppy training classes at our Northern Virignia facility, I always tell the owners to...

  At our dog training facility in Northern Virginia, we hear stories of owners getting bit while breaking up a dog fight on a daily basis. Once this happens, the owner usually calls us for two reasons: 1) Because their dog got into a fight with another dog and they want to help ensure it doesn’t...

At our dog training facility in Northern Virginia, I always ensure I warn people about killing their dog’s drive through obedience training. When many people come through our dog obedience training program in Virginia, they are so excited to have their new, listening, well-behaved, and good mannered...

We deal with leash aggression in dogs weekly at our dog training facility in Northern Virginia. An important study to first reference is one which was recently done on 2000 dogs at Mendel University in the Czech Republic. In 2000 dogs of varying breed, age, and size; researchers noted that dogs who were...

At our dog training facility in Northern Virginia, we always get asked, “What is the hardest breed of dog to train?” Seemingly, this is a very simple question that someone is waiting for us to give them an immediate answer; however, it’s not that simple. At our dog training facility...

Your dog eating their own stool actually isn’t uncommon, it’s a question we get regularly at our dog training business in Northern Virginia. Many owners are completely appalled and disgusted at this behavior; however, it’s somewhat common and normal for many dogs. The official term...

We stress mental and physical stimulation on a daily basis at our dog training facility in Northern Virginia. The importance of physical and mental exercise cannot be stressed enough as to what it takes in order to raise a perfect dog. Dogs are like people—they need stimulation, they need to get out,...

We always get questions about owners’ dogs submissively or excitedly urinating during our puppy training classes in Northern Virginia. What we hear all of the time is, “My puppy does this anytime my husband comes in the room, I swear he has never hit him or did anything to him.” People...

Many owners ask, “How do I stop my dog from chewing on things when they are home alone?”  This is an issue we correct on a daily basis at our dog training facility in Northern Virginia. First, you must realize some of the main reasons that dogs do chew or destroy things: -Attention Seeking -Teething –Separation...

At our dog training program in Northern Virginia, we stress the importance of verbal and visual cues in training our dogs.  Dogs learn mostly through verbal cues, visual cues,  vocal tones, repetition, correction, and praise (just like us humans). First, we will discuss keeping your commands simplistic!...

  We only do private dog training sessions at our facility in Northern Virginia, there are many reasons for this. First, I always say, “I have never seen a dog that impressed me in obedience that did it through group training or group sessions.”   I have said this for years, and to...

At our Dog Training Center in Northern Virginia, we get asked about group classes on a daily basis. Being around almost every style of training program, I have yet to be impressed with group classes or group training sessions.  As I say on a daily basis at our private dog training sessions in Northern...

At our Dog Training Program in Northern Virginia, many people ask “How can I have a healthy, happy, and energetic dog?” Everyone who’s ever owned a dog, knows that special feeling you get when they welcome you home after a long day. They share their unconditional love with you whether...

At our Puppy Training Classes in Northern Virginia, we address play biting and nipping a lot.  Many people refer to this behavior as different things such as, play biting, nipping, and mouthing. Some dogs are more prone to this than other dogs; such as, Malinois, Australian Shepherds,  German Shepherd,...

At our dog training center in Northern Virginia, we always tell people to stay away from dog parks. Many people wrongly assume that dogs parks are great for socializing, letting their dog burn off energy, and playing; however, more often than not it will eventually end badly. Do not take your puppy to...

    People ask about clicker training everyday at our dog training facility in Northern Virginia. This method is also based solely on positive reinforcement training for dogs. If you are not familiar with clicker training, a clicker is a small mechanical-like device that the owner (handler)...

Naturally people ask us, “How can I get my dog to listen when he is distracted” like your dogs at your training in Northern Virginia? Many people watch our 400+ videos on our YouTube Channel and they see the dogs we train in Northern Virginia performing flawless obedience: outside, off-leash,...

When many people are looking for an obedience training program in Northern Virginia, they always ask us, “Is it better to participate in the training with my dog, or do your 2-week board and train intensive obedience training program?” I always tell people, when it comes to which dog training...

    On a daily basis at our dog training facility in Northern Virginia, we are talking to people about reading their dog’s body language to better help predict their dog’s behavior and make them understand their dog better. There is a big misconception with people that a wagging...

We deal with food aggressive dogs at our training facility in Northern Virginia, a lot. So, many of you are probably wondering, “How can I stop food aggression with my dog?” Click here to see a before/after video of a food aggressive Pit Bull we just recently trained at our dog training facility...

The question always comes up, “How do I keep my dog from escaping his or her crate (cage)?” This is a very simple question; however, more of a complex answer. First off, many dogs who are escape artists and are constantly escaping their cage, may have some form of separation anxiety. There...

At our dog training facility in Northern Virginia, we do a puppy training/consultation program as early as 8-10 weeks old. However, we really do not put too much focus on “obedience” per se at that age, we focus on things that we consider more important for puppy development; such as, bonding,...

On a daily basis at our dog training facility in Northern Virginia, people contact us and ask if it’s possible to fix their people aggressive dog. When working with dogs that are people aggressive, I believe the first step is understanding what the aggression is based off of before you can properly...