A well- behaved dog is a happy dog. A happy dog is a dog who has been taught what to do in most situations and chooses those behaviors voluntarily because there is no downside to them. Learn how to reward your dog by reinforcing the calm, polite and attentive behaviors. Successfully modify any nuisance behaviors that might be inadvertently reinforced such as excessive barking, barking/lunging/jumping on people entering the house, leash aggression towards other dogs or a variety of anxiety issues. At Dog Relations, I find solutions for these and many other problems that make it clear and straightforward for you both! I teach the basic skills of course but also teach the dogs when and how to use those skills without nagging or prompting. We know that dogs thrive when they know how to have choice and control. All we need to do is heavily reinforce incompatible replacement behaviors for the ones that are natural to dogs but do not align with our human point of view. The dogs can confidently choose those highly rewarded and reinforced behaviors and you get to be the proud and loving guardian communicating with kindness, attention and all the love you are ready to give.
All too often guardians inadvertently provide reinforcement for undesirable behaviors. As part of my private training, I teach you how to become aware of how inadvertent reinforcement happens so that you can avoid those common pitfalls while having a loving, caring and fun relationship with your dog.
Dogs and humans who are prepared and know what to do in situations that make them feel uncomfortable will greatly reduce the risk of accidents or conflicts. Learn how to keep everyone safe by managing the environment while you are in the learning process and prevent the behavior from happening in the first place. You might have a dog who dislikes having guests in the house or delivery people ringing your doorbell or a dog who lunges at dogs or strangers in the street. You will learn how to first manage those situations to then change your dog’s mind about those situations by modifying the dog’s response to their triggers.
Reward-based methods allow the human/dog team to communicate clearly. Guardians can better understand their dogs’ needs and preferences and find behavior solutions that are satisfying to both parties. Dogs will eagerly respond to previously reinforced behaviors which in turn will also reinforce and delight their guardians. This mutual understanding fosters a strong bond built on trust and affection.
Living with a dog who barks, lunges, nips, is generally restless, or has separation anxiety? There are a variety of reinforcement systems that can deal with these behaviors and bring great relief to both the dog and the human. By implementing specific behavior games in combination with basic manners that allow your dog to actually choose calm behaviors, behavior training creates a more relaxed environment, making both the dogs and humans more optimistic, happier, and more at ease.
A Comprehensive Behavior Consultation gives you the knowledge and the hands-on tools to both prevent and/or modify possible nuisance behaviors.
When you learn how positive reinforcement actually forges a very clear line of communication and teaches your dog how to earn reinforcement, you can both establish great habits from the get-go, and modify nuisance behaviors into polite behaviors. Behaviors such as barking, jumping up, pulling on a leash, begging at the table, or restlessness at home can easily be avoided in the first place but they can also be replaced by building a great reward history for replacement behaviors.
The Comprehensive Behavior Consultation will allow you to solve and prevent problems by giving you insight into how behaviors work and allowing you to understand the functions of behaviors. Thinking from the dog’s point of view will allow you to fulfill both your dog’s and your own needs at the same time
If you need support after your 1 month of support that is included in any Comprehensive Consultations, our online check-ins are the perfect solution to ask simple questions and get answers and feedback.
Rather than waiting until your next lesson, book a 15-minute or 30-minute check-in session.
What’s wrong with leaving food out and letting the dog graze throughout the day?
Anything that requires an effort is more appreciated. Things that are taken for granted are not as desirable. So if food is available all the time it becomes much less likely to be a motivating force and is more likely to create a fussy eater.
Fussy eaters are more difficult to reward and can therefore develop behavior issues that are harder to remedy. However, that fussiness can be prevented or remedied easily by making food a valuable commodity.
Additionally, teaching your dog that he does not have to worry about his food or his bowl will prevent resource guarding. For guidance and solutions to this important topic, let DogRelations give you a private dog behavior lesson and show you the many ways you can make feeding fun and educational at the same time.
Destructive chewing should be considered in context and relationship to when the behavior occurs.
If you have a puppy who is teething, the puppy will try to get his teeth on pretty much anything to alleviate teething pain or simply chew on something because it is available and tasty and calming and fun for the puppy. So really the key to solving puppy chewing is: Limiting access to tempting and/or dangerous temptations. Keep your puppy crated or gated and provide him with great chew toys and do not underestimate a puppy’s need to run, play and exercise!
If, however, you find that your dog is chewing on things when left alone you might be dealing with a more serious problem, either boredom or possibly separation anxiety. If your dog tears up the apartment by chewing on couches, door and window frames or desperately tries to get out of the crate you should definitely call a professional trainer for help, especially if you think you have provided the dog with good exercise and mental stimulation and something appropriate and delicious to chew on before you leave the house.
Contact us at DogRelations to learn how you can safely and happily raise your puppy without having your belongings destroyed, prevent separation anxiety. If you have a puppy or dog who might be suffering from separation anxiety, please call us so we can help you and your dog.
Jumping up and nipping are normal dog behaviors among dogs!
Of course when humans get into the mix these behaviors can become a lot less cute and, depending on the intensity, problematic and unacceptable.
Reprimanding or physically pushing back your puppy or dog really only engages you more with the dog when they are behaving inappropriately and therefore reinforces those behaviors especially when they do not know what to do instead!
Of course your best practice for jumping up would be to make staying on the floor far more rewarding for your dog. Ideally that actually means: reinforcing the dog when they are not jumping in order to make the jumping behavior less attractive in general. Behaviors that don’t fulfill the dog’s goal will become less interesting very quickly. As soon as the dog offers an acceptable replacement behavior by even just having all four paws on the floor, reward your dog highly. Additionally, always reward your puppy highly when they are calm, have all four paws on the floor or play nicely with one of their toys.
Help your dog by providing enough mental and some physical exercise and appropriate things to chew and nibble on so they can have an outlet for those very natural urges.
For specific advice and how to time your reinforcements properly contact us at DogRelations and I will be most happy to consult with you, give you individualized advice and teach your dog all the skills they need in private in-home dog lessons.
Pulling on the leash is a natural behavior. Dogs usually like to explore what is up ahead and all around them. The leash obviously constricts freedom of space. Allowing the leash to be tight all the time or pulling the dog back will only increase that behavior:
The easiest way to stop leash pulling is to teach the dog to walk on a loose leash next to you by rewarding the dog whenever he is at your side. Walking on a leash is a learned skill for the dog.
For personalized instructions or private dog lessons to teach your dog to walk on a loose leash next to you contact DogRelations.
Separation anxiety is unfortunately not uncommon.
Observable behaviors might include:
These and other behaviors happen when left alone or sometimes even only if a particular family member leaves or when sleeping separated from the rest of the family.
Teaching the dog to be more confident and optimistic can play a big role in helping them overcome their anxiety. I can help you analyze how you can start turning around this frustrating situation. I will support you through this process and replace the worry with practical and goal oriented advice. Please choose a Comprehensive Behavior Consultation to address this behavior issue successfully.
Teaching your dog to ask politely for food, toys and attention allows you to prevent nuisance behaviors like “begging”. In fact you can replace annoying “begging” by teaching your dog to “beg” in a way that is pleasing to you and gives them the opportunity to earn the things they value most in life by displaying polite and calm behaviors.
This will also prevent resource guarding in a fun and playful way. That means your dog will not “defend” their bowl, food or chew toy when someone walks nearby because they will learn there is only more and better stuff to be had.
For more games and tips to help with this very important topic let DogRelations give you a private dog behavior lesson and show you the many ways you can make feeding time fun and educational at the same time.
Is your dog barking often or uncontrollably? Too much barking can be a major annoyance.
If your dog is basically not aggressive then most likely the excessive barking is a behavior that has been inadvertently reinforced.
How on earth could that have happened?
Well, if you admonish your dog when he barks, you are giving him attention for an undesirable behavior. Your dog however, smart as he is, immediately notices that in a certain way barking works in his favor because it makes you notice him. So, when he feels bored or ignored he decides to try this again…he barks: and miracle of miracles!! You start to engage with him again! In the dog’s mind this is a great discovery and so, since practiced and rewarded behaviors get stronger: Voila! Your dog has successfully found a way to get your attention and you have inadvertently reinforced a nuisance behavior!
For a consultation on how to re-educate your dog and find being quiet more rewarding, please call DogRelations for comprehensive dog training consultation.
Mental and physical well-being are strongly connected. My primary objective is to design a program that suits your dog and ensures that you and your dog can spend as many fun-filled and healthy years together as possible.
Designed to provide maximum support and guidance for first-time dog guardians and/or to address behavior problems such as excessive barking, separation anxiety, resource guarding, adult house soiling or a variety of fear and fear aggression issues.
I can teach your dog to perform tasks that help mitigate your stressful or anxious moments. Together we determine which behaviors your dog should be trained to recognize and then perform these tasks.
The focus for this training is on reinforcing house training, establishing polite manners and building confidence in your puppy while educating guardians in the practical application of positive reinforcement
Elisabeth gets great results quickly. The lessons are a happy, fun experience for the dog and the rest of the family.
Our dog (Max) is always really delighted to see her and has learned so much in a very short time.
Elisabeth is a fount of information about training and other topics such as diet, health care, grooming and even travel tips.
I came to Elisabeth with an older dog that had some behavior issues that were inadvertently reinforced by me and somehow defied the skills of various trainers over the years.
Elisabeth is one of those unusual and special people whose personality, temperament, interests and talents all come together in her work in a profound way.
She has an unlimited repertoire of creative techniques to keep my very smart dog engaged and loving to learn instead of searching for situations to react to. The behavior issues become non issues over time.
I’ve learned so much thanks to Elisabeth’s generosity of time and support and willingness to share information. And her positive reinforcement approach is at the forefront of current behaviorist thinking.
Working with Elisabeth and Dog Relations has far exceeded my expectations. I can’t imagine that she won’t be a part of our lives for a very long time.
Elisabeth Weiss is a gifted trainer and a true animal lover. When I adopted my adorable and lovable cock-a-poo from the AC&C he came with a host of challenging behavior issues. Elisabeth has successfully helped me resolve his problems. What I liked most was that she made it easy for me.
The lessons for my dog were so much fun that my smart cat started to participate in the dog’s lessons. I then asked Elisabeth to set aside some time to train the cat as well!
Both dog and cat training have been huge successes! We all look forward to their lessons every week!
Elisabeth is amazing. She sees things most vets and trainers don’t see. I’m looking forward to working with her to train my 5mo old puppy to be a therapy dog.
If I could give more than 5 stars, I would! Elisabeth is a gem. When we decided to add a new pup to our family I was very nervous and overwhelmed by all the options for training, diet, grooming, etc. From the start, Elisabeth eased my nerves and provided me with the tools to really set up our pup for success. Our puppy’s transition from the breeder to our home felt seamless because of Elisabeth’s guidance. As a trainer, Elisabeth is the best. Not only does our pup LOVE her, her style of training is exactly what you would hope for. She is patient, kind, understanding and fun! Her energy and demeanor is something that cannot be replaced and is why she is so talented and successful. With Elisabeth, our puppy learns quickly and retains easily. Its so fun to watch her work! Our puppy consistently looks forward to Elisabeth’s visits and knows her by name. Beyond training- Elisabeth has become my go-to for all pet care questions and issues. She truly values and cares for her clients and is always there for questions or advice. I cannot recommend her services enough!
Thank you so much for your knowledge and kindness. I don’t know what we would have done without you!!!!!
I mean that!
Winky is a very, very sweet fellow and quite well behaved thanks to you.
Everyone, everyone, everyone is so in love with him and ALL say: Wow, what a calm and well behaved puppy he is, so charming, sweet and happy.
I cannot thank you enough for having gotten Winky to this point. I take him with me wherever I go and you have really made it all possible. Grazie mille!
1000 thanks to Elisabeth Weiss for so positively effecting our home life. we have a beloved, but super rambunctious standard schnauzer and rebbe’s behavior was starting to dominate our every move.
Elisabeth trained Reb (and me) with patience and humor and affection . she’s made it possible to enjoy our dog with out constantly having to worry about his next outburst. she’s also a great resource when it comes to his health issues – truly a holistic approach that’s made me feel like i’m not going it alone.
We had gone through several trainers with our standard poodle Annie. We got Annie at four months and she was already fearful ,aggressive and barking non stop. Elisabeth came to the rescue with her patience, humor and dog whispering talents. I highly recommend her. Your dog and neighbors will thank you.
My dogs and I have never personally met Elisabeth, but thanks to the internet we’ve been able to communicate. Elisabeth has given me really good advice with dietary problems I had with my dogs and the results were instant. It was amazing! I also have been reading her great articles on dog training and behavior She helps me be a more responsible guardian. My dogs are very grateful and would love to meet her. I can only imagine what she could do for us in person!!!!
I am not certain it is possible to have a puppy without Elisabeth! To me Elisabeth does what no other trainer can (or is willing to commit to) and takes customer service to an entirely new level. I secretly think she has Petzi and Cosi trained to answer emails – it’s the only explanation. She has become such a support system providing me with endless skills, knowledge and tranquility through all the magical little “puppy crisis” moments along the way. To Madison, she is playtime!
Having grown up in a house surrounded by horses and dogs I was reluctant to get a trainer, as I clearly knew what I was doing.
Think again! Madison was a far cry from the “I’ll do anything for you” labs I grew up with. She was a pint-sized ball of nervous fun with so much enthusiasm that needed directing. From the day we first met Elisabeth I knew this would be the best thing I could do for myself, and my dog.
Before Elisabeth I was worried I would be evicted because my little Pomeranian screamed and barked as soon as I walked out of her line of sight. After 2 sessions and a couple emailed instructions Madison learned that sitting, not screaming, gets her everything she desires.
It is amazing to watch Elisabeth interact with Madison because you can see how she listens to the dog and tailors the training to them.
In the beginning of our training when Madison was literally bouncing off her, she used that energy and made her focus on tricks that played to Madison’s innate ability to spin around. Once trust was gained she progressed to more “serious” games and now I can proudly say that my pup will sit still whenever she needs to; something I know would not have happened without Elisabeth.
Maddie and I are so grateful a Google search placed her in our lives and can’t imagine life without her!
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