The KC Dog Guy

When you work with as many dogs as I do in any given week, you're bound to have a few dog fights here and there. I always try to avoid them when possible and work even a truly aggressive dog slowly towards meeting another dog. However, in the process of re-socializing a shelter dog it can happen.  In most fights a quick sharp sound or simply moving between the dogs and giving a quick Look and Sit command resolves 90% of the snarks that happen. Unfortunately, the remaining 10% requires me to break it up with a bit more force. Those incidents always leave me with feeling bad. I always feel that when a fight like that occurs, I missed something to prevent it, or pushed the training too quickly. A friend of mine found that surprising, but here is my reasoning. Today I had worked with a dog who's dog skills deteriorated a bit since her time in rescue. I introduced her with some minor scuffles and lots of play. While I give little credence to  the whole male/male and fem...

It's been a little over a year with Jade. In that time I've become more involved in Akita rescue, started teaching classes again at Yappy Hour Pet Resort ( www.yappyhouronline.com ), and most recently lost my little man Tazz. Luckily, a constant in all of this has been Wayside Waifs ( www.waysidewaifs.org ) which is always my main cause. If it had not been for my Tazz, I would never have been a dog trainer or Wayside volunteer. When I adopted Jade my goal was to have an "everywhere" dog like I had with Michigan and Tazz. Michigan and Tazz went to schools, parks, Wayside and often both off leash when we could. Michigan was an Akita/St Bernard, but as I look at past picture he was a whole log Akita. I made mistakes with both dogs, Tazz was well trained, but could have been better with other dogs. Michigan, well I can't say he had any issues but he made me look like a much better dog trainer than I really am. One common theme between both dogs were they were both ...

TazzMan Buddy "Pooky" Gilbert 1996-2010 Rest in peace my little man On July 12, 2010  at 14 years, 3 months and 3 weeks my little buddy Tazzman Buddy Pooky King "The Man" BKT Gilbert crossed over the Rainbow Bridge to join his buddy Michigan. Tazz is the first dog my wife and I got shortly after we were married and my very first dog ever. We went to a little place in Kansas and picked him out at 4 weeks.Inhindsight the facility was a puppymill, but we still ended up with a pretty good pup. As a puppy Tazz didn't act like a puppy, he seemed more like a 9 lb dog in a puppy's body. Even though I had not yet began my life as a Wayside volunteer, dog trainer and knew nothing about dogs, I made my Tazz a constant companion. The first week we had him, we drove him down to Stockton lake for the weekend at 9 weeks old. Tazz was a fearless little puppy and enjoyed the lake and the many adventures we had over 14 years. As a puppy we knew he was special when on one eve...