Blog by K9 Pro and Steve Courtney Dog Training K9 Pro The K9 Professionals

Death before discomfort is a term used by some in the dog training / behaviour world and I wanted to talk about it and what it means, what people think it means and why I think the term exists. Amongst dog trainers and behaviourists there are some that support the use of all four quadrants of the operant conditioning principles …

Often I work with people and their dogs and the goal is to improve the dogs performance in the heeling exercise, whether that be for Rally O, ANKC or IPO, they are usually coming to see me to learn my Training in Drive system as they may have seen dogs that I have worked with or some of our videos …

I have been tagged in thousands of facebook and forum threads that often start this way “Can anyone recommend a good dog trainer?” As I scan through, it does not take long before I see the conversation going in a common direction which has posters and trainers describe what a good dog trainer or behaviourist is. Now, if I was …

Sadly, more dogs are euthanised for behaviour problems than for any other single reason. Dogs being surrendered because their behaviour is dangerous, stressful, intolerable or illegal is at an all time high. Aggression, escaping, destructiveness, injuring people and killing children, is it any wonder why. But ask yourself this question, with such advances in modern, dog friendly training concepts and …

When a dog meets a certain criteria, through behaviour it can be Declared a Dangerous Dog by your local council. This will mean that your dogs lives and activities will be highly restricted to prevent any re occurrence of the behaviour. At first, this seems to be quite reasonable to most people but some of the criteria may catch some …

Many years ago, the goal of training bite work was to get the dog to bite a person or target item, such as a bite sleeve. These days, it can be a lot more complicated because often handlers, competitors or departments want a certain “style” of bite work to suit the sport or job they are doing. In this article …

Dog Training aids and tools are a hotly debated topic when it comes to dog training and rehab, they probably get more attention than the useful topics do, sadly. Many people may not know this but in my field, dog trainers and behaviourists are often defined by the methods and tools they use rather than whether they are effective or …

Most of us who have dogs, love dogs, that is a given, but there are so many ways that you can love a dog, and many of them are not going to help produce a stable, confident dog that knows how much he or she is loved. When I ask “are you loving your dog the wrong way“, most people …

Why are children being killed by dogs? We have had some absolutely tragic events of late involving dogs biting children and a couple of cases of children fatally wounded in dog attacks, but why are we seeing this? I wish it was as simple as changing just one but in many cases it is just the sum of many things that …

These days, pets are considered part of the family by more than 90% of pet owners, this means that they are held in such high value, it can trouble us deeply when they are sick, hurt or not behaving well. This means that treating peoples pets has become a professional vocation for many, including yours truly. Having that said, I …

Abusive relationships are not limited to just people, I meet a number of people each week that are living in an abusive relationship with their dog that could not be described as anything less than abusive. Whilst some of the elements of the relationship vary, abuse very often is occurring.

Many people comment and message us saying how much they love the videos we make of the rehab work we do here at K9 Pro, and you may be one of them. If you haven’t watched them yet, most are on our YouTube Channel (here). But I feel that most of us, do not truly understand the level of immense …

So for those of us who watched Tony Danza in the show “Who’s the Boss”, this article has nothing at all to do with that. Now with that out of the way, I want to talk about a common ideal that often exists within dog owners households. I meet a lot of people that tell me that their dog knows …

Anyone who has a dog with a problem, serious enough to seek help, is looking for the magic cure for dog problems. They feverishly search the internet, books, dvd’s, vets and every other resource known to man, or woman. The problem seems that everyone thinks they have the magic cure to dog problems don’t they? Me personally, I don’t feel …

A dog that will stand by your side in life, a friend, protector and confidant? The German Shepherd Dog has long been mans most loved breed when the man, or woman wanted a very capable dog. Over time though, more and more of this incredible breed ends up in trouble, rescue, rehab and worse. Why does this happen to this magnificent …