Helping you live a happy, healthy lifestyle with your dog.
The other day I read that January 14 is the day each year that most people give up on their New Year’s Resolutions. On that day, I also happened to see the first “I need to sell my puppy, he has too much energy for this family” post on the Next Door social media platform.… Continue reading The Imperfect Experience of Raising a Puppy
Christmas Puppies & Winter House Training Tips by Lynn Stacy-Smith As I stood outside with Jackson and Tinkerbell today in the 2 degree weather, waiting for them to do their bathroom business, I thought about the puppies who found new homes over the holidays and the owners who are hopefully going through the extremely important… Continue reading Christmas Puppies & Winter House Training Tips
Teaching Children How to Act Around Dogs by Lynn Stacy-Smith Last week another cringe-worthy video came across my social media news feed because someone thought it was cute. I suppose if you did not know a single thing about dogs, it might be cute. After all, what could be so awful about a curly-haired, resourceful… Continue reading Teaching Children How to Act Around Dogs
The Importance of Teaching Puppies and Your Kids About Bite Inhibition by Lynn Stacy-Smith If you've raised a puppy, the words "razor-sharp puppy teeth" probably make you shudder and think back to those days of puppy rearing when you felt like you had adopted a baby dinosaur instead of a puppy. In fact there's a meme… Continue reading The Importance of Teaching Puppies and Your Kids About Bite Inhibition
Why Every Dog Should Go To Obedience Class by Lynn Stacy-Smith The last few weeks have been a seemingly endless stream of stories about dogs that are both frustrating and heartbreaking, including dog bites, re-homing requests, and frustrated owners with 8 month old puppies who are still not house-trained. Sadly they all have a similar… Continue reading Why Every Dog Should Go To Obedience Class
I am not afraid to admit that back in 2011 as Jackson's Gotcha Date was looming, the thing that terrified me the most about starting off life with a new puppy was house training. Since Babe was a two-year-old rescue dog when I adopted her, the last puppy I had helped house train was Dutch,… Continue reading Puppy House Training: Best Practices & Tips
How to Be a Compassionate Puppy Owner by Lynn Stacy-Smith I. Love. Puppies! If you read that with the same tone of voice as Oprah saying that she loves bread on her Wight Watchers commercial, then you read it correctly! I. Love. Puppies! When I see a puppy I am the same way that most… Continue reading How to Be a Compassionate Puppy Owner
Five Important Puppy Raising Tips by Lynn Stacy-Smith Right now we are approaching the best years with Jackson. The two-year mark is when Labradors start to really get control of their brains but are still young and the fun type of crazy…the nicely trained version of crazy. A few of my friends across the country have… Continue reading Five Important Puppy Raising Tips