Cooperative Care Workshop

This cooperative care workshop starting April 11, 2026 is for anyone who wants to help their dog tolerate and even enjoy the kind of physical care that often makes dogs uncomfortable and even aggressive. IAABC outlines cooperative care in this article.

We care for our dogs to keep them happy and healthy. Sometimes they don’t tolerate that care easily or comfortably. We can help them be more at ease with this care.

Dog in bath tub getting feet washed.

Pax’e stands calmly waiting for her treat while I wash the muck from her feet. No restraint and no struggle!

You can enroll in the cooperative care workshop to prevent your dog from developing handling issues, or you can enroll to fix handling issues your dog has (see limitations below).

This cooperative care workshop will teach you how to desensitize and counter condition your dog to accept and be comfortable with non-preferred body handling activities. These can be –

  • Brushing
  • Combing
  • Ear cleaning
  • Nail trimming
  • Teeth brushing
  • Moderate upkeep between grooming
  • Medication oral, injectable, topical, etc.
  • Accepting equipment, like harnesses, muzzles, cones, etc.
  • Having more successful vet visits
Suzy keeps her eye on the “bucket” as Vicky desensitizes her to petting as a prelude to brushing.

Yes – you might see the bucket game in this class. Thanks Chirag!

Enrollment is limited to the following:

  • There are four spots for dog/human teams. The dogs need to be dog and stranger comfortable and have NO bite history.
  • There are three spots for humans to audit without their dogs. These are for families whose dogs need help with cooperative care but are not dog and stranger comfortable, and/or have a bite history.

The workshop fee is $280 for dog/handler teams and $250 for human-only auditors.

This class meets for an hour and attendees will bring their own supplies.

For more information or to enroll click these links.

Good Dog Play

Good Dog Play videos

Good dog play can be a lovely thing. It can also be confusing, misinterpreted, and at worst shift rapidly to serious predation, defense, or offensive.

Sometimes you can easily see it is all good, like here the Great Dane and the Frenchie were in basic class together. They are mismatched by size but perfectly matched in their play style.

In this video puppy Poppy is desperate to play with the older dog. The older dog is giving great signals to Poppy indicating that she is not interested in puppy play. Poppy adjusted her play to mirror the older dog. Yay Poppy!

If things were indeed getting too intense, you have saved the day so your dog can happily play another day without a negative association. And if you were overly cautious, you can always send them back in if you were wrong.

Best friends Pax’e and Ruby playing

To see the full video of Pax’e and Ruby playing see lisa3dogstraining on instagram

Click here for more information on upcoming classes.

Odin the German Shepard Dog prepares for his family’s new baby. Good Boy!

Odin’s family took time before their new baby came home to learn how to and what to train Odin to do to keep their family happy and safe together.

Odin’s family wanted their dog to be ready for their first baby.
Odin dog preparing for his family's new baby
Odin settled near his new baby girl’s automated swing.

Odin the dog prepares for his family’s new baby by doing a settle command while the baby swing goes back and forth.

This allowed Odin to learn how to be calm around baby gizmos like this. He also prepares by learning that these items are not scary things.

It is important to see how our dogs behave around new baby gizmos before baby arrives because:
  • There won’t be a lot of time when baby comes home
  • If we wait until baby is actually in the swing or vibrating Pack-n-Play or other moving and/or sound making device, we won’t know if our dog is reacting uncomfortably because of the gizmo or the baby
  • And, if we know ahead of time that our dog is not as comfortable with the baby gizmos, we can desensitize

For more details on desensitizing your dog to baby gizmos see the Excerpt chapter one – ‘The Ruff Wait for Baby’ from Please Don’t Bite the Baby here.

Odin’s family took time before their new baby came home to learn how to and what to train Odin to do to keep their family happy and safe together.

For more details on how to keep your baby and dog(s) safe and happy together, see more exerpts here.

Or you can buy Please Don’t Bite the Baby, and Please Don’t Chase the Dogs.

Congratulations to Odin and his family – it is all well worth it!

Pets and your Health, Puppy Training

Dr Frank Adams of SiriusXM’s Doctor Radio has a great show each month called “Pets and your Health.”

Three Golden Puppy Play Date

I was flattered to be invited to speak with them again yesterday, March 7th about puppies and all the questions that come with having a new puppy.

This a wonderful show (not just because they like me) but because Dr. Adams’s guests answer questions on a variety of pet-related topics and showcase the ever increasing data demonstrating how pets make our lives better.

If, like me, you are in your car a lot and have SiriusXM, you can listen for the re-broadcast of this episode Friday 4am to 6am, Sunday 6am to 8am on channel 110. If your not up and awake enough at these times to listen, you can always stream this episode and others on SiriusXM Doctor Radio.

Just as a shout out to SiriusXM Doctor Radio, besides Dr Adams’s shows “Pets and Your Health” and “Pulmonology,” there are plenty of other great shows to listen into, from “Health Care Connect” that answers all your insurance related questions at a time when we all have questions on this topic, to dermatology, men’s health, women’s health, nutrition, child and adult psychology and more.

Resource Guarding – “Please Don’t Bite the Baby”

Excerpt… “Please Don’t Bite the Baby”

Resource Guarding can be one of the trickiest behavioral issues to modify and manage because there are so many variations.

Some dogs only guard their food

Some guard toys

Some guard bones

Some guard anything that hits the floor

Some guard whatever it was they just stole

Regardless of what your dog guards and to what degree, the process is the same.

There will be adjustments for management and time needed to modify the behavior, but ultimately it is all about teaching your dog that giving up something is far more profitable then guarding it.

And, occasionally, the guarding will pop up for the rest of your dog’s life during stressful periods, or high energy/excited play, but by keeping your dog’s skills in good working order, you will be able to easily resolve any guarding issues.

I have lived with, Pinball, the ‘Super Villain of Resource Guarding’ and have posted an excerpt about my strategies for working through his issues from my book “Please Don’t Bite the Baby, and Please Don’t Chase the Dogs.”

We were all a bit worried when our son arrived in our home with the ‘Super villain of Resource Guarding’ living there. However, by teaching Pinball good solid commands, and slowly allow him and my son to spend managed time together, we saw things we never expected to see. This video where Charlie Brown Takes a Dive is a great example of how far a resource guarding dog can come with some skills, management, and persistence.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvxByT3LS1o[/embedyt]

In the end, if your dog guards things, training good skills then working with a good behavior consultant is essential to take those skills and turn them into more positive behaviors.