Finding the right dog trainer can almost feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. From self-proclaimed “experts” to one-on-one private consults vs group classes or online coaching, the choices can sometimes feel overwhelming.

This article takes a deeper dive into the key reasons why working with a personal dog trainer has a much stronger and more positive impact on your dog.

Some might consider walking your dog a daily chore, but the benefits go beyond just the physical exercise! Did you know the act of walking your dog can improve your overall mental health and help you get better sleep. Ok if you’ve heard all this before and it still hasn’t convinced you to walk your dog more, did you also know that walks can help strengthen the bond you share with your dog. That’s an added benefit for you both, especially for the pet parents that are struggling with dog behavior issues at home.

This article helps outline the human benefits of walking your dog.

Let’s talk about Halloween and the things we should acknowledge from a dog’s perspective. Costumes are odd. People in revelry can be fast moving, loud, and unpredictable. People try to come up to your door, with high energy and costumes. There are lots of forbidden treats around with sometimes easy access for the dogs. Joining their human family for trick-or-treating could be a drawn-out process, especially if no one is paying attention to the dog.

This article helps identify what the Halloween celebration looks like from a dog's perspective and what you can do to prepare for the big event!

Congratulations you now have an emotionally driven and easily-offended adolescent. Adolescence in dogs can be a challenging time for you and your dog. Your dog is likely to become more emotional, more impulsive, and more opinionated.

This article aims to shed some light on these developing traits and focuses on the importance of continuing socialization through adolescence and into adulthood.

Evaluations have become an expected part of the off-leash dog daycare and boarding experience. Most daycares will conduct evaluations with the goal of gathering background on your dog and setting up test conditions for your dog. Over the years we have learned that even if a dog enjoys being around people and/or dogs in general, that doesn’t always translate to them enjoying the daycare experience.

This article explains our process for conducting dog evaluations and how we proactively create a path for success for your dog.

You may have heard the term "socialization" but what is it really? When should we socialize puppies and why is it so important to their development? How do you ensure you are providing a positive socialization experience?

This article explains the what, when, where, why and how-to for a well-adjusted, positively-socialized animal.

It is common for our team to encounter nervous dogs, especially when meeting them for the first time. Nervousness in dogs can be caused by various factors, however, with the right approach, you can help your pet sitter ease your dog's anxiety and create a positive experience for both your pet and the pet sitter.

This article provides steps to help prepare your pet for the initial meeting with their pet sitter.

We are not your average dog daycare. We do not take a one size fits all approach to playgroups. We recognize dogs are individuals, each with their own personality. We also recognize that their needs may change over time. Our goal is to help them thrive in the daycare environment. We have a large robust team which enables us to manage five dynamic playgroups. Because we have so many playgroup options, we are able to accomodate various breeds, ages, sizes, playstyles, and energy levels at different stages of their life. Tired is not our goal. Our goal is to enable your dog to thrive and achieve a relaxed state of mind while here.

This article discusses our role as dog daycare providers and how we go the extra mile to ensure your dog's experience is positive. Which playgroup they are assigned or move between, is an essential element in shaping that experience.

When you need someone to provide in-home pet care in your absence, how do you ensure it will be a success? What can we do as pet parents and pet professionals to ensure the visits are a success from the start?

This article discusses our role as pet care providers and the importance we place on introductions to ensure we are able to provide a smooth transition and mitigate stressors for us, for you, and for your pets.

This article explains the virus in more detail and our approach to managing the illness at our facility.

When you pet your dog, are they interested in being touched? Sometimes we may think “but they love it!” or “of course, my dog loves to be pet.” But how do you know if they are actually enjoying an interaction or not?

This article identifies how to interpret your dog's response to touch and why it is so important for us to listen to their body language and adjust our interactions accordingly.

Fur-Get Me Not offers a variety of services including dog boarding at our daycare facility, in-home pet sitting, and in-home overnight pet sitting. We recognize every animal is different and every family has different needs and preferences. Our mission from the start has been to partner with you to provide a variety of options that best work for you and your animals. So how do you decide which option is best for your pet?

This article is a guide that explains the benefits of both dog boarding and pet sitting, and what factors you should consider when making a choice between the two.

As we learn more about animals and the complexities of their thoughts and feelings, enrichment has become a very popular topic. On the surface enrichment seems like something easily defined but what does it really mean and why is it important?

This article outlines what enrichment is, why it is important, and some tips for how to introduce or increase enrichment in your dog’s (or any animal’s) life. For much of this article, we focus on dogs for simplicity, but this applies to any animal that is part of your family.

We observe many behaviors in daycare that prompt questions from our clients. One behavior raised frequently is excessive barking and what to do. Perhaps your dog barks excessively at daycare, while on a walk, or in your home. Not only might barking be undesirable, but if you let them bark, they are more likely to do it in the future. Afterall, the more dogs practice a behavior the stronger the behavior becomes. You would think the quick fix would be to tell the dog to quiet down or ignore them (which is not as easy as it sounds) in hopes that they will eventually calm down on their own. But this approach rarely works and can actually make things worse. It is more likely that you will just increase the dog’s stress and frustration, than reduce their barking. It is a common misconception that dogs are barking for no reason. In reality, dogs bark for many reasons. Barking is an essential communication tool for them. They bark to communicate needs, wants, and emotions, including fears.

This article identifies the various reasons dog may bark, how we manage it in our daycare and some tips on how you can at home./p>

Mounting is an acceptable form of communication when the intensity level and context are appropriate. Mounting and humping behaviors have been observed as early as 3 weeks of age, and are exhibited by both males and females. Brief moments of mounting between dogs can be a normal component of play; for example, two dogs might take turns mounting each other in an innocuous demonstration of excitement. However, many dogs strongly dislike being mounted. As play can escalate quickly in a daycare playgroup, we discourage and attempt to prevent even mild forms of mounting in the interest of avoiding any potential conflict.

This article addresses the myths, facts, and offers tips on how to manage or prevent the behavior.

In the daycare environment Barrier Frustration or Fence Fighting is the term we use to describe when a dog gets very vocal and highly aroused due to there being something on the other side of a barrier that either excites them or causes them great concern that they can’t reach.

This article describes the behavior and what management strategies we use in daycare to mitigate it. We conclude with some training suggestions and options we offer.

You may have heard the term “policing” at pick-up time or read it on your dog’s report card. Another word for this is “enforcer.” It’s a common behavior we see in group play. Policing is usually a response to two other dogs playing by taking some action to interrupt them. Policing has a tendency to increase the arousal level of the entire group.

This article describes the interrupting behaviors we see from policing and how we manage those behaviors in our daycare.

There are dogs who are born with a predisposition to be shy and careful in their approach to new aspects of life just like some people. Other dogs may have had traumatic experiences, which have imprinted some fear responses that then spread to a variety of everyday life situations. Yet, another category of dogs have been rescued from rural environments where the interaction with new people, or even maybe their caretaker, has been much lacking and where the environment – in terms of new sights and experiences in general - has been sparse.

This article helps you identify if your dog lacks confidence and explains how our confidence building class can help.

Some dogs, due to their individual personality and breed, are prone to be more high-strung when interacting with other dogs. Past experiences with other dogs and how they experience meeting with dogs on leash on an everyday basis are also critical to whether your dog develops leash reactivity. Basically, how well the dog has been socialized and feels comfortable meeting with other strange dogs on the street influences their reactivity.

This article helps you identify triggers, next steps, and how our reactive dog classes are designed to help.