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TEAM Pup/SD Foundations Targets
Week 2 Recap: Target Training Techniques for Service DogsBuilding Focus, Precision & IndependenceService dog training is all about breaking complex tasks into manageable skills—and one of the foundational skills is targeting. In Week 2 of Crazy2Calm’s Service Dog Foundations Class, we dove deep into target training methods that help build communication, confidence, and control between handler and dog.This week’s focus was on refining targeting behaviors such as hand/nose, paw, and chin rests, all of which play a key role in both public ac...
TEAM Pup - SD Foundations Overview
Inside the Crazy2Calm Service Dog Foundations Kickoff: What You Need to KnowLast week, Crazy2Calm Coach Penny hosted an informal kickoff meeting for the Service Dog Foundations and Puppy Training Class and it was packed with helpful information for both new and returning members.Whether you're just starting out with a service dog in training or looking to deepen your understanding of foundational skills, here's a full breakdown of what went down and what to expect moving forward.👋 A Warm Welcome for Handlers & Dogs AlikeThe session b...
Thursday Panel Discussion - Emotional Challenges in Your SD Journey
June 19th at 6pm CentralPanel Led By Pine IrwinPanel Experts Penny Beeman, Amanda VanTessel, Rene Smith, Scott StaufferEnjoy this Panel Conversation about common emotional challenges that may take place during your SD journey.Emotional Wellbeing for SD Teams Panel ReplayThis is a FREE replay of the SD Handler Symposium Panel. To see all of the presentations you can purchase the VIP Membership by making a one time donation to Crazy2Calm for this SD Handler Symposium Collection
Teaching Patience: Delayed Reinforcement & Jackpot Rewards
Let’s build on the idea that dogs can learn context and make good decisions—even when the reward isn’t immediate.One of the most powerful tools in a service dog handler’s toolkit is the ability to teach delayed reinforcement—the idea that rewards don’t always come right away, but they are coming, and they’re worth the wait!This skill is essential for real-life situations:Waiting quietly in a grocery line, lying under a table at a restaurant, ignoring a snack on the floor. These aren’t moments where we can immediately deliver a t...
Barking Mad Day 5
Day 5 - Celebrating SuccessWe want to take a moment to remind you that dog training is not linear, or it does not follow a straight line. We may think that we’ve conquered a training challenge or solved a challenging behavior only to have it pop back up again. Do not get discouraged when this happens! Simply back up to training basics and work through the games again.While it’s so easy to become discouraged, we rarely take a moment to celebrate our successes. At C2C Canine Coaches we believe in celebrating even the smallest successes. So if...
Barking Mad Day 4
Day 4 - Developing CommunicationToday we are going to be looking at various methods of communication between dogs and humans. This may include different types of vocalizations that dogs do including that loud alert barking that is driving you made, shorter frustration barks, happy roo-roos when something they love is about to happen, or even super quiet whispers. Dogs also communicate with body language and behavior! Every dog has their own communication, but pay special attention to the ears, nose, back and tail! Behaviors just as jumping on t...
Barking Mad Day 3
Day 3 - Desensitization/CounterConditioningWe learned about examining and managing the environment so now we are going to learn about using reinforcement correctly to make learning easier for our dogs. We know that if our dog is experiencing a high level of arousal, based on fear or over-excitement, their listening ears turn off. It can seem like they are being stubborn or defiant, but in reality they are not in a state where they are able to process anything around them except for what they are hyper focused on. We can stand there and yell at ...
Barking Mad Day 2
Day 2 - Distractions Beyond Our ControlToday we are going to take a look at those distractions that are beyond our control and how we can use movement away from the distraction to reduce barking. Things such as the garbage truck, school bus, or mailman are totally out of our control. They may follow a schedule that we can predict, but we have no ability to change that schedule. Other distractions such as a neighbor walking their dog passed our house may not be on a schedule or predictable in any way. We still can’t control the neighbor, but i...
Barking Mad Day 1
Day 1 - Setting Your House Up for SuccessThe very first step in working on barking issues is to determine the environment where the barking occurs and implement management resources to reduce or prevent the barking as much as possible during the training period. This could be anything from placing a physical barrier in place to keep the dog out of the area where barking occurs, placing a visual barrier up to prevent the dog from seeing the distraction that triggers the barking, or playing white noise or a tv to prevent or reduce the volume of s...
Barking Mad with Cookies
The C2C Canine Coaches have put together this workshop to help all dog ownersThe Barking Mad with Cookies Workshop will take place via this group & the Barking Mad Facebook Group. All you have to do is join as a free Patreon member to participate.Each day will contain 15 mins of training provided by the Crazy2Calm Canine Coaches using games based learning for humans and dogs. Each day we will give you a game you can play with your dog to reduce barking. Each day you will also receive a free tip for ways to make it easier for you to record train...
Let’s Talk Service Dogs, Teamwork & Real-Life Challenges
Crazy2Calm Canine Coaces want to personally invite you to a really special event we are hosting-the first-ever Service Dog Handler Symposium, happening onlineJune 19–22, 2025!This four-day event brings together an international lineup oftrainers, behavior consultants, and SD handlers (including me!)for conversations that matter. From emotional wellbeing to dog welfare, hard decisions to practical training tips—it’s all on the table. This is the first event of it’s kind, coordinated by Service Dog Handlers for Service Dog Handlers.Here&...
Find It Games with Scent
This video demonstrates how I start to play Find It games with a dog who has never played before. Be sure to start with something easy such as dog treats your dog loves which allows them to get that rapid reward by eating what they find. The switch to a common household item that has a strong scent; empty spice containers, small containers that hold treats (Easter Eggs or small plastic box), one of your dog's favorite toys, a meds container, etc. Play at this level where you are not using your medical scent at all until your dog understand...
SDiT Puppy TEAM Wk 6
We hope you have enjoyed watching these weekly recordings created by Canine Coaches, Penny, Cindy, Kristi, & Tammy. It's been a fun project of using TEAMwork to show you how a trainer interacts with their young puppies and includes socialization to scents, sounds, sights, taste, & touch into their skills & manners training.This week we starting building several impulse control related games that can be broken down very simple for puppies and slowly build up of the the months of working with an adolescent dog. These games build up focus, rec...
Welcome to Day 4 of the FAD Workshop!
The number 1 distraction among those who registered is other dogs and today's information is focused on that issue! At almost 2 yrs old, Azul's biggest distraction is new dogs entering into our environment so we practice remaining calm often. Check out today's video for more information about training exercises you can do with your dog around other dogs. Then check out the games below!Whip It or Flirt Pole FunYou can buy a flirt pole made for dogs or a horse lunge works nice for large dogs. But you can also make a homemade flirt pol...
SDiT Puppy TEAM Wk 5 - Focus Games
This week we worked on several foundations that build up to teaching our young dogs how to focus around distractions. Once fully understood, these games are often used while playing other games to train new skills to older SDiT's.Look At That - Commonly referred to as LATLook At That "LAT" gives the dog something to do. It's also the start of desensitizing to triggers no matter what they are. Timing is important and as the dog starts understanding the game and is able to look without a reaction, you can add duration and then eve...
Welcome to Day 3 of the FAD Mini-Workshop!
On Day 3, we take a look at the distractions our dogs get most amped up about and how we can set up training sessions in the environments where are dogs can be most successful then slowly building up to more distracting environments.U-TurnsU-turns are important no just to teach proper heeling/loose leash walking and to avoid unwanted things, dogs, cats, strangers, or even shopping carts in stores. The basic idea is to turn quickly with your dog, in either direction.A to B/ U-Turns GamesThe game is simple, with the lead in both hands, slide the ...
Welcome to Day 2 of the FAD Mini-Workshop
Welcome to Day 2 of the FAD Mini-Workshop!On Day 2 we are going to be talking about the emotions our dogs feel, understanding those emotions and applying training sessions correctly to help change our dog's negative emotions into positive emotions. This video is a bit longer, but it's super important to understand how the distractions in our environments make our dogs feel. With that understanding, we can then decide how to best help them be successful in multiple environments safely.Distraction MarkerThe distraction marker is a noise u...
Welcome to Day 1 of the FAD Mini-Workshop
Welcome to Day 1 of the FAD Mini-Workshop!Today we want to go over the idea of FOCUS and what it means to us, as well as get you used to the basic format of this workshop. Every day we will have an informational video created by the crazy old ladies of dog training, Cindy Campbell & Penny Beeman. The video will be roughly 1 hour long each day. We will also have 2 games for you to play each day that will help you and your dog learn to more effectively as a team. Each game will have basic instructions on how to get started if you've never pla...
Bonus Notes Medical Alerts
The Emotional Experience with Andy HaleThis discussion to geared toward dog owners who are training their own assistance/service dog in a way that will help them consider their dog’s emotions and learn to increase their teamwork. Yooper Paws of Love and Cindy Campbell Dog Training are pleased to be collaborating with Andrew Hale to discuss a topic that is very important to us, considering our dog's emotional experience.Topics:Understanding the behaviors we do and the behaviors we see others do.Understanding personal truths and how our tru...
FMP Task: Follow the Leader
Follow the LeaderThis task is based on a Forward Momentum Pull (FMP) One of the biggest issues I face with FMP is training the pull strength I want the dog to pull for different situations. Speeds often need to change rapidly in public settings and large crowded environments. By enlisting the help of a friend or family member, I teach a “Follow” cue which can be applied to any of our close friends and family, and once generalized a total stranger.I train the follow cue by picking 1 person my dog knows well by name then on a good day when we...
Forward Momentum Pull
Teaching forward momentum pull can be done in a variety of ways. The previous post titled Mobility Tasks: Forward Momentum & Counterbalance provides a detailed conversation about the safety of these tasks. We did want to remind you to be sure that you are keeping safety of your dog in mind when developing this task.In this video, Belle has already been doing forward momentum pull (FMP) for several months but we are needing to refine a few things. First we are working on giving Belle a specific target to move toward so we do several repetitions ...
SDIT Puppy TEAM Week 4
Default BehaviorsDefault behaviors are any time the dog does a specific behavior such as laying down when something in the environment cues the behavior instead of a verbal or hand signal cue. A good example of this is asking the dog to wait at the door for a cue to go through the door. Touching the door knob becomes the cue for the dog to move to the trained position and wait. Another common one is asking the dog to sit before putting a food bowl down. Prepping the food becomes the cue to do the behavior.Service dogs learn many default behavio...
Dropped Item Retrieve
Many SD Handlers with a Mobility Assist SD can use the help provided by a dropped item retrieve. Honestly this is one of the simplest tasks to teach as it is much like the practice sessions we have when we are training and playing the Drop, Grab, & Treat Game. The big difference in this as a task vs the game, is that in the game you basically want your dog to automatically grab the item(s) you are using for that session repeated but with the task you want your dog to first alert you that you dropped an item then wait for you to give a follow u...
Retrieving Items by Name
Retrieve tasks is a general term that can be split into multiple directions based on the needs of the SD Handler. Once your dog knows how to retrieve you can build up that skill to include picking up dropped items, teaching the names of commonly requested items, building distance away from the handler that the dog can go to do the task, and building duration for how long the dog can carry an item in their mouth.Named items should be taught one at a time and can involve the items having a home or resting place or using scent to find the items. F...
SDIT Puppy TEAM Wk 3
Here is the video replay for Week 3.In this session we discussed the importance of Puppy Routines that fit your day to day schedule. This includes potty routines, nap routines, settle on a mat, training routines, and much more.Here are the games that we played:Pattern Game 3, 2, 1 Treat -Tammy & Doogan demonstrated this game for us with a video that you can find here: https://youtube.com/shorts/ygOgJwjhK18?si=1ya3-z2DazhM3UJ9This is a prep game that can later be used for the LATTE (Look At That, Then Enrichment) Game, the Look Away Game, the L...
SDiT Puppy Team Wk2
This week we started training some very important behaviors that will build up to harder behaviors as the puppy grows older. Most of the behaviors are part of one or more of the other collections in the SDiT Puppy Collections so we will link them here.We discussed the importance of doing some socialization around sounds with your puppy. Coach Penny likes to watch a wide variety of movies during the puppy stage that have various sounds. You can also find YouTube videos of sounds for dogs. Always start at a low volume and slowly turn it up, being...
Potty Training In a Positive Way
There are lots of ways to potty train a puppy. And yes it's possible to do completely Force Free! This means that you don't punish the puppy for accidents and you reinforce going potty in acceptable places.The first step in this is management! Pup is under constant supervision inside the house, or in a safe place such as a crate or x-pen when they can't be supervised. There is a great write up about the management I used with Belle as a puppy in this Yooper Paws Blog: https://www.yooperpaws.com/2024/02/making-new-friends.htmlPup is ...
Fear Stages
We have some pups in the group that are nearing the end of their socialization phase (under 16 weeks) and entering what I like to call the pre-teen phase from 4-6 months.Somewhere from 4-6 months old, puppies experience a short period often known as a fear stage. During this time new or novel things are often scary to a pup. That doesn't mean pups are suddenly less confident. They simply can't handle new or novel things in this stage. During this fear stage, puppies can seem to forget what they've learned as their brain is suddenly ...
Additional Socialization for SDiT Puppies
There are alot of things to consider when preparing a pup for service dog training. In other posts I've shared info about socialization for all the senses and my socialization checklist. So for this one I'm going to focus on puppy visits to public places.First and foremost, safety first! At this stage you can only visit pet friendly places. However your young puppy doesn't have all their vaccines so it's not safe to be in areas that have been frequented by unknown dogs.There are plenty of pet friendly places you can visit. Besid...
Puppy's First Outings
Socialization is not only meeting and interacting with new people and dogs! Socialization should include all the senses; seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, & smelling everything in their world! I’ve previously talked about exposing the puppy to new environments to make their world a bit bigger and this is the way that I do that.First plan your outing to be successful! Whether you are taking a walk or a car ride to your new environment, pack up anything you think you might need or want in that environment…a blanket to sit on with your pup, ...
