My Training Journey, Part I

Today's Topic:  Ask any positive dog trainer that has any experience working with leash-reactive dogs, and the one thing that many of them will have in common is their LACK of videos of dogs that they've trained exhibiting leash-reactive behaviors.

And the reason for this is simple: when a positive trainer sees a dog exhibiting leash-reactive behaviors, they see a dog in distress, and the LAST thing they want to do is pull out a camera to capture video footage of this moment, just like a therapist would never pull out a camera to record their patient who is going through an emotionally difficult, or psychologically stressful, moment.

Rather, their instinct is to drop everything, immediately jump into action, and help in whatever way they can.

But that poses a problem, of sorts.  While a prospective client of a therapist would never ask for a "Before & After" video of a client that underwent a transformational change in their mental health, as a way to find the best therapist for themselves, prospective clients of dog trainers increasingly demand it.

It's not hard to see why.  As a society, we love to see transformation stories, whether it's stories about weight loss, entrepreneurial success, etc., largely because we want to see that transformation is possible.

That's why we invited the founder of Dogs Made Simple, a content platform dedicated to sharing creative enrichment recipes and DIY dog stimulation games, and the dog mom of Diesel, a leash-reactive Golden Retriever, Jessica Sims, to the podcast, to discuss the transformation journey she will embark on to train her leash-reactive dog using our, "Help, My Dog Is Reactive On Leash!" course.  We discuss her history growing up with Goldens, how and when she adopted Diesel, her training journey thus far, and why, despite all of the knowledge she's gained via self study about dog training, leash reactivity is still something she struggles with.

Guest Bio: About two years ago, Jessica knew she was ready to get a puppy. She didn’t have much planned in terms of training besides perhaps a puppy group training class, mostly since every Golden Retriever she had growing up never needed any training.

However, from the moment Jessica brought him home, she noticed signs of food aggression and resource guarding.  He was also skittish and very nervous around groups of people. His behavior started to get worse. Jessica paid thousands of dollars in dog training, met with numerous trainers, and nothing seemed to be helping.

She felt hopeless - until she decided to take matters into my own hands. Jessica immersed herself into the world of dog training.

In May 2021, she decided to start sharing her journey with the public by creating her page: Dogs Made Simple.

Jessica's goal with this page was to share relatable content. She wanted to give hope to dog owners like herself who were struggling. She tries to be as transparent as possible by sharing honest content - the good and the bad.

As her page grew in popularity very fast, she realized that there was one piece of content specifically that people loved, and that was mental stimulation games for their dogs. Since then, she shares a ton of creative enrichment recipes and DIY dog stimulation games.

Stay tuned! By April 2023, Dogs Made Simple is launching its first ever product line with never-seen-before enrichment toys, bound to disrupt the dog industry.

Connect With Jessica Sims:

• Instagram
• TikTok