Grateful for 20 Years

Although Jenn Kyzer is celebrating 2 years as KyzerDog, she is also celebrating over 20 years in dog training!  

How it all started:

After adopting a 12-week old puppy named Toby, Jenn and her partner realized that they had bitten off more than they could chew. They had raised several dogs and currently had “the best dog in the world“, Jenn’s soul dog, but none as stubborn and smart and mischievous as this one.

After taking several classes and beginning to learn more about training, Jen took a position at a pet store and quickly started training in their classes. At the time, Jenn was teaching first and second grade, so she began part-time training evenings and weekends. Several years later, Jenn decided to start her own business after giving birth to their first child. There was a doggy daycare opening up soon and Jenn teamed up with Pets At Play to teach classes a night or two a week. She also offered private lessons and began focusing on behavior issues In conjunction with obedience. As the years progressed, Jenn Kyzer focused on behavior and started to specialize in severe behavior issues, aggression, reactivity, and separation anxiety.  

In 2012, Jenn co-founded 2SpeakDog. For the next few years, she focused on building that business with group classes, workshops, and continued with private lessons. 2SpeakDog became very successful and reached a lot of dogs. However, this business model was not quite the right fit and so when the lease was up, Jenn separated and began KyzerDog Training and Behavior, building a model that was both work/life balanced and developed strong relationships with dogs and their families! Through the years, Jenn and her family have had more than 50 rescues. They now have 2 older dogs - Idgy and Dunkin that are living the good life. 

The future:

Jenn hopes to continue with KyzerDog and her work/life balance in the future. She hopes to continue to have strong relationships with dogs and their families as well.  

A HUGE thank you:

Thank you to all the clients for the last 20 years! Thank you for trusting KyzerDog with your pups and thank you for all the support and hard work you all do with your pups!  

Walk the Walk

Walk the Walk

You have seen them- those folks that walk down the street and their pups are walking perfectly beside them with a loose leash ignoring everything around them. You have likely also seen the person being dragged down the street by their dog sniffing everything, reacting to everything, and pulling their owner down the street. We all wish we could have that first dog!  

All of the following are aspects/components that are important to the walk. When you are beginning to walk a puppy or new pup to you, this can be thought of in several parts. Using the proper tools, creating calm, varying the type of walking you are doing, training, and of course, letting your dog smell!

The first part of any walk is choosing the proper tools. I recommend beginning with a quick snap martingale collar that is fit for your pup in a high part of the neck and rather tight. This helps the collar to stay up higher on the throat and helps to relieve any pressure on the windpipe. The martingale also helps to give a little extra cinching action to the neck to remind the pup not to pull. An additional benefit of the martingale is the safety factor - this collar will not come off over a dog’s head (in the case of a dog pulling away from you). I also recommend using a 15-foot training lead to give your pup lots of loose leash and more space to explore and sniff, learning about the environment. You will begin your leash training in a parking lot-sized area.

In the house, as you pick up the leash, collar, treats, and bags, you should remain very calm and help your pup to be calm. Taking deep breaths, stopping movement to calm arousal, and facing your pup blocking the door to go out can all be helpful. Remember when you put your back to an arousing object, you are saying that you trust the distraction and there is no reason to be aroused. Taking deep breaths can help you (and your heart rate) to calm and can be contagious to your pup. Not talking and certainly not asking arousing questions, such as “are you ready for a walk?” Can also help you both to be calmer.

Having your pup complete short and simple commands can be an ongoing part of the walk-in general. 

Taking a few seconds often during the walk to complete a command such as sit with the reward of a treat can help your pup get praise and good attention throughout the walk. Any other command - down, wait or stay, focus, and/or a trick that your pup knows, are other examples that your pup can complete as a part of your walk.

The Back and Forth Walk is another part of the walk. During this phase, your pup will get some extra energy out - you will be using a 15-foot training lead, learn to follow and pay attention to you on a walk, learn the line of your body and not to pass it, and learn the position of heel.

Smelling and investigating the environment is another crucial part of the walk. Dogs are constantly learning about their environment through their noses and are an important aspect of their needs being fulfilled. A dog should learn mostly through their nose and should be allowed to have access to the new smells to stimulate their senses. Remember a dog can smell 40 times greater than humans - odors at concentrations of part per trillion! 

Another important aspect of the walk can be training your dog to come and practice their recall. As a trainer for almost 20 years, I have found that the come command is one of the most complained about and one of the most under practiced commands. One of the main reasons that folks are not successful with come is that they practice at lower levels with minimal distractions, if at all, and expect their pup to come at the highest levels with the highest distractions. There are many ways to practice come, however on a long leash on a walk, the easiest is to allow your pup - perhaps while smelling something interesting - move away from the length of the leash and call them to come. 

Some other suggestions are to use a high fun voice, low body, and use lots of funny high-pitched noises.

The length of the walk will depend on your pup’s age, stamina, and ability.  

Thank you for a wonderful first year!

KyzerDog is one year old! We’re so thankful for all the pups we’ve been able to help in our first year. Here’s to many more years and pups! Here’s a few of our friends from our first year!

Special training for a special pup!

Meet Scout! Scout is blind and learning to live with his blindness.

Did you know Jenn has experience in training dogs of all abilities? There are special skills that can be taught to blind and deaf dogs to better help them and their owner communicate!

“When I decided to adopt Scout at 8 weeks old, his blindness was not a major deterrent for me. I felt he should have a loving home and family just like any other dog. I’m not sure I completely understood or could anticipate the challenges a sight-impaired puppy would bring into my life.

Scout settled into his new surroundings quickly, but it became evident we both needed more training. Due to his severe eyesight impairment, Scout is more tactile than most dogs...everything goes into his mouth (me included)! I struggled with his inclination toward biting and quickly became desperate for help. Jenn came highly recommended by my Vet and I reached out immediately. We started puppy homeschool and I began seeing an improvement after his 1st session. Jenn’s calm, positive, firm training style is a perfect fit for him. She focuses on equipping me with training activities that helped “re-train” Scout’s brain in terms of not viewing me as his favorite chew toy, including hand feeding him, voice commands and creative ways to help increase his interest in toys I had bought for him. She also helpes me to understand that he can become over stimulated more easily due to his blindness, and down time is crucial for both his and my success.

I will be enrolling Scout in a 2nd session of puppy homeschool as Jenn continues to work with Scout on training, as well as building his confidence outside my house. I greatly look forward to continued behavioral improvement, and to many walks, adventures, and fun playtimes in the future! I couldn’t be more grateful for Jenn and all of the help she has provided for both Scout and I!”

- Tiffany, Scout’s mom

Jessica's testimonial about Keena

I am so grateful for KyzerDog and for the tools Jenn gave me to transform my fearful puppy into a confident and happy dog. When I rescued my husky/shepherd mix Keena, she had spent most of her life in animal control and in the wild. Her condition was overwhelming, she could not walk on a leash, she was freighted of cars, shadows, anything that moved, she would spend almost all day under the couch hiding, and she did not even have a voice. I knew that I couldn’t tackle these issues alone and sought recommendations from several sources. Everyone I spoke to recommended Jenn with KyzerDog and I could not be more thankful that they did, the skills she taught me were invaluable.  Her deep understanding of a dog’s psychology and behavior is a unique talent that makes her training so very effective. Far beyond obedience training (although she helped with that too) Jenn showed me how to foster a protective environment that bonded Keena to me. She was able, through a few lessons, to show me how to be on my dog’s side and protect her to allow her the confidence to safely familiarize herself with the world around her. Her techniques were so effective in such a short time that in a few short months, the change I’ve seen is quite remarkable. The Keena I rescued a few months ago is an unrecognizable dog today. She no longer hides under the couch, she walks beautifully on a leash, and is a happy and well-adjusted puppy eager to explore the world around her. Without KyzerDog, Keena’s outcome would certainly not have been as positive. I will always highly recommend Jenn and KyzerDog. I know of no one else who could have given me such profound insight into my dog and how to best meet her needs. It was also helpful that Jenn is an absolute delight to be around and she provided me with reading material outside of our training session that was extremely helpful on issues that you face as a dog owner. They even helped my boyfriend’s dog. I’m not a first time dog owner, but I wish I had come to KyzerDog before because every dog can benefit with time spent with her and I know of no one else I’d rather have provide me with guidance than Jenn. Keena and I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for us, we are a happy and well bonded pair these days!!

Jenn Kyzer is now with KyzerDog

She will be doing Private Lessons - in home as well as out and about, Homeschool, Dogs and Babies Seminars, Pack Walks, Field Trips and more! The website will up later next week!

• Hourly Behavior Training – Behavior Training will help you begin the journey to having a well-behaved pup. These lessons includes a short discussion of your pup’s schedule and issues, developing a plan, and lots of training and behavior strategies.

• Homeschool – Homeschool offers a more intensive, personalized, ongoing training program that focuses on your pup’s individual needs. Jenn Kyzer will come to your home 3 days a week for 1 hour at a time for 3 weeks to work with your pup.

• Pack Walks – Pack Walks will be scheduled monthly and will continue your education, practice skills, strategies and socialization with your pups! We will meet at various parks for a 60-90 minute walk/hike. Great for social dogs and super helpful for reactive dogs as well.

If you’re having a hard time deciding what is best for you, give Jennie- Admin Guru, a call or shoot her an email and she’ll help you find the best place for you! 804-840-9037.