Currently working on: dog obedience keywords and dog training and YouTube.

Arf and Iwa

The dogs that were (still) with me beginning of 2021, Arf and Iwa:

.

Unfortunately Arf died last June of cancer. I still miss him very much. Iwa is fortunately still with me, even though she is getting old now, but she is still going strong.

Cesar Millan

Cagayan de Oro Dog Training and Rehabilitation started with me wanting to do the same things Cesar Millan does in his TV shows: help people deal with their dogs better, help solve bad dog behavior. Or actually I wanted, and still want, more: being the Cesar Millan of The Philippines.

So after applying the principles as taught by Cesar Millan with his own dogs, I responded to the request of a friend who was looking for a dog trainer for her dog in 2015. And just started 'training' dogs.

Dog training

Keep in mind that what I do is not really dog training. I consider dog training more like teaching a dog tricks. And there are many people who can do that or are expert in that. I believe the best person to teach a dog tricks is the owner, not a dog trainer, unless it is about training dogs for professional use, like finding drugs or guiding blind people or help disabled people.

So as dog training is a common name for what most clients of me are looking for, I still use the term 'dog training' for what I do. But actually I prefer calling what I do something like 'helping people better deal with their dogs'. And that is what most people also seem to be looking for when they look for someone to 'train their dog'.

So how does it look like, what I am doing? Well, basically the following:

1. Dog teaching.
2. Owner teaching.
3. Dog rehabilitation.

You can read more about that in the paragraphs below.

Ah, and I get a lot of questions about potty training. And I am very happy to help you with that, but you may want to check the page about potty training first.

Dog teaching

Basically dog teaching is of course dog training, but I prefer to use the word 'teach' about the word 'train' as dog training is usually related to teaching dogs tricks like 'sit' or 'come' or 'play-fetch' or even 'attack'. This relates to 'hard training', and I focus on dog owners who have their dogs for pleasure and who mainly want to be able to control their dog so the dog behaves well, like listening to basic commands and not attacking visitors or destroying stuff.

Teaching sounds so more gentle, like helping the dog learn to do something, helping the dog to behave well, not just learning tricks.

Owner teaching

Dogs are social animals and their 'culture' is to live in packs. Packs have a strict hierarchy and help dogs feel safe and comfortable. In order to create and maintain safety in a pack, the pack leader needs to be sure of him or herself.

In combined human/dog packs it is important that a human takes the role of pack leader and that all other humans in the pack are 'above' the dogs in the pack. This structure keeps everybody safe and happy and this is the reason why I focus on (pack) leadership and not on dogs in my training.

Of course dogs can also have issues, but in my experience it is mostly the owner not taking the leadership role causing problems with dogs. And that is easy to deal with. Normally I see big improvements having only one training session with a dog and his or her owner. If you want to improve the behavior of your dog I am very happy to help you with that. Just contact me or sign up for one of the group trainings.

Dog rehabilitation

I did not really encounter dog rehabilitation yet, although with some of the clients I had the idea it may be applicable, meaning it might be or might have been useful to keep the dog here with me and teach the dog some better behavior by myself.

I am considering offering that option, maybe in combination with dog rescue.

Dog rescue

And a few years I found myself rescuing a dog, so now i am also into dog rescue. And that dog was Arf.