Health Is an important factor driving behavior

Mental and physical well-being are strongly connected. My primary objective is to design a program that suits your dog and ensures that you and your dog can spend as many fun-filled and healthy years together as possible. Good health and even-keeled behavior, proper nutrition and plenty of mental stimulation go hand-in-hand to forge a mutually satisfying and joyful relationship!

The Benefits

Body Awareness and Injury Prevention

Private, in-home body conditioning services are beneficial to all dogs but are especially important for dogs who are predisposed to injury due to congenitally unstable joints, sports injuries, arthritis and cognitive degeneration.

WE PROVIDE CAREFULLY TAILORED PRIVATE, IN-HOME SERVICES IN NEW YORK CITY FOR:

• Post surgery and post injury
• Sports conditioning for working dogs
• Body conditioning for senior dogs, dogs with arthritis
• Occupational Therapy /Mental stimulation for chronically ill and senior dogs
• Body awareness /training for overweight dogs
• Dogs with orthopedic issues (ie: weak knee caps, hip dysplasia)

Results Include:

• Improved reaction and control
• Increased core strength
• Stabilization of weak areas
• Improved balance and proprioception (awareness of the body’s position in space)
• Increased range of motion in joints & elongation of the muscles
• Improved sensory & body awareness
• Preventing sports-related injuries
• Improved cognitive awareness and decreased depression

There are so many reasons why increased body awareness can prevent injuries and provide excellent stimulation for dogs of any age. Post injury/post surgery dogs recover better and more completely given an intelligent exercise program. Dogs with arthritis can experience improved range of motion and flexibility through gentle stretching, massage, as well as core stabilizing exercises. Senior dogs love to play mentally stimulating and endorphin-producing games that help prevent ‘doggie Alzheimer’s’ and depression.

Contact me and let me help give your dog a healthier, higher quality of life!

Diet And Exercise

In New York City, a lot of dogs are latchkey dogs who get minimal exercise while you are at work all day. An alarming number of our dogs are overweight because they have access to food, treats and high calorie biscuits and bones all day long. Carrying around too much weight increases stress on the tendons, ligaments and the tissue surrounding the joints thus increasing the risk for cruciate ligament rupture, hip dysplasia, disc disease and soft tissue injuries of all kinds.

Without question, the best way to combat obesity and restore health is to combine diet change with increased exercise.

At DogRelations NYC, we design a balanced, highly nutritious diet, as well as a sensible and safe exercise program for your dog that allows them to gain healthy, lean muscle tissue while losing fat. Our exercise program includes interval training with your dog to gradually build up endurance and strength for a healthy cardiovascular system, mentally stimulating games to shift the dog’s focus away from food, and core exercises to strengthen joints, increase motion and maintain an injury-free, more active lifestyle!

Give us a call and let’s get your dog back to a healthy weight so they can have maximum quality of life and increased longevity!

Dog Nutrition

We believe that it all starts with food that is free of chemicals, preservatives or cheap and overly-processed ingredients. In other words: dogs as living beings need real food as opposed to extruded pellets that masquerade in a cute package as “dog food”. When it comes to health, we believe that puppies and dogs deserve nothing but the best. We like our clients’ pups to beam with health, shiny coats and a very healthy weight on the lean side.

At DogRelations we have done all the work for you. So if you want to give your dog well-balanced, complete and delicious food choices, contact us and we will design a great menu including treats, snacks and proper portioning for you.

Let us guide you to finding the best and freshest food choices for your puppy or dog to assure they get the best chance to live a very long and healthy life!

Service Options

COMPREHENSIVE IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD

Is your dog overweight? A picky eater? Unmotivated? Did you notice your dog has trouble getting up, or is slow sitting down? Does your dog lack exercise? Is the coat not healthy and shiny?

During the Comprehensive Wellness Consultation, we address all of those issues and motivate your dog to eat with gusto. We do fun enrichment walks and use some of your household equipment to build great obstacle courses inside your home or create puzzles for your dog to solve. They will learn useful tricks to turn them into a “helper” dog!

All of the above will be fun for both humans and dogs. It will enhance your relationship and greatly enhance the quality of life for your mixed-species household.

Initial Wellness Consultation

The Initial Wellness Consultations provides an in-depth assessment of your dog's overall health and well-being with the goal to help your companion lead a longer and healthier life by preventing or improving physical imbalances and implementing a tailored wellness and nutrition plan.
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I Can Help With…

What’s wrong with leaving food out and letting the dog graze throughout the day?

Anything that requires an effort is more appreciated. Things that are taken for granted are not as desirable. So if food is available all the time it becomes much less likely to be a motivating force and is more likely to create a fussy eater.

Fussy eaters are more difficult to reward and can therefore develop behavior issues that are harder to remedy. However, that fussiness can be prevented or remedied easily by making food a valuable commodity.

Additionally, teaching your dog that he does not have to worry about his food or his bowl will prevent resource guarding. For guidance and solutions to this important topic, let DogRelations give you a private dog behavior lesson and show you the many ways you can make feeding fun and educational at the same time.

Destructive chewing should be considered in context and relationship to when the behavior occurs.

If you have a puppy who is teething, the puppy will try to get his teeth on pretty much anything to alleviate teething pain or simply chew on something because it is available and tasty and calming and fun for the puppy. So really the key to solving puppy chewing is: Limiting access to tempting and/or dangerous temptations. Keep your puppy crated or gated and provide him with great chew toys and do not underestimate a puppy’s need to run, play and exercise!

If, however, you find that your dog is chewing on things when left alone you might be dealing with a more serious problem, either boredom or possibly separation anxiety. If your dog tears up the apartment by chewing on couches, door and window frames or desperately tries to get out of the crate you should definitely call a professional trainer for help, especially if you think you have provided the dog with good exercise and mental stimulation and something appropriate and delicious to chew on before you leave the house.

Contact us at DogRelations to learn how you can safely and happily raise your puppy without having your belongings destroyed, prevent separation anxiety. If you have a puppy or dog who might be suffering from separation anxiety, please call us so we can help you and your dog.

Jumping up and nipping are normal dog behaviors among dogs!

Of course when humans get into the mix these behaviors can become a lot less cute and, depending on the intensity, problematic and unacceptable.

Reprimanding or physically pushing back your puppy or dog really only engages you more with the dog when they are behaving inappropriately and therefore reinforces those behaviors especially when they do not know what to do instead!

Of course your best practice for jumping up would be to make staying on the floor far more rewarding for your dog. Ideally that actually means: reinforcing the dog when they are not jumping in order to make the jumping behavior less attractive in general. Behaviors that don’t fulfill the dog’s goal will become less interesting very quickly. As soon as the dog offers an acceptable replacement behavior by even just having all four paws on the floor, reward your dog highly. Additionally, always reward your puppy highly when they are calm, have all four paws on the floor or play nicely with one of their toys.

Help your dog by providing enough mental and some physical exercise and appropriate things to chew and nibble on so they can have an outlet for those very natural urges.

For specific advice and how to time your reinforcements properly contact us at DogRelations and I will be most happy to consult with you, give you individualized advice and teach your dog all the skills they need in private in-home dog lessons.

Pulling on the leash is a natural behavior. Dogs usually like to explore what is up ahead and all around them. The leash obviously constricts freedom of space. Allowing the leash to be tight all the time or pulling the dog back will only increase that behavior:

  1. All practiced behaviors increase in strength
  2. A tight leash transmits tension and nervousness
  3. Jerking or snapping on the leash can temporarily get your dog’s attention but certainly does not tell the dog what to do instead of pulling. In fact your dog might interpret those leash jerks as encouragement to pull even harder.
  4. Pulling on the leash is hard on both your body and the dog’s body.
  5. It takes the fun out of walking with your dog because it simply is not enjoyable.

The easiest way to stop leash pulling is to teach the dog to walk on a loose leash next to you by rewarding the dog whenever he is at your side. Walking on a leash is a learned skill for the dog.

For personalized instructions or private dog lessons to teach your dog to walk on a loose leash next to you contact DogRelations.

A common behavior issue with dogs is separation anxiety. The signs of separation anxiety can take many forms including:

  • Whining,barking, howling non stop
  • Chewing up inappropriate objects
  • Attempts to break out of premises
  • urinating/defecating in the house

This behavior occurs when you leave them alone in the house or in another part of the house for a nighttime sleep.

The first line of thought might be: Am I fostering co-dependence? Am I giving them attention whenever they ask? Have I instilled confidence in them and are they used to delayed gratification and have they been taught a fair reward system that will make them optimistic?

Have they been exposed to somewhat frustrating changes in the environment and built a history of living through that frustration being outweighed by a satisfying end result? Is the value of your appeasement reinforcing enough? Have they been reinforced for relaxing?

Most cases can be solved by teaching your dog that they can control what happens next by displaying polite behaviors that earn them privileges. Additionally, offering a fantastic chew/food reward (like a Toppl stuffed with tripe) will reduce generalized anxiety and can classically condition your dog to look forward to your absence. Let us map out an individualized plan that solves those problems for you and your dog.

At DogRelations I will support you throughout this process and assure success. Let me take the worry from you and replace it with practical and goal-oriented advice. Contact us for a dog separation anxiety consultation.

Teaching your dog to ask politely for food, toys and attention allows you to prevent nuisance behaviors like “begging”. In fact you can replace annoying “begging” by teaching your dog to “beg” in a way that is pleasing to you and gives them the opportunity to earn the things they value most in life by displaying polite and calm behaviors.

This will also prevent resource guarding in a fun and playful way. That means your dog will not “defend” their bowl, food or chew toy when someone walks nearby because they will learn there is only more and better stuff to be had.

For more games and tips to help with this very important topic let DogRelations give you a private dog behavior lesson and show you the many ways you can make feeding time fun and educational at the same time.

Is your dog barking often or uncontrollably? Too much barking can be a major annoyance.

If your dog is basically not aggressive then most likely the excessive barking is a behavior that has been inadvertently reinforced.

How on earth could that have happened?

Well, if you admonish your dog when he barks, you are giving him attention for an undesirable behavior. Your dog however, smart as he is, immediately notices that in a certain way barking works in his favor because it makes you notice him. So, when he feels bored or ignored he decides to try this again…he barks: and miracle of miracles!! You start to engage with him again! In the dog’s mind this is a great discovery and so, since practiced and rewarded behaviors get stronger: Voila! Your dog has successfully found a way to get your attention and you have inadvertently reinforced a nuisance behavior!

For a consultation on how to re-educate your dog and find being quiet more rewarding, please call DogRelations for comprehensive dog training consultation.

My Services

Wellness + Enrichment

Mental and physical well-being are strongly connected. My primary objective is to design a program that suits your dog and ensures that you and your dog can spend as many fun-filled and healthy years together as possible.

Learn More

Behavior Training & Modification

Designed to provide maximum support and guidance for first-time dog guardians and/or to address behavior problems such as excessive barking, separation anxiety, resource guarding, adult house soiling or a variety of fear and fear aggression issues.

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Psychiatric Service Dog Training

I can teach your dog to perform tasks that help mitigate your stressful or anxious moments. Together we determine which behaviors your dog should be trained to recognize and then perform these tasks.

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Puppy Training

The focus for this training is on reinforcing house training, establishing polite manners and building confidence in your puppy while educating guardians in the practical application of positive reinforcement

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Quick solutions for common Questions

Puppies and Leashes | Dog relations NYC

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The carefully thought out and well-proportioned design of the Haqihana harness guarantees maximum comfort in all situations. Any kind of pressure would be safely distributed onto the dog’s sternum and thorax only, even when the dog is pulling, jerking or being restrained. The harness therefore never causes pain or skin chafing. If properly used in combination with the longer leash the dog feels free of restriction and allows the dog to move naturally. The two buckles on the dog’s back make putting on and removing the harness easy for both the dog and the handler.

Dog Relations advocates science-based and force-free learning opportunities and experiences. Learn how to teach your dog basic skills in a fun and rewarding way!

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