Unlocked Petential

The stick of ✨gratitude✨

A little trainer vulnerability today.

A few months ago, I had to make one of the hardest decisions I’ve made as a dog trainer: I referred a client out.

He was a young Cane Corso/Great Dane mix who hadn’t received any formal training until he was nearly a year old. He was over 100 pounds, incredibly strong, and had already developed some challenging habits. Despite that, he was a sweet dog, and for five sessions we worked together without any major issues.

Then, during our sixth lesson, he became frustrated.

We were working on leash manners, and he wanted to pull, jump, and do what he wanted. When I didn’t allow that, he redirected his frustration onto me and bit me. Thankfully, I reacted quickly and only sustained a minor injury, but it was enough for me to realize that he needed a trainer with more experience handling aggression cases and more time to dedicate to his needs.

So I referred him out.

Honestly? It shook my confidence more than I wanted to admit.

Since then, I haven’t worked with another adult Cane Corso.

Until Bear.

When I walked into our first session together, I noticed something I wasn’t expecting: hesitation. I was nervous. My brain immediately connected “adult Cane Corso” with the last experience I’d had.

The thing is, dogs deserve for us to see them, not our past experiences.

So I took a breath, reminded myself that Bear wasn’t that dog, and walked into the session with an open mind.

And Bear was fantastic.

Does he have challenges? Absolutely. We’re working through some reactivity and resource guarding concerns. But he was thoughtful, engaged, eager to learn, and an absolute pleasure to work with.

More importantly, he reminded me of something I’d lost sight of for a moment:

A breed is not an individual.

One difficult experience doesn’t define an entire breed, and one mistake doesn’t define a trainer.

Sometimes growth looks like teaching a dog something new.

Sometimes growth looks like recognizing your own fears, working through them, and showing up anyway.

Thank you for the reminder, Bear. 🖤

“Look at those teeth!” 😳

What you’re seeing is canine communication.

Adonis is using a lip lift to communicate a boundary. Rather than escalating immediately, he’s giving information to Expo: “I need a little space.”

Dogs use body language, facial expressions, growls, and even showing teeth to navigate social interactions. These signals are often meant to prevent conflict, not create it.

Good dog communication isn’t always cute—but it is important. 🐾

Some things never change 🤦🏽‍♀️ 🤣

Your next superstar has entered the chat! 🤣

What do you think Expo’s wrestler name would be?!

🐺 Breeding Program Update 🐺

After a lot of thought, it’s been decided not to move forward with the planned Symphony × Spirit litter.

I want to be clear that this decision has absolutely nothing to do with Spirit. He’s a wonderful wolfdog, and this isn’t the result of any concerns with him. Sometimes things simply don’t align the way we’d hoped, and ultimately it was best not to proceed with this pairing.

With that said, the search for Symphony’s future match continues! I have a few males in mind that I’m excited to look into further, but no final decisions have been made yet.

If you’ve been considering adding a wolfdog to your family in the future—especially a mid-content wolfdog—I’d love for you to reach out and submit a form for my waitlist! One of the pairings I’m strongly considering would produce puppies in the 60% range, and if I choose to move forward with that breeding, I need to make sure I have knowledgeable, committed homes lined up beforehand.

As always, my goal is never to rush into a breeding. I want every pairing to be one I’m genuinely excited about and every puppy to have the best possible start and placement.

At this time we’re still focusing on getting Symphony’s health testing, temperament testing, and looking to place a few trick dog titles on her before any breeding takes place.

Thank you to everyone who has followed Symphony’s journey and supported my program. I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated as plans develop. ❤️

Waitlist: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15dOHQPViIRK84zNeBnu28R4RyzdNVtHP6u4GHHME9SY/viewform