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Photo Credit: Norman Rockwell, The Runaway

There’s a story about my father that I’ve told my girls more than once. The setting is a park in Niagara Falls in the 1990’s. I can’t place the time of year, the weather was dreary yet mild with respect to temperature. We ventured an hour and a half from our hometown to visit the Falls as a family. We had recently finished our tour and were making our way back to the car down one of the trails when a voice called out from across the park. The voice was calling, “Scott, hey Scott.” (My father’s name) This obviously peaked my youthful attention as I was somewhere between 10-12 years old at the time. As I looked over to see who was calling for my Dad in this random park, so far from home, I caught sight of a man that appeared

You’re sitting in a restaurant with a couple of friends that you haven’t seen in some time. It’s a square table for 4 in an open venue in which there are many customers seated nearby. The mood is light, maybe a little vibrant. The acoustics are such that if you lean in you can clearly hear the musings of all the patrons at the tables immediately surrounding you. This is a familiar setting, yes? Now, there is a gentleman seated with two acquaintances at the table to your immediate right. He speaks with a clear, elevated, voice of authority as if he firmly supports and believes in what he is saying. The subject of the conversation is… POLITICS! Now don’t close out your tab just yet! We haven’t gotten to the important stuff! I’d imagine that many of you felt

We wanted to post a quick update on a particularly challenging case. Buddy has been by far the most reactive dog I have worked with in quite some time. I’ve been working with this client for approximately 5-6 weeks at this point. When we began, he wasn’t able to be within 50-100 feet of another dog/bike/person without violently reacting. He grew up on the street, wasn’t weened properly, and had a slew of odds stacked against him from the start. It’s likely that he would have been put down if not for intervention. As those who follow us or have worked with us know, we have a particular leaning toward working dogs and scent detection. We observed minimal improvement using the

~Time is the rarest and most valuable of commodities~

Dogs have been a part of my professional and personal life for almost two decades. Young and old, I’ve seen dogs ship out to all corners of the globe to work various jobs. Military dogs leaving for distant overseas posts, Government/Police dogs moving from one handler to another after personnel changes, personal companion dogs growing old and passing, and everything in between. I’ve even unfortunately been to a few working dog funerals. In this industry dogs come and go; it’s just part of the business. 

It’s fair to assume that it’s easy to become dispassionate or overly calculated about the revolving door of dogs, the continuous cycling in and out of canines. But…interestingly enough, that hasn’t happened.

“Listen to someone who may have nothing in common with you”
~Anthony Bourdain~

Every now and then we all need to step away from our official duties. We need to completely unplug, change gears, break the cycle, reflect, and put it back together. I’m paraphrasing but when Sherlock Holmes was stuck on a particular case, he would perform a completely unrelated task. This would temporarily unburden his thoughts. Often, this is where he would experience a breakthrough.

Now, I have this friend named Douglas. He’s infamous for springing last-minute hunting or deep-sea fishing trips on me….always when I’m up to my neck in work. Funny thing is, I have the darndest time saying no. Let me preface the Douglas expeditions by stating that there’s a

Writing is like good BBQ. You don’t (or at least you shouldn’t) just throw something on the flame. Rather, the process starts days, weeks, or years earlier as a series of ruminations about your audience, the duration of the cook, the occasion, and the resources. A good article like a good meal conveys something not only about the subject matter but about the author as well. An author like a cook can tell you precisely where they received their inspiration from and often the exact location at which the inspiration occurred.

I wanted to share some rather disheartening news that I came across this week. Most of us are aware of the impending rise of artificial intelligence (AI). It can be an extremely useful tool when it comes to automating monotonous, routine tasks. However, th

I recently had the privilege of assisting a family with their aggressive Catahoula Leopard Dog. For those that don’t know the Catahoula is the State dog of Louisiana. If reared from good stock they are a large,powerful, hunting/herding breed.

This article isn’t about the nuances or idiosyncrasies that were used to train this dog. Rather, it’s about the mindset that I used to approach the animal. A friend and mentor of mine recently sent me a podcast hosted by World Sport Dog Champion Ivan Balabanov. In this episode he engaged with David Garcia Suarez another canine extraordinaire for over 3 hours about various topics. If you’re interested in the credentials of either of these gentlemen, I implore you to look them up on your own as their achievements and bios are exte

(Xoloitzcuintli)  

pronounced (show-low-itz-QUEENT-ly)

When you venture off the beaten path in Mexico you tend to get more than you bargained for. Yes, you certainly can find cheap goods, great food, and even some danger (it’s Mexico after all). Much of the country is under a do not travel advisory from the U.S. State Department so when I was offered a chauffeured tour by a couple of locals, I couldn’t pass it up. The resorts are certainly safe to visit if that’s your cup of tea, but I was in search of something that could only be found outside of the ivory tower. I was seeking an encounter with Xoloitzcuintli (Xolo for short) in its natural habitat. 

Xolo is an ancient hairless dog which served as a companion to the Aztecs and Mayans. It was nearly driven

It’s a black night with rain coming down in sheets. The steady flow of migrant traffic along the Southwest Border is on a temporary hiatus due to the atrocious weather. The only sound aside from the rain is the occasional chatter from the vehicle mounted Border Patrol Radio. A lone Agent sits in the vehicle partially enjoying the reprieve while unable to completely detach from the daunting reality that is his world day in and day out. A rustle from underneath the vehicle brings the Agent back to his guard. Curled up in the muddy undercarriage is a dog. To get out of the pounding rain the small creature was so desperate that he approached the strange vehicle in the middle of the South Texas scrub. I’ve studied dog behavior for a good portion of my life. When a dog is willing

-Tailored, researched, personalized dog training, boarding, and research services

Each situation is unique. We will work with you to address your specific situation and concerns.

-Written training plan

Regardless of the length of training the written documents are yours to keep. This allows you to revisit what we discussed at any time.

-We will assist you in locating a trainer that meets your needs should our services not be the right fit

- A franchised

As one would suspect, Thailand is fundamentally different than the U.S. on many levels. Buddhism represents approximately 93% of the country’s religious demographic. I was fortunate to receive a tour of the Wat Po Buddhist temple complex in Bangkok. My tour guide was a retired monk (I know right…I didn’t know they could retire either). I can’t pronounce his name but he was able to enlighten me, no pun intended to the spiritual focus of Thai culture. 

What does a Buddhist temple complex have to do with dogs? Well, to understand how a population interacts with dogs one needs to understand something about the culture itself. This is why I spent the first 2-3 days of my trip getting to know the local people, sites, and common practices. It wasn’t l

CTRG is excited to announce that we will be traveling to Thailand at the end of September. We will be studying cross cultural differences between canine ownership in Southeast Asia and the United States. We will also conduct a study on the remnants of the canine meat trade.

Why is this important?

Examining your industry from different perspectives is vital to growth and understanding. The canine industry is no exception to this premise. By studying the ways  in which different cultures engage with dogs and the roles that they serve in society, CTRG is able to provide more informed services. We gain a deeper understanding of the different ways that man and dog are interdependent. In turn, this knowledge and understanding shapes

So you want to get your dog trained or you need to board your dogs while you go out of town; the first thing you do is go to the internet and run a search for companies in your area. What typically pops up are a handful of large, franchised boarding and training facilities. Here are a few things to consider before taking your dog to one of these facilities.

• First and foremost, most franchised dog training/boarding facilities are land grabs. Meaning, they are following the fast food business model in which the real estate is where the value of the company is, not in the training and boarding. When you purchase services from one of these companies you are paying the land note for them. This allows the company to scale and purchase more land in valuable locations (think major

It’s difficult to summarize an event like this. It’s even more difficult to pin down an accurate descriptor for the clientele….. definitely somewhere between eclectic…eccentric…strict professional….and just plain and simple crazy. If you’ve never attended a large scale AKC event I implore you to give it a go. Bring the kids, the people watching is worth the trip alone. 

Now, if my introduction hasn’t offended anyone off there are two major takeaways that CTRG took away from this event. Mind you the purpose of our attendance was to collect research related to the state of breeding in the United States. This information ideally will be used to supplement ongoing projects related to raising canine industry standards. Circling back, the takeaways are as follows:

1. Th

CTRG was founded to address some of the systemic shortcomings that exist within the canine services ecosystem. Our primary mission is to raise the bar when it comes to canine training, boarding, breeding, and research. The team that we’ve created represents some of the best practitioners in the industry.

Two of our initial research projects include:

Initiatives to increase the speed and efficiency at which service dogs are trained and deployed

Working with counselors and coaches to address mental health issues utilizing canine resources in a therapeutic format

Much more to follow on these initiatives and more….

When you choose CTRG for your canine services the proceeds directly contribute to ongoing research projects. This is what we call a win..win.