Understanding Behavior, Nurturing Wellbeing

Professional Behavior Consulting and Training in Hampton, Newport News, Yorktown, Poquoson, Williamsburg and Virtually

Who I Am

Are you looking for support with your pet's behavior? You're in the right place! My work is grounded in creating a healthy, joyful relationship between you and your pet. My behavior support takes a wellness approach to support your pet's physical, mental and emotional health. I specialize in reactivity, aggression, fear, anxiety, and reducing stress at the vet and groomer. I only use ethical, humane, reward based methods.

Maui, and australian shepherd mix, sits facing the camera.

How I Can Help

Behavior & Wellness Support

In-person and virtual support for pets struggling with fear, anxiety, reactivity, aggression, and other behavior concerns.

Dynamic Dog Functional Assessment

In-person and virtual support for pets struggling with fear, anxiety, reactivity, aggression, and other behavior concerns.

Vet, Grooming & Handling Skills

For pets who need help building skills to be comfortable at the vet, groomer and during in home care.

Life Skills & Coaching

For dogs and puppies looking to build skills to set them up for success for their lives, with a focus on proactive and preventative skills.

Learn More!

Taylor stands with her hands on her hips. In between her legs sits Maui, and Australian Shepherd Mix wearing a blue harness.

Hi, I'm Taylor!

I'm a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants and a Dynamic Dog Practitioner. I take a wellness approach to training, which means I stay up to date on knowledge about the impact of health and pain on our pet's behavior.

Learn More!

My job as a certified dog behavior consultant is to help guardians navigate complex behavior issues to get to the root of the "why." And more often than not, that "why" is pain, whether it's orthopedic concerns, neurologic pain, allergies, GI issues, dental pain, or something else. Anything that is negatively impacting our dogs physical health will also impact their emotional health.

Pain is so complex because our dogs can't tell us what is bothering them. Because of this, I take a pain aware approach with every single client I work with, whether it's a puppy or a senior dog.

Feeling stuck on your dog's behavior and looking for support that focuses on more than just training? Let's chat! I support guardians and their dogs locally and virtually! 🐾

#DogBehavior #DogTraining #ReactiveDog

The haunted houses are so spooky this year 👻

#DogTraining #DogBehavior #ReactiveDog

Using treats during training is my favorite way to help support a dog in building new skills. I mean, food is a primary reinforcer! If a dog is “picky” or won’t take food during training, that is information for us.

However, treats can also be harmful during training if we aren’t careful! So, let’s break it down.

Early in my career when I was working with my dog, Ori, I accidentally made food aversive for her. We were working on handling skills after she had a huge regression. Ori started hating handling so much, that the moment I pulled out treats to train, she would try to avoid me and offer a lot of appeasement signs.

I accidentally taught Ori that treats meant she was going to be touched, which for a dog in pain, (we didn’t know she was at the time), that’s scary! 😬

But food is a reinforcer, right? WRONG. Our dogs get to decide what is reinforcing to them, and despite my attemps to reward Ori for being touched, it wasn’t rewarding for her! Being touched was aversive, and that wasn’t worth the treats.

People often tell me “I don’t want to use food to bribe my dog to do things” and boy do I have good news for you - that’s not what we’re doing!

Instead, we are using food to reinforce behavior, teach new skills, navigate challenges, regulate emotions, and improve our relationship with them.

Food can be so useful during training, much more than just as a reward. I often use food as barometer to understand how a dog is feeling during a session. Are they only taking high value treats? Or not taking treats at all? Are they struggling to find treats during a scatter feed? Are they getting more mouthy when taking the treat? If they’re doing any of these, that’s information for us!

Using food can also help strengthen your relationship with your dog. Think about it - how often do we go out to eat with friends? Have dinner with family? Heck, most holidays revolve around food in some capacity.

Why is that? Because food helps build connections. The same is true for our dogs!

#DogTraining #ReactiveDog #DogBehavior

Using food during training and behavior support is so important! It can help reinforce behaviors, teach new skills, and support our dogs in regulating their emotions. But if we aren't careful, we can do harm with food, too! I learned that the hard way with my own dog.

#DogTraining #DogBehavior #ReactiveDog

Having three dogs with behavior "issues" has taught me one big lesson: there's often more going on underneath the surface.

The best progress we've made working on our behavior concerns has happened AFTER we investigated pain. It hasn't been easy, and we still don't fully have all of our answers, but we're getting there.

This is why I prioritize assessing for potential signs of pain/discomfort in my behavior clients. Research shows that's up to 80% of dogs struggling with behavior problems have something of pain component, whether it's orthopedic, neurologic, allergies, GI issues, dental disease, etc.

As a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant and Dynamic Dog Practitioner, I can support my clients behaviorally as well as by offering gait and functional assessments to help collaborate with your vet team to finally get some answers.

#DogTraining #DogBehavior #ReactiveDog

My three dogs turned seven this year, and I still don’t know what’s causing their pain. I’ve suspected pain in all three dogs since they were pretty young. Ori has been a behavioral nightmare since she was a puppy, while Maui and Moana had a spike in behavior concerns when they were 2ish.

Currently, we’re investigating a “rare” neurological condition called Tethered Cord Syndrome (TCS).

I decided to share our investigation into pain despite us not having any answers yet because I wanted to focus on the part of the journey that I don’t think gets talked about enough: the wondering, the doubting, the research, the advocating, and the not knowing.

It’s very challenging when we suspect pain in our dogs and tests continue to come back normal. Honestly? It feels defeating.

Investigating pain in our dogs isn’t easy, and then you add in a suspected “rare” neurological condition, and multiple it by three dogs? Ugh, haha. There’s big feelings all around.

So follow along as I unpack the past few years of investigating pain including all the emotions, challenges, and financial concerns along the way.

#DogBehavior #DogTraining #PainAwareness

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Ready to Get Started?

Service Location:

I provide behavior support and training for Hampton, Newport News, Yorktown, Poquoson, Williamsburg and virtually.

Email Address:

Taylor@plantedpawsbehavior.com

Our Hours:

Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday from 10AM - 5PM.

I work limited hours on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.

A golden retriever mixed with cavalier king charles spaniel stands looking at the camera.