Sarah Shapiro-Ward

Training with Food: The Basics If you’ve been to our classes, you’ll be familiar with how we use food for training behaviours. If you haven’t been to our classes, be prepared to bring around 1-2 cups of training treats. What might surprise you about our classes, though, is what we prefer to train with, and that is… drumroll… kibble! Kibble is a surprising answer for many dog guardians and positive-reinforcement training enthusiasts. Kibble is generally considered “Low value” and therefore,...

Why “Leave It” isn’t part of an optimal dog training program By Sarah Shapiro-Ward May 2026 Introduction At The Dog School, we don’t teach “Leave It” as part of the regular curriculum. This usually surprises and worries people in equal measure because without “Leave It”, people seem certain that their dog will run amok. But what if I told you that thinking this way is a result of people anthropomorphising dogs? “Leave It” is by far the least functional cue still prevalent in dog...

A Better Way to Track Progress What shows that a dog has been trained? Take a moment to think about it. You’re probably thinking about real world applications; the dog is able to pass distractions on leash, or stay in the elevator. You might consider fancy party tricks or a dog who is participating in dog sports. You probably aren’t thinking about the graduation certificate your dog received at 15 weeks old and immediately chewed up. Or the certificate they got at 6 months old for passing a...