Training adventures of Lou 🤎
With the heat setting in Perth this last few weeks, we got to work on some training games we could play inside with the aircon on!
Here is Lou’s progression of ‘hold an object then retrieve the object’. I’m teaching this to create a retrieve on a toy (which she doesn’t naturally offer) so I can add rewarding with a toy to our training.
She’s such a clever little vegemite - we both loved learning this together.
A big thank you to our friend and mentor Gina O'Keefe for the feedback and support! We truly appreciate it!
SO what tricks are you teaching your dog this summer?
Ever wondered what we get up to in Puppy High School? Well here is a snap shot of our Oct graduating class in week four, what super stars they are! Our high school course is designed to introduce important and fun life skills that you will find useful in raising your puppy. As you watch the video appreciate what is happening in the background outside of the formal training exercises - focused and calm puppies working in connection with their families. This is a super important by product of good group training that is set up to allow your puppy to succeed. Our next class starts on the 7th Jan 7.15pm in central Armadale if you would like to join us on your training journey with your puppy message us today we still have 3 spots left. Happy training!
Puppy High School
Ever wondered what we get up to in Puppy High School? Well here is a snap shot of our Oct graduating class in week four, what super stars they are!
Our high school course is designed to introduce important and fun life skills that you will find useful in raising your puppy. As you watch the video appreciate what is happening in the background outside of the formal training exercises - focused and calm puppies working in connection with their families. This is a super important by product of good group training that is set up to allow your puppy to succeed.
Our next class starts on the 7th Jan 7.15pm in central Armadale if you would like to join us on your training journey with your puppy message us today we still have ONE spot left.
Happy training!
Puppy Tip #5. Crate Training.
We consider crate training an essential life skill for ALL dogs but especially puppy’s! There are so many important benefits from choosing to crate train your puppy:
1. Crates help tap into that sometimes elusive ’off’ switch and creates a restful space to sleep and recover.
2. Crates provide for important safety when you can’t be supervising what your puppy is up to, especially during the night.
3. Helps foster independence and being comfortable with their own company for structured periods of time, helping reduce the risk of separation anxiety
4. Crates helps reinforce your toilet training, puppies are far less likely to go to the toilet in their crate than on your nice living room rug. Giving your puppy lots of supervised toilet breaks helps you reinforce the ‘correct’ location.
5. Crates are a safe and secure way for dogs to travel in vehicles.
6. Crate training is a very transferable skill, take a look at Lou rocking her crate training at the vets, wouldn’t everyone want their dogs experience at the vet clinic to be less stressful? 🤎 Foothills Animal Hospital-WA
When puppy’s are young it is much easier to introduce the concept of crate training, making it a positive, comfort and restful space, we NEVER use the area for punishment, it is somewhere Lou runs to because she has such a positive association with it 🤎 We were incredibly lucky that Lou’s amazing breeder Rosaline Twaites had started this training long before Lou came to live with us!
Meet Doug, a gorgeous and clever puppy preschooler showing off his new life skill, send to bed. Watch the joy from both Doug and his mum in this video, this is what great training looks like ❤️AMAZING work guys!!!
Training for novelty
Inspired by a lecture with Ken Ramirez talking about introducing novelty to your dogs training sessions we took Lou to our training shed and filmed the training session, enjoy it’s hilarious ❤️🤎❤️ how amazing is this puppy, she never left her station (bed) once without being cued!
Thank you to Chantelle Hartney for joining in the crazy fun!
Puppy tip #4
First walk experiences….
Now Lou is fully vaccinated we are taking her out and about more and allowing her to experience the world.
Your puppies first walks matter. It is important that these new adventures are positive and calm experiences. Think about how you want to shape these early walks for the future and allow them to feel safe.
To often I hear people wanting to take puppies to the off leash dog parks and beaches once they are fully vaccinated, this is not a great plan for developing confidence in the world. One of the reasons is that these intense ‘dog’ experiences can be incredibly overwhelming for young dogs and may shatter their confidence around other dogs. In addition to that not all dogs that attend these places are in fact social and it is a big mistake to allow them to interact with your puppy at such a critical learning time in their lives.
Today we took Lou for her first bush walk, a quiet location where she can indulge her nose and feel safe and secure. We also took along a close friends adult dog who is calm and can lead by example - with confidence. Thank you to Leanne and her beautiful Summer for helping us expose Lou to this new big world in such a positive way ❤️
We finished our walk with a lovely coffee at a local cafe where Lou got to practice calm neutral behaviours whilst we enjoyed a sit down ❤️
Puppy tip #3
Training. Providing our puppies with a good education from an early age is essential to shaping and reinforcing the behaviours that will provide for the life you want to lead together and create a foundation of connection.
Training should be like a day at the fun park not boot camp for your puppy, engaging them so they want to play the game.
This week Lou has been playing her training games in new locations adding the challenge of ‘distractions’. She rocked it clever girlie 🤎
Thank you to our friend Sarah Ogden for filming the fun we were having together 🤎
Some of the things we get up to at puppy preschool ❤️ new skills, creating confidence, puppies calmly watching others work and above all creating a bond and connection ❤️ here is Lou strutting her stuff 🤎
Puppy preschool starting SOON!
Welcoming a new puppy into your family is an exciting time and the trainers at Dogs United are here to help give you and your puppy the very best start to life together.
Join us for this four week fun packed learning adventure where we help your puppies confidence grow and start that all important connection between you and your puppy!
Our next class starts on Tuesday 24th Sept at 6pm in central Armadale.
Message us at Dogs United for more details or to book!
Warts and all…
It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts.” - Zig Ziglar
With most of our friends returning from their Nationals agility competition in NSW, we were back at it this weekend in WA!
Sunday was packed with lots of agility fun, but not results for either Jules or I. Between us we had 10 runs and 0 clears with our girls Dibley and Queenie. Despite a less than successful day of competition as far as ‘results’ go, we had a good day connecting with our girls and walked away happy with most of our efforts.
I have decided to share mine and Dibley’s last run of the day, in an effort to balance out our FB posts, in effect keeping it real!
We have a tendency to post all the best bits, I guess social media is driven by this but I’m conscious that this isn’t a true reflection of our agility journey, certainly in competition.
There are many ‘runs’ where things don’t go as planned, we make mistakes, are distracted and just don’t seem to get things together, just no one gets to see them (apart from our agility friends).
So here it is ‘warts and all’ - I had to wake Dibley up from the car to do this run she was pretty tired, struggled to focus on the start line, slipped before the weavers, slowed down in her weaves, broke her dog walk contact (and I didn’t reset her!), I called tunnel for the tyre, and heart breaking Dibs dropped the last bar…….
For our Dogs United clients and friends, moral of this story, sometimes despite all the investment in time, effort and training it’s not your day, things go wrong - you are not alone we all have those days, keep investing that time and effort the rewards are there for those that keep showing up.
Shared with love, Rach & Dibley Doodah
PUPPY SCHOOLS!
Come join all the puppy fun at Dogs United!
Next classes start on 30th July!
At Dogs United Training Academy we strive to provide a wonderful start to your life with your new puppy!
This is an important time in your puppy's life, a time where their first experiences help set them up for success later in life.
As a veterinarian I see a lot of puppies and the biggest mistake people make is to think that their puppy won't benefit from classes because they live with another dog or they wait until after the last vaccination to book. EVERY puppy will benefit from a well run early class regardless of vaccination status or lifestyle, this is a SUPER important time in a puppy's development and you only get that opportunity once in their lifetime.
Each of our puppy courses are designed to expose them to a great learning environment. We offer both preschool and high school courses that cater to puppies of different ages.
If you have a puppy and want to get off to a great start contact us today and we can guide you to the best course option.
DATES & LOCATIONS of Julys classes:
#1 Preschool Tuesday 30th July 6pm - Location central Armadale High. NOW FULL! Next class starts 27th August - CLASS NOW FULL
#2 High School Tuesday 30th July 7.15pm - Location central Armadale - CLASS NOW FULL
Next courses start on 27th August!
Contact us via FB messenger or email [email protected] for more information or to book.
