Capricornia Rise K9 Training & Behaviour

13/09/2021

13/09/2021

Meet the most beautiful girl alive, Maggie! She is a golden retriever with a gorgeous soul, and a cheeky free spirit! She likes to go on adventures and explore the beautiful world around her and in her excitement, her free spirit needs some work on recall! Lol

She also has a touch of anxiety in certain high stimulation situations. We have started doing 2x sessions a week, starting with engagement in her excitable state to begin with, working on recall (come command) and urgent recall (come home now) methods, working her under distraction in general, and her focus on recall and urgent recall home with the high number of neighbourhood dogs also.

*have included a video of some difficulties and our triumph with uncontained/off leash interference from other dogs.* This is a much more high stakes, reactive situation with most other dogs I work with, so I am also highly passionate about training around keeping dogs contained to your own yard if you should need help there 😀

Maggie, you're doing wonderful things for me you little superstar!

10/09/2021

Shadow
* following on from video chat session*

Gorgeous Shadow (a husky x kelpie x border collie mix) is a highly anxious, very reactive boy with some pretty evident behaviours as a result..

After some in depth insight into what we can do to help manage him presently and minimise how affected he is by his condition, the psychology behind it and training tools/methods to implement, his lovely owner is starting to notice some changes underway this week! 😊

He is currently medicated for his condition, but his owner is noting a calmer dog beginning to show improvements after our first session, and has had some success with his behaviours when taking him out this week also!

You guys are both doing amazing! Cannot wait to see what the future brings this pair with all their efforts already showing great things in short spaces!

07/09/2021

I have a few training plans to send through to clients, sorry for the delay. I will have those written up and sent throuhg tomorrow guys! So if anyone is still waiting, I will be in touch very shortly.. Thanks for your patience 🖤

01/09/2021

*video session update*

Meet Preston and Hunter 🤩
Reactivity issues as a result of anxiety. Working through fine tuning some techniques, behavioural cues and touching into some behavioural remodification, these gorgeous boys showed an instant response to our approach during our session, and their owner has been working hard with them since and seeing improvements!

An absolute dream to work with both these boys and their beautiful owner via our video session, and I must say they're a couple of sweethearts!

28/08/2021

Absolutely love what I do 🖤

23/08/2021

23/08/2021

Training options offered to those in lockdown in Melbourne areas or unwilling to travel. Don't let lockdown stop your problems, and what better time to fix them in your own home via video chat.
Text Sam 0419870776

23/08/2021

Making my own life easier,
QR code for client check ins!

22/08/2021

Bendigo area
Home sessions 1hr- $50
Working with reactivity, anxiety, big dogs, specialise in german shepherds and large dominant dogs but welcome all breeds! 😍
Sammy 0419870766

21/04/2021

Imagine going on a long-anticipated walk, through beautiful scenery, after you have been cooped up all day in the same place, but you have been fitted with a blind fold and are being dragged along at a fast pace. I imagine that this is how dogs feel when we don’t allow them time to stop and sniff the environment. Dogs largely perceive their world through smell and it’s how they collect and process information and make sense of their world. Taking away an opportunity for sniffing on a walk is not in their best interests and as much as physical exercise is important, the mental stimulation that sniffing provides is equally, if not more important.
Studies have shown that allowing dogs to spend time sniffing provides so many benefits – promoting calmness, lowering stress and anxiety levels, lowering pulse rates, preventing cognitive decline and providing mental stimulation and enrichment are just some examples.
Make time for a slow “sniffing walk”, where your dog is allowed to decide which direction to go and allowed to simply follow their nose to their noses content! It may take more patience as we wait for them to finish smelling that blade of grass, but the benefits are well worth it.

25/03/2021

Charlie started out with severe anxiety, dog reactive, highly stressed under stimulation and once he made eye contact with another dog- his barking, lunging and no hope to gain his attention back. Even daily medication was him still showing anxious behaviour, poor Charlie was one of my top clients for anxiety he had.

He is coming off his meds and today was confident, sure of himself, alert under an insane amount of stimulation and calm reaction in place of fear reactive behaviour.

This boy has worked his tail off to make huge improvements for himself and super proud so far

05/02/2021

Here's this week's gorgeous lab x kelpie Rollo who's a 6 mo who has an amazing ability to become very quickly and easily overstimulated, urinating everywhere, jumping and unable to self manage his excitement levels back down again. Even just 1 on 1 inside with the most minimal stimulation it was a very long (but gentle) day working with behavioural modification training to teach him how he can downshift his heightened activity back to normal on his own over time 😇🥰

We then began to increase ways for him to work under distractions, engagement training and he has caught on and with each challange added he has taken on faster and better as we go!

Before he was too boisterous and jumpy unaware of children (heck he tested me even lol) but he was a champion with achieving my 4yo daughter being able to hold his lead inside on her own, ask him to move with her or out of her space when needed and asking for him to sit while I sat only offering a little help verbally 😍😍

Cannot wait to see what the next 2 days can inspire us to reach now, so watch for our update!

09/11/2020

*ANXIETY DISORDERS & REACTIVE DOGS*
Did you know these issues can be corrected and bring you long term, self coping skills based corrected behaviour?!

Positive and gentle methods based on the knowledge behind canine psychology and recognition of subtle behavioural cues from your dog, severe anxious disorders and reactive/aggressive dogs I specialise in correcting, with big results and turn around 🙂👌

Here's just a few if this year's cases and a quick look at their amazing stories
Major- male german shepherd, severe anxiety to calm and confident
Apollo- border collie: 10/10 anxious displayed in his extreme hyperactivity, barking, inability to follow what he was asked and was a big part of a fight breaking out between himself and another family dog becoming too frequent. He is now calm, collected, obedient AND not one fight since staying with me to train and stay over 2 weekends
Midnight: 1yo lab- this girl was one of the worst cases of anxiety I've seen to date tbh. Panic attacks so bad she was desperate enough to chew through walls, jump 6 foot fences and would literally shake 24/7. She was a different dog after training and went home super chilled out, calm, obedient and didn't jump the fence again.
Archie- 4yo kelpie: This guy was next level. High anxiety, past trauma, and reactive in response from how far his anxiety progressed to. Dogs and strangers were triggers for this poor fella and reacting with fear based aggression was where we started at and one big behavioral reaction he would give too. He has earned the accomplishments of being out in public (unmuzzled), letting strangers pat him (by his request by approaching AND rolling on his back for tummy scratching too!), has had off lead play with 2 of my GSDs, was tested one beach visit by 5 off lead dogs running towards him (5 separate events, poorly managed dogs from owners irresponsibility) and in a way more calm state than where we started

Highly nervous, extremely anxious dogs and/or dogs who react on sight of other dogs/people, Hugely destructive and even cases of dogs who are currently on anxiety/sedation meds who were told is their only hope here, THERE IS HELP! 😃
Message via FB or call/text 0419870766 and discuss how I can change your dogs life with anxiety (and yours!)

09/11/2020

Meet Major the German Shepherd and Nelly the 8 month old bull Arab.. Major was suffering from quite severe anxiety. Beautiful girl Nelly was just so excited and happy to see everything that the world around had to offer..

After a few weeks working with these guys, and their amazing owners, Major is now a calm, relaxed boy out and about and can respond obediently to his owners requests. He has gone from being so anxious he was lip licking, high respiration and heart rate, very tense and nervous body language to showing very relaxed body language, no lip licking and a lot less nervous all round 😍

Nelly is just so keen to please her owners in every way and is such a smart girl who learns very quickly. She was very quick to become over excited/stimulated in busy situations and could be hard to regain focus. Nell now has the ability to walk down the street and in busy situations with her full focus on her owner while around big distraction.

Such great progress with these two gorgeous guys, and working with anxiety cases like this are my absolute passion when I get to the point I see a dog can just be a dog again once we finish up together 🖤

30/10/2020

Little 4month old Albi and his owners have been amazing with training! Affectionately referred to as Feral Fart at home(my new favourite phrase now lol)
The adorable little Albi is a very clever little cookie, he does also know just how adorable he is too 😂😇 In a few short sessions together, Albi has some incredible focus while training time is on at home or while walking out and about with a lot of distraction. His 'leave it' and especially his 'look' commands while under distracting situations are without fail, cats, cars, pedestrians, barking dogs behind fences Albi took in his stride and gave the 'look' commands he was asked without hesitation obediently.. He picked up 'in your bed' in just our one 30minute session, and has shown great recall, owner engagement (focus and attention on owner and training as the dogs chosen priority 🙂 The dog wants to engage and work with owner rather than focus on distractions or doing his own thing)

He picked up basics very quickly with sitting etc, and when he sometimes tried to be a little cheeky and cheat the system by half giving what he is asked or rushing for a reward (as puppies all try out lol), he was one to learn the fastest ive taught before to give the right way his all and paired with willingness to please his little owner, learnt a lot in a fast, and few session time frame 😇🙂

Ive had an absolute pleasure training with Albi and his owners in the time together already, excited for seeing the progress with this confident little fuzzball and his owner (Who has a future career training dogs with the perfect attitude for it 😂👌 and his clicker too lol)

07/07/2020

Some training today with Ares. Working on engagement and target training
Target training works on the dog working with learning to think more and work for you by actively making decisions to earn a reward, without being promoted by a command. It gets them thinking more actively,encourages problem solving skills, mental stimulation, and fun with training. It gives higher obedience from the dog, much more focus on you , and better response from your dog. We are working on this in preparation for competitive obedience.

Message or call If you would like better focus, obedience, fun training with your pup and take training to another level 🙂

21/05/2020

Here is a transformation close to my heart. This is my own dog Ares🙂 He was trained and raised and had no issues with dogs, reactivity, anxiety etc could take him anywhere.
He suffered a severe traumatic event one night that saw him go overnight into a very reactive and really just a mean dog. It's been 3 months and very gentle training when trauma is involved, but now he is here 🙌😀 the ability to be able to trust him with with a puppy now after all he had started with and his working line pedigree at 45kgs of dog to work with- reactive aggression can be worked to a stable dog again 🙂

09/03/2020

Who's keen for some competition fun?
Who has a dog that's been the worst? Post a pic of your pup who is THE WORST. Or tag a mate you think could use the very fitting prize to this competition ....FREE TRAINING for A MONTH.
Yep, that's 4 sessions, 1hr, each week, $200 worth of training fees,

I love working with a good challenge, so let's see what you can give me to test that 😂👌

To get this out there - I'm wanting 100 likes and shares to announce a winner

Get me 200 and I will make the poor bloke I'm teaching get work experience alright 🤔🤷‍♀️

2 free training sessions he will provide the 2nd place challenge with. 😂👌

03/03/2020

Experienced dog trainer located in Bendigo with the ability to travel outside of the area available.
Training to deliver results in:
- Anxiety
- Dog reactivity to other dogs
- Working with dogs requiring socialization
- Puppy training packages
- Obedience under distraction
- Management of large , energetic dogs while walking
- Excessive barking, chewing and manners around children and the home
- Recall, running away, chasing cars etc
- Dogs who dig/ escape the yard
And more...

I often work using my own dogs for safe, non-reactive, positive experiences with dogs who are nervous or reactive around other dogs. I have a lot of success specifically in working with highly anxious and nervous behavioural issues and with large, difficult dogs also.

Home visits with one on one training - $30‐$50/hr
Puppy obedience, home visits -$120 for a 5 week package
All training is individually tailored to suit each dog and owners specific needs, so call or message via fb to discuss your training needs or behavioural concerns.
Sammy Mitchell 0419 870 766

22/02/2020

Hudsons progress-
This big guy has made some great steps since we first began. From complete fixation and barking, pulling, reactivity upon sight of another dog he has now shown great responses while out on leash.

His level of reactivity depends on the situation he has been faced with while training, he can walk by another non responsive dog at disstance now calmly. He is quicker to bring under control and will stop his barking/ reactivity in a few seconds now too with the other dog barking/initiating a response too.

He is a sweet, loving, incredibly happy boy who loves his ball and his 2 mummas to death, he has learnt quickly from training methods and is a dream to work with. He has done incredibly well in consideration of all he has previously experienced and how well he has done to overcome that so far 🖤

22/02/2020

Do you have a large, strong dog? Is walking them difficult, they pull, react to other dogs, or just too strong and excitable while walking?
Training in loose-lead walking and manners is something I offer! Single sessions 1 on 1 available, and looking to start a walking group with interested clients weekly soon too!

Training on reducing pulling, calmly passing other dogs with minimal reaction/ barking etc, learning to walk at your prefferred side, no crossing in front of your legs or tripping you up, and other more specific/ personal problems you may have when walking your dog is what I can help you correct!

In Bendigo, I come to you wherever you request to help, and quick results seen with my methods. $30/hr

Group walking classes and training as we walk services on offer subject to interest and numbers. $10 per 1hr session with enough participation to run.

Fantastic social opportunities to give to yourself and your dog, growing your skills and handling of your dog in many situations, fun and informative way to walk your dog, safety in introducing dogs to others correctly is taught, and child friendly inclusive activity!

Call 0419 870 766 or fb message for further details and bookings.

23/01/2020

Remember Archie, the 2.5yo kelpie? Initially, Arch was a high anxiety case, with reactivity toward strangers, and dogs.

His reaction toward dogs was due to a previous traumatic based event with another dog.

Fast forward to now, he has come so far with his tolerance to new dogs on leash, his anxiety has significantly decreased, he has gained 7kg with his reduced anxiety levels now too! He is able to face new environment/ situations at once now also, and even managed to lay down and have a stranger pet/rub his belly, even falling asleep after a few minutes at that moment!! This is such a massive display of how comfortable, trusting and relaxed he could be in a situation he previously was extremely agitated, stressed and potential was moderate to turn reactive. These were not long past situations that were avoided altogether for his sake and others around.

He can show extraordinary obedience in highly distracting and stressful places now to add here, ability to immediately sit, drop, stay when asked with everything around him is a champion achievement he and Jesse have worked for 🖤

There's still some work to do toward the remaining anxiety and exposing him to triggers to get him as close to fully reconditioned in any event.. As it stands now though, Arch has come so so far and I'd guess 70% overall progression on a dog fully rehabilitated within reach 🙀😻 Awesome job to you both on the effort to get this far achieved! 🖤

23/01/2020

This big guy is Hudson 😍 He is 3yo, and is at the stage he reacts extremely on sight with dogs, and strangers.
This guy's history with previous training methods for what started out being anxiety/nervousness, has now been further rooted to one of the more extreme cases I've seen...

Sadly, he was pushed too hard and fast in previous attempts to recondition him for his high anxiety.. This approach in such anxious states means each new situation and event, he only registered as traumas adding toward his initial anxiety. In turn, this caused him inibility to cope with so many stressful stimuli at once; triggering him to go from anxious behaviours and starting up very reactive behavioural problems. This is his coping mechanism to those triggers, the cortisol levels multiply each new stress he encounters- and when in out-of-home environments, he amplifies further.

So far, after 2 training sessions with Hudson, 2 his owners and I, he has already started to show improvements! Baby steps toward progress for this guy is what goes to show for the incredible dog underneath all that reaction 🖤

Watch this space for Hudson's next progress updates to follow soon! 🥰

06/01/2020

Services/ training -
*Basic training/ manners
*Puppy training (obedience, toilet training, crate training, on leash manners and more, stopping nipping/ biting, not jumping up plus more)
*Anxiety disorders /nervous dogs
* minimum socialization with dogs, dog reactivity to other dogs, dog on dog reactive behavior
* Reactivity to strangers/visitors.
* Tolerance to other animals/pets (dogs who don't like cats small animals etc...)

I have plenty of experience with large, hard to manage dogs and personally own a working line German shepherd myself, so familiar with the more challenging dogs too.

I work mostly doing 1hr sessions where I visit you at home or may ask you to come to me in some cases if needed 😊 Prices are between $30‐$50 for the hour, and which rate depends on whether it's * more basic obedience/home manners or *more risky/ very involved training required for things like anxiety or fear based aggression for example.

Call 0419870766, or message me if I might be able to help you and your dog!

06/01/2020

This morning I had the pleasure of meeting the gorgeous little Patch 😍🖤 he is a little pocket rocket, full of energy and excitable and energetic 😂😊🐕 Today's first lesson focused on asking for boundaries and personal space from him, and he can jump when excited or when visitors come by. We also established a basic sit and even managed to make progress on asking him to stay while I moved away from him too! A lot going on in just one hour of training, but this guy nailed it and tried his best at all times I asked 🖤🖤
Looking forward to seeing Patch and his owner again in a week and how much this little guy with personality plus achieves with his great trainability

02/01/2020

This is the gorgeous Midnight. 3yo Lab with extreme anxiety and separation issues if her owner was even out of sight while out in the backyard. The damage to the laundry send here is how frantic and desperate she obsessed go escape to try and get to her owner...
She escaped the yard however she could work on if she couldn't see her mum, and was constantly just too mentally affected working with her became an owner at her wits end with how to help her..

After the work Middy and I patiently persisted at, we are now back to being her old, normal, anxiety free self again! She stays in the yard, she is calm, happy, and obedient and gained back some weight and we have no reaction to ANY of her previous triggers.

She has her life back, and to help her life get a bit easier again and see her acting like a dog should, doing dog things she wasn't doing before.. This is why I do this 🖤🐕

16/12/2019

I thought I'd share a glimpse of my own personal training and everyday experience I live with as a little indication of my abilities and high experienced training 😌

This is Ares, he's now 7 months old and a monster at 35kg already. He is from working lines, and bred from stock renowned for their careers and success as recruits in the police force especially, so comes with a bit more to him to handle.

He is incredibly obedient and he is trained to help me at work with his ability to be told to change/adopt subtle body language, ignore aggression from another dog, or just comfort and guide. He helps me work with some big problematic dogs in need of behavioural correction and his training to such a degree means it's the safest situation possible to be comfortable knowing I can command him how to act/react to manage all sorts of situations 😌
He is also progressing in training by my side to stop/start deterrence behaviours on command

As a trainer, working successfully with more complex cases comes with an experienced and knowledgeable skill set 😊

How far you want to take your dog with obedience or any skill set you want to reach in training is up to you 😍😊

14/12/2019

This gorgeous kelpie is Archie 😍 He's a 2.5yo male, and his owner Jesse had reached out to me for training on high anxiety and high level reactivity resulting from that.
We have had 2 training sessions after an initial meeting/ assessment session, and already the response to the training methods based around his anxious reactivity is incredible 🖤

We have made amazing ground starting from him uncomfortable and agitated with me even being allowed to approach his personal space at all, known previous reactivity to unknown dogs,.. Today, we had reached an ability to not only be out In public as a triggering situation, but we walked 30 minutes around the streets WITH a German Shepherd able to walk side by side with confident interaction on a loose leash by the end too! Minimal anxious behaviour noted and already shown incredible progression from where he was to now in such fast adaption.

I call him Mr. Fantastic for his ability to tolerate and thrive with the and amount of training, rapid introduction of new triggers and I let him set that pace with how high his state of anxiety playing a massive affect.

While we still have some road to go still, training with both Jesse and Archie this far already has been an absolute pleasure to work with and well done to both for teamwork and effort to reach their first significant milestone here toward Archie living as close to 0% anxiety as we can 🐕🐕😊

26/11/2019

Melbourne dog owners have been warned of an outbreak of a rare rat-borne disease that has killed at least two dogs and which is transferable to humans.

23/11/2019

Save Katie from being euthanised by Brisbane city council !

22/11/2019

Anxiety in dogs
what to recognise as an owner as the important key symptoms...

-Aggression
-Depressive moods
-Restlessness
-Urinating/Defecating inside
-panting
-Drooling/ Licking
-Destructive behaviour
-Excessive barking
-Repetitive, obsessive or compulsive behaviours
-Pacing

If you suspect your dog may be displaying a few of these symptoms, or suspect anxiety may be affecting your dog, its important to seek professional help early on. If left to manifest, it can lead to severe behavioural issues later on.

A trainer with experience and the very specialised knowledge on training dogs with anxiety issues is crucial to who you let do this training too.

This area of training, after plenty of experience and years of familiarisation around working with dogs severely anxiety affected, my specialty as a trainer.

My basic training methods feature counter conditioning training, desensitisation therapy, and compression wrapping techniques for some temporary, immediate relief.

If you have a dog living with anxiety send through a message and lets get started on fixing that today!