The Canine Behaviour Academy

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The Canine Behaviour Academy

Holistic behaviour training delivered by Jane Wild, internationally accredited dog trainer.
(3)

02/09/2024

This is Teddy - he is the cutest boy. His mum is very frail and walks with a walker. Ted walks so beautiful next to her but if he sees a cockatoo he gets very excited. While I actually think Ted is near perfect, we are doing some work on impulse control.

01/09/2024

This is gentle Merle. She was rescued from the pound and her new mumma reached out for some tips on how to build Merle’s confidence. We don’t know what sort of life Merle has had but we are very happy she has decided her fence climbing days are over and she is settling into her new loving home.

24/08/2024

Todays angels!
Mabel, Silver and Lily all did so well during their real-world practise session.

Mabel had a huge win today and looked so pleased with herself after our first session where she passed four dogs and stayed cool, calm and collected.

Silver has been working on human and dog reactivity and today I got my first delicious, slightly slobbery cuddle.

Darling clever Lily has the most incredible sense if smell and will love doing nose works but for now she is learning to focus and calm her busy mind.

03/08/2024

What a perfect morning! Sun is shining and I got to meet this delicious golden girl and her warm family.

If you go to a training club, puppy school or see a dog trainer and they tell you something that just feels icky and not right - trust that feeling. A good trainer will never scare or hurt your dog, never, EVER!

Training your dog is an incredible journey, building trust and communication with another soul and it feels wonderful, sometimes challenging but never icky.

28/07/2024

I love this little pocket rocket Pani!

Pani doesn’t have much experience out in the world. He had a rough start but he has a lovely new home and his confidence is growing daily.

Today is the third visit with Pani and we are taking things slowly. He is letting me pat him now and he is much happier about his harness. This is only his second walk outside on lead. We sat in the sun and did some people watching and then worked on those loose-lead walking skills so he can head out safely with his mum and not trip her over!

13/07/2024

Dearest Lily is a GSD, cattle dog, giant schnauzer, border collie mix and she is one clever, bouncy baby girl. Mum and Dad have had GSD before but wanted to learn new skills for training this beautiful girl. I’m so glad they reached out as I instantly fell for Lily.

It’s so important to spend most of our time communicating and reinforcing what we DO want from our dogs. This type of communication builds a really strong attunement and connection between dog and carer. And it feels good!

09/07/2024

Dogs make best friends just like us and just like us can be introverts, extroverts or a mix of both.

Forcing a dog to go to the dog park if they are an introvert can be stressful for some dogs. Some shy dogs will be very happy with one or two carefully selected best friends and of course YOU!

While other dogs will be the life of the party making best friends on every walk.

Ripley and Whylie both had a tricky first year and were rehomed many times before we found them. Today they adore each other and are loving life.

07/07/2024

Being tired and being relaxed are not the same thing. You will know this yourself after a full-on day at work. You probably don’t get home and say “wow I am soooo relaxed”.

Intensive exercise will make our dogs tired and this is a great place to start when teaching them how to relax. However a tired dog can still bark all day, eat your shoes and dig up the garden. A relaxed dog will feel less anxious, less reactive and generally feel more content.

Yesterday I got to catch up with rescue pup Declan. He is doing so well with his reactivity but needed a few tips on learning how to chillax.

30/06/2024

Let’s talk about dog toys!

Toys are a really important for a dogs happiness and well-being however I have heard many people - trainers, dog sport enthusiasts and public alike- ask should their dogs have access to toys or even have toys at all.

The answer is unequivocally YES and YES.

Dogs make very few decisions in their life. We tell them what and when to eat, sleep and exercise we tell them how to behave and who they can be friends with. The average dog makes very few choices in life and they are pretty good sports about it.

Why is choice important?
Do you like to choose what you wear or eat?
Choice = agency and agency = freedom and freedom = contentment.

When your dog chooses a toy to play with - that’s a really wonderful thing and IF they bring it to you be sure to play with them even for a moment (we are not talking about throwing balls here- that’s a entirely different post).

Sporting dogs and working dogs are the same. You don’t build “drive” with deprivation. You can keep a special toy just for working but that doesn’t mean your dog never gets another toy to play with around the house.

So check your dog has breed and age appropriate toys available to them. Not all dogs will have a basket of stuffed toys survive the night. Teach them to clean up their toys and put them back in the basket or teach them the name of each toy.

These are my some of my dogs favourite toys over the years.

Love to see pictures of your dogs favourite toys.

29/06/2024

Have you seen this dog?

This is Mookie and you may have seen her around town on the Pet Crisis Support van. She is a gorgeous kelpie x and a very clever girl. Today we helped Mookie with some of her big feelings around unknown dogs, loose lead walking and tweaked a few other behaviours.

Check out the great work Eloise Bright and team do helping fellow animal lovers around Canberra

https://www.actpetcrisis.com

08/06/2024

Darling Dachshund Pepper is dog reactive at 20 meters. He has a big bark and boy can he wield it.

Today I taught his mum a few tricks and he passed 6 dogs in the real world (some of them were very close) and he stayed cool, calm and collected.

So proud of this little guy!

08/06/2024

George just learnt he doesn’t get to meet all the dogs he sees …much the same way as I don’t get to eat all the cupcakes I see. 🤣

04/06/2024

Schnauzer Saturday! Coincidently I saw two little schnauzer girls yesterday. Hilda and Lilly who couldn’t have been more different; one go-go-go and one snuggly couch potato.

Did you know breed is not a good predictor of behaviour? This may explain why I have seen 32 different dog breeds in relation to reactivity.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dogs-personalities-arent-determined-by-their-breed/

27/05/2024

This is adorable Peanut. He likes chewing people, running off with slippers and jumping on and off the couch as well as all the other usual cheeky puppy stuff.

25/05/2024

This happy chappy is Clip. We don’t know his story from before his adoption but in recent days he has become more and more reactive to various things out and about. We can have a good guess he is a border collie x heeler (perfect Bentley Star on his head which all Heelers have) so Clips reactive dog training plan will be tailored to work with his instinctive herder heritage.

15/05/2024

Do you have a hyperactive dog?

Not all dogs have the same energy levels. Some will sleep all day and others may be in perpetual motion around the house. If you have a non-stop dog it’s tempting to up the exercise.

Building fitness and stamina in your dog is fine if you have a sheep station or you plan to sled across the Antartica but might not achieve the relaxed couch potato you are looking for. Try other activities with your dog, find-it games, look-at-that activities, meditation (they love it!) and remember to calmly reward them when they go and lie on their bed.

Thank me later 😉

12/05/2024

Lovely Isla likes long walks in the park …..but doesn’t like buses, door bells or dogs.

12/05/2024

Hugs with mum after a great training session today.

12/05/2024

😂 This weekends dogs were well under threshold.

Takes talent and skill to be this boring that even reactive dogs fall asleep during sessions!

Hopefully the carers didn’t nod off.

04/05/2024

This is Ted. He is a noble character who could sit and watch feathered fowl all day long. However he is not so keen on small four-legged friends. Great work today team I saw many lovely moments with Ted making great choices.

16/04/2024

Does your dog look like a wolf?

The answer is probably not. We have been selectively breeding our fashionable fur friends for well over 12 000 years. So it's hardly surprising our dogs come in all shapes and sizes, fit for a variety of highly specific tasks. For the most part I don't have any issue with responsible dog breeding (although it is undeniable the breeding industry is difficult to regulate and the world would be a much better place with empty pounds).

What can we do? Actually as consumers we can do a great deal to assist our friends. If you are looking to get a dog from a breeder, do your research and if you cant see the parents and the property - WALK AWAY. Let breeders know "retro" is back and we want our dogs to return to good body confirmation and temperament. We want our dogs to be able to breath and be free from a lifetime of pain. We want to have a happy, health dog with fewer vet bills.

Check out what some breeds looked like less than 100 years ago and there is a good article attached.

https://www.sciencealert.com/what-popular-dog-breeds-looked-like-before-and-after-100-years-of-breeding

13/04/2024

Bailey is doing so well with his reactivity to people. This was a dog that couldn’t be in the same room as me and was very stressed with me being in the house. Today we did an outside greeting, treat trail and he followed me into the house, then he fell asleep on a blanket right next to me. What a victory !

One of the many signals a dog is stressed is a furrowed brow. To be honest I rarely see it with the all that fur and frenzy. I tend to rely on body tension, head position and mouth tightness but I think it’s visible in the photo on the left (taken from way across the room) the day I meet this dear boy.

08/04/2024

What do you get when you cross a BC, ACD and the Duracell bunny, aside from my favourite kinda dog…….a LEO !

Leo is a very clever, busy boy. He is on brand with chasing, herding, nipping and protecting what’s his which has its challenges in suburban Canberra.

Leo and his carers did so well today and I can’t wait to check in with them in a few weeks to see how he is settling down.

31/03/2024

I realise more than ever today that clients have to put their faith and trust in a dog trainer. You are placing your much loved companions well-being in our hands.

How do you know if you have made the right choice? You don’t know me! You don’t know the years of specialsed study I have put in to be able to tell you, “throw treats on the ground” or “your dog is stressed”; or the number of dogs I have seen just like yours. You can’t see the potential in your dog like I can if you can stick to the plan or at least try.

I don’t take your trust for granted and it fuels me to keep going, in what can be a really tough job at times, especially while there are still corrections based trainers in Canberra doing more harm than good.

THANK YOU to everyone who has listened and kept their minds and hearts open. I think you know who you are.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

23/03/2024

Compulsive behaviours can occur in any breed of dog. They can be triggered by stress and once established are very tricky to treat. Catching these “odd” behaviours early is critical for a dogs well being.

If your dog chases its tail, or stares at reflection’s, chews its leg or other repeatative behaviours, please don’t laugh, very gently stop them, and introduce a new activity- then call a behavioural trainer immediately.

This is Lando laying calmly for the first time in a while. See below in comments for a picture of him when I left.

23/03/2024

What! Have I got something on my face?

23/03/2024

These may not look like your regular working dogs but Jemima and Jethro have a very important job and they are really good at it.

School dogs! They go to school and hang out with kids that need a kind furry face to help them feel safe and happy.

23/03/2024

Five -fun filled, action packed - years ago I started training the dogs of Bungendore. This one is very well behaved.

Thank you good people of Bungendore you are awesome ❤️❤️❤️

Address

Blamey Crescent
Canberra, ACT
2612

Telephone

+61415281605

Website

http://www.caninebehaviouracademy.com.au/

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Videos

A training tip which could improve your dog walks!

Merry Christmas to everyone in the CBA community. Have a lovely break with your families and fur friends. Remember no matter the challenges you may face with your dogs they are unique and special and there is always help and support right here.

Socialising a reactive dog with pats

This is Basil and he has been near impossible to walk. He disengages and just wants to eat everything he can find - tissues, plastic, tin foil (more on Pica in upcoming videos) lunging so quickly and strongly I almost broke a finger this morning. I wanted to share this video of the moment something clicks and Basil tunes in. You can see me walking backwards and changing direction to keep him interested and giving him a lot of verbal feed back.

Training recalls off lead

Let's practise off lead recalls

Beautiful morning for a long line lead adventure

And speaking of loose lead walking- look who mastered the course today! Great work Dotti and Jen, I’m so proud of you both.

Madeline and Daisy demonstrate beautifully the foundation for our static turns. This is where we are taking those paws up folks.

Our super bouncy Buddy discovered how to jump today and it was a beautiful thing to behold.

Summer Foundation we will be introducing hand cues on Saturday but this week continuing “proofing” your body positions with your disco moves and try walking around your dog. Remember keep the “mark and reward”frequent and don’t forget to release your dogs at the end.

It took some work but puppy now the boss of loose lead walking.

Whylee (Speck) shows off her Xmas twin set AND her awesome loose lead walking.

Training with my bestie

Introducing Sausage Tree a fun activity for the entire family. Find just the right tree and place lots of treats in the bark. Tell your doggos to “find it” ! The hunter in them will love searching for the treats.

Always so impressed when clients have researched enrichment activities for their dogs. Great job David and Vicki and, of course, our social media star Oscar ⭐️

Dotty loving jumping hurdles.

Great work this weekend everyone! Please start proofing your dogs body positions by turning around on the spot or walking around your dogs. Remember to start with small increments, practice clear cues and don’t forget to mark/reward and release.....you’ve got this!

Tired of getting tangled around trees and lamp posts? Teaching your dog to “come around” an obstacle can come in handy.

At The Canine Behaviour Academy we teach YOU how to communicate with YOUR dog. We offer courses at all levels in Bungendore and Braidwood whether you are a handlers new to training or just want to learn fun activities please contact us.