AIN’T IT A JOURNEY. 🤪
It’s not linear, it’s not a quick fix but it’a real worth it.
🐕 Dog training foundations 🐕 getting started conditioning a marker. That’s fancy words for associating click! With some good stuff, in this case food. This is Ollie’s first session working out what a click means; what a lovely boy. Is this helpful? Do you want to see more of these? Let me know. 🐾
One of the biggest game changes in my own personal training journey was providing my dog with more freedom in nature. And guess what? It’s good for me too. 🌳
@cognitive_canine keeps going around in my head.
You’re like, sure Alex, but my dog would never be able to do that. And, honestly, I never thought I’d let my dog off lead again. I slowly, in tiny pieces, changed my behaviour to set up the environment so myself and my dog could both succeed.
Do I mean go wild, chase roos, do whatever you want? Not at all. In fact, I beg you not too. 🚩
This small video of dogs doing dog stuff is quietly all the stuff behind it. The training skills, managing my environment, asking questions, getting help from medical professionals and other force free professionals, using my leads, calling it, stuffing up, and getting pretty good at observing and responding. I work on these things all the time because it’s so critical to my dog’s emotional wellbeing. 🐕
And, just, look at these two cuties! 💚 #decompressionwalk
🔥 HAZARDS 🔥
The amount of risk is different for individuals. Instead, there's guidelines on what individuals will avoid. For instance, I avoid using a flexi lead because I have burn scars on the back of my legs from them.
Some people avoid bones 🦴 as it’s a high choke hazard for their dog while others are happy to leave their dogs out with bones and never had a problem.
Rather, having a plan when something goes wrong like Cleaver’s mum did (video camera, calling myself and neighbour if needed) and remembering what risks we may be engaging in is something to be mindful of when we work with others (and ourselves). We remembered a good lesson and might not leave Cleaver alone with small boxes after this inciden. He had a scatter feed and had no regression in behaviour after this stressful incident (we were actually hugely surprised about his resilience here and afterwards, goo Cleaver!) Thank you Cleaver’s human for permission to share this story and video.
Thanks @petprofessionalguildaus for having me talk at my very first conference! I had a blast and was excited how stoked y’all got about SEO and everything else we learnt this weekend! 🤓🧡
📣Recalllllllllll >>> Coming back is hard when the world is so big and exciting. Make it worth it. Get silly. Celebrate. What weird lil thing do you bring to help build value in coming back? Today we had peanut butter toast. Go, Slashy! Sound on for my squeaky proud voice. 🎉
If I want to do this properly and for a long time, I gotta do some boundaries. 🧡
I’m overwhelmed with the amazing enquiries I've had recently and all the clients I am and will continue to work with - don’t worry, I got you.
Honestly; I've got some health stuff and finishing TAFE and @clickertraining assessments and want to do well for the @petprofessionalguildaus conference in June so I'm gonna say BRB to new consults. Clients who I am working with or planned to do so, we’ll continue. For those who want an occasional dog walk or puppy sit, gimme a yell. Otherwise check out @nighthaven_empowered_learning for #Bendigo, @pospawdogtrain for #Daylesford ish, @mabelsmayhem for walks or pet sits and I have many wonderful virtual trainers to recommend. Always reach out for a referral if you need! Message me and we can book future stuff. I’m excited. We just gotta look after ourselves to help you, and sometimes that’s saying no to stuff. It really sucks but I appreciate everything we’ve done together this year and can’t wait to keep helping y’all. - Alex 💚
🚨Breaking news dog trainer discovers training works lol 🚨
The biggest shock in embracing force free methods is they keep exceeding my expectations and making me a better trainer, teacher, learner and human. Kinder to myself and others. Like, we can all train skills, but to improve welfare is complex and really bloody rewarding. Keep chipping away, team. 🧡
CANINE HOOPERS’ Penny Pardoe-Matthews (KPA-CTP) is coming down from Canberra to hold a series of introduction workshops to the dog sport of Hoopers. Targeted at the big feelings dogs to safely have fun without the high stress environment of group classes. Aiming to be low impact for your dogs and you the handler, these workshops aim to welcome you to the sport and give it a try. No experience necessary, come and try out and have fun with your pooch! Limited spots available so register now via my website. 💚
We were away today so Slashy needed some extra love 🥹💚 the often not cuddly girl going to cuddle Bec and not me is too much. 🥲
Puppy classes started today in Castlemaine! We had stormy weather up here so Slash joined us. Really excited about this space! Still a couple of spots left for Thursday in Bendigo! Nighthaven - Empowered Learning and I are gonna do a couple of low cost short classes too! Reach out if you wanna be on the list 👀
