Busimann's Dog Training

26/11/2025

🕯️ Let their light shine.

Training should enhance your dog's personality not weaken it.
Training gives more options, more choice.

If the training option is going to diminish their light it shouldn't be an option at all

26/11/2025

Trainer Tip Tuesday:

26/11/2025

26/11/2025

THE CHOICE TO CHOOSE
WHY DOGS SHOULD BE ALLOWED CHOICE

Imagine every little detail of your life is controlled - what and when you eat, where you sleep, when you’re allowed inside or outside, when you’re allowed to go for a walk and if you’re allowed to stop and sniff, who you’re allowed or forced to interact with, what activities you’re allowed to participate in, when you’re given attention, where you’re allowed to be touched etc.

This would create stress and anxiety, a feeling of helplessness, apathy, a lack of confidence and many other negative emotions. The same is true for dogs.

Dogs live in a world where just about everything is controlled by us.

Allowing choice, no matter how simple or small that choice may be, provides so many benefits.

The context and parameters in which we allow choice is obviously important.

Safety, boundaries, environmental factors, other people or animals always need to be taken into account.

A very long time ago, when my daughter was little, she would flat-out refuse to put on the set of clothes I had picked out for her.

Tantrums and stubbornness would often make us late for wherever we were going. This problem was solved by laying out 3 different sets of clothes and allowing her to choose which set she was going to wear.

These were still within my parameters and were still my choice, but by doing this I had allowed her a choice and the problem was solved, without harsh discipline or emotional fall out.

Dogs that are allowed some control over their environment and how they respond to situations are more confident, more emotionally balanced, more resilient, better able to cope with stressful situations, less anxious, less stressed and generally have fewer behaviour problems.

Look for simple, safe ways to provide more choice for your dog.

Improve their wellbeing and quality of life in a world that seeks to dominate and control.

26/11/2025

What a great group of dogs and people in the Advanced Puppy course at Vetland. We covered so much and the dogs progressed throughout the course.

26/11/2025

Another Puppy Kinder graduation class. They all did a great job, learnt heaps and had fun. I look forward to the next phase with them. At Vetland in Mitcham.

23/11/2025

I've been invited to discuss fear and learning on an upcoming summit, organized by my friend and colleague Ness Jones.

She calls it the Decoding Fear and Anxiety summit, and it costs US$ 47:-

Given the subject and the fact that the summit contains about 15 hours of deep discussion and actionable advice, that looks like a find to me! Read the list of topics below, and see if you agree:

➡️ Shifting from surviving to thriving
➡️ Helping your anxious animal with husbandry & vet care
➡️ The gut-brain connection
➡️ Building resilience
➡️ Body language, stress, & trigger stacking
➡️ Music as medicine
➡️ Body work to reduce fear and anxiety

In my interview, Ness and I talked about the following:

➡️ The difference between fear and anxiety - and why this distinction is important
➡️ Fear learning through classical conditioning
➡️ How operant learning ties in with fear/anxiety

The summit will be released on November 30th! Check out the details and sign up here:

https://www.decodingyourcanine.com/?affiliate=27sw3q

23/11/2025

23/11/2025

If a dog tends to bark when guests arrive, you might reinforce periods of quiet instead. As the dog experiences success for not barking, calm behaviour increases over time. DRO works best when combined with teaching clear, positive alternatives.

23/11/2025

DOGS AND TV
Why are some dogs fascinated and some show no interest?
Studies have shown that dogs can perceive images and sounds coming from a TV. Dogs also have the ability to visually identify images of other dogs amongst pictures of people and other animals as well as sounds that they’re familiar with like barking, whining, squeaky toys or certain cue words coming from a TV.
But, just because they can, doesn’t mean that they do! Some dogs are not in the least bit interested while some appear fascinated by what they are seeing and hearing. The individual personality of the dog and breed specific traits seem to be the deciding factor. Breeds that are more attuned to movement may show more interest in TV, while breeds driven by scent may not be interested at all.
Even though dogs are able to recognise screen images, they see images differently than we do. Dogs have dichromatic vision which enables them to only perceive colours on the yellow and blue spectrum. To dogs, every colour appears yellow, blue, brown or grey. Despite their different colour perception, they register moving images far quicker than we do. Modern, high-definition TV sets have a higher number of frames per second than older TV’s and are more likely to capture their attention.
Using the science of dog vision, a dedicated TV channel was developed especially for dogs. It features a higher number of frames per second and has colours set to accommodate the yellow / blue visual spectrum. The channel is aimed at providing entertainment for dogs when they’re left alone.
Out of curiosity, I gave this channel a trial run and my Schnauzers were not in the least bit interested even when I excitedly pointed to the dog chasing balls and splashing through water on the screen. My pointing only caused them to check if there was a bug on the screen that they could catch or if there were any food crumbs around the set and after a quick sniff, they all went back to snoozing, very confused as to what I was making such a fuss about! They are definitely a scent driven breed. That said, I have also seen dogs that are fascinated and even very vocal about what they see on the screen. As with most dog behaviour, it all depends on the individual dog.