Every Dog - Dog Training and Behaviour Consulting

Is your dog having fun during their training session? Our dog’s body language can tell us so much about how they are feeling. Take a look at these two videos below; in both videos, Soda has been cued to walk at heel, and in both videos, she is completing that behaviour nicely. If we break those videos down a bit more, what do we see? First video: - ears pulled back - Tension in face - Panting - Tail carriage is low - Tension throughout the body - Movement is stiff Second video: - Loose body language - Soft, bouncy manner - Loose waggly tail - Engagement with handler Based on Soda’s mannerisms in the first video, I knew she wasn’t enjoying herself; rather she was complying with the behaviour I had asked of her (heel). Training with our dog’s should always be enjoyable for both you and your dog. Assessing their body language can tell us a lot about their emotional state, and it can help navigate the training plan. If you are noticing a significant change, or are unable to identify why there is a change in behaviour, a quick trip to the vet can help identify something underlying, like it did for Soda! Noticing the change in Soda’s demeanour meant I was able to identify a pesky ear infection (mixed with heavy winds on the day) were the culprit for her change in behaviour. In the second video, she had been treated for her ear infection and was back to her usual, happy self. You can see how much fun she is having working on that heel! 🐶 Happy Training 🐶

How cute is little Douglas!? He is very over excited by dogs and Tootie is helping him learn to be calm when seeing another dog. Interactions like this with older calm dogs are a great way for puppies to learn appropriate social skills.

Misty and her mum Ella had a one on one private lesson today working on cooperative care for their vet visits. We covered a whole lot in one session including how to begin desensitising Misty to handling (injections, blood draws and feeling comfortable around the shaver), and also muzzle training. Here’s a small snippet of our lesson where you can see how we taught Misty to put on a muzzle without force or fear!

Check out Amy’s first session teaching her dog Charlie how to use a scratch board. How awesome is this! Scratch boards are a great alternative to a dremel or nails clippers to help keep your dog’s nails trim and tidy. What a great video. 🥰

Lucille is nervous of other dogs. When she encounters a dog on her walk she lunges and barks at them in response to her fear. This week in our Introduction to Reactive Dogs course she made friends with Queenie. Being calm this close to another dog is such a huge step for Lucille, and her mum couldn’t have been more excited. Tears were shed! We are only half way through the course, so we can’t wait to see where she is in a few more weeks!

In tonight’s lesson, our Obedience and Life Skills level 1 class were learning all about impulse control and how to navigate an excitable dog. We worked on sitting even when excited, leave it, stays, and loose leash walking. How awesome are they doing only 4 weeks into our 6 week course? So proud of this group! https://everydog.com.au/classes/obedience-life-skills-level-1/

We have a couple of openings in our upcoming Obedience and Life Skills level 1 course! During our 6 week course, you will learn the basics of effective training using positive reinforcement. Fundamental skills such as recall, loose leash, “leave it” and stays are developed for both dog and handler with the aid of friendly instructors, small class sizes and written content with homework plans to take home and practise. For more information or to book now click the link below; https://everydog.com.au/classes/obedience-life-skills-level-1/

Level Three Obedience practicing being calm out and about in the real world. A good mixture of dogs here including dog reactive, people reactive, and a few young puppies who get easily excitable and lose focus. Everybody did fabulously!

Level Three Obedience practicing being calm out and about in the real world. A good mixture of dogs here including dog reactive, people reactive, and a few young puppies who get easily excitable and lose focus. Everybody did fabulously!

Join Ingrid and Gossamer in this paws-itively awesome recall game that will have your furry friend wagging their tail with joy! 🐕🌟 🔔 Tips for a Tail-Wagging Time: 1️⃣ Ensure your pup is in the recall groove – choose a time when you know they'll come running at the sound of their name. 2️⃣ Grab some dog-approved treats, making sure they're visible against the ground. Pro tip: Opt for larger pieces for maximum visibility! 3️⃣ Throw the treats level with your dog's face in the direction they're moving, encouraging a swift and playful recall. 4️⃣ Kick off the fun when your pup is excited to train, and wrap it up before they lose interest. Keep it short, fast, and most importantly, FUN! Ready to unleash the joy of recall training with your furry friend? Let the games begin! 🚀🐾 Don't forget to share your adorable moments in the comments below! 📸

🛁🐾 Bath Time Tips for Pups and their Carers! 🐾🛁 Bathing doesn't have to be a ruff experience! 🐕✨ When introducing your pup to their first bath, let's keep it pawsitive and stress-free. Here are some tips to make it a tail-wagging success: 🚿 Create a Safe Haven: Ensure a non-slip surface so your pup can groove freely in the tub. 🍖🧸 Treats and Toys Magic: Entice your pup with treats and toys to turn the empty tub into a playground of joy! 💦 Start Small, Splash Big: Begin with a damp towel and gradually increase water depth. Go at your pup's pace for a splashin' good time! ⏰🎉 Short and Sweet Sessions: Keep it brief and positive! Shorter sessions beat longer ones for a stress-free bath experience. 🚫🏊‍♂️ Dip, Don't Dive: Don't go deeper than your pup is ready for. Avoid undoing all that good bath socialization work! 🧽👀 Microfiber Magic: For in-between baths, a damp microfiber cloth works wonders for quick spot cleaning. No stress, just freshness! Let the bath-time bonding begin! Watch as trainer Ingrid introduces puppy Gossamer to the bath and share your puppy's bath adventures in the comments below. 📸🐶💕

Meeting our dogs needs isn't always “walks”, “cuddles” and “training”, it's allowing them to do their natural behaviours! ORIENT > EYE > STALK > CHASE > GRAB-BITE > KILL-BITE > DISSECT > CONSUME Here Korra gets to practice her natural (and normal) behaviours in the form of biting the box, dissecting /ripping cardboard and consuming her dinner. This enrichment took barely anytime to prepare and fulfilled so many of her needs. We also only put her dinner in some of the toilet rolls so she also had to sniff out which ones contained food.

Check out Rooney! He’s a young Labrador who gets a bit over the top when trying to make new friends (we’ve all been there, Rooney!). In a few sessions, Rooney has gone from being a dog who is unable to focus, pulling and lunging when seeing another dog, to a dog that is able to be recalled effectively away from another dog when off leash. This is a huge step for Rooney, because it meant that he has finally been able to make his first doggy friend, Queenie. Rooney is a friendly fellow, but because he’s a big, bouncy puppy when trying to play, he hasn’t been able to make friends. Being able to recall him away from other dogs means that we can manage his play style, and help Rooney make even more friends in the future! Well done team Rooney! 🥰

I’m so proud of the dogs and owners in this video. 6 months ago having a dog run past (not even taking into equation chasing a ball), would have sent these dogs into a spiral of lunging and barking.. Today we asked them to ignore bouncy balls and toys, unpredictable dogs, and loose leash walk while focusing on their humans. Look at how amazing they were! I’m so proud of you all!! 🩷

Dog parks are one of the most controversial topics between dog owners. Some people love them, while others despise them. Dog parks are designed to provide a place for dogs to run off-leash around other dogs.. but is this the only productive way to use them? Soda is demonstrating one of the many great games you can play from outside of a dog park, The Engage Disengage game! The Engage Disengage game uses modern, evidence-based methods which focus on positive reinforcement and building positive associations with something that your dog has previously found scary or exciting (in Soda’s case, scary unpredictable dogs), through the use of counter-conditioning and teaching an alternative response behaviour. Soda can feel anxious about the unpredictability of other dogs, especially dogs off leash who run around erratically. Utilising the outside of the dog park means that we can harness that “unpredictability” (running, playing, barking) of the dogs inside the park while also keeping Soda at a safe distance where other dogs aren’t unable to approach her or make her feel uncomfortable. Personally I do not choose to use dog parks for their conventional use (taking my dogs inside to socialise with other dogs) but I do use them as a distraction when building handler focus, or to help build confidence at appropriate distance, just like I’ve done in the video below! What do you use dog parks for?

3 nervous dogs, one over exuberant and bouncy puppy, and one Queenie all hanging out together at close proximity calmly. The secret? (apart from a lot of training), licking! Each dog has a frozen cow hoof covered in peanut butter and cream cheese. Did you know that repetitive licking is a great way to help calm your down down? The act of licking itself releases a calming hormone in dogs, meaning that it can help both anxious or overexcited dogs relax naturally. It was wonderful to see how quickly all the dogs calmed down when offered a frozen hoof tonight. Well done team!

A big congratulations to our latest Obedience and Life Skills graduates who did a wonderful job of demonstrating their new skills tonight! This awesome bunch can now leave snacks when asked, walk on a loose lead, sit/drop stay around distractions, and can recall back to their owners. If you'd like to join our next course, book in now: http://everydog.com.au/classes/obedience-life-skills-level-1/

Check out these three videos for contrast. The first video is Soda showing off her genetics, English Springer Spaniels are hunting dogs bred to flush and retrieve! The second two videos are taken days later, where Soda is ignoring and recalling away from wildlife. All of those skills have been taught through competent application of Positive Reinforcement (+R), which meant aversive or punitive methods weren't necessary. 🤔 What skills are they? 🤔 🤚impulse control - critically underrated in training. A huge factor in Soda’s ability to ignore, *choosing* not to chase the birds (even though she’d like to!) is her effective level of impulse control. Games learnt in our Obedience and Life Skills level 1 course such as Doggy Zen, Leave It, and Go Wild and Freeze are the foundation blocks I use to create this level of impulse control. - There is also an element of impulse control in the first video, too. During her retrieve, Soda is expected to wait by my side until released. This is really challenging! 🗣️ “This way” or recall - I use the cue “this way” throughout the video. This cue is separate to Soda’s general recall (her name). “This way” is an acknowledgment that I have seen what she’s looking at, and that I would like her to keep moving in a different direction. I use it instead of her name as I don’t necessarily want Soda to come to me, rather move away from the bird. ⚠️ Management - Until I felt that I had effective control of Soda around high levels of distraction off leash, I kept her on a long line. This meant that I was able to practice her recall around wildlife while also setting her up for success and limiting the opportunity for her to create a learned behaviour that chasing is fun! Soda says +R based training is pretty cool, and she wants to see what you’ve taught your dog using +R below! 😎

😱 Is comforting our dog reinforcing fear? 😱 There is a strong belief in the dog training world that you should not comfort, treat, or pat a frightened dog because you are reinforcing the dog’s fear. For example; if your dog was frightened in new environments, you may have been told not to pat or comfort your dog when they come to you, or that you shouldn’t offer them treats, because this may encourage them to be even more afraid in the future. 🤔 Let’s break that down a bit! 🤔 I’m scared of spiders. Petrified, in fact. If I was sitting in the passenger seat of a car and all of a sudden a huntsman walked across the windshield, you best believe I’m screaming. Let’s say that in that moment, the driver of the car begins to reassure me that I’m going to be okay, comforting me that the spider won’t hurt me. It would be fair to assume that having someone talk calmly with me, explaining that the spider is not dangerous, will help reduce my anxiety, yes? I am unlikely to go away from that experience feeling more distressed about spiders. In fact, I may even go away feeling more comfortable. Obviously our dogs can’t speak English (unless it’s the word “walk”), so we can’t have a conversation with them the same way two people conversing would, but the same principle applies! Today Bilbo had a Private Lesson with Maddie and her Border Collie, Queenie. The goal for our lesson was to help build Bilbo’s confidence around new environments, sights and sounds. Until today, Bilbo felt too anxious about the big wide world to venture further than a few meters from his house. His family were unsure of how to help him, and if consoling him when he was scared was the right thing to do? Today’s lesson was a HUGE success! ✅ For the first time, Bilbo was able to go for a walk without feeling stressed. He was allowed to move and observe at his own pace, was given lots of reassurance, pats, cuddles, had opportunities to move away from the “sc

Do you wish that your dog had this level of reliability when it came to their recall? A really reliable recall is one of the most important training goals, a good recall can save a life! Our next intake for our Really Reliable Recall workshop still has a few spaces left. This four week course is suitable for all dogs (and puppies) of any ability and recall level! https://everydog.com.au/classes/behaviourworkshops/