Calm in the house and chaos in the yard.
Teaching Marty how to chill the F out in the house and on the deck with another dog has been a challenge.
This pup is on all the time, so teaching the boys that play is outside and inside is for chill are our goals.
I very clearly announce what they’re allowed to do when they are in either environments and manage them accordingly.
Inside, deck areas or public spaces = ‘enough’ and energy levels need to stay below 20%
Outside = ‘free’, no excessive barking and be able to follow obedience commands like recall or a down.
If you don’t want chaos in your house or in a specific environment, then simply don’t allow it. Back tie your dog, put them on a place bed, in a crate, or manage them via a leash.
Marty is a family members dog, and when we have gatherings the dogs need to be able to be together inside where they will need to be chill. When they’re outside we don’t mind if they play and get a bit nutty as long as they don’t get too rough, hump or bark.
F$&k I love boxers 🤣 absolute nutters
Clear communication is the key to dog training, whether your teaching them to do something simple, complex or not to do something altogether.
Where most people trip up is not developing a clear language that you and your dog both understand.
Think about when you go overseas. Before you go, you often learn 4/5 key phrases which help you get around, right?
This is what we need to do when interacting/training our dogs. Develop your own mutual language.
This is helpful for a few reasons, but I’ll go through that some other time. In this clip, Gus and I are sharpening up where he is getting a reinforcer (reward) from.
Gus understands that depending on what sound or word I use, the reward will come from my hand or from somewhere else.
This is helpful for a few reasons, but I’ll go through that some other time.
I’ve been working on this differentiation for a little while now, todays session was just one of a few skills we need to tidy up. My boy killed it, so proud of him.
#dontdreadthedog #dogtraining #clicker #prime100petfood
Working on skills that exercise our dogs brains is super important, particularly in this heat.
Gus and I are working on a ring toss exercise, we’ve been working on it for about a week and a half.
All we’re doing is getting Gus to bring the ring and get it as close to the stick thing as possible. Each time he gets closer he gets a reward, if he gets the ring on the stick, he gets a jackpot.
Can your dog greet people without jumping in them?
What’s your criteria for meeting people in the street?
Position changes 😅 A bit of work to be done with the creeping forward, but he’s having fun so im happy
Trying spring pole for the first time!
Love the T-Rex arms 🤣
The first 2 sections of the Social Responsibility test level 1. Thankfully just a run through cos we would absolutely fail 🤣
1. Greet 3 people, whilst keeping all 4 feet on the ground, a loose leash and without being a douche. 😅 oops
2. 3 loose leash figure 8’s. No more than 3 seconds of tension on the leash.
3. Middle, then hold a 2 min down while the handler goes out of sight, 1st random distraction (leaf blower), greets another dog, and 2nd random distraction (sit on the ground).
4. Recall dog to front. Turn to the left whilst maintaining front, then back to original position while maintaining front.
Proofing our markers with people distracting us! Gus was a legend 😊
Rear hind awareness work from the other day.
Working on our fronts at GRC club practise yesterday.
Fronts are required for the Social responsibility test in all 3 levels so we’re working on making them as clean and precise as possible 😊
Can your dog hold a down while you get some chores done? Gus is holding a 2 minute down while I put the firewood away.
Last night Gus and I got to check out Vivid Sydney with our new friends at GRC sydney.
Using out social responsibility skills, Gus and I got to enjoy the lights while navigating lots of people, sights, smells and sounds.
So proud of my boy for coping with so much going on.
How would your dog cope on an adventure like this?
Our very lack lustre session today, Gussy wasn’t overly keen and was easily distracted, note the random boofs at the driveway, there was nothing there lol!
Gus normally loves training, but after virtually being in kennels for a month due to us travelling he was still recovering from his kennel coma.
We kept things short and I had low expectations. However, we probably should have kept to very easy behaviours that he knows really well, but silly me, instead, went with stuff he was still learning or had learn recently.
This isn’t a bad thing by any means, but when you’re struggling or your dog is struggling it’s always nice to just keep things simple, stick to thinks you know, and reward heavily/jackpot for quality of behaviour, wether that’s speed, accuracy, or mindset.
Like us, our dogs have off days, and we need to know when they are and how to adjust our expectations for how they feel.
Train the dog in front of you ❤️
Hit me up for training suggestions, resources or help training your pup.
Cleaning up our heel to front!
I’ve used some pipes to try and keep Gus straight, his butt tends to drift off to one side, probably my fault, definitely my fault lol!
Also I have no idea why my videos are blurry but you can kinda get the idea 😅
Rainy day deck training.
Teaching Gus how to do a ‘focussed’ heel, or at least our version of it, is purely for fun and just something else for us to work on.
One day I’ll be able to use this as obedience. When I need to, I can give the command and Gus will focus on me rather than what’s going on around him.
#dogtraining #heel #clickertraining #prime100petfood
Yesterdays sesh.
Do you train, even if your dogs not that into it?
Gus has had an off few days, just feeling lethargic and flat, so we didn’t do heaps of training, just basic place, sits, downs and engaging in me.
Yesterday however he was back to normal so we did a high energy sesh, and he absolutely nailed it (mostly 😝)
Training the dog in front of you, doesn’t only apply to adapting your training methods to get the best out of your dog, it also applies to how your dog is feeling. If they’re flat or lacking energy, pace your session accordingly, don’t expect your dog to give you high energy if they’re not feeling it, just like us humans they have flat days too.
#dontdreadthedog #dogtraining #trainthedoginfrontofyou #engagement #highenergytraining #lowenergytraining
Teaching Gus to put his toys away is entertaining. I mostly get hit in the face or he’s trying to pull the toys back out.
This fun little exercise is great for a wet day or indoor training. All you need are some toys a basket or something like it, treats and a clicker or a solid verbal ‘reward marker’.
