Pedal Paws Dog Training & Dog Walking Services

Today I did a session with Jove and Michael from ProActive K9 Training I'm currently shadowing him on training sessions to further my skills, knowledge and area's in dog behaviour that are more complex. As trainer's this is how we do better, learn more, gain experience and we can never stop learning or gain new skills!! Today was all about building more engagement with food, toy play and body play, so using ourselves as the motivator, making ourselves more important in the environment and around distractions, this helps especially with recall. Jove has a high drive, attitude and can be pushy, in the video you'll see a clear picture of communication through the lead with correcting the unwanted behaviour, we then highly reward the right ones "jackpot moment" You can see Jove then starts making better choices. High drive/working line breeds need clear communication, if I didn't say NO or correct Jove he would run rings around me and that's when you start getting issues! However we use a great deal of positive reinforcement, which is where the term balanced training comes in. I learnt so much in the two sessions I spent with Michael today and am looking forward to working along side him to learn more, better myself as a trainer and pass onto my clients, I had fun and feel very grateful I am getting the opportunity to learn from someone I value so much!!

Nice to have some cooler weather, felt like winter early this morning though 🥶 However doesn't stop Jove and I getting out and doing some training together 💪

Group session for Sunny, Brooklyn, Tiberious, Freddie, koda and Cordi.

Out early this morning doing some work with Jove. Toy motivation and play, heel placement and recall 👌

Thursday's adventure day crew 🐕🐾 Lots of fun and shenanigans in the paddock today, love hanging out with the pack 🥰

Levi on his one on one today. Super proud of how far this boy has come and the hard work his owner has put into his training!! Levi had a big surgery over Christmas and is finally recovered enough to get back into training! Owing a reactive dog isn't easy but goes to show, time, patience, consistency and hard work pays off!! Through all the times of frustration, tears and sweat his owner has never given up, always taking in her stride 👌 Today was all about getting him back into routine, toy motivation and fun!

Maple on her walk and train today. I love this little girl, she works so hard and has come such along way in her training, it's hard to believe when I first met Maple she was not confident and nervous in the environment and unsure of people at first, look at her now!! Maples owner got onto one on one training straight away as a pup to help with building her engagement, confidence, general obedience and exposure, she has done great work with her and it shows, we also do walk and trains to help add in the consistency. It's so important to make training fun, play and just enjoy the moment 🥰

It's hot today and their are still people out walking their dogs on hot concrete or surfaces in direct sunlight 😡 Their is no need to be taking your dog out in this heat, exspecially on hot surfaces, the poor dogs I seen where breeds that most definitely shouldn't be out in the heat and where struggling, not only can they burn their paws but heatstroke in dogs is the same as humans!! Heat stroke is a severe, life-threatening condition that occurs when the body overheats and can't cool itself down, heat stroke can develop in hot climates and during intense physical activity. Yes it's about being mindful, shaded area's, low impact, water etc, but it's extremely hot today, when temperatures start hitting this high they dont need to be out in this heat, it's also muggy out their today, my van was reading the temp as 37 degrees 🥵 If you can't walk on the concrete or any surface in bare feet then don't make your dog do it!!

Training with Jove at 6am this morning. We worked on loose lead walking, pressure work, which is guidance through his collar and lead, pressure on and off. Getting his turn around into a heel and range of motion right, this has taken months and months of work, starting with luring, place board for back end awareness, using a fence to keep it tight, movement and placement. I'm starting to fade the lure off with just hand placement and adding in verbal command, we still have a fair bit of work to do but we are getting their. We always do toy play and motivation when I've done a session like this because he bloody deserves it for working so hard!! It's an important part of training, it builds drive, focus, impulse control and most importantly fun!! Training should be about fun and doing something that the dog loves, building a stronger bond 🐕🐾 Training doesn't always look clean and perfect, it starts out messy, it takes time, consistency, repetition after repetition to get to that end goal, are we their yet NO we have a long way to go, but it's days like today you realise all this hard work is starting to pay off 💪

Loose lead walking, this is something that people really struggle with and it comes down to consistency. Now, yes it's important dogs sniff etc but when your teaching your dog to loose lead, we need to create structure, build engagement, markers, release words, where we want the dog and leash pressure. If your letting your dog pull to sniff, pee on everything or letting them pull one day then not the next is very confusing to your dog. Loose lead walking takes time, patience, consistency and structure, start small with no distractions, eliminate parts of the environment that make it difficult for your dog to focus and build engagement. Start in a familiar environment, at home, use your drive way, a park that has a path or barrier, make it easier for your dog to learn than putting them in the environment with to higher distractions where we are setting them up to fail. We want them to win!! Start with small repetitions and then release your dog to sniff. Long leads are great for freedom and sniff walks but remember their is still rules, they can't pull, the lead needs to be slack no tension and still checking in with you with engagement. This way your not undoing all your hard work on a normal lead when your on a long lead 👌

Early morning session with Jove on the last day of holidays!! Looking forward to being back tomorrow to see all the pooches 😍

And what a year 2024 was!! Bring in 2025 💪 I will be getting back to all enquiries at the end of this week, reminders for training and dog walking as we start back on Monday the 6th of January!! Looking forward to seeing all the pooches again, I'm sure we will have some very excited dogs to greet us when we start back 😍