Paw to Hand Dog Training

16/11/2024

Phew, yesterday was very busy. Kimbra and Ruby in the morning. In the afternoon I worked with Penny and the lovely Vinny, a handsome big boy who is going very well with LLW, basic commands, improving on recall and having fun with some tricks at the end of the lesson. Then I worked with Rachael and Karen and their energetic sister toy poodle puppies. Odile and Dior are feisty puppies but are quickly learning the required puppy skills and we got the most beautiful downs from both of them yesterday. Their focus is great and next time we meet we’ll use target sticks to facilitate LLW so Rachael and Karen don’t both suffer from bad backs rewarding their little pups.

15/11/2024

Sorry about the quality of the photos. Kimbra and Ruby were in today and one of the things we worked on was some Rally. They would have passed the first run with a 90s score. Probably would also have passed their second run even though Ruby went on a sit down strike for a few seconds in the second run🤣 Ruby is definitely maturing and calming down somewhat in her greetings. Kimbra is doing a great job on managing her enthusiasm.

14/11/2024

Mareeka, Breanna and Murphy started training last night with the goal of Murphy developing some leash manners (he’s a big, strong boy), impulse control and focus on his people. Initially he was much more interested in the new environment with lots of animal and bird smells. The sounds and smell of sheep in the paddock next door were particularly interesting. But as we continued he became more engaged and focused on Breanna. He has a great sit but at this stage a drop is a world too far away. We started off using pats and praise as his rewards but he suddenly decided he did like the treats being used and things progressed much faster. We finished off with some place work - a work in progress.😁

12/11/2024

Some good information from experts around the dangers of repetitive ball throwing for your dog and why you should find some other activity to provide exercise.

https://caninearthritis.org/article/on-throwing-balls/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1k6gnsxOrilKzJX6-wfC6LqXhOJ2Z8elUCjsUUt5p6Ub1eDmTHv7b27mc_aem_6aaDn_Ne-IiLDQHsR5BANA #:~:text=The%20Veterinary%20Behaviourist,even%20show%20more%20aggressive%20behavior

Guest article from the team at Canine Arthritis Management: Hannah Capon, MA Vet MB MRCVS Danielle Pountain, RVN dip AVN dip HE CVN Cert SA hydro Lynsey Tindall, RVN dip AVN Rebecca Barr, BVMS MSc Behaviour MRCVS Melanie Bruder, DipCOT, […]

11/11/2024

Kiera and her young Groodle were just here doing puppy learning. At not quite 6 months old Chester soaks new things up like a sponge. He sits like a dream, picked up the foldback down like a champion, aced his loose leash walking and learnt to go round a cone like a pro. We also did some mat work and talked about puppy biting and why enrichment is important while Chester enjoyed his first lickimat.

08/11/2024

Photos of Ragdoll training and playing at the end of the session.

08/11/2024

Photos of Nara training and playing with the fun equipment at the end of the session.

08/11/2024

Photos of Bear training and playing with the fun equipment at the end of the session.

08/11/2024

We finished our final puppy class for the year tonight as I have a trip to WA coming up to work with international animal trainer, Ken Ramirez. This was an amazingly good class with young pups who excelled in everything we did. The picture below is Sally, Alistair and Bear. Pictures of the other two participants are in the comments.

08/11/2024

Penny and Vinny were in for their second lesson today with an emphasis on developing a strong handler focus, not pulling on the leash in the face of distractions and to behave better with other dogs ( important, as he is a very big, strong boy). I couldn’t fault his LLW and he did some beautiful sits and stays. He was quite vocal when Collie came out, but settled quite well once Penny got his attention on her and Vinny did some lovely work despite a strange dog being present. He picked up doing paws up on both a square platform and a round balance disk (see photo) and it certainly helped with his focus. All in all, a very productive session.

07/11/2024

07/11/2024

Callan is starting to do some very nice work with Chase. At 7 months of age Chase is still a baby and we’re still working hard on impulse control and getting all 4 paws to stay on the ground when he’s excited. But we can see progress and as the session goes on he becomes calmer. Lovely mat work done by Callan today and the mat is becoming a valued place for Chase.

04/11/2024

Only one of our 4 Training and Tricks people was able to make it to our last lesson today. However, we had a great session with Koda and his pup parents, Robbie and Brittany. Big focus on loose leash walking, some lovely sits, downs and stands from Koda with good stays as well. We were able to do a couple of recall games and Tobbie was surprised at the number of tricks Koda had actually learned over the 6 weeks. We’ll miss this lovely young man🥰

04/11/2024

Ally and Lucy worked with Monty around today. I thought his higher energy than Collie may have been a trigger but Lucy is learning to mainly disregard other dogs and focus strongly on Ally. As well as doing drive bys and parallel walking with the Mont, they ran through a Rally course, had a very successful play with a tunnel and jumps (once she knew what was expected, Lucy was a natural), did some sniffy work learning to identify birch scent and showed off some tricks. Lucy is a multi-talented girl very quick to learn and Ally is doing so well with her training. Pictures of the jumping.

03/11/2024

Just a little boast about my young dog, Monty. We trialled in Rally Excellent on Saturday and he got two good passes, giving him his Rally Excellent title. That means we move up to Masters, the highest level. We both enjoy the things we do through our dog sports. They are really good platforms for learning new skills and we get to associate with other dogs and people. Here’s a photo of him with his certificates and ribbons. And the pink thing is his tongue. Apparently I clicked the photo just as he was licking his nose🤣

31/10/2024

Callan and Chase were here again today. We worked on loose leash walking, using the super bowls pattern game to start and transitioning to straight line luring. Also worked on some recall on a long lead where Chase showed a much better focus on Callan. Chase is growing like a w**d and looks as if he might end up a fairly big Kelpie.

28/10/2024

Ally and Lucy were their usual competent selves today. We had Collie and Lucy walking around each other with dropped leashes and Lucy was totally relaxed with Collie quite close to her. This week we tried some jumps and a tunnel which both Lucy and Ally picked up beautifully. Then they showcased their tricks - they have most of the ANKC Starter tricks pretty well down pat. They are an incredible team.

28/10/2024

Chester is a 5 month old Groodle who has come along to start his learning journey. His mum, Kiera, knows he is going to be a big boy and wants to get a handle on basic skills early. We installed markers and he was a quick learner with a good sit, getting the concept of down very quickly and he also enjoyed the ping pong recall game.