Aussie Dog Training

13/04/2024

Equipment buy back….
Do you have training equipment (purchased from us) taking up space, that you no longer need/use? If you have Herm Sprenger collars or remote training collars, send me a message, as I have clients ready to purchase. 🐾

08/02/2024

Training Slip Collars are now available!
🐾Super strong
🐾Made to measure
🐾Great training tool for walking
$25 (plus $5 postage in Aus if required)

27/01/2024

🐾 Happy 9th birthday big fella, Mosi 63 in dog years! The sweetest big boy.

25/01/2024

The fluff magician Bec from Durty Dawgs dog wash turned Mr Feral into Mr Floofy today with a deshedding treatment! He’s a brand new man! Check the before n after pics! 😍

25/12/2023

Merrrrrry Christmas!!!! 🎄💗🐾

22/12/2023

For anyone seeking AWESOME puppy classes ⬇️

First Puppy Class of 2024!

Join myself, Amy of Pretty Paws Pet Services & Training & Cat at Rebellious K9 (photographer the day this pic was taken!) for our first puppy class of 2024. Cat & Amy will be helping me wrangle all the pups and assist humans with exercises.

Limited spots available, sign up here: https://forms.gle/2FLd4uFXEzDFZcJt6

More Details below.

Puppy Class at The Holistic Hound Dog Training - 45 minute sessions running:
Fri Jan 19th 6pm
Fri Feb 2nd 6pm **please note Fri 26th Aus Day is missed**
Fri Feb 9th 6pm
Fri Feb 16th 6pm
Fri Feb 23rd 6pm

Southern River location, more details to come.
Puppy booklet to be sent out prior to class commencing so you can get a head start at home.

🐾 PUPPY CLASS JAN/FEB 2024 🐾

🤎 Cost: $220 inc. GST
🤎 Starting January 19th 2024 for a 5 week block, please note Jan 26th Aus Day is missed.
🤎 6pm every Friday, Southern River location
🤎 Any breed from 10-22 weeks old (must have second booster vaccination)
🤎 Facebook Group with extra class info posted
🤎 45 min class + questions answered at the end
🤎 Limited numbers & 2 class helpers for extra assistance

INCLUDED: Puppy Passport Booklet (everything puppy related you need to know) sent out prior to class commencing so you can get a head start at home + online support through the duration of the course PLUS entry to interactive Facebook group where we discuss common questions in more detail.

We will be putting a large focus on raising confident, well-rounded pups...
> Will include proper socialisation with other pups
> How to create focus on handler around distractions
> Basics of obedience & creating recall
> Playing with your pups & how to fulfill their genetic needs
> Lots of interactive items to play with & a course for your pup to run through & conquer 💪

Sign Up Here: https://forms.gle/2FLd4uFXEzDFZcJt6

27/10/2023

Any Meals for Mutts consumers? My recent bag was in the recall. Sad to see this in a brand I’ve trusted, hopefully they get things back on track to being the brand so many trusted. If you have an affected bag, return for replacement.

Dear Valued Pet Parents,

We are writing to extend our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience or concern caused by a recent issue affecting our food. We want to assure you that we take this matter very seriously and are committed to resolving it.

We have become aware of a concern regarding the presence of mould in some of our dry dog products and we want to ensure the well-being of your beloved pets. While this issue has only affected a small number of bags and products from some of our recent production, we believe in taking precautions for the health and safety of your furry friends.

To address this matter, we recommend that you carefully inspect the products with a best before date listed below. It’s important to note that if these products have been stored in a cool, dry environment, the likelihood of any issue is minimal. Nevertheless, we encourage pet parents to remain vigilant.

If you come across any signs of mould in your product or if you prefer not to continue feeding your current bag of affected food from the specific best before dates listed, we kindly ask you to discontinue use and take the product back to the place of purchase or reach out to us at [email protected].

Our dedicated team is here to assist you with replacing your product. When contacting us, please provide details about the product variant, bag size, and best before date for a smoother resolution.

As a further safety precaution, we are actively collaborating with our retail partners to ensure that any affected bags are removed from sale. This collaborative effort underscores our commitment to providing the highest quality dry dog food in Australia.

We continue to be a small Australian family owned brand and your understanding and trust are greatly appreciated as we work to resolve this situation and continue to serve the needs of you and your pets. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Team MFM

Products affected and their best before details

Grain Free Salmon and Sardine 2.5Kg
3/09/2024
5/09/2024
7/09/2024

Grain Free Salmon and Sardine 20Kg
20/08/2024
1/09/2024
4/09/2024
6/09/2024
17/09/2024
9/10/2024

Grain Free Salmon and Sardine 9Kg
20/08/2024
26/08/2024
27/08/2024
5/09/2024
6/09/2024
7/09/2024
14/09/2024
26/09/2024

Salmon and Sardine 20Kg
16/08/2024
17/08/2024
4/10/2024

Salmon and Sardine 9Kg
5/09/2024

Salmon and Sardine Large Kibble 20Kg
18/07/2024
19/07/2024
12/10/2024

Salmon and Sardine Large kibble 9Kg
12/08/2024
13/08/2024

Grain Free Duck and Turkey 2.5Kg
1/09/2024
3/09/2024
4/09/2024

Grain Free Duck and Turkey 20Kg
4/09/2024
7/09/2024
20/09/2024

Grain Free Duck and Turkey9Kg
3/09/2024
4/09/2024
5/09/2024

High Performance Turkey 20Kg
13/08/2024

High Performance Turkey 9Kg
13/08/2024

07/08/2023

CLASS CANCELLED
Sunday 13th 9am Group Session
Sorry lack of response.

06/08/2023

Sunday=Funday
Finn and Mosi live a tough life….
Morning: Product testing at the river
Midday: Spa at Better Pets & Gardens store
Afternoon: lunch in the Swan Valley, play, cuddles, snacks, more product testing toys with snacks, cuddles, sleep.
I’ll give a product review soon!

01/08/2023

Truth.
Tools are just tools, sure some are used badly by some, but ask me and I’ll tell you I see everyday dog owners using “friendly” “accepted” tools in horrid ways daily! It’s about knowing what you are doing and being fair and calm. Regardless of the tool.

01/08/2023

Incoming weekly Wednesday misery…. 😫

⛈️ 🌧️ 💨 Cold front inbound 💨 🌧️ ⛈️

25/07/2023

HEADS UP
For anyone that walks their dog (especially off leash) at, or near Bells Rapids, Swan Valley area. Possible 1080 poisoning death.

15/07/2023

Paddle adventure today, with my girl and my doggo Finn. We figured, while out in the peaceful blissfulness, that this is what weekends are all about 💞

11/07/2023

Our Wandering Woofs pack walk has some availability tomorrow Wednesday 12th. Contact me to discuss.

22/06/2023

We found a little sunshine amongst the rain clouds ☀️

09/06/2023

https://fb.watch/l2GaU-e73h/?mibextid=v7YzmG

30/05/2023

Perfect walking weather today!

30/05/2023

Here’s one for the mumma’s… when your sweet babies grow into your sweet giants….my lad Mosi

13/05/2023

Happy Mumma’s Day!

10/05/2023

The peace of the forest is good for the souls 💞

03/05/2023

29/04/2023

Group class Sunday 9am, see client page for details

20/04/2023

Spot on! And oh sooooo common!

This is an easy mistake for owners to make. Your vet is the educated expert you trust your dog’s physical well-being with. And so when questions about training or behavior issues arise, it’s only natural that you turn to the very expert you most trust to keep your dog healthy and safe.

But there’s a problem. Most vets will have zero actual real world training experience, and thus will have zero trustworthy training advice. That doesn’t mean they haven’t had some superficial, and often dubious, training courses—many have—but what it does mean is that it’s the extremely rare vet who has actually gone out and trained numerous dogs with numerous training goals/issues, and found real world answers/solutions.

Think about that for a moment. You’re taking training advice from someone who almost certainly has never engaged in any deep, ongoing, varied training work. They’ve almost certainly never worked with a large sample of clients, and a large sample of dogs, and had to find training/behavioral answers for them.

What they have done is studied extremely deeply the medical side of helping animals. And that’s why the easy-to-miss overlap, and the easy-to-miss overstep, is so easy to miss. Vets are so closely tied to your dog’s well-being, and so knowledgeable in one facet of their well-being—and likely the most trusted expert you have for your dog in general—that it’s easy to assume they actually know what’s best for your dog when it comes to training and behavior issues.

And so, because of this misplaced trust, and misbegotten authority, many owners find themselves being recommended purely positive trainers, and/or tools which align with the purely positive training agenda, medications like Prozac when these approaches inevitably don’t work—and with the current ridiculously silly fad of the fear-free movement…being told (often in a condescendingly chastising tone) that they cannot use certain tools with their dogs at their facilities.

Just to be clear, this isn’t a vet-trashing post. I’ve had many cherished vets who’ve guided me through some of the most difficult, worrisome, and painful moments of life with my dogs. I’ll always be deeply thankful for their kindness and medical expertise. But I never once turned to them for training advice, and they never once were so presumptuous as to offer it…or worse, attempt to enforce some version of it.

For all of you owners out there, I urge you to step back and think about what I said above. Think about the fact that your vet has almost certainly NOT ever functioned in any real capacity as a trainer. They’ve never had to find solutions which their livelihoods and career reputations depended on. What they have been are animal medical doctors, who because of this one area of expertise have been viewed—or far worse—have placed themselves in the position of being training/behavioral experts. But the one field of expertise has nothing to do with the other.

I would never think to offer any serious medical advice, which could have serious ramifications on a dog’s health—because I have no true expertise in that field. And yet, we find many veterinarians who will happily make training/behavioral recommendations—which will be imbued with their medical expert status—which therefore owners will take as gospel, and which could, and often do have seriously deleterious effects.

Owners, it’s up to you to be the most informed consumers possible. You can’t offload the responsibility to anyone. Not your vet, not your trainer, not your friends or family. Do your own research and your own critical thinking. Then, make your own decisions about what you think is best, and who you think is best. And take anyone attempting to occupy that place of responsibility, and looking to remove your agency/ability to explore and discern and decide on your own, as someone to be highly suspicious of. Only you stand between what’s best and something possibly very different for your dog. The only defense against poor information is you becoming more knowledgeable.

PS, And don’t get me started on veterinary behaviorists. There’s very little that’s worse, or more dangerous than someone leveraging the status of medical and behavior “expert”, but who’s almost certainly been indoctrinated and consumed by the purely positive ideology which has completely indoctrinated and consumed their industry. If you can find one who has a collection of video evidence of their work with many, many serious dogs—video evidence as impressive as their credentials—then by all means dive in. But if all you find are credentials, this is one field where sadly, the credentials aren’t nearly enough to trust. In fact, if that’s all they have, I’d run the other way. This is an industry infamous for its ineptitude, exorbitant prices, and terribly disappointing results. Approach with appropriately extreme caution.

PPS, Are there exceptions to the above? Of course. There’s always exceptions. But there’s a reason they’re called exceptions.

14/04/2023

Well said!

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 & 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘆 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘆 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲?
First and foremost, let’s be clear on one important point - dogs are predators! This is true of all dogs living in our homes as pets. As predatory animals, dogs are genetically fluent in the predatory sequence. The predatory sequence is the series of ingrained motor patterns followed by a predator, when finding and taking down their prey. In dogs (broadly speaking, more on that in a moment), it goes like this:

𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗡𝗧 > 𝗘𝗬𝗘 > 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗞 > 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗦𝗘 > 𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗖𝗛-𝗕𝗜𝗧𝗘 > 𝗞𝗜𝗟𝗟-𝗕𝗜𝗧𝗘 > 𝗖𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗕𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘 > 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗘

𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲
We have selectively bred dogs for many, many generations to fulfil specific jobs. In doing so, with many breeds, we have greatly enhanced portions of the predatory sequence, whilst diminishing (but importantly, not completely extinguishing) others.

In herding breeds, we have greatly exaggerated this part of the sequence:

𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗡𝗧 > 𝗘𝗬𝗘 > 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗞 > 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗦𝗘

This has led to the evolution of some pretty amazing physical traits - many of you will be familiar with the hard “eye” or the beautiful, low to the ground creeping movement of a Border Collie as it stalks toward the stock animals.

What we have created in these dogs are animals highly skilled at influencing the behaviour of their stock, with a strong desire to do so. They are control freaks by design who are high in prey drive.

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗖𝗮𝗻’𝘁 𝗢𝘂𝘁-𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀
Getting breeds to the high degree of diversity and specialisation that we have, was a considered effort. You will not train out of a Kelpie, the desire to chase moving things, any more than you will train out of a terrier the desire to catch and kill small rodents.

Where this can become problematic, is when drive expression is mis-directed into moving things that it is unsafe or undesirable for your herding dog to chase - think cars, kids on bikes, other dogs. Or when they control the movements of other living beings in your home - the cat, kids, unfamiliar visitors moving around their space.

It is true that drive can be suppressed, but look at it like a volcano that has to erupt - that lava is still there, and has to flow somewhere. Remember, we intentionally bred herding dogs to be high in prey drive. It’s a mammoth effort to attempt to suppress that unilaterally, and it is deeply unfair to the dog to do so.

𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹
We are Border Collie lovers (and owners), that’s no secret. As a result, we see a LOT of clients who own herding dogs. It’s not uncommon for us to hear “he nips the kids when they are running and playing”, “he chased my neighbour on his motorcycle”, “he’s herding the cat around the house”, “he herds the dogs on the beach and gets in fights because they don’t like it”.

What we have here, is drive being expressed under no control. What makes herding dogs so fantastic at their job is their incredible attributes, their ability to control their innate predatory drive…..and their willingness to have the expression of this drive directed by us, the human. Developing such a working relationship takes many hours of time and hard work. Cooperation and trust need to be built between sheep and dog, dog and human.

In a pet home, drive expression under no control can be disastrous. At it’s base level, you are allowing the predator in your home to engage in predatory behaviour, hang the consequences.

𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻?
Rather than trying to defy genetics and (attempt to) suppress drive, we recommend this approach:

✅ Provide an appropriate outlet for your dogs drive, through structured prey-based play with you. Flirt pole, tug (with chase included) - these games are your friend. If you can work them on stock, even better but a word of caution here - make sure you can commit to this somewhat regularly. This shouldn’t be a “one-off treat” experience for your dog.

✅ A crystal clear communication system and lifestyle expectations, which includes clear cues for your dog on when it is time to express drive, and when it is not.

✅ Development of highly reliable obedience behaviours, which can be used to create impulse control around triggers which are likely to elicit drive expression in your dog

Working dogs live for work above all else. They can make for fantastic companions and training partners, but if you are considering adding one to your home - make sure you have a plan for fulfilling prey drive expression, or your dog will 100% make his own.

𝙋𝙞𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚𝙙: 𝙢𝙮 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡 𝙍𝙝𝙪, 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙙 17 𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙨. 𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 “𝙚𝙮𝙚” 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙠 - 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙚𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨!