TATE Animal Training Enterprises

12/12/2025

Do you see what Dash sees?

Even when it’s right there in front of her, you may well struggle to see it or appreciate its significance.

This innocuous-looking plant is parthenium w**d, a priority w**d across NSW. Capable of causing severe human health issues and problems for livestock, getting a handle on this w**d is critical.

Local w**ds officers do a great job of monitoring and controlling known sites, but this plant is tricky and can be difficult to spot in its immature form, in long grass, or amongst look-alikes.

That’s where the dogs come in!

Dash and Connor are experts at finding this plant at whatever stage of growth, wherever it grows. The last few days, they have been in regional NSW, working alongside DPI and the local w**ds officers to help locate outlier plants around known sites.

This is the face of a spaniel who knows she’s earned her ball!

**ddog

09/12/2025

These are the 3 MOST VALUABLE THINGS you can teach your puppy from a young age..

👉 INDEPENDENCE = Crate Training!
For us, this is a non-negotiable part of modern day puppy raising. A crate represents a small, cosy, comfortable and safe space for a puppy to relax in close proximity to us without them being able to sit right on top of us.
It’s the best way for a dog to build up a tolerance towards being alone in small, achievable doses. This way we don’t have to jump to putting the puppy in a seperate room or outside.
It also teaches a valuable lesson in being bored and being okay with that. Crating a puppy for short periods throughout the day will help them develop an ‘off switch’ and to not constantly be looking for a ‘job to do’ which would otherwise result in an over tired, frustrated and destructive puppy that struggles to settles and appears like ‘they’re never tired’.

👉 CONFIDENCE = Socialisation and Environmental Exposure: We live in an area where there are active cases of Parvo virus so this means carefully picking and choosing where we go and what we do. This DOES NOT MEAN we will keep a puppy home until they are fully vaccinated! It’s far too important for a puppy’s long term confidence in social situations, to be kept home during these critical early weeks. We will drive to new locations daily, and at the very least, back the car up and let a pup observe and absorb the world. New sights, sounds and smells all while exploring a KONG in the back of the Ute/boot of the car.

👉 RESILIENCE - ‘the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties’: When exposing a puppy to the world, they will naturally come across things they find mildly uncomfortable or perhaps a little scary. Overcoming these situations is an important but necessary part of growing up. How you support them during these moments will help a puppy to become more resilient in the future rather than fearful.

Emotional development should always trump operant training with a young and vulnerable puppy.

A confident puppy = an easy to train dog

07/12/2025

Screens • Gaming • Social Media • Kids!

Our latest episode just dropped NOW!! Go take a listen on your way to work or way home from dropping the kids off or, if you are lucky enough, while relaxing by a pool somewhere!

We dig into the psychology behind today’s controversial digital experiences with expert child psychologist Brad Marshall from Unplugged Psychologist

Following up on last week’s post about dopamine and cortisol, this episode explores how behavioural principles, the same ones used in animal training, are built into games and online platforms to keep young minds hooked.

We are joined by Ryan's old mate Dr Brad Marshall, AKA: "The Unplugged Psychologist" to discuss how apps and games impact developing minds. It is wild.Ryan a...

02/12/2025

Dash and Darcy getting into the Christmas spirit.

01/12/2025

CueLess Episode 3 now available.

We call Steve Austin - Professional Dog Trainer and get his special insight into dog breeds, Deane explores why killer whales are sinking boats, Ryan shares how he trained (I mean taught) his son how to surf and Steve delights us with a poem about randy fur seals.

Let us know what you think and we welcome any topic ideas to talk about in future episodes.

Managing expectations is always important, but this is a good one! We’re back unpacking dog genetics and behaviour with input from a world-renowned special g...

28/11/2025

If you follow our page you’ll already know this: how you respond to your animal can strengthen a behaviour or reduce the chances of it happening again. That’s basic operant conditioning.

But sometimes a behaviour keeps showing up even when you’re not reinforcing it. It’s not magic — it’s rehearsal.

Rehearsal is reinforcement.
Every time an animal performs a behaviour, the neural pathway behind it strengthens. It doesn’t need you to reward it; the animal’s own brain chemistry can do the job.

Dopamine, the neurotransmitter driving motivation and the pursuit of rewards, fires when an animal anticipates or seeks something that previously paid off. That dopamine surge keeps the animal coming back for another go, even if the outcome isn’t guaranteed.

Endogenous opioids, the body’s natural pain-relief and “feel-good” chemicals, can also kick in during certain patterns of behaviour, especially repetitive or high-arousal actions. These opioids can make the behaviour intrinsically reinforcing because they literally make the animal feel better while doing it.

And cortisol, the stress hormone, complicates things further. Sustained elevated cortisol can push animals toward displacement or repetitive behaviours as a coping strategy. The relief they feel when performing these behaviours pairs with those opioid releases, making the loop even harder to break.

So if a behaviour seems to persist “on its own”, it’s not stubbornness or defiance. It’s neurobiology. And unless you change the environment, the stimulus, the stressor, prevent or interrupt the rehearsal and give the animal the skills or environment to run a new sequence the behaviour will keep strengthening itself from the inside out.

26/11/2025

CueLess Podcast Episode 2 available now!

Escape the heat today and have a listen. Here’s a pic of Dash and Joey keeping cool in the cow trough.

Happy Hump Day!

17/11/2025

"We should do a podcast." - Every bloke with a beer in his hand at some point.

Well, we did one.

Coming your way (starting today) over the next 7 weeks is a series of conversations with Ryan Tate, Deane Jones and Stephen Dalleywater on the world of behaviour.

From vet checks on capybaras to how gaming is rewiring your brain, this is a somewhat informed, unscripted and definitely unfiltered series of chats from three guys who love training animals and are fascinated about how we all learn.

https://youtu.be/e87cS5BqGmg?si=7GK8407HbRZUEBZ_

Also available on:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5e3uVoEVSANEzLJQoVNTQj?si=8uFF3SV8TL6lHcfvNH3uSg

Apple
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/cueless/id1853421833

Podbean
https://www.podbean.com/ea/pb-aq2ge-19c2dfb

14/11/2025

Kosciusko hawkw**d season has begun. You learn to expect the unexpected when it comes to field work. Pack for all seasons, Including snow in November!

07/11/2025

Friday arvo soccer match. Lennox and dash versus Alice and Maggie. Unfortunately for Alice, Maggie preferred cuddles from the girls. Have a great weekend everyone!

04/11/2025

Jen, accompanied by Alice and Connor had a wonderful time last week talking to the year 3 kids at The Nature School about the ways detection dogs across Australia protect our unique national parks. Connor was one of the very first conservation w**d detection dogs in Australia searching Kosciusko National Park every summer season for hawkw**d, and Alice uses her special scent detection skills to locate a soil born pathogen known as Phytophthora cinnamomi. Connor enjoyed demonstrating to the kids just how quickly he can find his target odour and Alice enjoyed all the cuddles! Thanks for having us

03/11/2025

Over the past month we’ve worked coast to coast — from Rottnest to Lord Howe — bushland, sanctuaries, zoos and aquariums. We’ve chased conservation targets, tackled pest species, and unravelled scent detection puzzles with everything from kangaroos to elephants.

Occasionally between the travel, the dogs, the wildlife, and the odd existential crisis, it dawns on me just how ridiculous this all is.

Try explaining our normal working week to an insurance company — "You're not being serious Mr Tate are you?"

I’m useless with a camera, but I love a good story — so we figured we’d make a podcast.

So here it is "Cue Less": a place for me, the ever-inappropriate Deane Jones, and the work-experience kid I’ve somehow clung to for nearly twenty years, Steve Dalleywater, to unpack the wild, hilarious, and deeply fascinating world of animal behaviour.

It’s not polished, it’s not scripted — just honest chats about animals, training, behaviour, and the humans behind it all.

Photos below are a few snippets of what’s shaped the last month — the work that sparked the conversations that became the podcast.

Stay tuned — Deane’s still flirting with killer whales, I’m dreaming a little too fondly of David Premack, and Steve’s writing love poems to the circus again.