South West Dog Trainer & Behaviourist - Tracy-Lee

Part 2 of Cleo's structured walk - the end.. I give her a break in the middle for about 5-10min (depending on time constraints) to sniff around and then I take back control of the walk - but even in that time she waits for me and I have to tell her to SNIFF! 😄 Previously, 20min in to a walk would still see me being dragged from pillar to post to discover what secrets they hold. Now if I stop she stops and looks at me like "what's up? " this is purely a result of the structured walk and being consistent with what's allowed and what's not acceptable. We practice when there's minimal distractions during the day so she can learn to be confident in her ability to succeed and today we walked home past 4 people. We left the path for the 1st 3 as they took up the whole pathway🙄 but she barely spared them a glance and then shortly afterwards # 4 approached and we stayed on the path and calmly crossed paths. This is a MASSIVE win for her!

This is Cleo at the beginning of her structured walk today. She's gotten SO good I had to do minimal corrections even right at the start! I'm so proud of her!

It's going to be another scorcher today! Please save your walks for the morning or the evening once the worst is over. And don't forget access to lots of water & shade if possible ❤

Cleo likes to pull🤦🏽‍♀️ BUT we're working on helping her to make better decisions on lead. Whenever she starts to pull me - I simply stop. She doesn't get an inch further until she relaxes. She might strain for a couple of seconds but she quickly realises its a fruitless mission and she'll usually sit down or turn around and sniff at something closer to me - giving me the slack in the lead that I want and earning herself some praise in the process. And when I get a really quick response from her I'll usually let her sniff whatever it was she wanted when we get there.. she learns she'll get it anyway without pulling. If she's insistent - we turn around and walk away 🤷🏽‍♀️ continue the walk in a different direction. She has been catching on quick but it's a daily exercise we have to do - because sometimes she thinks like a goldfish🙈😂

I just don't get it🤷🏽‍♀️ she won't have a bar of the clam shell pool I bought for her but she can't go a lap of the dog park without stopping for a quick dip in the water bowl🙄🤦🏽‍♀️🤣🤣

WE CAN TURN LEFT!🎉🎉😆 When I started training Cleo we got a bit stuck with turning - especially turning LEFT.🙈 When you're going up/ down stairs or down a hallway - there's an unspoken etiquette of keeping to one side as you make your way to your destination. In Australia we keep left, Americans usually keep right - from what I've read it seems to tie in with our road rules🤷🏽‍♀️ So in keeping with that etiquette and our road rules, when walking our dogs we should not only keep to the left ourselves but keep our dogs on our left as well. There are a few benefits from practising this but I'll touch on those in another post. The issue I (and I know a few others) have encountered is that when I needed to turn left I kept bumping into her and it was just clumsy all round. So I kind of lived in a right turn only vibe for a while🤦🏽‍♀️ It got the job done but let's face it - eventually you need to turn left 😆 Cleo's leash work has improved by leaps and bounds - she's actually a pleasure to walk now! So taking that into consideration I decided to start practising our left turns. Their head should be in line with your left leg. If you have given permission for your dog to go out ahead of you then get them to slow down or call them back to heel before you get to your turn. With your dog close to your side, when you get to your turn use your left leg to gently guide the neck left and your dog should follow! You can also mark the action of turning with the word LEFT and reward them with a YES and a treat after the turn.

RECALL TRAINING Yesterday I was working with Cleo to shore up her recall. She knows what's expected when she's called but she's still not 100% on her responses. So now I'm trying to show her that her responding to my call doesn't necessarily mean it's the end of fun-time. I mean sure, it MIGHT be🤫- but it also might NOT.😉 So she knows that me calling her usually means we're done for the session or at the park etc. Now I have to show her "hey it could mean something completely different" To do this I'm using the following steps: Starting in a low distraction location I will 1 Call her to me 2 Mark her responding with a YES! and continue encouraging until she gets to me. 3 when she gets to me have her sit and/or lay down 4 Give her a treat 5 Release her to continue on with whatever she was doing originally. Once we have the response perfect we can GRADUALLY increase the time she has to wait for the treat/release and over time I will start alternating treats with verbal praise and physical affection. I will also start cutting down how much verbal encouragement she gets to come back - until we reach the point she responds with just the single word. Once ALL of this is at 100% we will start training with small distractions. This way I'm setting her up for success. Making sure the habit is ingrained before throwing too many things at her and giving her the opportunity to "rehearse" bad behaviour. Currently we're working on recall at least twice a day for 10-15min at a time

Never thought I'd ever trust Cleo's lead to my kids let alone my toddler🙈 I mean this is the same dog that has previously nearly pulled me off my feet. She's improved so much on lead I decided to give in to Ayla's demands (in a safe environment- we're just inside our complex). This was at the start of the walk so she was still a bit "sniffy" but a million times improved on her usual self. At the end my son walked her home from the park and she was AMAZING ..but no video evidence due to a screaming toddler 🙄😂

Today we worked on eye contact with Cleo. She's so used to just going about her business as she pleases - I want to encourage her to "check in" with me going forward. However, direct eye contact for dogs is usually an uncomfortable experience (some may even feel threatened) - so here I am teaching her that it's actually OK and she will be rewarded for doing it. Teaching your dog to “check in” with you can be a excellent way to teach calm responses and keep your dog’s attention - even when there are exciting things happening around her. It is also a wonderful way for your dog to learn that she can make things happen by just LOOKING at you! #superpowers😉 Ideally, your dog will learn this so well, that she won’t have to think about it when she wants something—just make eye contact with you and the world is hers. It’s like giving your dog a way to ask your permission for the things she would like in life - rather than making poor decisions, or forging forward on her own.

Today we worked on Cleo's recall at the park. I used a long leash so I could maintain some control over her distance (for now). I've started with small to moderate distance only and try to recall her when I think she will most definitely return of her own will. In doing this I'm setting her up for success so she can and will be rewarded on coming back to me. I want her to only have good associations with my call for her to come. In time we will build up distance and include distractions as well.

Cleo's Structured walk before heading out

Currently working with Cleo on her leash/walking etiquette. We've introduced a brief structured walk before we head off for her daily walk. She's come a long way from lunging and pulling me everywhere she wants to go. Now she's calm and in the right frame of mind and looking to me for guidance instead of just reacting.