Bulky, heavy, jingling clips on leads, collars and harnesses can be overwhelming and irritating for some dogs. Pups have small necks and frames so heavy gear like this can make the whole walk an unpleasant experience for them.
Bulky, heavy, jingling clips on leads, collars and harnesses can be overwhelming and irritating for some dogs. Pups have small necks and frames so heavy gear like this can make the whole walk an unpleasant experience for them.
Each of us has a trust account with every animal and person in our lives.
We build trust one positive interaction at time.
Positive interactions are not just about rewarding our dogs but also about providing opportunities for choice and consent.
A withdrawal is made via a negative experience and if this withdrawal is so big that it exceeds a positive balance, we risk putting the relationship in the red; but even small or inadvertent withdrawals can add up over time, resulting in abankrupt relationship.
The best way to protect a trust account is to ensure that you make many, many more deposits than withdrawals.
*The trust account is a term I first learnt about from Steve Martin & Susan Friedman.
Be present when you’re with your dogs.
People often wonder why their dogs aren’t responsive to them yet they spend very little time engaging with them.
You don’t need to physically exhaust your dog to achieve calm and enriching your dog’s life needn’t be overly complicated or time consuming.
Whether you feed dry, wet or raw…ditch the bowl and try scatter feeding your dog’s meals on the deck, on the lawn or in the garden.
Note- for dogs who’ve never eaten outside this may not be appropriate. Let them eat their food where and how they feel safe and focus on building their overall confidence levels.
#mentalstimulation #enrichment #dogtrainingtips #dogtraining101
Enrichment it’s not just about adding toys or activities to your dogs day, but also providing opportunities for them to engage in natural behaviours and make safe choices.
Dogs, like humans, have individual preferences, and by offering different options, you allow them to choose what feels most comfortable and secure to them. This not only enriches their environment but also contributes to their overall well-being and happiness.
An example could be a thoughtful approach to providing choices in their sleeping arrangements.
After getting to know Beau I noticed that sometimes he preferred to sleep alone so I set up a few options for him including a pen, a crate, a dog cushion, and the option to sleep with us.
Over the course of 5 nights he choose the cushion once, the crate twice and with us for the other nights.
It’s about understanding the unique needs and preferences of your dog and tailoring the environment accordingly.
Comment on how you provide opportunities for your dog to choose?
In her article “Kidnapped From Planet Dog” Kathy Callahan, one of my favourite dog trainers, puppy experts and fellow FDM explains how the secret to successful puppyhood is empathy, highlighting that your pup was taken from a different culture, where everyone bites, there is no alone time and you can pee anywhere.
Of course dogs can thrive in the human world, they have done for thousands of years, but in the modern world where change is happening at a pace even us humans are struggling with it’s not as simple as bringing them home to a soft bed, bowl, matching walk set and leaving them to it.
Your baby dog needs a parent, a teacher, a kind and supportive guide to planet human…they need our support, our care, our empathy.
I’m thrilled to announce my new puppy class will be starting on the Gold Coast at the amazing @the_vet_collective
Our first 4 week block of classes will be running from Monday 8th January 6-7pm and Saturday 13th January 9-10am
We’ll cover the essentials such as breed needs & how to meet them, decoding, preventing and teaching behaviours, tools & techniques to connect & bond with your puppy, walking your puppy, recall, toilet training, biting/mouthing, cultivating calm, positive exposure, environmental conditioning and much more including unlimited access to our private Facebook community for puppy parents with a growing library of content you can keep coming back to.
Spread the word 📢
For more details and booking please follow the link in my bio or send me a DM.
Here’s how…
If in doubt don’t! Despite what society might have you believe, not all dogs enjoy a pat from a stranger.
❌Avoid giving treats…this is the equivalent of kids taking candy from a creepy man with a van…don’t be that guy.
❌Keep your hands to yourself…they don’t need to smell your hands.
Relax, no matter how eager you are to get your hands in them…be cool.
Give them choice to interact, wait for them come to you.
If they are hesitant but come in for a sniff don’t touch them…this is them getting information, not an invitation to touch them.
Let them sniff and investigate you (if safe to do so) and let them move away and come back if they’re comfortable.
Then only touch them if they are inviting you to do so…leaning into you, nuzzling you hand, sitting by you.
Avoid the head all together…instead lightly stroke their back.
The more you get to know each other the more you will know what they like and don’t like.
❌Never ever ever grab a dog you don’t know by their scruff or collar.
Fun & Engaging Games!!!
Play is essential for a happy, confident and fulfilled dog human relationship.
Elements that build your bond whilst developing their confidence include;
- quick & easy success
- impossible to fail
- incremental & gentle
- challenging enough but not too much it discourages them from trying
- engaging
- rewarding
As humans we tend to ficus on the end result when teaching skills through games however this very quickly sucks all the fun out of it. It’s the journey, not the destination.
Ring Toss with Ona took me months but I learnt so much about her and myself during the process and her confidence soared.
Free Work is fabulous for so many reasons…here I’ve set it up to capture (video) Bunny’s postural patterns. I’ve noticed her rounding her back a lot more lately and want to monitor her movement closely.
Chronic pain is really hard to identify in a vet setting, it’s why it often gets missed…small rooms, dogs are these and inhibited, aroused and frantic masking any signs of pain…I highly recommend videoing your dogs moving freely for future reference.
Within a few days of adopting Bunny it was clear we had a fierce predator on our hands…toads, lizards, spiders, bugs, solider crabs, birds, a stingray 😳…we lost her into the dunes once and had to pull her out of a brush Turkey nest and she’s grabbed a cat…so I’m very aware of her ability to do harm and keep her in sight at all times…despite her age she can MOVE when she wants too.
Hounds & Terriers aren’t as codependent on humans as say a Shepard or Collie so the traditional style of recall training can fall apart pretty quickly.
When Bunny hears “bun bun” it means free food and I always reinforce it. I have a few different recall words, some more valuable for her depending on the context.
Recall is a lifesaving skill and if you don’t have it or you do but the environment is too much, leash your dog.
Coco (6 yrs) Irish Terrier x Cavalier is a regular client. Her human is an elderly gent who can’t get around much, as such her world has been quite small.
I’ve been working on Cocos confidence with new and different surfaces, gently encouraging her to test them out without casually and without force…today she tackled a children’s slide 💛 food always AFTER the scary thing.
I filmed this little exercise for a client whose young dog is struggling on walks and is fearful of the harness and leash.
Whilst we work on her relationship with these items they can still work on their leash walking skills “nudie rudie” style, no equipment required.
This creates a fun, stress free exercise to practice in the home; 🔵Reinforcing the ‘sweet spot’ and the dog moving with us.
🔵Building our marker word.
🔵Practicing cues we want to use moving forward for communication during walks.
Bunny is short so I drop treats on the ground for her rather then constantly bending down, which isn’t comfortable or practical long term with small dogs.
Loose Leash Walking is a Complex Skill! It helps to strip it right back to basics, working on one block at a time before brining it all together.
Happy Saturday 🐶🐶🐶
c/o @est_living @resident.dog
NORM meal toppers & treats are made from 100% human grade and Australian meat, which costs a sh*tload more than dodgy pet meat or bulk bought pre-dried treats and toppers you see everywhere. They’re freeze dried rather than dehydrated…freeze drying is extremely expensive, but you get a product which is nutritionally far superior and retains almost all of the nutrients from the raw ingredients that go into it.Freeze dried foods are also very lightweight, but very concentrated, hence the “small” serve and it lasts for ages!NORM is a genuinely premium product, founder Clare is pretty passionate about the complete lack of regulation in the Australian pet food industry. NORM do everything 100% by the book, and are a properly registered and insured business who only use fully licenced and accredited production facilities. This is pretty bloody rare in the unregulated pet food industry.
Mothers Part 1
> Humans may be the only ones that have a dedicated holiday for it, but in the animal kingdom, every day is Mother’s Day and it can be brutal. Some species go to incredible lengths to raise their species by protecting and caring for their young. I can’t help but think of the cruel, consistent breeding within the still legal puppy farms in Australia. Breeding mothers and studs are keep in appealing conditions, innocent victims of an industry churning out puppies for consumer demand.
Some get out once they’re too ill to reproduce, if they’re lucky they’re adopted as traumatised survives, but many aren’t.
They are the hundreds of thousands of dogs you will never know about, those who will never have a name or know love. Those who will never see the light of day.
This industry survives because the general public don’t know how bad it really is (some do) and continue to buy from these factories.
You can stop this…The power to stop this is in our hands, the consumer.
You can change everything for these dogs, simply by choosing not to buy their babies. Buying puppies from puppy farms is not rescuing them, it’s allowing the industry to continue. Your choice can mean you break the cycle that for so many of them spells misery and abuse.
When you buy a puppy from these facilities, at least one puppy from the same litter will be held back to be used for a lifetime of miserable, constant breeding.
Any breed you’re looking for can be found in rescue. It may take longer, but it should- this is a family member. You shouldn’t be able to buy them on demand. If you really want a puppy their are a select amount of ethical breeders but just because they’re registered does not mean they’re ethical.
More to come.
#Repost @karen_walker
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Those Australians and their tennis! Just serve already! #australianlabradoodle #focus #obsessed
The Light of our Lives c/o @dogsof.london
#fortheloveofdogs #dogsarefamily #dogsarethebest
