Compassionate K9 Academy

06/30/2024

Wolf Willow was pretty quiet today:)

06/22/2024

Awww cool dip for Ruby:)

03/27/2024

Ruby has Spring Fever!

11/05/2023

Pretty nice day for Nov:)

08/26/2023

Gorgeous day for a walk with Ruby and Sadie!

08/26/2023

Yellow Labrador Retrievers Keen - 2 yrs old with no prior training and Kimchi 4 months old both learned valuable skills at the same time!

08/26/2023

Arnold - a five year old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel went from fearful to fearless in 6 short weeks. Force free training works:)

08/26/2023

Bandit and Hero (Sister and Brother Blue Heeler puppies graduated Foundation Skills with me this summer! Training these two together was challenging but rewarding:)

08/26/2023

Miss Luna graduated last summer from my Foundation Skills program. During her sleepover with me, she loved to show off her poses!

08/26/2023

Miss Sassypants Molly the Mini Schnauzer - offers sits on random objects! Every dog has their own personality. As a force-free trainer, I bring teach them good manners without dousing their spirit:)

08/26/2023

Sharing is caring! Ruby and Sadie (both graduates of my training) have wonderful manners!

08/26/2023

You know your students love you when after two years you randomly run into them and they still wiggle all over when they see you! Not the owner lol:) Miss Gracie the Bernese Mountain dog.

03/02/2023

DO YOU HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY?
An exit strategy for dogs is something that is pre planned and continually practiced until it becomes second nature.

Having this plan in place has huge benefits for dogs that react to triggers in the environment - be it other dogs, children, people, cyclists, skateboards or similar.

The exit strategy of quickly increasing distance when a trigger appears decreases stress levels, provides an opportunity to process information and helps dogs learn to respond in a different way from a space of safety.

Practicing quick U-turns, a sudden change in direction, speeding up or even hiding behind a tree are all useful ways of creating a strategy. Over time, some dogs will learn to remove themselves from a trigger on their own, before they start panicking, having learnt that moving away is an option they have.

Forcing a dog to face whatever is triggering them results in increased anxiety, stress or fear. They won’t just get used to it. A brain that is flooded with cortisol (the stress hormone) is unable to learn, process information, think clearly, or make better decisions.

After a long time of using exit strategies with one of my dogs that is reactive, she has begun to move away and create her own distance. Through practicing this pattern of creating distance she has realized that this is what she should do when that scary thing appears.

Some dogs may never get to this stage, and that’s also ok. Each dog is an individual, with different genetics, backgrounds and learning experiences. Accept your dog for who they are.

Think about how we may use exit strategies to help us cope and how they make us feel better.

Some time ago I suffered from debilitating panic attacks after a series of traumatic and life changing events. I couldn’t drive on a highway or be in an enclosed space. My daughter was graduating from university and I could not miss this event, but what if I had a panic attack in the auditorium, couldn’t get out and embarrassed her and myself?

A therapist that I was seeing at the time helped me to develop an exit strategy which enabled me to cope. I arrived at the venue early and found a seat right next to the exit. If I started panicking, I could just leave through the door. Just knowing that this option was available made such a difference to my state of mind and I ended up being able to make it through the entire ceremony.

The same strategy helped me cope on highways. I just had to drive to the next exit.. and then the next and the next if I felt up to it.

Sometimes we all need an exit strategy, our dogs included. It’s not about running away from or not facing a problem, but developing a plan to help us or our dogs cope in a situation where we’re uncomfortable.

03/02/2023

You wouldn't walk up to someone you've never met before & start touching them would you?

So please don't do it to dogs you've never met before either.

At the very least it's an uninvited invasion of personal space, but many dogs, especially Romanian & foreign rescue dogs are not comfortable with people they don't know and don't want to be touched.

Even if they wander over to sniff you, it still doesn't necessarily mean they want you to touch them, sniffing is how they gather information about you, much like us having a conversation. I've seen many a dog approach for a sniff and then dart out of the way when a hand comes towards them.

Even the often believed correct approach of holding out the back of your hand can appear threatening to a nervous or fearful dog.

Of course some dogs are super sociable and do want a ruffle and a fuss, but unless a dog is practically mobbing you with a full body wag, just wait and see how that dog feels about you before even thinking about interacting with them, and never walk up and stroke a dog that is laying down quietly minding their own business.

02/26/2023

Puppy socialisation is NOT just about playing with other dogs.

In fact, too much uncontrolled exposure to other dogs can cause so many unintended consequences.

If you have a puppy, make sure you try to work on ALL aspects of socialisation, as listed in the bottom graphic.

02/26/2023

The opposite to a dopamine rush when a dog is rewarded is a cortisol rush when they are punished or stressed in some other way. Cortisol exists as part of a stress response, that keeps a dog safe. When the dog feels threatened or worried their brain and body does something different – it prepares them for fight or flight, so their normal functions lower and their muscles fill with adrenaline. One of the normal functions that changes during this response, is the ability to learn. So, punishment makes learning harder, whilst positive reinforcement makes it easier.

02/25/2023

Hi, I am Jean Donaldson of The Academy for Dog Trainers! I’m a cross-over trainer, which means I used to train using pain and intimidation but found out there was a way to train without that stuff and never looked back. It works *so* well.

The Academy is on Facebook and Instagram at https://www.facebook.com/AcademyforDogTrainers and https://www.instagram.com/academy4dogtrainers/.

I would like to give a shout out to my colleagues on The Academy staff, Kristi Benson, Kelly Duggan, Casey McGee, Sarah Pennington and Claudine Prud'homme. I have worked with some amazing people but this crew is so smart, compassionate and talented it’s off the charts.

My dog Brian is pretty much the center of the universe. Can you even handle the cute here?

My favorite dog training tip is to gladly and gleefully use plenty of food. This is spectacularly unpacked in Zazie Todd’s blog post here: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2017/04/the-ultimate-dog-training-tip.html

02/25/2023

So lovely and balmy today!

02/25/2023

02/25/2023

Dominance: the position of having power and influence over others. It would be incorrect to say that dominance does not exist in dogs. It does, although it is a very fluid concept and usually involves dog to dog communication around possession of a resource – the one possessing the resource is the...

02/25/2023

The way that we need our dogs to walk on a lead is so totally unnatural to them!

We owe it to them to train lead walking skills with kindness and patience!

*No application of negative stimuli - no jerking, no yanking, no choke, no prong, no shock!

*Plenty of rewards, plenty of praise, plenty of positive reinforcement at the frequency needed!
❤️🐾

02/25/2023

HILARIOUS!

source --> https://www.facebook.com/janamthompson

02/25/2023

02/25/2023

Fantastic enrichment

02/25/2023

ARE YOU BEING INTENTIONAL WITH YOUR TRAINING?

When you are interacting with your dog you’re teaching something, even if you don’t think you are . . . so make it count!

🧼 Doing dishes?
Have your dog sit on a mat to practice his down-stays on a mat. (This is what I call “matwork”.)

🥒 Cutting veggies for dinner?
Practice training your dog not to jump on the counters in the kitchen. Sprinkle treats on the ground every few minutes (or seconds, depending on how bad your dog’s counter-surfing is) to teach that good things are on the ground not the counters.

🚪 Walking in the door from work?
Sprinkle food on the ground as soon as you come in to ward off jumping to greet you.

These are just a few ideas of how you can use real life scenarios to work on some intentional training with your dog.

⁉️ Can you think of some other ways you could do intentional training?

👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 Let me know in the comments!
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Stacy Greer, CPDT-KA
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Copyright© 2023

02/25/2023

This is an X-ray of a dog’s bent front leg. See that tiny white spec? That’s a microchip! It has migrated down the leg....far from where it was inserted, between the dog’s shoulders. This is actually quite common.....

When lost pets are scanned, the entire body SHOULD be scanned to catch any that have migrated. But, as an owner, IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY AT THEIR YEARLY VET EXAM, to ask for a quick scan to make sure that: (1) the chip is still working, (2) the location of the chip is good, and (3) that the chip info is correct.

Remember microchips save lives and reunite families with their pet.... just have it checked regularly!

02/24/2023

Final day of frigid temperatures hopefully:)

02/24/2023

For my golden retriever lovers out there lol:)

02/24/2023

Yes.