Rise & Resolution Dog Training

08/09/2024

NEW TO RRDT!!
(Since I have extra time on my hands 🤩)

Video analysis!
For anyone wanting a second opinion or help training a specific aspect of flyball.
If you can’t make it to a seminar, this is a great alternative if you have access to a practice spot

One time analysis or weekly (team) analysis available, PM for more details!

Photo credit @ Paula Osborne

06/03/2024

Time to share this again!

Keeping Cool at Dog Events

Summer is here! Students and trainers at RRDT compete all summer long and unfortunately, that means dealing with the heat. There are a few things you can do to keep your dog comfortable in the car, even n 40+ degree weather!

Reflective Shade Cloth - This is the #1 summer product! This aluminum netting goes over your vehicle and reflects heat and sun lowering the inside of the car by almost 20 degrees sometimes. These are the most important summer product we own and we would not be able to compete in the summer without it. Available at Bravepoint Kennels

Ryobi Fan - These are a must have as well. These keep the airflow going throughout the car and combined with the shade cloth they do a great job of keeping the car cool and manageable. Often at events we will go sit in the car with our dogs to cool down! Available at The Home Depot

Chilly Dogs Inc. Soaker Robe - These are perfect for quick cooling after your run, especially when there are no kiddie pools nearby to cool off in. We pre-soak them in cold water and stick them in ziplock bags before we leave for an event then place it in a cooler filled with ice. After the dogs run we throw them on, wait for the coat to become warm, then take it off. For dogs that need longer cooling time we will swap it out for a second cold coat and repeat. Once the coats have been used they get put back into the cooler with ice and they are ready again in about 10 min.

Water - Don't forget this basic necessity! Cold water will often encourage dogs to drink and stay hydrated. We use K9 Performance Power Boost in their water to encourage them to drink more and keep their muscles taken care of. Read about all the great benefits below here: https://www.k9performance.com/shop/power-boost-9487

Anything we've missed? Let us know in the comments below!

05/01/2024

Send a message to learn more

04/03/2024

Living with Dogs & Cats

I’ll start this off with some complete honesty, we have never actually trained any of the dogs that come to us to be good with cats. MOST dogs are good with cats if given a few corrections to stop them as soon as they begin chasing them. That being said, our cats are very used to dogs and likely give off minimal ‘prey vibes’ unless they are running. I think the bigger question we should be asking is are your cats good with dogs? If they are scared and running they will motivate even the calmest dog to get up and chase them. I admit, even our some of dogs who are great with cats in the house get fired up when they see a cat when our on a walk, so there is always a constant management with dogs that have a high prey drive.

If your dog is stiff and hard-staring cats (if they are not of the border collie variety) or are lunging and barking at the end of the leash we would suggest very slow, leash only introductions for the excitement to wear off. If the behaviour continues and you are set on having the animals living together, we would recommend reaching out to a qualified dog trainer that is knowledgeable on how to use an e collar. While we recommend force free approaches in many circumstances, this is one of those situations where your cats quality of life (or their life, period) is at risk and we believe this is the quickest and least stressful scenario for both parties. While it is easy to train your dog to ignore cats in a controlled setting, it is much harder to turn it into a lifestyle with positive reinforcement only. Alternatively, we would suggest separating them permanently or temporarily until a solution can be found.

Does your dog live with cats? Share a photo in the comments below!

03/25/2024

Training makes a dog neutral. Genetics make a dog friendly.

Our goal with reactive dogs is always to make them as neutral as possible. Whether they become friendly or not is up to the dog and what their personality is like. You would never ask an introvert to go party every night, so why would you expect the same of your dog? As scared or reactive dogs come out of their shell you may find they become friendly and social, or you may not. And that’s ok. Some dogs enjoy the company of a few close people and dogs and just like introverted humans, there is nothing wrong with that.

Ammit is slowly coming out of her shell. Our first few walks with her were all about decompression. Pent up dogs have a very hard time learning! Now that she’s settled in her walks are more about exposure. We are taking her for short walks around the semi-busy neighbourhood with one of our neutral dogs. If we walk by someone and she is curious we just keep walking and ignore it. If she becomes visibly distressed we will pull off to the side and feed her treats until the scary thing passes. She is already getting comfortable sitting beside us and giving eye context for cookies, she knows nothing bad will happen to her while we’re working together! Dogs learn best from other dogs, so we’ll try to have other neutral dogs near her as a safety blanket for her to pick up social cues from. Here she is on a walk with Nikon.

03/21/2024

Ammit exploring new sounds, textures, and footing.

03/20/2024

We would like to welcome Ammit to our household as our newest board & train. She is unsuitable for bite sports at this time so she is hanging out at our place so we can assess her, build some confidence, expose her to new environments and hopefully place her in a new home with a new career. We are not accepting applications for her at this time as we already have lots of interest and we would like to get to know her better before placing her to ensure her new home is a good fit. In the meantime, we are already having a lot of fun with her!

03/15/2024

After two months of training Pye is going home with a new career! 🎾

In her time with us she went from being too scared to step on the board and refusing to tug in new environments to having a great box turn on the board, learning to pass, confidently going over jumps, and tugging for new people she just met. She is doing so well that she is now the newest dog on the Paws on Fire Flyball Team 🔥

Some other things Pye leaned with us include general socializing to all kinds of new places, meeting new people, learning how to walk properly on a leash, learning how to be a well mannered house dog, learning how to settle in the house and learning how to push through and overcome her fears. She now has a new outlook on life and takes each challenge with a bright and happy Golden retriever smile. We can’t wait for her family to have her back and continue where we left off. She is going to have a wonderful flyball career and be an incredibly loved family member.

03/13/2024

Due to a last minute cancellation we have ONE SPOT LEFT for our seminar THIS SATURDAY at Dogs All Day in Kinburn. Hurry, this spot will fill fast!

*ONE SPOT LEFT*

DRIVE & ENGAGEMENT SEMINAR

Save the Date - Saturday March 16th -Our Drive & Engagement Seminar is back!

This time at Dogs All Day in Kinburn

Learn how to build food & toy drive in dogs and puppies as well as engagement practices to set your dog up for a lifetime of success as a sport dog. We'll tackle everything from handling distractions to building your dog's desire to work.

TIME: 2:00-5:00 pm
Workshop Length: 3 hours
Working Spot (includes taxes): $101.70
Auditing (Including taxes): $45.20
Instructors: Catherine Raymond

Dogs and puppies of all ages are welcome.
Email [email protected] to sign up.

03/12/2024

Ask us anything! Have any questions? Have something you’d like us to post about? Let us know in the comments below!

03/10/2024

The Importance of Decompression Walks

I want to start by saying I have always taken my dogs on off leash hikes. I do it for myself more than the dogs and it is one of my favourite parts of dog ownership. However, in recent years we have turned towards increasing fitness in our dogs and this meant that off-leash walks were something fun that we did on weekends when we had time and things like biking, sprint-work, long leashed-walks, trot-work, swimming, and tread-milling became the basis for our dogs fitness. At one point, our adult working dogs were getting 2hrs of exercise a day in total. Off leash walks meant more risk of injury and less consistent exercise for targeted muscle groups.

One spring one of our young males, Rise, ended up with a minor tear on his ACL. This was most likely structural as his whippet-like body does not build muscle as well on his back-end as well as just the fact that young boys play rough. He ended up on complete rest followed by gradual increase in activity. He was miserable. Even when he went back up to regular exercise and was considered 'healed' he had become increasingly reactive on walks, snappy with dogs in the house, and needed to be crated after exercise so that he could go calm down. He even began to become very uncomfortable when one of us was in his personal space and grew to resent cuddling and kisses. He was constantly on edge.

I had listened to a podcast on the importance of decompression walks and had recently discovered a new trail nearby that was safe to walk my dogs on off-leash. Because it was the middle of winter and the streets were too gross to leash walk anyways, I started walking the dogs off leash daily. They can take a break from fitness for a little bit, I though. The podcast (From Cog Dog Radio for anyone interested) suggested to look at when the dogs started to calm down, time it, and then double that for walk-time. For most of our dogs this was about 15-20 minutes, for Rise it was almost an hour before he began to relax. I noticed that while most of our dogs were more or less the same, both Rise and our other young male, Spec had incredibly drastic results. Spec went from being incredibly busy in the house to sleeping by my feet while I worked all day. Rise slowly started becoming his old self and for the first time in almost a year he is finally starting to relax. He is so much easier to walk on leash now, he is much more forgiving about dogs in his space, and when he comes home from off leash walks he does not need to be crated until he calms down.

I will say though, who he walks with greatly predicts the outcome of his walk. He does not enjoy walking with the two younger boys and instead prefers to go at his own pace, sniff, and not be touched or played with by any of the other dogs. Instead of taking an hour to calm down, he now takes about 15 min. So we now do two walks. One for Spec & Dusk so they can enjoy playing and romping together and one for Rise so he can enjoy some peace and quiet with calmer dogs.

Are off leash walks dangerous? Of course. Everything is dangerous. Our dogs have been punctured by sticks on numerous occasions, had run-ins with wire fences, and have come up lame with burnt pads more times than I can count. However, I will continue to take them off leash because the benefit and joy they get from being dogs and enjoying themselves far outweighs any downside they may get. Another benefit that structured exercise doesn't provide is full-body muscle use and coordination. When dogs are running they use everything from their tails to their toes, dodging, jumping, and using their body in every way a dog is meant to.

If you are having behaviour issues with your dogs, one of the first things I would look at is how much exercise they get and then look at the type of exercise they are getting. Dogs that are reactive or always on edge can greatly benefit from relaxing time on their own. If there isn't anywhere safe for your dog to be off leash near you (Fun fact - most leash-reactive dogs are much better with dogs when off-leash) check out fully fenced in places you can rent such as Keshet Kennels, Carp Country Canine, Walk With Me Ottawa, Barkwood Forest, and Dogs All Day. If I've forgotten any great places to book don't hesitate to comment below!

03/05/2024

*Working Spots FULL! Auditors Welcome*

Since our west end Wicked Weaves Seminar at Dogs All Day filled up completely we are doing another one at Millennium Dog Sports for our east end folks!

Learn the weave pole foundations to set you and your dog up with success. If your dog is already weaving, we’ll build off those foundations to get your dog doing independent weaves with confidence.

✅ Collection - How collection affects weave entry performance.
✅ Weave Entries - How dogs find them and how to train them to get there independently.
✅ Staying In - How to build up your dog to weave confidently no matter where you are or what you’re doing.
✅ The Bare Basics - How to get started and how to get there.

Click below to sign up!

https://www.millenniumdogsports.ca/service-page/wicked-weaves-workshop?category=ba7cc2ad-023b-4473-9540-ee4d075123d1&referral=service_list_widget&fbclid=IwAR32JCVfEpUydRT_-iyt-B3djo4fYTHH4MK_oODJ2d3uZPLVVzSGjcL4y5w

03/04/2024

THIS WEEKEND - Come watch & learn Weave Poles foundations with us! Whether you are just beginning or are a seasoned pro having some weave issues at trials we're sure you'll learn a lot.

Learn the weave pole foundations to set you and your dog up with success. If your dog is already weaving, we’ll build off those foundations to get your dog doing independent weaves with confidence.

☀️ Collection - How collection affects weave entry performance.

☀️ Weaves Entries - How dogs find them and how to train them to get there independently.

☀️ Staying In - How to build up your dog to weave confidently no matter where you are or what you’re doing.

☀️ The Bare Basics - How to get started and how to get there.
Cost is $40 + HST ($45.20) for auditing. Working spots are FULL however we are accepting a wait list.

🌟 Email [email protected] to sign up. Please include dog name, breed, age, and and issues you are having (if any).

03/02/2024

FLYBALL SEMINARS

We are very excited to announce that Catherine Raymond is now offering flyball seminars! This would be ideal for a team wanting to learn new and fun ways to train or an individual wanting to host a workshop. Catherine started her flyball career with a Cocker Spaniel and had various breeds from Jack Russells, Shelties, rescue dogs and Border Collies before switching over to the various sport mixes she owns today.

Catherine has tons of experience getting drive out of very soft, sensitive dogs as well as handling and training incredibly over the top dogs such as Mayday, her Pit/Bull Malinois mix.

Training and coaching have been always been a passion for her as well as problem solving behaviours.

Accomplishments:
-MacGyver - Fastest Sheltie UFLI 2011
-1yr old rescue dog Mayday - PB 3.61, raced on POF's A team for 6 years with consistent 3.6-3.7's
-Falcon, an incredibly soft Border Whippet suggested as a pet only. Trained to a PB of 3.60 and consistent 3.7's racing on POF's A team for 5 years
-Moon - Fixed a lifetime of spitting in a month and at 8yrs old he ran on POF's A Team and placed 2nd at UFLI Tournament of Champions

If you have any questions or are interested in hosting, do not hesitate to PM us 😊

(Photography by LGraveline Photography (L) & Liz In Motion (R))

02/28/2024

*ONE SPOT LEFT*

DRIVE & ENGAGEMENT SEMINAR

Save the Date - Saturday March 16th -Our Drive & Engagement Seminar is back!

This time at Dogs All Day in Kinburn

Learn how to build food & toy drive in dogs and puppies as well as engagement practices to set your dog up for a lifetime of success as a sport dog. We'll tackle everything from handling distractions to building your dog's desire to work.

TIME: 2:00-5:00 pm
Workshop Length: 3 hours
Working Spot (includes taxes): $101.70
Auditing (Including taxes): $45.20
Instructors: Catherine Raymond

Dogs and puppies of all ages are welcome.
Email [email protected] to sign up.

02/27/2024

Living in multi-dog households

Here at the RRDT household we are lucky enough to be able to live with our dogs loose together in our house without the need to crate rotate. It isn’t always easy, especially with three intact males and a lot of different personalities but we have a few management techniques that make things a bit easier.

Crate Room:
We have a crate room filled with many sizes of dog crates that are used for feeding time and for crating when we are not home. This should go without saying but feeding the dogs in crates minimizes fighting at the time when the dogs get the most excited. This room is always open and there is usually at least one dog sleeping in an open crate at all times.

Offer many spots & cozy places to sleep:
Our house is set up for maximum comfort. All the nooks and crannies in our house have been set up for dogs (and cats) to get away and have some personal space to themselves. There are plenty of dog beds hidden away, open crates with covers over them, and cozy spots throughout the house. We try to provide more spaces than dogs so that everyone can choose somewhere they feel comfortable.

Offer many toys:
Our toy basket is filled with many chew toys that are safe for even the most destructive chewers. Dogs chew to relieve stress and boredom.

Have separate rooms:
Although we don’t utilize this often, we do have 3 areas of the house that can be used to divide dogs if possible. Sometimes new dogs need a space to themselves or dogs that are feeling grumpy and sore want more personal space than is offered.

With our personal dogs, when they start to get grumpy we put them away in a crate for a time out time to decompress. We have noticed that over a short time they learn to put themselves into crates to remove themselves from the situation.

We realize that we are lucky enough to have dogs that all get along but this is not done carelessly! When choosing another member of our pack we always choose a dog that we feel will be successful living with the rest of our dogs. We also minimize the amount of ‘power breeds’ we have at one time. Since the majority of our dogs we whippet mixes and border collies they are at a lower risk of dog aggression than many other breeds.

Do you have a multi-dog household too? Share your pack photos in the comments below!

02/15/2024

Happy Valentine’s Day from board train Pye!

02/01/2024

Better late than never, introducing Pyewacket aka Pye! She is a field bred golden who is here for general socializing and to learn how to play flyball. Pye lives in the country and doesn’t leave the property very much so she hasn’t been socialized to too many things. Thankfully, her good genetics are strong and within a week she is becoming a confident dog getting used to everything the city life has to offer. To prepare her for flyball as well as socializing we’ve been exposing her to different surfaces including wobble boards, tarps, fitbones, crinkly bags, agility equipment, and more! She’s learning how to load into the car on her own and has enjoyed forest walks with our dogs daily. She’s also enjoyed trips to our training facility and family visits. She no longer cares about surfaces or accidentally touching things anymore so we will continue to teach her more flyball related skills for the remainder of the month.

One thing to think about when picking your next sport dog is making sure the dog is environmentally sound. Despite having very little socialization and being very scared of everything for the first few days, Pye’s solid genetic background has kept her curious and her love of food and toys has helped her overcome just about everything in a matter of days. We always encourage socializing dogs to their surroundings, but a genetically solid dog shouldn’t need very much of it to be ready to go.

09/15/2023

Holiday for our pack starts today which means extra time for this little guy ❤️

Life got in the way of his training but we are back on track now!

08/27/2023

Rule 6: Time takes time ⏰

Engagement doesn’t happen overnight. It takes months, and you will get what you put in. If you only work on engagement once a week at class you won’t be as far ahead as your classmate who is working on engagement multiple times a day or week. With engagement, you really get what you put in. Very few dogs will naturally engage with you for very long with zero training.

It takes as long as it takes, sit down and enjoy the ride.

08/26/2023

Rule 4: Don’t check your phone when people are talking to you ☎️

Picture this: You are having a very in-depth conversation with your partner or friend, you're having a great time, then all of a sudden they pull out their phone and start checking their messages. We do this to our dogs ALL. THE. TIME.

When my dogs are learning, I keep my training sessions VERY short, 1-2 minutes max, and I expect 100% engagement out of both of us during whatever I am teaching. This means I have all of my focus and attention on the dog, and I expect my dog to work for me. Once I am happy with the level of engagement I will release my dog to go play with their toy or watch. Once they get a short break, I will do this again, usually between 10-30 times during a training session depending on the dog I'm working. I make sure that I am always the one that stops the game, and I do it BEFORE my dog checks out. Over time, I can gradually increase the time my dog stays engaged with me and eventually my dog will keep engagement throughout the entire training session.

What I often see is people's dogs engaging with them then they stop to talk to their instructor, leaving the dog hanging and wondering why you've stopped paying attention to them. Or you've stopped to try to figure out what the heck you're supposed to do. This is ok! Simply reward your dog, play with them, then finish your session and give them a break before you continue. Your instructor will understand!

Another thing I often see is people who's training sessions are way too long for their dog's level. If you dog isn't engaging with you at all, keep your micro sessions shorter. Even one really good rep, then a reward may be enough.

Be patient with your dog, they are doing their best to keep their attention on you when life around them is very exciting. The best thing you can do is be present during your class. Put your phone away and talk to your friends before and after. Class time and training time is for you and your dog.

08/25/2023

Rule 3: Make it worth it 🍕 🍔

Your puppy is learning the value for tugs and food. Very few dogs come out of the box with a high toy and food drive, and even those that do need help to maintain it throughout distractions. Find out what your dog goes crazy for, and keep it handy for times in need. Things like real fur tugs, cheese, steak, hot dogs, or tugs with squeakies in them are great for dogs learning to work in distracting environments. In time, you'll be able to use kibble and smaller, easier to hold tugs. At this stage in the game, the dog decides what it finds rewarding, not you! If your dog suddenly decides it doesn't want to tug, switch to food, even if your dog LOVES tugging at home.

To help, I often use the lowest value food my dogs will work for at home, which is usually kibble. This way when I go out in public my high value rewards are extra exciting. What is your go-to low value and high value tugs and treats?

High Value: Cheese, Cat Treats, Steak, Cooked Chicken, Hot Dogs

Medium Value: Beef Liver, store-bought treats.

Low Value: Kibble, Charlee-Bears, Cheerios, Goldfish Crackers

08/24/2023

Rule 2: Don’t make your kids do homework at Disneyland 🎢 🎡🎠

Do you want to be the mean parent? Make your kid do their homework at Disneyland. What I mean of course by this, is don’t train your dog new behaviours where they play or have fun. This is why we don’t let puppies play in the ring before or during class and encourage puppies to have play dates in another place or at the very least after the work is done as a reward. It’s hard to think when you just want to have fun and romp around with your best friend. That’s not to say you should never train where you play, but rather use it as a place to proof a behaviour you’ve worked hard on to see if it holds up.

I almost never train my dogs in my own backyard. I train boarding dogs, of course, because they haven’t associated the yard with ripping around with your buddies yet. On the few occasions I have trained my dogs in the backyard I have been frustrated with my dogs lack of attention and have not left the session happy. What I HAVE done before is proofed my entire obedience routine in the backyard with no rewards during my run-through. If I can do that with no mistakes I’m usually pretty set for a trial.

Save your fun places to allow the dogs to let loose and save your training spaces for training, at least to start. You'll both be happier for it.

08/23/2023

How To Create an Engaged and Neutral Dog

The biggest thing we were asked for was how to create a neutral, engaged dog that doesn’t care about other people or dogs when in class or public. A dog you can work off leash while other dogs are running around that doesn’t take off to go visit. Sounds pretty cool, right? Read on to discover HOW we do this. We will post one ‘Rule’ a day.

Rule #1 🦛 🦛 🦛
Go looking for Hippopotamuses.
If you saw a herd of hippos running down the street right now you’d be pretty shocked. It would be pretty hard to get you to pay attention to me telling you about the day I had, wouldn’t it? I could lure you with your favourite food, and you may take it, but you’d still be pretty focused on the herd of hippos. I could also keep nagging at your sleeve, or smack you, and you may look at me for a second before going back to stare at the hippos every chance you get.

Now, if you lived in Africa and saw a herd of hippos run down the street every day, it would be a lot easier to focus. These are no longer a novel experience. Of course, you don’t need to move to Africa to make your dog listen well! Many dogs have a hard time focusing because believe it or not, dogs, people, and new sights and sounds are the equivalent to the hippopotamuses to them. You see, while we see many new things on a daily basis, our dogs are lucky if they leave the property more than once a day. We walk the same route, bring them to the same park, and then go to the same class. Try switching up you walking route, go on visits to the local farmers market or dog-friendly stores, and hang out a local parks. The more your dog sees, the less overwhelming life will be. The best part is you don’t even have to do any training (Although you certainly could!). Simply exploring the world from a distance does a ‘world’ of good.

08/11/2023

Puppy journal week 1: Creating a dog as neutral to it’s environment as possible and leash walking

( a few videos will be added in the comment)

Dusk has been with us for a few weeks now and to be honest he has been horrible to walk 😂
He drags and acts like a cat with glue on his paws (according to Lynda)
So he was added to the halti group.
You’ll see a lot of our dogs walk with haltis. As much as I trust my dogs, anything could happen and I rather have them on those ( especially with 8 of them )

The video in the comment shows his second walk with it and first pack walk with it. Was he happy, hell no at first but he got use to it ☺️

Now for the first couple of steps to make him as neutral as possible
1- he gets to walk with dogs that don’t care (last night was an exception haha). Puppies will feed off others dogs reactions so I‘m using dogs like Falcon or Motive to accelerate that process
2- he doesn’t get to say hi to people or dogs on walks or while working
It sounds rude but I will tell people to not pet him, I do this because I expect my dog to ignore people walking by him without having to feed him (I’ll bring food but that’s for engagement 🤩)

Post your questions in the comments if you have any and let’s see if you guys can figure out the dog that isn’t neutral in the video below ☺️

08/08/2023

Little annoncement for all our boarding clients!

We will not be taking any reservations between september 10th and november 15th. We need to focus our efforts towards getting ready for the flyball championship coming up as well as giving our dogs some time to decompress ☺️

We are already getting some inquiries for december so if you have a holiday planned, please let us know as soon as possible

Thanks ❤️

08/03/2023

We’ve been pretty busy lately and this little dude is the reason why!
He is a great addition to our pack and will be learning flyball and agility.

We are planning on doing a weekly “journal” video of what we do throughout the week with our puppies and I’m curious if anyone wants to see something specific (leash walking, socializing, etc) ☺️

07/16/2023

Louka - Lover of Socks stayed for a weekend visit. He is a very classic Golden Retriever who loves gently carrying things with him.

Fun fact about Louka: He won’t eat his food unless his teddy bear is in the crate with him. 🧸

07/11/2023

Oslo has been staying with us for a couple weeks while his parents are on vacation and we absolutely love him! While we love the young dogs and get immense satisfaction from watching them develop into well behaved dogs, we also love having older dogs like Oslo that fit seamlessly into our pack.

Fun fact: Oslo is from France and is a trained cadaver dog! He’s also a certified Good Boy.

07/10/2023

First update in a while, we’ve been so busy working on competing lately!

Here’s little Mia. She was with us for a week of Board and train to learn some basic life skills like relaxing in the house and leash walking.
She is a very bright young golden that has now discovered her love for swimming 😂

Videos of some training with her in the comments