Creative Canine Coaching

12/10/2024

12/08/2024

What do these two seemingly unrelated creatures have in common … stay tuned 🤣😂

12/04/2024

One on One private lessons are available through December. I am planning to offer small group classes on Sundays in January stay tuned

12/04/2024

Doggy Dayschool: Day Adventures on the Ridge ended for 2024 last Tuesday. To say I’m proud of this addition to what I can offer IS and UNDERSTATEMENT ❤️

I’m grateful that my friend Megan McShane agreed to be my assistant for most of the week’s Dayschool ran - September-November; a trusted assistant to run ideas by and share laughs with sure does aide in the process of building a new project!

We had 5-7 dogs on Tuesday from 8-5pm. We ran at capacity for most of October and November. Dogs made tremendous gains in; confidence, social skills, recalls, and loose leash walking. It was SO much FUN and incredibly rewarding. I am filled with gratitude for the lovely people who entrusted me with their marvellous companions.

Dayschool will begin again on Tuesdays in March of 2025. Dogs must be crate trained OR youngsters who you want me to crate train. It is suitable for social dogs.

Enrollment is Limited to 7 dogs

11/29/2024

Animals are a window to your soul and a doorway to your spiritual destiny.
If you let them into your life and allow them to teach you, you will be better for it ..

Kim Shotola 🍂

Artist Credit: Anna Speshilova

11/28/2024

11/27/2024

"Few people know how to take a walk. The qualities are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good silence, and nothing too much."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

(art: Stephen Hanson)

11/23/2024

Continuing Education for Zinnia and Magic- we are grateful to have the opportunity to take lessons with Kelly Shay on Saturdays❤️

11/19/2024

Sam and Olive: recalls and follow me

11/19/2024

Default/unprompted SIT: Sam has it 😎 4month old Olive … quick study

11/19/2024

No decent video of this gang’s woods walk 😂 with 2 new students at school… video was too hard to pull off lol

11/15/2024

This is the HARDEST challenge I’ve found SO FAR for Magic 😂

It took some TIME to get to this point… meal times are BIG for this girl lol. It’s been an INCREDIBLY useful exercise for me and we will continue 2X a day with small routines.

At first she could not hear me AT ALL and I found myself going UP in “arousal with her”!! So easy to do and so utterly counterproductive. I got myself sorted out 🤣 and we worked TOGETHER at being successful.

Next I caught myself “leaning and cajoling”😳WTF .. also completely counterproductive lol

Finally! I straightened my act ⬆️ stood tall, asked quietly, repeated my requests if needed and … we are starting to have BETTER self modulation as a TEAM

There’s still some whining and inattentiveness but as clarity is added to the process AND routine/patterns are established - confidence and accuracy are increasing

11/14/2024

Oops lol this post should really have come BEFORE the last one 😂🤣

You can’t do advanced “stuff” with PREMACK(see last post) until you have worked to figure out AND to develop what motivates/delights/lights ⬆️ the world of your learner

Zinnia started out with decent motivation/interest in toys but somehow over the past month we lost our way as far as playing together goes.

Zinnia is 5.5months old - part of what happened was all her grown up teeth came in, but I suspect I also got a little lazy. The kid LOVES food, works really well for it and is a bit of a thinker. Another contributor I am sure is that she has a whole household of dogs who DO play with her so I became a little less interesting.

I sought to fix that this week.

I CAN teach everything I want to with food alone BUT play … play and toys are powerful and I will ALWAYS work to create meaningful play

Now that she has all of her grown up teeth, she’s back to loving to tug.

I was getting a lot of sniffing and ignoring outside which was super irritating lol

I set about experimenting. Not every experiment WORKED

This is what we have landed on at the moment… subject to change and evolution

A small toy on a rope FAST motion and unpredictable trajectory makes for more fun! 🤩 NO rules at this point just the development of a mutually reinforcing GAME.

I will take as long as we need to develop our GAME. It’s a piece of cake to teach my super smart puppy new things. Without motivation though … new behaviours won’t have the kind of joyful energy that I HOPE you will see as a Creative Canine Coaching hallmark

11/14/2024

Premack Principle/Grandma’s Rule: “first you eat your vegetables then you get your dessert” 😂 it’s a crucial component principle when teaching mammals

Magic is a quick thinking, intense learner. I am currently working on using every single opportunity I see to train her WHENEVER she is over arouse/HIGHLY excited/distracted.

She loves our weird jolly ball game .. she finds it, bounces up and down, I kick it and then she bites the ball.

If she wants to play the game .. she has to do what I ask her to FIRST

Over time the goal is, work becomes play … then we have “transfer of value” ❤️ in the learners eyes 👀 the training is so closely associated with the reinforcing game that the “job” is part of the game

11/13/2024

I have been reflecting on this windy day on the tremendous developments I have been seeing in my doggy day school students. All of the dogs who have been coming have lovely humans who are putting time into their canine buddies at home🥳

We are seeing; improvements in confidence, self control, dog to dog interactions, recalls and loose leash walking. It’s pretty exciting!

I WILL have room over the next few weeks for one of two new student because of a move and a spay 😂

Doggy Dayschool is every TUESDAY 8am(earliest drop off time later is fine)-5pm

It’s a good fit for SOCIAL, crate trained dogs of puppies

The day involves: one on one training in the classroom, confidence building off leash/on a long line woods walks with a carefully selected group OR alone depending on the dog, social time in my large fenced area

PM for more information

11/12/2024

Dayschool students Tex and Daisy playing and training together ❤️ I absolutely LOVE the changes I see in DaySchool dogs on a weekly basis