Reward That

16/04/2024

16/04/2024

Nurturing Trust:
Are You Investing in Your Dog's Emotional Bank Account? 🐕❤️

This emotional bank account, just like a monetary one, requires consistent deposits to maintain a positive balance.

To make deposits:
☑️Giving them agency
☑️Use positive reinforcement to reward good behavior.
☑️Provide consistent and fair rules.
☑️Prioritize their needs, ensuring they feel safe and loved.
☑️Engage in bonding activities like playtime and walks.

Avoid withdrawals:
❌Harsh punishment or aversive methods.
❌Inconsistency in rules and expectations.
❌Neglecting their emotional, biological, and physical needs.
❌Unclear communication.

A robust trust account translates to a confident, happy, and well-behaved dog. Always ask yourself, "Am I making a deposit or withdrawal in my dog's trust account?" and watch your bond grow. Remember, the stronger the trust, the richer the relationship!"

12/04/2024

28/09/2022

What is Socialization 🤔

Have you ever heard "I cannot socialized my puppy as it's not vaccinated yet". Well there's good news! The American Veterinary Society for Animal Behavior (AVSAB) released a statement in 2008 affirming that puppy socialization is a critically important tool in the behavioral development of a dog. And the benefits far outway the risks. Check it out ➡️

What is Socialization?
Socialization involves exposing a puppy to a variety of stimuli (sights, sounds, smells, experiences) and ensuring the pup is having a good time while doing so.

Exposure to these various stimuli does not necessarily mean interaction! 🤯

Think of it more like you gave your puppy a camera 📸. As they navigate their world and spot something... Let's say...a bike 🚴‍♀️ they pause and capture a picture. In this brief moment of exposure this is when they decided if they become optimistic about the experience of capturing the bike or pessimistic, or maybe even neutral.

Pessimistic experiences can occur. Perhaps the bike was too close and the puppy did not expect it.

Neutral experiences are ones where there were neither optimistic experiences or pessimistic experiences with the stimuli.

Optimistic experiences can occur they can capture the bike at a distance and perhaps a magical kibble fell from the sky and the puppy associated the bike with positive possibilities.

📖 Here's an activity you can do with your dog! It's one that works their brain and will leave them tired.

Take a pen and paper, write down as many stimuli you can think of. 📝

Next take your dog outside, maybe to a park, or a cafe, have your pup settle on a nice comfy mat, and let them watch the world go by. Whenever you and your dog spot something on your list, let them be rewarded with a treat dropping onto their mat, as they discover the reward you can check it off your list ✅
Follow for more training tips! 🐕

19/09/2022

Control through punishment, or infliction of fear or pain, is a primitive concept.

We have learned, when punishment is part of the equation, while teaching your dog, your dog focuses not on freedom to learn but on avoiding punishment.

Furthermore, the greatest drawback is the fact that punishment does not actually offer any information about more appropriate or desired behaviors. Continuously setting your dog up for failure, rather than a possibility to succeed!

Another thing to consider about punishment is that it can have unintended and undesirable consequences.

For this reason, Skinner and other psychologists suggest that any potential short-term gains from using punishment as a behavior modification tool need to be weighed against the potential long-term consequences.

Would you like, or could you give examples of scenarios between punishing a behaviour verses alternative ways to reward the desired behaviour?
This can be done with your dog, kids, partner, boss, etc

Let us know in the comments below!

14/09/2022

REHABILITATING FEARFUL DOGS

A new paper by Collins et al. (2022) analysed the effectiveness of behavioural rehabilitation programs for helping dogs in shelters experiencing extreme fearfulness reach the behavioural standard for adoption.

This is a lovely and encouraging paper because the majority of dogs displaying extreme fearfulness (86%) did respond to the rehabilitation interventions and were successfully able to be put up for adoption.

Behaviour modification techniques included leash application and walking, handling, exposure to novelty and socialization with people.

in addition enrichment in their environment was provided four times per day. Some dogs were assisted with prescribed psychopharmacological medication (primarily fluoxetine and gabapentin) in conjunction.

It is worth mentioning that on average, this took 96 days. This really reinforces the fact that although behaviour modification is very successful, it is NOT a quick process, and requires commitment and patience from owners. To truly overcome fearful behaviour, a lot of time is required.

To learn more about this study:

Collins, K., Miller, K., Zverina, L., Patterson-Kane, E., Cussen, V., & Reid, P. (2022). Behavioral rehabilitation of extremely fearful dogs: Report on the efficacy of a treatment protocol. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 254, 105689.

09/09/2022

What’s Reward-Based training? 🤔

Reward-based training, often referred to as “positive reinforcement training,” is exactly what it sounds like. It involves rewarding your dog with things they enjoy, when teaching them to offer behaviours you like.

It can also desensitize your dog to scary things by forming associations with good things to make them less scary.

Reward-based training is an incredibly effective way to train dogs and modify their behaviour and is grounded in scientific principles used with dogs and many other species.

When approaching dog training, we must look at both ends of the leash - as humans, we also benefit from the reward-based approach.
Have you ever tried offering a reward, perhaps that looked like a compliment, a gift, or help, when someone did something you liked?
Perhaps you'd like to have the kids clean their room? Or have your partner do to the dishes? What are some rewards you can offer to increase seeing the behaviours you desire?

In summary, reward-based training builds a society that supports and encourages both, humans and dogs, for offering behaviours we want to see more of.

13/05/2022

Sliding into your feed to wish you all a happy Friday!❤️

24/11/2021

What are methods you use to be an effective learner?

Do you learn best when someone yells at you? Or perhaps in an overly stimulating environment? What about when someone continuously repeats the same thing over and over again while youre trying to think?

👎 Probably not.
Most likely your stress, or worst, fear hormones kick in, activating your flight or fight responses.

Now let's back it up a tad - let's apply this to our learner - our dogs! 🐕

Providing a calm, quiet atmosphere for them to "study" or learn a new skill can help ease the pressure.

Once they become more confident in the materials, you can build by adding distraction in. Say you enjoy a little classical music while studying, for our dogs this can be training in the home with a little added noise or someone off in the distance watching tv, cooking etc. 🎶

Once they've moved on to the next semester, so can the distraction, maybe moving the training session outdoors, and reviewing the first semester materials before moving onto the second semester to ensure your pup understands. This ensures we set our pups up for success! 🥇

🤓Remember mistakes can happen, this is all part of learning. Allow it, learn from it, and if possible manage it from occuring again so you set your learner up for success!

Are you teaching your dog in the middle of a hockey game?🏒🧑‍🎓🐕

16/09/2021

Meet Shadow!
He's a soft boy with a big appetite! We are learning to build confidence in this new world and a few meal-time manners!🌍🍝🐶

15/09/2021

Each dog has a complex make up of genes.

Just as you cannot take the dots out of the Dalmatian, you cannot expect natural behaviours that may not be human-approved to not show themselves. Allow your dog healthy outlets and freedoms to express natural behaviours, like digging, jumping, chewing, and yes, barking!

Try decompression walks, herding or agility classes, beach visits for digging fun, safe dog chews in many textures, and forest walks to jump on logs!

12/09/2021

Today's adventure was walking with multiple dogs, increasing engagement while off-leash and working on priming the recall!🥳

What do your off-leash walks look like?

10/09/2021

Meet Shadow and his mom! This dynamic trio, pops behind the camera, are learning to teach Shadow some great puppy manners that are geared to their unique lifestyle!

What manners do you reward your dog for doing?

Me? I love when I am working, and my pup decides I need a tiny snuggle break. He does this by coming up behind me while I'm seated at a desk, bumps my elbow, then grunts and groans as he bows. In return he received many snuggles rewards!

10/09/2021

Meet Shadow and his mom! This dynamic trio, pops behind the camera, are learning to teaching Shadow some great puppy manners that are focused on their equally dynamic life.

09/09/2021

Come join us for a fun-filled time for your pets! ALL FOR FREE!!

There will be some great fun as they solve the mystery of the hidden treats. New Friends, photo opportunities and more!

Event details: September 13 from 6-7pm in Joyce-Collingwood area, Vancouver BC.

Comment or message to let us know you'd like to attend!

Limited space available! Join quickly!

Collaborators:
.and.the.pups

09/09/2021

Dogs bark for many reasons -
boredom, fear, feeling anxious, or sometimes we inadvertently reward the behaviour with our attention or affection, increasing the behaviour.

Remember, what's rewarded is repeated!

Do you have a question about dog training, or unsure if something is a myth or not? ✍️

Drop a question in the comment box or send us over a message! I love debunking myths and brining clarity to increase the bond between you and your dog! 🐩🚶🚶‍♀️🐕

08/09/2021

Take your time and plan to have several sessions to train your dog the desired behaviour you wish to see. It takes time to build history. Just like humans, dogs learn differently and at different paces. Be patient and know it's never a do it once and it's done, you are building a relationship with a being.

08/09/2021

Does your dog hate the rain? Need ideas to curb the boredom? Have a pup that "needs the excercise"?

Here's three DIY cognitive excercise or your pooch!

MUFFIN TIN GAME
you'll need a muffin tin and balls for each of the muffin cups.
Place treats (or ditch the bowl today and use their meals!) inside the muffin cups, place a ball/kong on each muffin cups to cover the treat/meal. Voila! A brain game for your dog! If your dog is having a bit of difficulty, you can place the treat/meal inside the cup without the ball at first!

TOWEL SNUFFLE MAT
lay a towel flat, sprinkle kibble on the towel and roll it up. It does not have to be neat. If your dog is quick to figure that out, add to the difficulty and tie the rolled up towel. Have fun with it!

SHOE BOX HIDE AND SEEK
Put your pups nose to work!All you need is a set of empty containers like shoeboxes or yogurt tubs. Place the containers in a group on the floor and bait one or a few with treats/meal. Then allow your dog to sniff all the containers in a search for the hidden treasure.

Have fun! And let me know which one you enjoyed doing with your dog!