Prioritize working our dog’s mental needs over their physical needs sometimes. During this cold snap our dogs were definitely feeling the lack of outside time. And although a good walk is really beneficial sometimes working our dog’s brains can make them just as tired and fulfilled!
Reminiscing about our amazing 2024 year! And goal planning as we head into 2025. Sorry we missed some client dogs! We have so many pups photos on our phones some of them certainly got missed 😅. As some may know we only started this Paws On Pack journey March 2024. We are forever grateful for the community that allowed us to start our business and accepted us with open arms. The amazing clients we have had throughout the year and the awesome pups we have gotten the pleasure of knowing ♥️ thank you! Have a safe new years and hopefully we see everyone’s wagging tails in 2025! 💥
Mixing some obedience commands into your walks can be a great way to stay interesting to our pups! If all we do is walk our dogs quickly get bored of us and choose to go else where to find stimuli through the environment. Recalling our dogs back and natural check ins can become second nature if our dog is already looking to us to give them directions to achieve a reward! ☃️ It doesn’t have to be a long training session to work on your commands slip them into your walks here and there! And always remember to have fun with you pup! ❄️
Louie kicking butt while practicing his focused heeling.
⏰Muzzle Conditioning⏰
Being proactive and make sure your dogs experience with a muzzle is a good one before having to use one! This can help drastically with stress in a situation if you have to use one. Likely if you are using a muzzle your pup is already uncomfortable and stressed in the situation before you add the muzzle. Having them understand and be comfortable with the muzzle is important to not add more unnecessary stress.
This was Odin’s first time seeing a muzzle so what we do NOT do is put it right on his face and let him “get used to it”. This is a very common mindset with owners who dogs need a muzzle! I have no time frame for when I will do up the buckles of the muzzle. Any signs of stress and we are going to work in that step until he is comfortable. Skipping steps is a guaranteed way to create a negative association with the muzzle.
In this clip we are working on targeting the muzzle- which he caught onto surprisingly fast! Having a “touch” command foundation will help shape this behaviour and help your pup understand what we want them to do and give them more options to try to get that reward! We ended shortly after this and next time we are going to work on longevity with having his face in the muzzle before I reward.
Some dogs are going to be very very gear sensitive and will take a lot longer to successfully condition wearing a muzzle and some dogs are going to be generally un-phased. Exposure to a muzzle at young age will help in confidence in wearing the muzzle! HOWEVER- if you did not or could not condition this at a young age, it is never too late to start!
Remember- go at your dogs pace and if your dog is wearing a muzzle and pawing at their face you moved too quickly or missed a step in conditioning and are now creating a negative experience with the muzzle and need to go back!
If you have any questions feel free to reach out and we would be happy to chat 💬😊
Lets Talk Puppy Recall!
When you start teaching recall with puppies, it can be easy to see progress quickly Our puppies world is growing and its scary. We are usually the center of our puppies world for the first little while
Its not uncommon for us to "lose" our recall/ backstep abit as our pups work through their adolescent stage. Their world is going to get a lot bigger and we are going to get a lot more boring to them than the environment. Getting and keeping your pups engagement will look abit different as they develop! How you would play tug with your 8 week old puppy is going to be a lot different than how you play tug with your 6 month old puppy! Their stamina, exposure to the world, and confidence will be very different (For the better we hope!).
Continue to work on that recall, even if you think they have it down perfect!
Before working recall, establish that being around you is a fun, positive and rewarding place to be and what their name is, and then some recall games are a good way to go!
-On a long line, throw a treat/toy away from you and start to move backwards as your puppy goes to the toy/treat. When they start to turn back to you, recall them and move quicker backwards. This taps into their desire to chase, and makes it much more exciting for them!
-Standing a few feet in front of them, make sure you have their attention, give them your recall cue (come, here, etc.) and entice them to come to you! Patting your legs, kiss sounds, etc are all good examples!
Make sure its fun for you and pup!
Louie blowing through some other wobbly obstacles💚
💢Building some longevity to that bark💢
Rocky is kicking butt at his loose leash walking skills! When we started our Walk & Trains rocky was all over the place pulling. Like many intact males he loves to mark but sometimes we need to walk and not stop at every light post. Rocky is really understanding the concept of “with me” meaning we need to walk in close proximity now. And of course we do allow plenty of time for sniffing and marking on our walks! 🐕
Practicing implied stays associated with Louie’s crate and reinforcing where we want him to go when we answer the door! Good job Louie 👏
Pack Walk Dynamics! We love that we have the ability to take our wonderful personal pack (staring foster puppy Cruella) for a pack walk! Having a strong foundation for our pack dynamic is very important to us! Especially with a new pack member being added to the pack shortly😉
The dogs in this photo are a mix of off leash and on long leash! Being off leash is a privilege, not a right! We are on a large area of private property and the offleash dogs have reliable recalls and they offer consistent self check ins (But just because they have earned the privilege of being off leash does not mean that their training stops!).
Pack walks are great for our dogs learning neutrality, building their confidence, working on leash skills around distractions, building engagement with the handler, working on proofing already learned skills, teaching self checkins around other dogs and recalling individually around other dogs!
Pack walk skills start individually away from other dogs!
🔶 Fort St. John Dog Training focused on helping dogs and their humans improve their relationship and have fun doing it! 🔶
