Cultured Canines

13/12/2024

I don’t want to say “I told you so”… but I most definitely told you so!!!!

Dogs generally pull about 60 per cent harder on a leash when wearing a padded harness compared with a collar, even when the equipment is marketed as “anti pull” – putting the people walking them at risk of injury.

Some dogs – especially smaller breeds – pull with a force more than twice their body weight on the collar, potentially damaging their throats, says Erin Perry at Southern Illinois University.

“It’s really very shocking,” she says. “The dogs are almost choking themselves on that collar repeatedly. But the harnesses in our study just didn’t inhibit pulling in any way, and that’s definitely a wake-up call – especially because of the risk to owners.”

Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2459747-dogs-pull-harder-on-the-leash-when-they-wear-a-harness-than-a-collar/

Image: CBCK-Christine/Alamy

19/10/2024

The photos from our Barn Hunt trial last weekend are up!!! Give them a look and buy a few to thank the wonderful photographer for freezing her fingers off with us all weekend!! 🥰

The K9 Barnhunt galleries from all 3 days held in Maidstone are live. Thank you Whitney and Beth for having me come out. Photos are $6.75/ea or $60/10 for digital download. You can purchase directly online or message me if you would like to etransfer. if you have any problems, please message me and I will do my best to help you out. https://www.acphotography2003.ca/k9-barn-hunt

02/10/2024

Anyone looking for a great career opportunity? Our friends All Dogs Great and Small down in Medicine Hat are looking for a full time groomer!

Best part is you’d get to see Leia’s brother Pi every day!! (He’s like Leia but with Quill’s personality 😜)

📣 We are looking for a great groomer to join our team full time (Monday-Friday)!

We installed state of the art gear to make the grooming experience as awesome as possible! Two top end grooming tables that let you work at your comfort level as well as two hydraulic lift washing stations and a custom tile walk in tub for those with special conditions!

Our dogs mean the world to us; so we are looking for someone that delivers exceptional customer service and has top notch skills!

Please send your résumé along with some pictures of your work (or a link to pictures) to [email protected]

29/09/2024

Come join us for drop in herding lessons every Saturday Afternoon! See link below for details!

Discover Calgary's premier Herding Class at Cultured Canines! Specializing in dog sport training, we offer a unique opportunity to enhance your dog's skills in a supportive, community-focused environment. Limited spots available – join Calgary's dog sport enthusiasts today!

29/09/2024

Putting a dog down and condemning them to death because you refuse to use any method that isn't "positive only" isn't very positive...

Sedating a dog into a zombie because you don't like other training tools isn't very positive...

Restricting a dog to a confined life without the chance to thrive isn't very positive...

Telling someone to put down their 8 month old working line dog for having lots of energy and acting like an 8-month-old working dog isn't very positive...

Guilting a young family that lives in an apartment into adopting a large dog with behavior issues isn't very positive...

Telling an older lady their dog would be better off dead then using a prong collar that helps her walk and control her dog isn't very positive....

Bashing other trainers because they don't train dogs using only one method isn't very positive...

Having an owner put a 5 month old puppy on 400mg of trazadone isn't very positive...

Harming dogs because of your own ego isn't very positive...

All of the things I just listed are REAL things that owners have dealt with by "certified positive only trainers and behaviorists."

Anyone can be certified online for $50. It means nothing.

Dogs and their humans deserve real trainers who care and emphasize for both ends of the leash. Trainers who will tailor training to each dog in front of them. Don't be fooled by the "positive" sounding approach. That's just fancy marketing from people who care more about their ego and lining their pockets rather than helping the dog community.

I've chosen to speak out on this because I care and hate seeing dogs harmed. The positive only cult is doing more harm than good to dogs. Dogs and owners that are already having a difficult time. Enough is enough.

12/09/2024

Controversy surrounds the efficacy and welfare implications of different forms of dog training with several studies asserting that electronic shock collars have negative welfare impacts while not being more effective than non-aversive methods. However, these studies did not specify the schedule and....

09/09/2024

🐾 Calling All PAWrents! 🐾

Have you ever thought about what would happen to your pet if you couldn’t care for them? 🤔 We want to hear from YOU! Take our 2-minute survey and share how prepared you feel about your pet’s future care. 💙

As a thank you for your time, you’ll be entered into a draw for a $50 Amazon gift card! 🎁✨

👉 https://www.pawsdogdaycare.ca/2024/09/09/2024-pet-planning-survey/

Your feedback helps us understand what support pet owners need to ensure their furry friends are always in good hands. 🐶🐱

📅 Don’t wait – the survey closes on Monday, September 30! Enter now for your chance to win!

14/08/2024

Exciting news! Our head trainer and owner Beth O’Connor will now be teaching herding lessons at Y-Knott Ranch!

Regular Saturday afternoon group drop in lessons will be starting in September and run whenever the weather/schedule allows!

Private and semi private lessons are now available from 11am-2pm Monday-Thursday. Please text Beth to arrange a lesson! 403-472-2384

28/07/2024

Our yearly The Day Of The Dog photo!

Thank you to everyone who came and visited us this weekend! Ariel, my newest addition, loved getting to meet everyone 🥰

24/04/2024

22/04/2024

It was so great getting to see our friends in Medicine Hat! All Dogs Great & Small - Dog Daycare and Training offers the same type of training we do! Enthusiastically recommend them if you are in the area 🥰

What a special way to start the week!!

Our friends from Cultured Canines stopped by to say hi on their way home from a barn hunt trial in Manitoba!

This is Poseidon’s biological sister Leia! They were actually born in our house 11.5 years ago!

It was great to see everyone!!

01/04/2024

12/02/2024

😘😘🐶🐶

28/12/2023

Such an important story! Force Free training simply does not work for every dog. That’s why we proudly train with a balanced approach!!

Until a year ago, I was a trainer with a very force free approach. I didn’t believe there was a place for aversives in dog training. I didn’t have a dog that required them. Lucky me!

Until I got this chap. My very much adored kelpie, Evo. Bred to move HUGE flocks and herds of livestock out in rural Australia. A hard-headed dog, with a mega independent streak.

I worked hard with him. I’m a trainer. I laid my foundations, as I have done successfully with my other 4 dogs before him. They worked, to a point. And then, they didn’t.

I was fully prepared to give him a breed-appropriate outlet. Alongside the other work I give my dogs, I have my own sheep, meaning I can work my own dogs regularly on stock. However, my small flock of flighty sheep was far too jumpy for him to work, and he was becoming dangerous out and about in any sort of proximity to sheep.

So, you may say, just keep him on a lead! Problem solved. Well, not really.

Management can and does fail. I have heard it from countless clients. I have had it fail myself.

I also live, with sheep on my property, and surrounding it on 3 sides. Everywhere we turn, there are sheep. There’s no avoiding them.

Keep him on a lead in the garden? We have a large garden and keeping him on the lead would be unfair. He’s an incredibly active, working bred dog, who would end up spending his entire life on a lead.

We also encountered prey drive issues out and about, particularly around deer. His recall was fantastic, but once we moved, our walks were either full of deer, or sheep and he could rip a long line out of your hands to chase something particularly tempting.

So, I decided to bite the bullet and e-collar train. Controversial, particularly online.

But, the absolute best thing I ever did.

The alternative solutions I had suggested were:

Keep him on the lead - I buy good quality leads, but they have failed on me before
Move house - we’ve moved to a dream house, not an option
Avoid places with sheep etc - hard when they’re in the garden
Long line - he could still pull a long line out of reach
Train him - he was trained to a very high level and we had reached the limits via force free methods.

Management fails.

I went through the process of conditioning him properly to the e-collar. I spent ages ensuring I got it right, he understood what was expected and that he knew how to switch it off. I invested in a pricey bit of kit, and I went about it by the book.

It’s transformed his life.

He can romp around the garden, he can walk through my sheep without batting an eyelid, he can walk off lead on the hills and he can enjoy walking in the forest even when deer run out in front of us.

For him, that wasn’t ever going to be an option without it.

Nothing was more reinforcing than chasing.

And it was going to get him killed. He’d have been shot, or hit by a car, or lost. All because I wouldn’t open my mind to using different tools.

Am I suggesting every dog requires one? Absolutely not. But there are MANY cases where they save lives. It’s both saved and enriched his.

He’s happy, he lives his best life. He hikes everywhere with us, he’s well mannered and fully reliable off the lead. He knows the rules, and that’s the key.

He’s not suppressed. He can still go off and be a dog. He tears around the garden with our other dogs, he sniffs and does dog things. But he’s safe when doing it all.

I see a lot of judgement towards these tools from people owning dogs who would never require these tools. That’s great. And that’s also not a problem. But it is completely unfair to demonise the use of a tool which you haven’t taken the time to fully understand. I was 100%, without a doubt, against them before I took the time to understand how they worked and how they were used.

It’s imperative that they’re used with a trainer well versed in using them. It’s also crucial that the equipment used is good quality and not something cheap from Amazon or eBay. It’s an investment, but one that is so necessary for a lot more dogs than you might realise.

Take the time to understand others’ points of view. There is truly not a one-size-fits-all approach in dog training and my change of opinion has opened up a whole new world for all of my dogs ❤

Photo by Saffy Leyfield Photography