Pawsitive Cultr+ Dog Training & Enrichment

06/05/2024

Excited to run this Webinar with gracious host

Will you be joining in today ??? (Also available to watch on YouTube at a later date)

09/04/2023

Happy 65th Birthday to the person who shared his love for dogs with me.

Never thought we’d be spending this day without you, Dad 💔

Give a sweet big Hug and some kind words to the people you love. You never know when their time on earth will be done. 😔

08/31/2023

Happy 5th Birthday to the best soul in my life - Jericho! ❤️

You’ve brought me so much joy and love. I am blown away with your ability to adapt to different situations every day.

Glad to be in this adulthood stage of your life (adolescence lasts up to 3 years)

I’d like you to stop aging now.. please and thank you. 🥺

We’re taking it easy today as we’ve just returned from a weekend at Vancouver Island!

How do you celebrate your dog’s birthday ?

03/08/2023

Hi Folks! Im excited to speak at the upcoming summit, Decoding Your Canine March 2023 Summit: Discover the secrets to having the pawfect dog.

I’m going to be discussing loose leash walking and how we can change our experiences when heading out with our dogs.

The Masterclass Series covering training, health and well-being.

Fellow Dog Professional Ness Jones has brought together 20+ top experts and influencers for this complimentary training series on all things dog.

The summit runs for 5 days starting on March 20 AEST (make sure you check the timezone in your location though!) and all you have to do is click this link to sign up for this free training series …

https://summit.decodingyourcanine.com/namita

Come Join us!

12/08/2022

It takes a team, but one that is skilled and willing to put in the work.

Today Tala had her appointment with Dr. Raceeta and she was cooperative throughout her visit.

To check on her overall muscle/joint health, a number of checks like Range of motion, stretches, palpitations were done.

For 8 years Tala has always needed restraints, heavy medication and yet minimal success at vet visits.

Yet today she allowed us to do all of this plus chiropractic adjustments, using NO RESTRAINTS just food.

This was not an overnight success story. Tala has been working on several skills in the past year. We have created a dialogue of communication with her to gain her cooperation. She is now able to freely communicate when she needs a break or is uncomfortable and we honour her request. As a result she has been more than generous with how much she lets us do.

So proud of how far she has come 💛

09/30/2022

A few days ago we “mourned” the loss of a monarch that held a position of privilege & headed centuries of atrocities that stemmed from their family — with an OFFICIAL day of mourning.

Meanwhile thousands of unmarked graves of CHILDREN have been discovered in grounds of residential schools that were meant to wipe out indigenous culture for the past 3 years and we still don’t have an official holiday to acknowledge the pain and suffering that this community still faces.

While millions of immigrants are welcome into Canada, native people of canada — the indigenous communities still don’t have CLEAN & SAFE drinking water.

It is evident that we live in a world where the truth is often brushed off under the rug. It is up to each one of us to do the work and learn about it. Take the step to understand the people of this land and help them get the dignity they deserve.

Sources :

09/22/2022

Im speaking at a FREE WEBINAR this week.!
Clean Mechanics & Clear Communication is our topic.

Join us to learn how to communicate with your dog with less confusion. Learn how dogs communicate and how to making training more fluid.

RSVP at http://everydogaustin.org/webinars or LINK IN BIO
Friday, 23 Sep 4pm PDT / 6pm CDT

Share this so more of your friends can join us!

08/24/2022

WTF — Alert Barking!

Barking when a stranger or strange sounds are noticed on the perimeter of your home is NORMAL (from a dog’s perspective).

Your dog is simply alerting you as well as warning the intruder.

While we can “humanize” this behaviour and say — but ITS NOT A INTRUDER, your dog doesn’t know that.

Feeling safe looks different to your dog than to you.

Comforting your dog is perfectly alright but it doesn’t change their emotions towards the trigger.

With COVID reducing the frequency of visitors in our home it is becoming increasingly common for dogs to be sensitive to any activity outside of their immediate household.

Kiki Yablon has created a wonderful protocol to help dogs redirect and gradually help them counter condition (creating neutral or positive feelings) towards strangers or strange sounds.

In this video I am able to rehearse our game before the contractor arrives and set Jericho up for success.

Some key factors:
- We are in the room farthest from the front door / where the contractor is
- We also have a the door as an additional barrier
- Some dogs will do better when they can’t SEE the intruder (like this set up) while others do better when they can see but not have access (like towards the end of the video in a different visit)
- We have practised ‘thank you’ in other context when triggers are not around
- Always work with a certified professional on games that involve complex behaviours. It is not recommended to try it without professional guidance.

When we focus on why the dog is behaving rather than what the dog is behaving like, we are able to solve the problem better as we are tackling the root of the problem.

07/30/2022

A little bit about my background.. and my journey towards becoming a dog trainer. My experience as a person of colour and how it has been coming to this point

OUT OF THE WOOFWORKS EPISODE 12.

This episode, our guest is dog trainer Namita DigheShetty from Pawsitive Cultr+ with us!

Namita will be chatting with us about her journey of coming into the force-free dog training industry, the joy of trick training as well as her experiences within this industry.

Thank you so much Namita for being on our podcast and sharing your journey! And also thank you for making such great force-free dog content on your page!

To listen to our podcast, look up “Out Of The Woofworks” on whatever platform you normally listen to podcasts on. You can also get the show notes, links, and transcripts on our website (linked in our bio)!

ID: On a light beige background is large text that says "Out Of the Woofworks" and below it is a box with the words “Namita DigheShetty ))”. The text below this says “Hosted by: Rachel Forday ” and under that is the link to the podcast. Next to these text are two circles. The one on the top has a photo of Namita, a South Asian person wearing a hoodie that says “The Future is Force Free”, next to a dog who’s wearing a blue coat.. The circle on the bottom shows the Out Of The Woofworks cover art which is a drawing of Dave, a brown mongrel dog, with his head coming out of a light brown wooden broken fence. On the top is a jagged piece of wood with the words “Out Of The Woofworks” written on it, and on the bottom of Dave’s head is a black and grey microphone. The microphone cable coils into the shape of a heart. On the top left corner of the image is a brown circle with the words "Episode 12” on it.

07/30/2022

Tala was having such a hard time with dogs — she was lunging, growling, and stressed.

A month into our training we have now got to a point to have her walk with or around a demo dog.

Before we got here…
1. We spoke with her vet to help her get some anxiety medication to help her cope with her multiple triggers

2. We worked on establishing two markers — yes and find it.

3. Increasing some enrichment by feeding through toys instead of bowls.

4. Next we worked with her mom on understanding how reactivity works.
- Talking about threshold and how to know when she’s over threshold BEFORE a reaction.
- Explaining what trigger stacking
- How to prevent reactions and minimize exposure to her triggers
- When to counter condition and when to manage (aka get outta there)

5. Practised management games out of context when triggers are not around:
- Find it
- Paws up
- Collar/Harness Grab and Move
- Uturns
- Nose Touch

6. Walk and Train sessions with me!
We went on trail walks, park walks and neighbourhood walks for the past month applying all the skills we learned.

We are so proud to see how curious she was about Jericho rather than reactive. This is likely because Jericho is very neutral. He doesn’t look at her, he is doing his own things, he looks away from her. He communicates that he doesn’t mean conflict from all his body language cues.

As usual please don’t try to emulate these techniques without the guidance of certified qualified professional. Reactivity is a complex behaviour. Reach out to get support working through it.

06/27/2022

HAPPY FATHERS’ “DAY”, to one of the best Dog Dads I know!

Ranjit is one heck of a dad. These two hang out together all day since he WFH post covid and Jer absolutely adores him.

💛Ranjit will rearrange his work schedule to make time for meeting Jericho’s needs.

💛He pays attention to Jer’s requests no matter what.

💛 He learns everything I teach him about dog training and applies it the best way he can.

💛 Their bond is incredible.

The Force Free community is usually dominated by women, but there’s no shortage of some amazing men, that will do what’s best for their dog even if it means shrugging of decades of misogynic ideas of dog training conditioned by our society.

I’m proud to have such a good partner willing to embrace force free methods fully!

So shoutout to all the dog dads that treat their dogs the way they’d treat their human children! 👑

PS:
I know I’m late! It was tough this Father’s Day this time. I lost my dad last April (Covid), so this year I’ve been struggling with quite a few things.

06/11/2022

There’s so much talk on other platforms about “show us the aggressive dogs”.. “you work with easy breeds”..

The thing is, because of mainstream Media & some celebrity style dog trainers, it has become common to think training should PROVE that the dog in question is REACTIVE OR AGGRESSIVE.

Professionals that take the time to learn how animals learn BEST, know that they don’t NEED to set them up to react and then correct them to train. Instead it’s perfectly normal to train an animal within their current threshold.

The truth is, all animals including dogs and humans learn BEST when they’re NOT STRESSED or Feeling Pressure. The longevity of those skills can be far more if it’s harnessed. Unfortunately as dog guardians we get caught up in STOPPING “bad” stuff INSTEAD of, STRENGTHENING “good” things our dogs do.

Anyway here’s an example of Mack crushing it around two women dressed in their modest Indian attires (head covering). Normally the fact that they look differently dressed would scare him into an immediate outburst. The fact that they were “talking” too 🫣 and he didn’t even flinch 🥳🥳🥳

This is only week 3 ish I think, and man this dog is really starting to show so much progress. And I’m needing lesser and lesser management as we go along. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Training CAN LOOK DIFFERENT, depending on the method of training.

Training kindly is a choice we humans have to make. All methods work, some faster and some only on the surface, but the method also dictates the way the learner is meant to feel when learning.

The goal of reward based training is to teach the dog what to do, strengthen it and make it so good, that you don’t need to do the other (bad) thing anymore 🤷🏽‍♀️

Disclaimer: this video isn’t a tutorial. Reactivity is a fear based behaviour concern, please work with a qualified professional.

05/31/2022

A look into our walk & train session with Mack the Meatball! This Saint Bernard x Newfoundland Labrador is the sweetest boy, unless he’s startled by a person, a dog too close, or loud sounds.

We started our walk with some basic needs being met.
After a pee/poo & some sniffing time, we went off to a dog park.

But wait, we don’t go in! We simply want exposure to dogs in a safe way FROM A DISTANCE.

For a few minutes we work on engage disengage from dogs at the park.

Next we go decompress - free of triggers.!

This was an extra special day as I had extra time to do round 2 of walking at a distance from the park (last week we couldn’t even stand here for a few seconds without an explosion). We ended with another decompression.!

As usual, this video is to show you how it’s possible to train for reactivity without the use of punishments. This was an hour long walk that could have been much shorter too!

This video is not a tutorial on how to do this. I highly recommend hiring a certified professional to work on a proper behaviour modification program.

If this video helped, please share / or hit save.!

05/14/2022

Answering a question on TikTok! It’s not about “methods” it’s about “mindset”. A mindset shift can change so much more than simply the outward result humans tend to seek.

05/06/2022

NO, is not a behaviour! 📣
It’s second nature to us humans to say NO. After all we’ve heard it sooo many times from the moment we were born.

What if I told you, your dog has no idea what it means, when you say NO!?

They know that you ‘look’ annoyed. They hear the ‘harsh tone’…
Dogs like to avoid conflict, which is why NO gets them to stop doing what they’re doing in that moment.

Sometimes though, the dog’s needs far supersedes upsetting you. To fulfil that need they will take the risk, of upsetting you.

Instead of NO! And a frustration negotiations with your dog, teach and use ‘behaviour cues’.
👉🏽Leave it
(don’t pick that up)

👉🏽Drop it
(open your mouth and release what’s in it)

👉🏽Find it
(look for treats on the ground)

👉🏽Touch
(touch my palm with your nose)

👉🏽Let’s go
(walk in the direction of the leash)

👉🏽U turn
(turn around and follow me)

Why?
🌟Because these are skill you CAN teach. NO is simply a scary sound!

🌟It helps you direct your dog instead of get mad at them.

🌟Your dog learns that listening to you is reinforcing (of course that’s hoping that you reward them for doing these tasks)

🙌BONUS:::
Let go of some of the “No”s… let them explore and have a little fun. Find ways to say YES to your dog. You will not regret the relationship you and your dog will build!

What are some ways you can replace NO with when redirecting your dog?

T-shirt By NAMITA15 for 15% OFF

(no such thing)

04/27/2022

Why you won’t see BEFORE + AFTER videos on mine and many of my colleagues’ pages.

Proof is not our priority. You and your dog is, and we’re going to be focused on our sessions as you deserve that!

04/27/2022

How did your dog or a dog you’ve met, changed everything you know about dogs!?

This is Hamish 💛
He has my heart. I met him when I worked in a dog daycare. I came into my shift on his second day, and heard this dog barking non stop.

He was having a meltdown. No one knew how to get him to relax. I don’t know why, but I took him to an area separate from the others and started to make silly playful fingers at him.

He looked intrigued. I brought out a small rubber toy. And he wanted to grab it from me. In a few minutes he was tugging with me and feisty about his toy.

We fell in love. While others saw a neurotic, severely attached dog, I saw a dog that was craving for some mental stimulation.

He taught me to think outside the box. To engage in play way () even before I knew fully what that meant. He showed me I can be sillier than ever.

Each week, Hamish is overcoming new fears and building confidence. His fear towards strangers, loud sounds, and dogs is slowly diminishing. It is all due to the work his family has put in since we met.

He’s my Success story!
Love you Hammy!

04/19/2022

Do you want to understand what good play between dogs, looks like? Learn how to read your dog’s body language when they’re interacting with other dogs?

SAFELY SOCIAL HOUR is our weekly group activity (up to 4 pups and their guardians) get to safely socialize with dogs of their own age!

We will discuss
-Body language cues
- Recall tips
- How to regulate breaks
- Appropriate play partners
- Socialization set ups (pups under 16wks)

To know more about these sessions or to sign up, send us a DM with your email address :)

04/01/2022

Today is a bittersweet date for me. 4 years ago we celebrated our marriage with our families in India. It was a beautiful day and exactly what we wanted them.

It was also the last week I spent with my dad, ever. This week, this year marks 1 year since we lost him to COVID.

The memories of this day are heartwarming and I’m so grateful for them. He’s everywhere in them and I love him so so much. I wish we had more time.

Hug your loved ones, tell them you love them. You don’t know how much time you have left with them.

04/01/2022

Today is a bittersweet date for me. 4 years ago we celebrated our marriage with our families. It was a beautiful day and exactly what we wanted them.

It was also the last week I spent with my dad, ever. This week marks 1 year since we lost him to COVID.

The memories of this day are heartwarming and I’m so grateful for them. He’s everywhere in them and I love him so so much. I wish we had more time.

Hug your loved ones, tell them you love them. You don’t know how much time you have left with them.

03/23/2022

is every day in my life. My dog is always a puppy.

Remember to be patient with your dogs:
- Give a little grace for mistakes
- Don’t try to make them perfect
- Focus on what they do right, reinforce it!!
- Embrace their quirks
- All behaviour has a reason, figure it out and meet their need. Next time meet their needs before they have to intensify their signals (barking, pawing, nipping)
- Love them, cherish them and have funnnnn!!!!

03/07/2022

Are you asking —
When can I stop using treats!?

The real question is why do you think your dog will want to do things, if they didn’t get anything out of it?

03/07/2022

If I train using R+ Can my dog perform skills without treats?

When can I stop using treats?

The real question is, why do you think your dog would continue to act the way YOU want without anything in return?

02/07/2022

What does R+ actually mean?
R+ or Positive Reinforcement is one of the 4 quadrants of Operant Conditioned described by B. F. Skinner.

Without getting too nerdy I want you to take a moment to understand the term POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT or R+ or +R

Positive or + stands for ADDING.
Positive, is not “GOOD” as it is in context of human language.

Reinforcement simply means ‘strengthening’.

When put together—
A handler is ADDING a response (a treat or exiting to backyard, or tossing a ball) 👉🏽
to a dog’s BEHAVIOUR (standing with all paws on ground) 👉🏽
In order to STRENGTHEN their behaviour (standing on all fours). 💛
Because the dog enjoyed the consequence of their behaviour they are MORE LIKELY to repeat it!!!!!!!

Operant conditioning states that the animal is more likely to repeat a pleasant behaviour and less likely to repeat and unpleasant behaviour.

A few ways to examples of “adding” a response:
- food reward
- access to toys
- freedom to sniff
- another round of fetch

(****If we add responses that are UNPLEASANT to the dog, it would WEAKEN the behaviour — this is POSITIVE PUNISHMENT)

Trainers that use R+ are primarily focused on capturing the things your dog naturally does that you prefer and putting it into context for you and your dog.

In order to do that, they may:
- prevent the activity temporarily (so that the dog doesn’t rehearse and strengthen undesired behaviours) either by using management or avoiding some form of the activity.

- teach an alternative incompatible behaviour (if your in a down, you can’t really jump can you!?)

- break down the behaviour into small pieces of behaviour and encourage them to build it up!

What R+ isnt:
🤪Tossing treats at everything mindlessly

🧐It is not permissible. My dogs have boundaries as well. But I also take responsibility by making sure the environment minimizes their chances to make errors.

💀🏴‍☠️it’s is NOT PURELY POSITIVE. Because that DOES NOT EXIST.

I hope this helps you understand Positive Reinforcement better.

Happy Training!

01/31/2022

I was mean to someone today…
[*barking in video]

Folks, if you’re out with your dog
- someone needs space for their dogs GIVE THEM SPACE
- someone needs you to recall your dog RECALL YOUR DOG
- someone asks for help by requesting something JUST do it! NOT the way YOU WANT but the way THEY NEED IT!

They probably know their dog best and can tell you when something isn’t going well for their dog. Don’t wait for a reaction!

Other people’s dogs are not guinea pigs for you to experiment with your teaching methods.

Dogs could need space for more reasons than you may know. Just respect the guardians needs!

The Story:
My friend and I were on a hike with our dogs this morning. Most of the people we met were really good whether it was recalling dogs or giving us space or following leash laws.

But then there was one (there always is)…

A lady came along from a different trail converging onto ours, with a giant breed adult dog and a pr***en puppy.

Watching the first few seconds of interaction here’s what I saw:
🐕‍🦺Adult dog: stationery, mildly stiff, head up while my dog sniffs..
🐕Jericho: slow, slightly stiff, mild piloerection (hackles raised), not responding to recall cues
🐶Puppy: sticking to adult dog, and finally sandwiching between the two dogs

So I asked I quote, “Could you call one of your dogs? Just any one of them? Maybe the puppy?” 🙏🏼 “it might be a bit much for my dog.. “

She nods, then says, “Yeah it’s an off leash trail” (me: 🤯😱🙄)

“Yes but we don’t want them to get into a dog fight, right!?”, I respond 🙂

She replies, “Yeah it’s nowhere close to that!” 😒

Annoyed that she wouldn’t help, I grab my dog’s harness and gently guide him away as I say, “Yeah I don’t think you know what that looks like if that’s what you think. Sorry I gotta go!”

To which she proudly responds, “Yeah I train dogs” 👏🏽😱😶

Frustrated by the lack off accountability reply as I walk away..”Yeah ME TOO! It goes to show how much you know!” 🤔

I didn’t hear what she mumbled next but the fact that she still needed to say something made me cross the line and without looking back I said.. “Oh F* Off!”

Listen when someone requests, please!

01/12/2022

Sometimes I sound combative, judgmental and unfriendly. I’m sorry!

Here’s the thing, I’ve had experience with trauma. Silent trauma where you know the people hurting you love you, mean well & just don’t know any other way. That’s why I advocate to stop the use of aversive training. 

The more logically reason is the factual evidence that have been established by educated & experienced scientists. Learning happens best when the learner is taught what to do instead of corrected when doing something wrong. 

So here’s me setting the record straight on why I do things & what to expect from me:

1. I will NOT JUDGE YOU for your training choices in the PAST: You did what you thought was normal, best for your dog, safe & had no intention of ill-will. I applaud you for choosing to learn.

2. My goal is to EDUCATE MORE PEOPLE on misinformation that impacts the welfare of dogs:
In an unregulated industry, you as a guardian don’t know what training principles are best practises. Welfare includes the mental & behavioural well being of an individual. When techniques affect welfare, their effectiveness is counterproductive.

3. I am not perfect. I HAVE TRAINED AVERSIVELY before I learned more humane training skills:
I know what it’s like to expect results and not see them instantly. But I am also an example of how one can change & adapt knowing that there is a kinder way to do things.

4. I call out OUTDATED, Aversive & Inhumane training / tools because your dog can’t:
Your dog won’t be able to tell you that this feels uncomfortable. Not only do these tools suppress that ability to tell you, Modern tools  are designed in a way to provide only enough discomfort as not visible to the naked eye.

5. I want to normalize training humanely instead of aversively:
As a society because we get punished in our day to day life we think it’s important to do the same to animals. But if we look carefully into how punishment makes us feel we can realize that not everything that is normal is good for us. Let’s make it normal to teach your dog without punishment because it is POSSIBLE!

I hope this helps you feel comfortable to reach out to me if you want to switch the way you train your dog!

01/10/2022

⚖️There are people out there that would have you believe that teaching your dog without is incomplete. That you need a approach. Teach what’s good for them and bad for them. But the truth is neither dogs nor humans need to learn that way.

💡Evidence based research proves that those individuals have not been updating their skills.

💛There are numerous ways to teach your dog skills and change the way they feel about scary things using positive reinforcement, conditioning, desensitization.

⚠️Training with the use of tools like ecollars, prongs and choke chains teaches your dog that it is not safe to express themselves near you. This leads to bottling up frustrations and fears until some day without warning they escalate to biting or attacking.

🤩Using humane methods allows you to build a trusting relationship without the need to correct them.

⏳Then there is a question of ‘but it stops the behaviour so quickly’! Yes it does.. because if it didn’t you would keep applying pressure isn’t it?

😔Pain is the reason the behaviour stops. Pain isn’t just physical, it can be discomfort (vibrations), frustration, stress (unpredictable punishments). We all know pain is more than just physical.

🙏🏼I urge you.. to choose to Train without Pain for the sake of your dog, that is a living, breathing being!

🥳🙌🎉
If you’re already like me and you train humane, you’ll love clothes from ! I’m proud to announce that I’m a brand ambassador for this smart business that is spreading the word of R+ training through their apparel!

USE CODE: NAMITA15 to get 15% OFF
(Limit one per customer)