Dog Nerd

11/11/2024

10/31/2024

Happy Halloween! 🎃👻

Have fun tonight!

10/14/2024

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Enjoy a day of family, relaxation, counting your blessings … or however you observe the day.

We’ll be back at it on Tuesday!

10/08/2024

Tongue out Tuesday courtesy of Pivot de la Forge 😛

10/01/2024

It’s tongue out Tuesday!

Xoë showing off 😛

Let’s see how your dogs do!

09/24/2024

Tongue out Tuesday, courtesy of Grayson 😋

09/21/2024

This is a common mistake I see. The intentions are good, but it’s not the best way to go.

If you need help with your fearful dog, reach out!

A common mistake that many owners make when trying to help a fearful dog become more comfortable around something they’re scared of is attempting to lure the dog closer to the scary thing with a treat. Though the thinking behind this strategy is well meaning, it can often backfire and increase the dog’s fear.

Many highly food motivated dogs will follow the treat closer to the scary thing to get the food, but once they’ve eaten the treat they suddenly realise how close they are to the scary thing. This can cause the dog to startle or even panic, likely making them more afraid than they were before.

This is particularly important with dogs that are fearful or aggressive towards humans. After the dog has followed the treat in beyond their comfort zone and right up to the human, there is a big risk that once the treat is gone they may snap or bite upon finding the human so close.

When working with fearful dogs it is critically important to let the dog go at their own pace. Progress should be slow, steady, carefully analysed, and never ever rushed.

This reasoning also applies when socialising young puppies to potentially scary things; you can reward them for choosing to move closer to something novel that they are unsure of, but try not to lure them in blindly with a treat.

If you have a fearful dog we highly recommend working with a professional positive reinforcement trainer who is experienced in dealing with behavioural issues, and not just teaching obedience. There is a world of difference between simply luring a dog towards something scary with treats, and a systematically applied desensitisation and counter conditioning protocol implemented by someone with a sound knowledge of behavioural science. A good trainer will help set up a plan of action individualised to your dog, and coach you through the process.

That Dog Geek’s next video, “Helping Fearful & Reactive Dogs Part 1” is almost finished, and will be available to watch online soon.

Happy training Dog Geeks!

09/16/2024

It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye!

When did I become my mother?!?! 😂

No eyeballs were lost in this battle.

09/10/2024

Hi everyone! Just a reminder that if you’re looking to train with me, or you have questions, please send an email.

Social media messaging is full of spam, and not always delivered in a timely manner. I do my best to respond to all emails within 48 business hours. Thank you!

[email protected]

08/27/2024

Hi everyone!

I’ve been a bit more quiet than usual lately, and it hasn’t been for a good reason. Please read on …

I’ve debated whether or not I should be posting personal things on my business page, but the situation has become desperate.

Dog Nerd has always been a one-woman-show, but without Craig, my partner of 10 years, and main supporter, I don’t know where I’d be.

Craig is also the unsung, unseen hero, creating and maintaining the website, and when I had the training building, doing pretty much everything that wasn’t dog training.

Over the last couple of years, Craig has become very ill. On August 2, 2024, he was finally put on the liver transplant list, and is awaiting a transplant. There are hundreds of people across Canada waiting for a liver, so the wait may take years. Craig is very sick, and doesn’t have years.

I’m asking for your help:

Please follow/like/share his Instagram and pages. There will be more information there about his medical conditions, as well as info regarding living donations. Craig is a very private person, and is not on social media. I have created these pages to help him spread the word, and save his life.

https://www.facebook.com/share/QtroUGLdYRjhudD1/?mibextid=LQQJ4d

https://www.instagram.com/teamcraig64?igsh=NDJjbWdpMnhjajZh&utm_source=qr

As for dog training, I’m still working hard to help families with their dogs. Training dogs helps keep my stress levels lower, so if you need help with your dog’s behaviour, shoot me an email!

If you’ve gotten this far, thank you for reading. Craig really needs a hero; please share his pages.

08/09/2024

You’ll see my dogs out and about helping reactive dogs with their skills.

What you won’t see are my dogs interacting with other dogs.

Why?

My dogs are raised to be neutral with dogs. Whether they like other dogs, or don’t like them, they don’t interact with dogs they don’t know.

That means no dog parks, doggy day cares, no play groups.

They are all well socialized, which means they are comfortable when they’re out. They have no need to interact with the environment when they’re out. That makes life A LOT easier.

Not sure what “neutrality” means, or how to train for it? I’d be happy to explain! Just send me an email: dognerd204 @ gmail.com

Many people are ✨shocked✨ to see that my dogs aren’t super dog-friendly. They’re a dog trainer’s dog, how can they be so mean?

“Mean” because they don’t run up to other dogs, mean because they aren’t dying to meet your dog, mean because they don’t tolerate inappropriate behavior..

To me, they’re an example of dogs with healthy boundaries and relationships to others. It seems to be the “norm” for a lot of dog owners to expect other dogs to tolerate all of their own dog’s behavior. If your child was being harassed by another child, would you tell them to tolerate it? Of course not; we would intervene and the same should be happening for our dogs.

Any inappropriate behavior (posturing, face licking, jumping, excessive sniffing), or really any behavior that makes the receiving dog uncomfortable, should be interrupted or punished.

This can happen in two ways: we intervene which is the preferred method. If your puppy is face-licking your older dog and your older dog isn’t enjoying it/is trying to get away, etc, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to remove the puppy from the older dog. We should not except any dog to tolerate annoying behavior and we certainly don’t want to raise our puppies to continue this. Or if your male dog is excessively sniffing a female dog to the point she’s uncomfortable, you can interrupt or punish that with a “no,” a nick on the ecollar, separating them, etc. It is your responsibility to manage your own dog and advocate for others.

The other option is to allow the receiving dog to correct the inappropriate dog, but this is rarely efficient and should only happen under very strict circumstances. We never want to allow a dog we don’t know to correct our dog. There’s a good chance they won’t, which will teach tolerance, and there’s an equally good chance they will overcorrect, resulting in injury or fight.

Often a puppy is raised where other dogs are expected to tolerate behavior. One day the puppy runs up to a dog and starts behavior that they’ve rehearsed, the new dog doesn’t tolerate it and corrects the dog/starts a fight...

Read the full article here:

https://www.horizonretrievers.com/post/socialization-1