I’ve been working with this team for 4 weeks now. This GSD x loves to drag his owner down the street. Just last week he couldn’t even listen to his owner outside - not even respond to simple cues like his name or “sit”. Today, on the other hand, he totally smashed it 🎉🥂🙌. Beautiful work from both dog and human. Made me very proud. #lovemyjob #whenaplancomestogether
Bit of work on “leg contact” to help teach loose lead walking. Love love love training this dog, such a hard worker and so clever 🥰😱. Who says you can’t teach and old dog new tricks and a husky too for that matter 😂❤️
How long should I train for?
Should I train only 1 behaviour per session?
Where should I train?
These are some of the questions I get asked. Here’s a complete, unedited training session in real time / just over 3 minutes. We worked on body contact (a different way of teaching loose lead walking that I’m trying out), high arousal luring, luring for “entrance to heel work” and teaching a a chin rest. All in less than 4
minutes! The head rest was a little less than perfect - we’ve never done it outside before so I could have given her a little more help 🤷♀️. She got there in the end though 😁
NEVER be embarrassed to use a training line. I use them frequently with all sorts of dogs for all sorts of reasons.
With Roo, my husky, i couldn’t let him off in the dunes - he’d be gone! Too many rabbits to hunt and also the risk of cattle and sheep fairly close by. Husky prey drive isn’t for the faint hearted (if you know,you know). The longline gives him extra freedom and he can go and sniff where he wants. He’s been trained to be on one so no risk of shooting off full belt and me ending up with fractured ribs 😂.
Jasper (cockapoo) is on one for different reasons. His recall is very good but if he finds a dead rabbit, I’d have to wait until he’d eaten it before I’d get him back (it’s taken me an hour once before 😂) The longline in his case is to prevent his ability to play “keep away”’. Personally, I don’t care if he has a dead rabbit but he thinks I’m going to take it off him (he can keep it 🤮😂).
Managing and preventing unwanted behaviour is an important and absolutely necessary part of training that is often overlooked by owners. Practice makes perfect! There are lots of easy ways to prevent unwanted behaviour developing and this is one of them - particularly in adolescent dogs.
#mangeandpreventproblems #northeastdogtraining #positivedogtrainer
Little bit of luring practice with 1 of the 3 types of luring I’ve been practising with Nala. Practise makes perfect 🤩. If you want the behaviours you need to put in the work. Training doesn’t stop when they stop being puppies. If we want to maintain or improve behaviours we need to put the work in.
#CHOICE
Our dogs get very little choice about what happens in their lives .we decide what to feed them and when. When and where they go for a walk. When they get groomed and so on.
Did you know that giving them small choices can help build their confidence and improve their quality of life? When I can, and time allows, I allow mine to take me on a walk and sniff as much as they want and where they want to, to choose the direction we take, to stay in the garden or to choose a treat. Here’s Roo carefully choosing which treat he wants. Personally, I think this is adorable. 🥰
Yummy treats from Pawfectly Natural - Raw & Pet supplies 😁
Tesco delivery time with 2 huskies 😁👏
#calmdogs
#dogtrainer
#northeastdogtrainer
Yesterday a workman came to my house. He knocked on the door, I let him in, he walked past (between) the dogs and got on with his work - what did they do? Nothing. Because it is “none of their business”.
This is a really, really important skill for puppies and dogs to learn. As a trainer, I meet lots of people that struggle to have visitors because of the behaviour of their dogs. I didn’t even have to tell my dogs what to do in this situation because whatever comes through the front door (shopping, delivery man, workman, dogs) is literally none of their business and never has been.
Since they were puppies this behaviour has been reinforced, they have never been allowed to come to the door when anyone/anything arrives so they have learned to do nothing when these things happen.
Doorways can be very exciting places for dogs if we are not careful when really not much that happens there is about them.
#teachyourdogtodonothing
#northeastdogtrainer
Little Alfie has just finished his “reactive dog” training package with me and he has literally been the star of the show, I couldn’t be prouder 🥰. Alfie is a 10 year old rescue and was extremely reactive to dogs and people. The progress he has made outside is absolutely astounding - who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? After 5 weeks he isn’t the “finished article”. There is still work to be done, especially in the house, which he finds more difficult but he has learned a lot, including “when I see a dog or person approaching, I look at my mam and I’ll be fine”. Well done Alfie and his hooman, keep up the good work. 👏👏👏⭐️⭐️⭐️
Special thanks to poppy for helping me during this session 😂 as Nala and Roo didn’t want to come 😂
What a little smasher. He picked this up sooo quickly, no luring (not that there’s anything wrong with luring as long as we fade that lure out quickly - I know 6+ year old dogs that can’t lie down without a treat in front of their nose!) figured out what I wanted super fast. 😍
#shapingbehaviour #positivedogtraining #northeastdogtraining #puppylove
So, before I start my rant 😂, here’s a lovely video of dogs under control 😁. The couple up the beach who passed us had a border terrier pup on a training line to prevent him from running over, while they were clearly working on recall. Beautiful 👏 I love it!
So, prevention is key here - when training and particularly with young/adolescent dogs prevention is so much better than cure! Allowing your dog to practise unwanted behaviour allows them to perfect said behaviour. Remember when you learned to ride a bike - the better you got at it. More to the point, we don’t just “unlearn” or forget how to do things, so once your dog has learned how to do something (particularly if they find it highly rewarding) you can be sure you’re gonna have to work hard to get rid of that unwanted behaviour.
And to the rant…
Today I was doing a training session with a dog reactive dog. Like many dogs, he does not like other dogs running over to him and barging into his personal space. To be fair, how would you feel if a complete stranger ran straight up to you and was in your face? Personally, that wouldn’t go down well with me either 🤷♀️. An owner let their dog do this to an on lead dog despite the fact that I shouted at the dog to stop and tried to block his route (obviously not a subtle enough hint 🧐. I then explained to said owner that we were training, that the dog didn’t like other dogs and asked him to get hold of his dog. He, however, thought this was completely unreasonable. His dog continued to goad the dog in training, running backwards and forwards between dog and owner. I then shouted louder at the dog to prevent this from happening and was then told off because he’s only a puppy. Actually, this dog is now an adolescent and I’m sure we all remember what we were like as teenagers (not averse to taking a few risks fuelled by hormones generally 😂). Regardless of age, dogs and puppies should only be off lead if they are under contr
Training tip #1
Allowing your puppy/adolescent dog to rehearse unwanted behaviour will only lead to them getting better at the behaviour you don’t want (practise makes perfect!)
Your puppy/dog should never be allowed to run over and engage with people/dogs you don’t know. The more they get to do it, the more you are creating a problem for yourself in the future.
During a training session a few weeks ago, we were joined by this black lab puppy. Great practice for the chocolate lad, who did amazingly to stay focused on his owner - not so good practice for the puppy who constantly ignored his owners calls, jumped all over me covering me in mud and nipping my hand, thus learning it’s way more fun to ignore your owner and do whatever you want. This is a fun filled, high adrenaline activity which unfortunately is going to get him and his owners in a lot of trouble in the future 🥲
Pain and behaviour case study #1
Nala (off lead husky)
As previously mentioned, I have seen some subtle changes in Nala’s behaviour over the last few months. These changes have been so subtle that most owners, myself included, wouldn’t necessarily notice them. In fact, I hadn’t until I started studying the Dynamic Dog training course.
The fact that she’s running around, having the best time would probably lead most owners into believing she is fine. Because I’ve seen her Dynamic Dog assessment and because of the subtle changes, I’m certain she’s not “fine” 😢.
Just because our dogs don’t limp, seem to enjoy themselves on walks or even “enjoy” chasing balls doesn’t mean they are ok and not experiencing pain. Once the adrenaline kicks in it numbs the pain, which is one of the reasons they can seem fine. Pain can affect behaviour in many ways including;
Playing less
Refusing to go on walks/climb stairs/get in vehicles
Barking
Noise sensitivity
Pulling on lead
Resource guarding
Separation anxiety
Reactivity
Growling when touched/disturbed
Have you ever considered that your dog’s behaviour may be affected by discomfort/pain?
#thewholedog #painandbehaviour #northeastdogtrainer #positivedogtrainer
Does your dog ever refuse to get in your car? Maybe this is a behaviour you don’t understand, maybe you think your dog is being stubborn. Roo often refuses to get in the back of the van though he’s more than happy to lie in the front footwell in the most scrunched up position ever, that no one in their right mind would think was comfortable (see pic in comments). Because of my interest (and training) in pain and behaviour, I have come to understand that Roo probably feels uncomfortable when travelling in the back as he has to brace himself to go around corners and when I brake. This clearly isn’t a problem in the footwell as there is obviously zero room to move.
This not wanting to travel in the back has probably started over the last 6 months, which tells me that there is something clearly going on with him. Back to the vets it is then for a discussion on what else we can do to help him?
Do you think your dog may be uncomfortable/in pain? Are they performing unusual or odd behaviours that you don’t understand.
As a qualified Dynamic Dog practitioner I can assess your dog fully and liaise with your vet to ascertain exactly what’s causing behaviour problems in your dog.
Is a waggy tail always a good thing?
The mouse on the end of this tail wag probably won’t think so 🤷♀️🧐
This high, stiff wag occurs when arousal levels are high - I’ve seen it between 2 dogs just before they have a fight and with Roo it usually means he’s scented some prey. So, definitely not always a good thing!!
A low slow wag can be a sign of uncertainty. Tail wags can have many different meanings so don’t always assume a dog is friendly because it’s wagging it’s tail 😁
#learntoreadyourdogsbodylanguage #dogtrainer #northeastdogtrainer #speakdog
Sometimes as a dog trainer I get to look like a bit of lunatic 😬😂
Freddie is highly sensitive of any movement of visitors in his house and will bark at the smallest movement. Here he is doing amazingly at learning to ignore distractions while I behave like an idiot 😂
#crazydoglady
#recalltraining
Simba did super duper with his recall training yesterday 👏👏👏
His owners have put so much effort in with this teenage boy and he’s doing great 😁
