Picking Christmas pressies on our last class 🎁
One day I'll get a dog that chooses a toy over a chew.. 😅
The Progressors dogs having a burn off after class. This group are a perfect match for off lead play so we're allowing them a little run around each class and a chance to practice recall from play 🐾
Lovely little puppy class today although keeping a close eye on everyone in the heat. No training that involves a lot of movement and access to plenty of water, with shade breaks when needed.
Important to remember this fairly sudden change in temp is a shock to our dogs system as much as it is to ours and heat exhaustion can come on quickly with little warning.
Extra special care should be taken with young pups, seniors and brachycephalic dogs 🌡️
Just the lovely Milo and Byron on our last puppy class yesterday so we decided to give them some off lead time. What a perfect representation of pups learning to be off lead in eachothers presence whilst interacting with their owners instead. Love it ❤️
A quick bit of impromptu training so thought I'd record it.
Rambo has a vet appointment for suspected Cushing's disease on Monday and is unfortunately having a fair amount of accidents in the house. He's also then stepping in said accident to walk it around the house.. safe to say my week has been stressful!
Whilst I can pick up his feet and put them in the bowl as I do with his back feet, I always prefer him to do the behaviour himself if possible and it saves me some effort in the future. Making this into a training exercise that involves food rather than force will also help to keep this a more positive experience for him.
Here I'm luring him until his feet lift off the ground and giving a 'gooood' verbal signal to keep doing what he's doing. I'll then mark with 'yes' once his foot is fully in and reward. I build up to asking him to wait in that position until I give the release word 'ok'. I'm also introducing a 'paws in' cue.
Excuse the terrible filming, not the easiest multitasking and a very near tip of the bowl a couple times there so I'd definitely recommend using a big square container!
I think we wore Lola out on her 1st basic training session today 💤
A little off lead etiquette goes a long way!
After this video, I asked the dog walker if Lottie was okay to go over as some of the dogs in the group approaching were on lead. She said yes, and so Lottie was rewarded with getting to have a chase around.
Recall is a work in progress and can be challenging, but using a combination of methods such as long line practice, preventing self rewarding, using distractions as rewards and consistent reinforcement of the behaviour you want, can get you amazing results.
Well done Lottie! 🙌
Few clips from Scotland 2023 🐾
Rambo unfortunately strained a muscle in his leg that has swollen up so now taking it easy. A stark reminder of his age and for me to be more cautious monitoring his activity levels. Difficult when as far as he's concerned, he's still a puppy 🙄
Bronson fell in love with the big open beaches and waves, his first experience as he is often so limited due to his reactivity so this was a very special moment for us.
I expect this may be our last holiday of this nature with the boys but they're the hardiest senior dogs I've ever known so maybe they'll still be up for it at 12 years young!
I now have my phone back after breaking it on holiday so courses (although delayed!) are being scheduled in now and messages will be sent out to those that have enquired. Will also post available spaces on any upcoming courses 😊
Managed to catch this little moment between sweep and bodie, I missed where they previously flopped over at the same time and had some lazy paw wrestling with eachother 😂
This was after a mad chase round the field together and shortly before it was back to wrestling!
Make your front door boring! 😴
Door dashing is a problem I see often and it puts dogs in potentially very dangerous situations.
If your front door is only ever seen as the portal of excitement (people entering, going out for walks etc) while any other time you're preventing your dog from going out then you are going to generate a lot of interest in that front door.
While I've taught my dogs a ton of boundary training at the front door and especially at the gate which is next to a busy road, I've also made sure to allow my dogs to follow me outside for mundane tasks such as taking the bins out or gardening. I would also make a point of going outside standing around doing nothing for a minute or so then walking back in. I'm lucky to have an enclosed front garden but you could use a longer lead for safety if open. More often than not, my dogs won't bother to come out with me anymore and never try to make a dash out anytime the door is open.
Remember door dashing is a self rewarding behaviour, management should always be put in place to prevent your dog from achieving self rewards (getting to run around the block and be chased) while you work on descensitising them to the front door/garden
Pet dog trainer and wellbeing advisor
