Young Bailey is heading into 2024 with a new found friend in Kevin (who you may recognise) 🫶🏻 aren’t they just the sweetest pair!! Entered the muddy field with 1 yellow lab and 1 red fox lab…left with 2 chocolate labs 🫣 #dogfriends #dogtraining #labrador #puppylife #muddypaws
Today I wrapped up my last 1:1 train & walk of the year in MK with Cody, the little bundle of Joy!! Just a few snippets of our walk together, working hard and of course playing just as hard 🎾💚#dogtraining #bichonfrise #looseleadwalking #calmdog #clickertraining
Puppy socialisation
How often should my puppy greet other dogs??
We often hear different pieces of advice from dog lovers on how to best socialise a puppy around other dogs. Although they’re just trying to help, some of this advice can do more harm than good, such as …
🫣”You must let them meet as many dogs as possible every day”
😣”They must be off lead”
😬”Go to the biggest puppy groups as possible”
🫠”If they scrap they’ll sort it out between themselves, they’re asserting dominance”
If you follow this advice to the fullest, it’s more than likely you will raise a young dog that is hyper obsessed with dogs and has very little respect for other dogs boundaries. Instead try to…
🤗 Give your puppy the opportunity to meet a new dog a couple of times a week, if they are a good match
🧐 Be selective, you want them to influence your puppies behaviour and help teach them how to play respectfully
😌 Calm adult dogs are ideal
🥳 Vary the size, sex and breeds you meet over time
🐷 Keep in mind flat face dogs can sometimes be a little confusing to puppies, so make these extra positive encounters and reassure them they mean no harm
😁 Your puppy can go off lead with dogs for short periods where the play flows naturally and they seem in sync. Look out for lots of mirroring and give them plenty of breaks
REMEMBER : Dog greets are a very small part of over all socialisation
Test what your dog is capable of WITH OUT using cues. Allow your over excitable or reactive dog to observe at a safe distance and let them come away when they’re ready 👀 ⏰ #choices #dogtraining101 #rescuedogs #husky #chowchow #terrier #pomeranian
Lola bucket game
🪣 BUCKET GAME 🪣
Lola’s mum decided to have a little refresher of the ‘Bucket game’ recently and sent me a great video which I’ve shortened down.
This cooperative care method is designed to mainly help keep dogs settled during husbandry tasks such as vet visits, grooming or administering treatments💉
The dog is able to feel more in control as they can say “I’m fine carry on” 🟢 or “please stop now” 🔴 with out the need for extreme behaviours such as growling or snapping. The dog being handled just needs to simply look away from the bucket/cup for us to stop touching or look at it again for us to continue.
Once Lola mastered this first part of her training we introduced a soft brush to parts of her body she was comfortable with, moving on to the dreaded area…her paws!
I couldn’t resist uploading the last part of the video where excitement got the best of Lola 🤣
Big fan of clicker training when it comes to managing reactivity in more built up areas 🙌🏻 Clever Cody who is one of my Milton Keynes clients shows major signs of lead reactivity towards other dogs, mainly due to frustration and insecurities. As you can see in the sneak peek video of our session he’s taken to clicker training like a duck to water, go Cody!!🦆💚 (Please remember this is for management purposes and other methods will be introduced to help boost Cody’s confidence around other dogs)
A heartwarming video to help brighten up a gloomy Monday 🌧️ We’ve seen a new friendship slowly blossoming between rescue dog Kiko and our buddy Labrador Darcy ♥️ This is now the second time they’ve met allowing Kiko’s confidence to naturally build, he even offered Darcy an invitation to play for the first time!! #rescuedogs #dogtraining #dogrescue #labrador #dogfriendship
Touch ✋🏻
Touch ✋🏻 has become an invaluable cue we taught Darcy during her puppy course almost 2 years ago!
She LOVES nothing more than diving head first into bushes and getting carried away following scents.
‘Touch!’ brings her right back to her handlers side with in a matter of seconds. This means she is still trusted to have fun and live her best Dora the explorer life 🎒
Please excuse my comfy clothes, I took this video whilst pet sitting Darcy and her lovely cockapoo sister Trixie recently, got to be warm and comfy on winter walks 🥶
Fulfilment
✨ FULFILMENT ✨
One of the most important elements when looking to train or improve your dogs behaviour and wellbeing.
Is your dog satisfied? Are their natural needs being met? Are they a ‘good tired’ after their walk or just physically exhausted from stress?
These are all of the questions we discussed during Bruno’s initial assessment last week and most importantly came up with a plan of how we can meet his needs even more…
🪢 We changed his walking equipment
🌲 Found better suited places to walk him
🏃 Gave him more freedom
⏰ Altered the length & frequency of his walks
👀 Allowed him to observe his surroundings
🧸 Introduced sensible ragging games
🏥 Identified some lameness which will be checked out by a vet
The video below was sent to me by Bruno’s guardian, using the long line for the first time in one of his new walking areas. Great to see him sniffing and feeling so chillaxed😌
Young Lua putting her relaxed lead walking into practice on a family walk in the Autumn sunshine 🍂🌞 #labrador #dogtraining #looseleadwalking #clearsky #autumnvibes #nature #dogwalking
Flash door
The video of Flash below is a common learnt behaviour that occurs in many of our homes when the post man delivers letters✉️ 📦
This is stressful for both dog and owner so during our most recent session we started to introduce the ‘counting game’ inside of the house.
This is designed to help positively teach Flash to drop and come away from the high value item, whilst also teaching him to feel comfortable enough to allow us to pick up the item from the floor, as he calmly watches.
We stayed clear of playing the well known chase game or prying the high value item from his jaws. This only adds value, breaks trust and makes matters worse. If you seem to want it so bad then surely your dog is going to protect it even more right?!
Repetition is SO important with this technique, making sure they fully understand what the counting means, working with lower value objects first that they desire but most importantly mean nothing to you.
I currently don’t have a video of Flash showing off his counting work but his mum gave me an update to say that it has successfully worked with a parcel yesterday! Good job Flash 😁
I will make sure to get an informative video uploaded soon of counting work!
How is this the same nervous Olive I used to know?!
Olives been getting braver as each day goes by in her new home so we thought we’d have a go at free work. It was amazing to see her dive straight in bursting with confidence and curiosity.
Her new mum has started to see Olives cheeky personality shine through recently as she’s settled in. She can still easily be spooked so we’re taking one step at a time but she’s quickly flourishing into a well balanced young dog 🌸💗
Lua aced her loose lead walking in various exciting areas yesterday 🙌🏻
She LOVES to work for her treats (in true Labrador style) but can become hyper focused on food. We wanted to help her relax so worked on building a more natural walk. Less ‘crab walking’ and jumping in front for food and more looking ahead with extra sniffing.
She made great progress in the hour, such a bright girly, full of potential 💛
Unbelievable turn around during Guys walk and train last week 🥹
We started off with no engagement whatsoever and zero desire for food as his stress levels were so high. Little did I know this would actually become a highlight walk for us around other dogs, using just his dry kibble as a reward.
Longer videos tend to lack engagement so i’ve kept it as short as possible but there were just too many moments I couldn’t resist sharing 🥳
Super successful mix with brave Kiko and my fabulous helper dog Darcy 🌟
All of the dogs enjoyed an hour off lead time together after a gradual intro. This is a major improvement from the Kiko I met last year who strongly reacted to most dogs he saw at a distance.
Kiko’s now mastered passing dogs in the street, so we gave him the opportunity to interact with a friendly new dog in an open environment!
The level of trust and relaxation we had wouldn’t have been possible with out the use of a Muzzle. This ensured safety for both Darcy and Kiko. Muzzles provide so much freedom when done right, quite the opposite of restriction.
Check out ‘The Muzzle Movement’ FB page for some awesome muzzle tips 🫶🏻
Young Flash is immensely cautious of the world. He’s always on high alert just incase he needs to alarm his family of dangers in the environment or home 🚨
Last week he saved his humans from a suspicious bag in the tree and a noisy metal tape measure his dad picked up 😮💨 All jokes aside even though these items don’t seem like a big deal for us, they induce genuine fear for Flash.
We’re beginning to unpick Flash’s behaviours, working on one worry at a time, helping him to better self regulate around startling sounds/objects. We previously had a high pressured training session, so opted for an element of BAT training yesterday which offers a more hands off relaxed approach.
We didn’t expect Flash to get so close to the stooge dog with out alarming his family but he coped extremely well. You can see in the video he is still suspicious and balancing on his threshold but chose to investigate and retreat quietly.
One step at a time Flash and we’ll get there 💚
Clever Guy wanted to show everyone his fabulous lay down with out using food to lure or the use of a hand signal 🤓
Not only is Guy calmly following verbal cues but he’s also in an environment where he can become extremely reactive around traffic. He’s smashing two training goals at once 👏🏻
We’ve been working on his lay down position here and there as it was something his guardians had been trying to teach him but found a little tricky. Comfort is key, especially for a dog of Guy’s build, along with lots of patience and shaping over time.
Does your dog fully trust you around their favourite toys? 🎾 👀
Many dogs like Kevin will see a human making a B-line towards their toy and before we can even pick it up they’ve already jumped in, grabbed it and ran off!
Whilst Kevin was enjoying a break from his re-call training we started to work on building the trust around his ball to make play time more enjoyable for his family.
Our movements became slower, we allowed Kevin to observe, avoided tricking him and used short throws directly in his direction. There were moments we could see him fighting his impulse to grab the ball but he chose to allow us to pick it up instead so the game could continue.
Good boy Kev and good job for pointing out the dog poo at the end 💩🤣
REMINDER: It’s perfectly okay to take a step back and strip things down during your training journey. Sometimes simplifying is needed to add clarity for both dog and handler.
Guy the Dachshund is extremely reactive around cars and is faced with a high volume of stress inducing traffic right outside his house daily 🚗
During our most recent session we made things more simple by keeping ourselves stationary. Using Guys ‘place’ which he is familiar with, along side clicker training.
Guy excelled once we slowed things down and made the repetitions much clearer for him. We gradually moved closer to the road with short breaks in between, until the heavens opened which meant it came to an end on a high 🌧️
Some of my followers may know that Ernie was previously rehomed from a farm as his high chase drive started to become problematic. He likes to interact somewhat extreme Collie style with other dogs, which doesn’t always go down well as you can imagine. Resulting in Ernie becoming super frustrated, vocal and downright confused!
Our aim was to introduce Ernie as calmly as possible to my Frenchie, reinforcing any relaxed interactions. Another significant part of our session was to make sure his humans were able to gain trust and read his body language well. Dealing with past negative interactions will naturally put handlers on edge. This can feed down the lead to your dog causing tense greets.
As you can see in the video below Ernie was like a duck to water after a few seconds and absolutely smashed it. Off lead together in no time 👏🏻 🌟
