Just before I finished for Christmas we played Hide and Seek with this dude!!
This guy has done so well in his training over the last few weeks! Now we are in a very distracting environment and the long line is trailing …
Playing hide and seek is so good because it means the dog is watching YOU, and wanting to hang out with you for a game rather than you being constantly asking ‘Where’s the dog?’ And madly following a tail around a woodland!
Building up to hide and seek does need some good training to start, otherwise you may panic your dog, which isn’t the desired effect of course!
Creates proximity
Creates fun
Creates interactions
Creates urgency when recalled
Reward with praise, snacks or a toy when they find you - make it easy and then build it up….
I was at our club show on Saturday, I Love being a member of Wyre Agility Club 😎
Very proud of this run from Mist - she was so fast in this C6-7. Clear 4th place!
Thanks to West Pennines Veterinary Rehabilitation for looking after her and Willow's Hydrotherapy and Veterinary Physiotherapy Services.
Half full or half empty?
Animals are natural pessimists - wil that novel object cause me pain? Is it a threat? Can it cause injury?
These questions are all serious considerations - being to optimist about a rattle snake 🐍 wouldn’t end well and that animals DNA would t be passed on 😵
So it’s normal for animals to regard new things with some degree of foreboding. But, in our homes and urban world where novel objects are all to common our pets need to be optimists.
We need to teach novelty is good and to interact with a strange shape, texture or movement is good!
Creates confidence and resilience for our more nervous over thinkers!
It’s all good fun and good practice for interaction with unfamiliar objects that they will see out and about as well as behaviours that are unusual - like sticking their muzzle into a muzzle!
We are doing well with this guy. Huge progress has been made, but still work to do.
Recall training
5th session with this reactive girl! We’ve been doing a lot of lead work and building trust and now we are on to some recall training
Dogs are so much better when they have freedom to choose, so here she is with her new bestie Skye.
She’s done awesome with and without Skye, just loving life and wanting to interact with her dad ❤️
Such a good girl!
In some classes this week we’ve been working on some strategies for calm and disengagement.
One was the beginnings of teaching a ‘hide’
This can be used as a cute trick to get your dog to disengage and ‘hide’ from something.
Works well to support a nervous dog and given something to do whilst breaking eye contact to the trigger.
Step one.
Modelling?
The dog on the left was extremely reactive to others just a few weeks ago, and her new guardian wasn’t sure how to help and support her through this time in her life.
This is the third session I’ve had with them.
Why am I walking his dog?
Well sometimes you need to model the behaviour the human needs to show and how the dog responds so the guardian can see what it should look and feel like.
💚 I am completely calm
💚 I am confident
💚 I am remembering to BREATHE!
💚 I am relaxed, my arm is loose the lead isn’t gripped like I’m on the Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.
…. In other words, I’ve got this.
And look how she reacts… happy taking snacks and just walking. Her guardian filmed this because he couldn’t believe it!
I think it’s also good that when you have a bad day, and you will, because training (and life) isn’t linear progression, that you look back and celebrate the good to give you that confidence boost to try again.
Focus on the good and mitigate the not so good.
Have a plan.
Have a strategy.
ENJOY!
🧙♀️🧙♀️ Witches’ little helper 🧙♀️🧙♀️
This is a new trick we’ve been learning, focusing on a retrieve to the bucket rather than our hands.
💙💙
The lovable whippet also gave us ‘Chin’ for free with his Boo trick 💙💙
🧟🧟♀️🐕 Another Zombie Walk 🐕🧟♀️🧟
I’ll be posting our spooky tricks through-out the day as it’s 👻 Halloween 🎃
Paws on Pumpkins (incidence builder!)
