Emily Coombe-Positive Dog Training

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Emily Coombe-Positive Dog Training

Emily Coombe-Positive Dog Training Dog Training and Behaviour services based in Bristol

07/02/2025

Puppy Socialisation 🐶💗

🧠 The sensitive socialisation period for our puppies occurs between 5-16 weeks of age. Within this period a puppies brain is like a sponge, rapidly absorbing information from the world around them. Neuronal pathways are being altered, specifically the functional and structural connections of neurons in the cortex, which are involved in receiving and analysing sensory information.

❓What are our puppy’s learning in this period?

🧠 Experiences puppies have during this period will likely affect their behaviour in response to similar experiences/ stimuli after this socialisation period has ended. So if a puppy has a positive interaction with another dog, a puppy may show happy, excited or relaxed body language around meeting new dogs in the future. If a puppy gets scared by a bus passing in close proximity, the puppy may respond fearfully to buses in the future.

🧠After 16 weeks of age, a puppy is more likely to show anxiety towards anything in its environment that it did not get exposed to during the socialisation period.

🐕So what does successful socialisation look like?

✔️Socialisation should be composed of carefully managed exposure to a range of different stimuli that our dogs are likely to encounter in day to day life, in a positive and gradual process. It is important that we build up exposure to stimuli slowly, as and when our puppies can cope well. How quickly you can introduce a stimulus will vary between pups!

So, we need to start by considering all of the stimuli that our dogs may encounter in our day to day life. Some common stimuli include (this is not a comprehensive list!): Dogs, people (including vets!), children, other animals (E.g. Cats in the same household), vehicles (bikes, cars, lorries, buses, trains, scooters Etc.), day to day objects inside the home and on walks (umbrellas, hoover, mop, dustpan and brush, bins Etc.), sounds (sirens, fireworks, dogs barking, planes passing overhead Etc.), grooming/ vet equipment (E.g. brushes, nail clippers, stethoscope Etc.), scents, surfaces they walk on.

✔️ How can we introduce these stimuli in a gradual way? Below are some examples.

🌳 Prior to your puppy having all of their vaccinations you can take them out in a sling/ carry them to quiet places to watch the world go by. If your pup is calm and happy, you can also pair stimuli (E.g. car passing in the distance) with a treat.

🦴Take your puppy to the vet for social visits, where they can be given treats and then leave.

☂️Avoid pressuring your pup to interact with dogs, people or objects. Always follow them away from stimuli if they are trying to avoid it so they do not feel as though they have to escalate their behaviours (E.g. barking at things that scare them).

🐩Help your puppy notice when other dogs do not want to interact or have finished interacting, and help them move away.

👩‍🦰Coach visitors and strangers you meet on walks on how to interact with your puppy calmly.

🔊Pair noises such as the door knock or fireworks (starting at low volumes first) with treat scatters to help them form positive associations.

The above is not a comprehensive list. If you would like further support socialising your puppy, please give me an email at [email protected].

31/01/2025

Loose Lead Walking 🐕

Loose Lead walking training is one of the most common things I train in both my 121 training sessions and behavioural modification plans.

Most dogs have to be walked on lead at least daily, in multiple contexts surrounded by lots of potential distractions. So, it is our job to help them learn that walking on a lead is a positive and calm experience and that they do not need to feel frustrated or pull.

Loose lead walking helps keep the owner, dog and members of the public safe and creates and enjoyable walk for everyone involved 😀

🐾 How can we set up our dogs to succeed with loose lead training?

🌳 We need to start our training in low-level distraction environments to set our dogs for success. Regular walks, such as the route to the park is likely already associated with a strong history of pulling, so avoiding these routes to start may be helpful.

🤯If your dog is easily distracted by people and dogs, you may want to drive to quiet residential areas, hire a secure field or even start the training in your home/garden.

🍖 Use high value rewards
Moist, smelly, high value treats (E.g. cooked meats) tend to work best for most dogs- especially when generalising your training to high level distraction environments. Varying these treats may help your dog stay motivated.

🐽Along with treats, dogs are also rewarded for walking nicely on the lead by being able to move forward and access sniffs and greetings were appropriate. For example, if they are pulling, we do not allow movement forward to these reinforcers. If they are walking nicely, we can stop and allow them to sniff/ say hi to another dog or person.

✔️ Consistency and patience are key in loose lead walking training. Although some might achieve a loose lead quickly, for others with previous learning experiences, loose lead can be a long process which has to be carefully managed.

Below is a video of Zeus the handsome Husky nailing some loose lead walking in our training session 👏

If you would like to book in a session to work on your dog’s loose lead walking, please give me an email at [email protected].

You can also purchase my loose lead training guide on my website: https://www.emilycoombe.com/blank-1

29/01/2025

Self-Control Training 🐶

Self-control training helps our dogs cope with feelings of frustration and helps them learn how to access rewards in appropriate ways. As a result, it helps us as owners keep our dogs under control in a large variety of contexts🐕‍🦺

Hope and Faith’s (two lovely Lab sisters) owners have been working hard on self-control training around food and toys. Hope and Faith had a challenging start to life, in which they likely had minimal access to valued resources (E.g. toys, treats) and had to compete with dogs/ each other for these resources. In addition to this, competition tends to be stronger between siblings, so when they were rehomed with Angela and Jeremy, we quickly realised that self-control was an area we needed to strengthen in multiple contexts.

🎬The video below demonstrates how we built up to helping Faith and Hope stay calm when Angela and Jeremy were handling treats, toys and balls (which they used to jump up towards and attempt to sn**ch out of hands). With every resource we introduced, we started with short, sweet exposure, before upping the movement of the resource and lowering it to the floor to increase difficulty. The girls are rewarded for keeping all 4 paws on the floor, and when using toys, we rewarded occasional repetitions with another toy they could play (to prevent frustration building too high during the training).

We also worked on building a strong recall and emergency recall, which we can use to help them move away from distractions in the environment (E.g. another dog’s ball!). 🐕💨

The next step for the girls will be to continue to increase the difficulty of the exercise, by dropping/ rolling, throwing toys and rewarding them for staying calm/ recalling off them.

Other areas of self-control training that Hope and Faith have nailed include door waits and loose lead walking!

A big shout out to Hope and Faith’s amazing owners who have put in so much hard work with the girls. It has been a privilege to watch the girls grow in confidence and progress in all areas of their training💗

17/01/2025

Let’s talk about 'Dominance' 🐩

Words like ‘Dominance’, ‘Alpha’, ‘Leader of the Pack’ or ‘Top Dog’ are still floating around the dog training world, often misused as damaging labels for dogs and owners.

The Dominance theory is based on the idea that human owners need to assert authority (become the ‘alpha’) over their dog and need to prevent their dog from achieving a higher social status over them (becoming ‘dominant’).

These outdated beliefs contributed to the development of techniques based on punishment, coercion, and aversion, which used to be common practice in the dog training world. These training methods are detrimental to a dog’s welfare, lead to a break down in the human-dog relationship and often worsen the dog’s behaviour by forcing the dog to escalate their behaviour (E.g. to communicate or defend themselves).

I am here to tell you to not worry- your dogs are not planning on taking over the world (..yet) and they just want to fit into your family! 🐕‍🦺💗

So why is the Dominance Theory outdated? 🐺📚

Many of the early studies that supported the dominance theory were conducted on groups of captive unrelated wolves that that were forced to share a territory. This environment created stress and unusual social behaviours. When we observe wild wolves in their natural habitat, they tend to form cohesive, cooperative social structures which resemble more of a family group rather than a linear hierarchy. Aggression is rarely seen between individuals and aggressive behaviour does not appear to serve the purpose of achieving a higher social status.

The early studies also assume that wolves and dogs behave and form similar social structures. Despite sharing a common ancestor, the domestication of dogs is believed to have started anywhere between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago- and as a result of the domestication process the dog and the wild wolf differ in many ways. Studies on free-ranging feral dogs show that their social structures are fluid, with unrelated individuals coming and going.
Similarly, groups of domestic dogs are not observed to form strict and hierarchical structures, and interactions between individuals are not driven by the aim of achieving a higher social status.

This is not to say that dominance doesn’t exist at all, as social order can be seen in the majority social species. But the intent of the theorists who devised the social dominance theory was to use it to describe interactions and explain and predict patterns of conflict resolution within a society-forming group of animals, rather than to use “dominance” as a label or individual trait. Social dominance theory was also not intended to be used to predict conflict management across species. We believe that dogs know humans are not dogs, and therefore we cannot assume they form social groups with humans in the same way they do within their own species. Human owners provide their dogs with everything they need to survive and therefore dogs do not need to form ‘packs’ or climb the ‘social ladder’ to meet their needs. Dogs are also unlikely to be in competition with their owners for resources.

In my experience, the majority of dogs just want to “fit in” and be a loved member of our family. I have never felt it relevant, accurate or helpful to apply the Dominance Theory with my clients. I instead make the welfare of the clients my priority whilst using positive reinforcement training and management strategies, supported by scientific research, to help modify a dog’s behaviour.

When looking for any dog professional (groomer, walker, trainer, behaviourist, sitter), it is important to make sure they have a good understanding of, and implement training or handling based on positive reinforcement. You can find a list of accredited trainers and behaviourists on the APBC and ABTC websites.

Below is a picture of my last dog Poppy being 'Top Dog' by sleeping on top of me on the sofa 😆

03/01/2025

OUCH!- Preventing inappropriate mouthing and biting behaviour in puppies!

Unfortunately for us humans, mouthing and biting is a natural behaviour that all puppies will demonstrate. But biting can become a problem behaviour if not managed correctly. I hope this post will help you understand why our puppy’s mouth and some of the ways we can prevent excessive mouthing/ biting during this developmental period.

This post just scratches the surface- for more information please check out my Mouthing and Biting Booklet (linked at the bottom of this post).

Why do Puppies mouth?

1.Teething
Puppies go through periods of losing baby teeth and new adult teeth growing through the gum. This can cause waves of discomfort which mouthing can help relieve.

2.Brain development
During puppy development puppies are learning all the time! This process can be incredibly tiring and overwhelming. Puppies are not yet able to regulate these emotions and can struggle to respond to their feelings appropriately- hence they may respond with mouthing behaviour.

3.Over-arousal
If your puppy is over aroused or over stimulated, then their mouthing can become more intense and frequent.

4.Exploration
Puppies use their teeth to explore their environment!

5.Play
Most puppies will use their mouths during play. Play helps dogs develop motor coordination skills and learn about bite inhibition.

6.Defensive Behaviour
Puppies can use mouthing and biting to defend themselves or protect things of value, such as food and toys if they feel threatened.

What can we do to prevent inappropriate biting?

1.Provide things that our puppies can bite and chew!
We can promote self-regulation by giving our puppies plenty of things to chew scattered around the home for easy access. Most pet shops will be able to recommend puppy- safe chews. If your puppy is teething, frozen Kongs can help to soothe sore gums.

2.Exercise
We need to find the balance of mentally stimulating our puppies with exercise, social experiences and interactions with us and not causing an over tired or over aroused puppy.
Walks should predominantly be sniffing and mooching based, and their social interactions should be about quality not quantity. The location of your walk can also affect your dog's arousal levels. Some pups can become easily overwhelmed when being walked on busy streets or around fast traffic. You can help your puppy become calmer on walks by choosing locations with lots for your puppy to sniff as well as ensuring most of their walks are not too stimulus intensive

3.Play
How we play with our puppies may accidentally promote mouthing. Rough play or other excitable games need regulation. An exercise such as “drop” is great at incorporating play and arousal regulation together.

4.Training
Calm training at home can help mentally stimulate your puppy without promoting mouthing, such as teaching your puppy to settle on your mat or working on co-operative husbandry training.

5.Rest
Puppies need approximately 18 hours of rest and sleep a day.

For more information on how to respond to puppy mouthing and biting, please check out my Mouthing Booklet:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1590604717/mouthing-and-biting-booklet?click_key=26dd94239b192f8490e474a4524438440b857759%3A1590604717&click_sum=b5473178&ref=shop_home_active_6

01/01/2025

Happy New Year! 🎊
I hope you and your pooches have all had a great Christmas and New Years!

I have now returned to England following my travels around SE Asia, and at the risk of adding to the January Blues, I thought I would share some pictures of the wildlife (and a couple of mutts of course) that I was lucky enough to see!

I have now started taking bookings for training and behaviour cases for 2025. To get in touch please head to my website https://www.emilycoombe.com or give me an email at [email protected].

Please bare with me as I learn how to function again in the cold, rainy English weather 😂 I will respond to all enquiries as soon as I can.

I look forward to meeting you and your dogs, and catching up with some familiar faces In 2025!

20/06/2024

Big smiles from Finley and Flower who have both completed their 6 week training course 🐶 🎓👏 For both handsome boys we focused on self control training to help them manage their arousal arousal levels in different contexts. They have both made so much progress and their owners have done some amazing training! 💚

28/01/2024

Meet Hope and Faith, two gorgeous Labrador sisters. They had a pretty tough start to life but have now landed on their feet with their new dedicated and loving owners who have already made amazing progress with the girls. When I first met Hope and Faith, they were nervous of new people and they had never been trained before. Now they are super excited to greet new people that enter their home, can walk nicely on a lead, have mastered a sit and are growing in confidence on their walks everyday. They have also had some successful dog interactions, which is something we are continuing to work on in our 121 sessions. A big shout out to Hope and Faith’s owners, the hard work they have put in so far is really paying off. I can’t wait for our next session 🐶🫶🏼

26/01/2024

Holly has that Friday Feeling! Doesn’t she look like she’s posing for her school picture?😂 Holly is doing really well on her training walks in which I am assisting Holly’s owners with her behaviour modification programme focused on reducing her on lead reactivity towards other dogs. Our walks also involve some off lead down time to help make the training enjoyable and keep up positive interactions with other dogs when off lead. Thanks to her owners dedication she has made a lot of progress and reactions have significantly reduced 👏 🐶

07/12/2023

Congratulations to Bueno and his family for completing the 6 week Puppy course 🐶🎓🥳 Beuno has come such a long way thanks to his parents pawsome commitment to his training 💜 Swipe for a behind the scenes of the graduation pic 😂📸

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Videos

Loose Lead Walking 🐕 Loose Lead walking training is one of the most common things I train in both my 121 training sessions and behavioural modification plans. Most dogs have to be walked on lead at least daily, in multiple contexts surrounded by lots of potential distractions. So, it is our job to help them learn that walking on a lead is a positive and calm experience and that they do not need to feel frustrated or pull. Loose lead walking helps keep the owner, dog and members of the public safe and creates and enjoyable walk for everyone involved 😀 🐾 How can we set up our dogs to succeed with loose lead training? 🌳 We need to start our training in low-level distraction environments to set our dogs for success. Regular walks, such as the route to the park is likely already associated with a strong history of pulling, so avoiding these routes to start may be helpful. 🤯If your dog is easily distracted by people and dogs, you may want to drive to quiet residential areas, hire a secure field or even start the training in your home/garden. 🍖 Use high value rewards Moist, smelly, high value treats (E.g. cooked meats) tend to work best for most dogs- especially when generalising your training to high level distraction environments. Varying these treats may help your dog stay motivated. 🐽Along with treats, dogs are also rewarded for walking nicely on the lead by being able to move forward and access sniffs and greetings were appropriate. For example, if they are pulling, we do not allow movement forward to these reinforcers. If they are walking nicely, we can stop and allow them to sniff/ say hi to another dog or person. ✔️ Consistency and patience are key in loose lead walking training. Although some might achieve a loose lead quickly, for others with previous learning experiences, loose lead can be a long process which has to be carefully managed. Below is a video of Zeus the handsome Husky nailing some loose lead walking in o

Self-Control Training 🐶 Self-control training helps our dogs cope with feelings of frustration and helps them learn how to access rewards in appropriate ways. As a result, it helps us as owners keep our dogs under control in a large variety of contexts🐕‍🦺 Hope and Faith’s (two lovely Lab sisters) owners have been working hard on self-control training around food and toys. Hope and Faith had a challenging start to life, in which they likely had minimal access to valued resources (E.g. toys, treats) and had to compete with dogs/ each other for these resources. In addition to this, competition tends to be stronger between siblings, so when they were rehomed with Angela and Jeremy, we quickly realised that self-control was an area we needed to strengthen in multiple contexts. 🎬The video below demonstrates how we built up to helping Faith and Hope stay calm when Angela and Jeremy were handling treats, toys and balls (which they used to jump up towards and attempt to snatch out of hands). With every resource we introduced, we started with short, sweet exposure, before upping the movement of the resource and lowering it to the floor to increase difficulty. The girls are rewarded for keeping all 4 paws on the floor, and when using toys, we rewarded occasional repetitions with another toy they could play (to prevent frustration building too high during the training). We also worked on building a strong recall and emergency recall, which we can use to help them move away from distractions in the environment (E.g. another dog’s ball!). 🐕💨 The next step for the girls will be to continue to increase the difficulty of the exercise, by dropping/ rolling, throwing toys and rewarding them for staying calm/ recalling off them. Other areas of self-control training that Hope and Faith have nailed include door waits and loose lead walking! A big shout out to Hope and Faith’s amazing owners who have put in so much hard work with the girls. It has be