Brand new never seen before method of achieving a focus heel! Super advanced method. So much science. Absolutely not just messing about and inventing something silly on the spot 😂
Steps to having ‘scary dog privilege’ and being able to say ‘yeah I’m a real dog trainer now I have a protection dog’.
1. Don’t get a Labrador
2. Don’t teach her a bark and hold using a squeaky chicken
(No shade to those who train bitesports and protection work well!)
My favourite thing is teaching fun things for literally no reason other than it’s an honour to hang out with my dog and learn stuff together ♥️
- Kahla
Cue Understanding
How good is your dogs understanding of verbal cues?
Did you know that the answer to most frustration based behaviours is clarity? An absolute understanding of what’s expected at any moment.
Every day I hear ‘they can do this at home’ or ‘they can do this in training’ but the dog in front of me in fact, can’t. This is usually down to a baseline lack of true understanding.
For example in this video I use two cues.
‘Ta’ meaning to drop
‘Okay’ to mean grab
Let’s break this down further. ‘Ta’ is also an implied duration behaviour. Once I have asked for the drop, it is also a cue to not take again until I have cued otherwise. ‘Okay’ is my generalised ‘do the thing you want to do’ which in this case is tugging.
When you ask your dog to sit, what does that actually mean? Do you say sit, then stay? Then repeat your stay as you walk away? Then the dog doesn’t truly understand their sit cue! Sit should mean sit. Nothing more nothing less. Just sit until a verbal cue of something else is given.
Often we add in all these words and extra ‘help’ to try and help the dog get it right. We walk away saying ‘stayyyyy, staaaaaayyyy!’ and all we are doing is creating confusion, which will ultimately lead to deterioration of behaviour understanding.
Clarity creates confidence, in handler and dog. If you’re repeating your verbal cues, then ask yourself if your dog TRULY understands what that verbal cue is or not?
This week I want you to test this theory yourselves. Give your dog a verbal cue they understand, then do something unexpected. So a single ‘sit’ cue followed by you doing a star jump or a little jog on the spot. Don’t repeat your cue. Watch your dog. If they stay sat, then congratulations, they understand! If they break their sit, then consider whether they really understand and whether your foundations may be a little shaky.
I could go on about these concepts forever, but you’ll have to book some 1:1s or a
Beginners Agility Class
Firstly, sunshine is SO GOOD FOR THE SOUL!
And dry ground is good for your trainers soul 😂
My beginners agility group today did incredibly well doing some work on early blind crosses and driving their dogs on independently. Learning to trust your dog is so hard and I couldn’t be more proud of how well they are all doing!
All of my classes today absolutely smashed it out of the park 🎉
