🐶 Puppy Classes: Our Next New Date! 🐶
6 Week Puppy Training Class @ Wolf and Whippet Dog Training
🏫 Venue: The Watkins Room, Old Grammar School, Chipping Sodbury. Next to the library.
🐶 Limited to 4 spaces, smaller classes mean owners and dogs have more time with the trainer and less distraction.
📅 When: Saturdays at 9.30 am
6 weeks: September 2024 - 21st (Without Puppies), 28th, Oct - 5th, 12th (Different start at 1.45pm on this day only), 19th, 26th.
*Be aware of the 12th of October date at 1.45pm start on the course when booking. This is due to a booking before our class on that day.*
Suzy has written a full 6-week Puppy Class, which is based on her 1-2-1 Puppy Course written in 2018. This 6-Week Class, puppy information, and support content has a class book which is given to each of our class attendees. The book also has weekly training schedules to help you continue training at home.
Please visit our puppy training page for a full breakdown :
https://www.wolfandwhippet.com/puppytraining
These Puppy Classes are suitable for puppies to join between the age of 10-20 weeks of age. Plus, have begun and had their first vaccination of their puppy course vaccinations with your veterinary professional. Our Puppy Class focuses on real-life training skills, what socialisation means to our puppies and dogs, how we can support our puppies through development, and building foundations to reliable behaviours slowly. From having your puppy or dog able to settle at home, in the car, a café or on holiday, to having your dog walking on a lovely loose lead are some of the key skills we will look at. Training is more than teaching cues and behaviours; it is a great and fun way to create a positive partnership with your canine companion. Building a relationship, trust, and communication.
✅️ Support, Guidance, and Help ✅️
Each puppy class will be set up with an individual WhatsApp group, where you can ask questions in relation to training, class
🐶 Scent and Search for an Object 🐶
Following teaching some amazing classes the first part of this year, meeting wonderful people, and watching dog partnerships train together, I have taken a break. Though I have supported a few of my 1-2-1 clients. My family has needed my time due to moves and illness, plus for me, raising an adolescent puppy!
Apologies for the delays in new enquiries. Unfortunately, there is only me currently answering emails, inquiries, admin, and planning. Excitingly, I am also studying too to increase my knowledge and skills. I will be catching up over the next few weeks, and my next classes will be starting later in September.
Hoshi and I have been working together on an important assistance dog trainer accreditation. We have been training to find an item and bring the item back, placing it gently in a hand, as one of the skills.
This is different from a ball/toy retrieval as it needs to be calm and precise. Plus, it is unlike a ball to chase and bring back, which is intrinsically reinforcing for a dog with repetition. This is essentially quieter training that requires searching (the seeking system - an emotional system that helps animals find resources, (Panksepp, 2010), and shaping behaviour.
I trained this behaviour by shaping, breaking down the task into smaller steps, and marking. Firstly, I began shaping Hoshi to hold an item, then picking up the item next to me. Next, to place the item into my hand and drop it gently. Then, I built distance with the item and to place in my hand, which I incorporated scentwork for, which Hoshi enjoyed practising searches.
I began the searches, as I would with scentwork training, building a positive association with an item, which was helping with shaping a hold, along with indication, but asking for a retrieve of the item to my hand. There are many steps with this task, and Hoshi has worked hard alongside me. This is an early video, as we are more advanced now, where Hoshi is searching for mo
🐶 Off Lead with your Puppy 🐶
Most of my puppy clients are a little worried or nervous of letting their puppy off lead, which I completely understand as feel the same myself. Even though my other dog is an adult dog, there are still considerations when we let her her off lead as well.
Every owner will encounter challenges, especially when you start practising training skills and cues in new environments, where there are more distractions. This is why trainers recommend teaching in low distraction, known environments foundations, before slowly introducing more distraction, as well as distance and duration.
I have been working with Hoshi on building value in staying with and near me, using play and training. Playing with our puppies and dogs is so important to build a relationship and communication. Play helps our dogs feel good, as dopamine, the happy hormone is released. If our dogs feel good, positive being with us, they will be more likely to choose to stay with us.
Hoshi's other feel-good activities also include training fun cues, especially those where he works close to me, such as spin and middle. This has also positively helped our loose lead and beginning of heelwork practice, too.
This video shows Hoshi and I on an off lead walk, where you see him offering wanted behaviours such as check-ins and coming to heel by choice, which I reinforce with treats intermittently. You will also note in places where he looks back. This is Hoshi, distracted by Yuna, who has supported him since we adopted him and who helps his confidence. However, Hoshi still chooses to walk with me, and the distraction gave me great practice for other real-world distractions that may occur.
With heelwork and loose lead we want fluidity and movement. Though with loose lead our dogs are free to stop, sniff, engage with the environment, which is why I train both separately. What doesn't help loose lead walking is stops and starts, asking for a sit for example, as this stops fluid mo
🐶 Dog Training Classes 🐶
I have been so lucky to have had great clients in my puppy and training classes, as well as my lovely 121 clients. Watching you all build your partnerships, training with your dogs, and seeing your successes has been brilliant. I am guilty of not capturing your training enough with photos and videos as too busy observing!
This little video is a summary of one of my puppy classes. These are often full of smiles and laughing, and this particular group was no exception.
This is a thank you to each and every client. There is only one of me running training support, emails, updates, and plans, so apologies for any delays. Every client, dog, and inquiry is important to me.
🐶 💗 🐺
#wolfandwhippet #intodogs #dogtrainer #dogtraining #chippingsodburydogtrainer #dogtraininginchippingsodbury #dogtraininginyate #puppytraining
#wolfandwhippet #intodogs #puppytraining #dogtrainer #dogtraining #dogtraininginchippingsodbury #dogtraininginyate #rescuepuppy #malinoispuppy #malinois #belgianshepherdmalinois
🐶 Training Skills: Teaching a 'Send to Place' 🐕
I use a mat as my target to send my dog to as a safety skill. I keep this as a cue, separate to my dogs bed, and settle blanket. For me, settling is also a feeling of relaxation and being comfortable, rather than sending a dog to a place. Combining the two, I would question: If you cue a dog to an area, is the dog relaxed in that moment? A send to place is to me is basically target training or as trainers refer to as "stationing."
The cue to "place" should mean to go to a mat or station and stay there until released. When we train this behaviour, we are teaching two cues: place and a release. This is an important safety cue around doors, especially the front door, plus greeting guests politely, accepting deliveries, in new environments, as well as during dog events and workshops.
During my 121s with puppies and dogs, along with my improvers classes, this is a behaviour I introduce with owners when I feel the dog is ready to do some further shaping training. In classes and 121s, I want to cover a lot, especially key skills, but every puppy and dog, like us, learns at a different pace, so talioring training and support means I adapt and change session plans for you and your dog.
Here, in this video, is one of the amazing puppies I'm working with and their owners currently. I can not take any credit for this, as it is all down to the owner and dog partnership and practice. Every small step my clients move forward makes me smile and happy to see! Thank you!
Video is shared with permission of owner.
[Video shows a poodle puppy moving on to a mat, after their owner has cued, mat.]
#wolfandwhippet #intodogscertifiedtrainer #chippingsodburydogtraining #dogtrainer #dogtraining #yatedogtraining #yatedogtrainer #rewardbaseddogtraining
🐕🦺🐶 Dog Equipment: Longlines 🐶🐕🦺
I am often asked about equipment I recommend and only like to advise in regard to what I have personally fit and trialled with my dogs. So, I thought over the next few days, I would talk about companies I am affiliated with and whose ethics align with mine.
Longlines are a great piece of equipment for training, safety, responsible dog ownership, and management. They are not to be thought of as necessary due to training failure. No dog has 100% recall, but I train my dogs and support my clients to build the most reliable recall for their individual dog. I have a Siberian Husky and most sled dog rescues advise and state to always keep these breeds on lead for a reason. However, I also think that alongside management, we need to train for equipment and handling fails, especially around front doors, for example, where risk is high.
I recommend various harness companies, such as Haqihana and Perfect Fit, to clients for adult dogs, although I have harnesses mostly made to fit for my dogs. A well fit harness for walking or specific for sports is key for your dogs comfort. A harness protects the neck, trachea, and throat from injury due to pressure. Harnesses will not stop pulling, nor will they exacerbate pulling behaviour. There is more information about this on my harness earlier post.
However, the reason I mention harnesses is we need to use them with a long line for safety. Sudden jerks where a dog runs to the end of a longer line could injure a dog. This is prevented by using a well fit harness with longline attached. This does not mean we allow this to happen, as using a longline requires some training skills to be able to trail, release length, and prevent pressure and tension. These are lead skills I like to cover with clients during recall and loose lead training.
One thing I am obsessed with is equipment quality and function, and I have tried many types of longlines, and SwaggerPaws longlines are my fa
🐕 Door Safety: How do we use training to keep our dogs safe when we open the door? 🏠
I have talked about teaching a 'stay' cue previously in a post. However, when we begin to use a trained behaviour in different environments and contexts, often other skills are needed to build reliability.
In the video here with Yuna by my front door, you see and hear, me cue 'Wait', which means don't move until I release you, and the release cue, 'Okay', which means you can move away. I turn my back, walk to the gate, turn and return, pause, and release Yuna. Seems simple, but what did I work on and train for this to become reliable?
• Socialisation: socialising your dog to different stimuli and different environments. We watched, observed, and created positive associations with bikes, traffic, roads, prams, children on scooters, mobility aids and more. Often, we concentrate on socialisation on walks and training in back gardens. But exposure to the front of our homes is equally important. Yuna and I still spend time observing in the courtyard, where we have traffic and footfall of different people, dogs, cats, horses, motorcycles, and more. This activity carefully exposes puppies and dogs slowly from a safe place to different stimuli. For sensitive dogs, you can sit inside the door. More confident dogs can observe on a longer lead or long line because we have practised this activity regularly and have an enclosed frontage, Yuna will and watch near our gate comfortably.
• Distraction, Duration, and Distance: we slowly add and increase each of these while teaching a behaviour. Breaking training into small steps. Raising each of these increases difficulty. If you find you or your dog is struggling, go back a few steps. The process of learning and teaching has no time upon it, as different for each learner.
• Recall: Working on recall near the front door. I practice my recall cues near and from the front door as this is often where we most need to use them suddenl
🐺 Teaching a 'Stay' Cue 🐕
In my last few classes, we have practised a stay and then slowly built distractions by practising outside around each other and our dogs. In class we use long lines to practise safely around each other, my clients and myself use a long line to prevent unwanted behaviour and keep our dogs safe. Especially currently with livestock moving fields in our local area. Always check fields are secure, dogs are able to be off lead, and free of livestock.
Training your dog to stay is an important skill for any dog owner. It can be a lifesaver in many situations, such as when you open the front door, car boot before clipping a lead on, when equipment fails, or near a road. A reliable and trained cue means your dog will stay in the position/area until you give them a release cue, recall cue, or return and place on lead, for example. A reliable cue means that even with distraction or distance, your dog will stay.
Here are just a few reasons training a reliable 'Stay' is important:
Safety: a practised and reliable cue reduces the risk of injury in many environments near roads and busy areas. Or when you have a delivery and need your dog to stay, preventing escape or worrying a person that may be fearful of dogs.
Control: a cued stay can be used in many situations, such as when you are walking near livestock and experience equipment breaking, or opening a gate to enter an area and need your dog to wait one side while you check if the other is clear.
Assistance Dog Training: a reliable 'Stay' is essential for many people of disability, elderly or pregnant for example, that require safe movement around the home, a dog could trip a person in narrow spaces, or jump up at them causing a hazard.
Building Confidence: Training your dog builds your relationship and partnership. Knowing you have built reliable cues also helps your confidence as a handler and owner.
Tips:
Don't get frustrated if your dog moves from position whilst training. Trai
🐶 Loose-Lead Walking 🐺
This weeks 1-2-1, in person and remote classes, we continued with our recall and loose lead skills.
Alongside check-ins and engagement, we also empathised how lovely relaxed, slowed walks are, where your dog finds value in walking with you on a loose lead. A loose lead where your dog feels relaxed will help with any potential frustration, stress or arousal, awareness of you, and their own body awareness. Reducing potential injury to themselves, as well as you at the other end of the lead.
This allows for sniffing and engagement in the environment, too, which also helps the above. Loose lead skills take time and a high rate of reinforcement (marking and rewarding wanted behaviour) while training the foundations. We change the reinforcement schedule slowly, reducing the amount of rewards.
I tell my training clients to practice their loose lead foundations firstly in a known area, usually the home, then garden, then front garden area. Introducing skills slowly into local walks and picking an area your dog is most relaxed in for 3 to 5 minutes. Extend this bubble slowly, building in loose lead training into your walks.
Our other focus was teaching a stay, using a release cue to reinforce duration, and practising recall skills and games with added distraction. Recall needs to be slowly built, adding distance and distraction slowly. Using a long line in more distracting and new environments ensures safety and helps manage unwanted behaviour. Next week we will be looking further at using long line and some fun activities.
This video update was sent by one of my puppy clients, demonstrating check-ins that had been built with their puppy and into walks. The area is quite busy with traffic and distraction. We are not looking for a heel position, as want puppies to engage and observe the environment as part of socialisation. We simply want minimal lead tension. The puppy's owners have practised lots of real-life skills in different enviro
🐺✋️ Hand Target ✋️🐶
A hand target is simple to train with foundations and place on a verbal cue, along with its visual cue of a hand presented. Once practised, with distance and duration of a target, around distractions, this simple cue can be built into other behaviours such as trick training and recall.
The cue is also useful for assistance dog training, with paw and nose targets, from opening doors to turning on switches. This is particularly important as a person with hidden disabilities and being able to support clients that, like myself, may require training to be adapted for different needs. Hence, often I film training sitting down for people to see dog training in a seated position. Being inclusive for clients is incredibly important to me, in the same way we adapt training for puppies, elderly and disabled dogs. Learning styles can be very unique for each individual, so please, if booking a class, 121, or remote support, please do let me know how I can help you and your dog further.
A hand target can also be used, which I include within the lead skills I teach. It is a helpful cue to move and focus a sensitive dog away from fearful situations and high distraction environments.
Plus, as always, it is fun to shape and teach our dogs!
#wolfandwhippet #Intodogs #rewardbasedtraining #dogtraining #dogtrainingclasses #hiddendisabilities #rarediseases #inclusivity
🐺✋️💗🐺✋️💗🐺✋️💗🐺✋️💗🐺
🐺💗 Wolf and Whippet Workshops 💗🐶
🐩 We will be launching some small workshops focusing on key training skills. Our first to launch will be recall. This will suit people that would like a more reliable recall, want to improve and build engagement around environmental distractions. Those with rescues, adopted dogs, adolescent dogs and huskies. This workshop is to develop skills for the best recall for your individual dog, as no dog has perfect 100% recall. As an owner of Huskies that largely hikes on lead due to my chosen breed, I still want the best recall for my dog. Equipment can fail, and doors can be left open in error, so practising with our dogs on recall skills is key for safety.
🐕 These workshops will only be suitable for dogs that are comfortable around other people and dogs. Although we manage our class environment inside and out, for more sensitive dogs, we recommend 121 support.
🐶 During our workshop sessions, we will cover different games, troubleshooting, engagement and disengagement, and training around each other safely in our venue with long lines. All training success will only come from your continual practice of the skills we demonstrate and teach you in these workshops. All of these skills we continue to practise with our own dogs.
🐺 The workshops will be over 2 separate sessions with a 2 week gap in-between, giving you time for practice, a training schedule to follow, and a challenge to film and send to us. Followed by a refresher session week, where we put those skills to practice around each other.
🐩 These workshops will be limited to 3 to 4 dogs to keep coaching and support focused with more time with your trainer.
Price of our Recall Workshop for 2 x 1 Hour sessions £45.00.
✅️ This includes worksheets and a training schedule. Each workshop group is set up with a WhatsApp private group to share videos and demos with you, plus for feedback and your successes!
🏤 Our venue is in Chipping Sodbury at the G
🐺💗 Teaching a Middle 💗🐶
On cue, a dog moves and stays in position between your legs.
🐶 Why? 🐺
It's a great safety cue! You can use it, for example, as a recall skill, targetting, tucking your puppy or dog somewhere safe, or as a trick using training for engagement for busy minds. There are so many uses. Before starting to use new trained behaviours in different environments, we need to start with the foundations in a low distraction.
This little video shows and demos a few of the foundation stages when I shape this behaviour and teach my clients. These stages I work through over a period of days/weeks or longer, shaping the desired behaviour at the set end criteria.
Shaping is a process whereby you slowly teach your dog a new behaviour by marking and rewarding each small step. This method is a great way to reduce frustration during learning. Plus lots of fun!
I use a clicker to mark wanted behaviour with Yuna, however I also use a marker work in the same way. My clicker is a secondary reinforcer I have paired with food, a primary reinforcer. This pairing I did before using the clicker with repetitions.
🐶 Click/marker word = Treat/food 🐶
Yuna enjoys learning by shaping, and here you see me during a few parts of this training process. Okami always enjoyed working very close to me naturally and picked up a middle and leg weaves quickly, which we chained into a behaviour called '8'. A figure of 8 through my legs, ending in a middle position.
🐺 First, I begin with something I teach in puppy classes, part of my 'rolling recall', rolling a treat past me in both directions, creating a positive association being and moving near me. This is important as Yuna likes to train at a distance. So, using this game builds her confidence.
🐺 Next, I roll the treats through my legs for Yuna to follow. Again, I'm looking for confident, fluid movements through my legs. As I filmed this, there were times Yuna went around my legs rather than through,
🐺🤚💗Yuna and Consent to Touch🤚💗🐺
Yuna came to me as a rescue foster puppy. Many dogs are not fully comfortable with touch, and all dogs are sometimes not comfortable with touch. This may be due to their preferences, pain, discomfort, regulating heat or learned experiences, and more. Yuna is very touch sensitive, so we have built communication for vet inspections and grooming as well as for our relationship.
I talk about looking for relaxed body language and build trust through choices with all my clients. Choices your dog makes and looking for consent through their body language.
Yuna and I have built trust this way for years, with me carefully observing her body language. We also use the bucket game, which I cover in my classes. In this video, Yuna is in a space that is open, where she can choose to move away easily. The sofa is one of her chosen spaces she will invite us to touch her.
Yuna, and likewise, all dogs will offer certain parts of their body to be touched. Some dogs are comfortable with more areas. Yuna's safe areas are her shoulder, under her front legs and chest. She shows us these areas and leans towards us and oud hands, with those areas exposed.
As you can see, I stop multiple times to allow her to indicate when she wants me to continue. Note the licking me at the beginning, her paws and head moving towards me and her tail movements when I stop and wait for permission. When I begin to stroke her gently again, she relaxes and is clearly enjoying this contact between us.
Allowing and encouraging choice for our dogs will build their confidence and trust around us. Part of a long and incredible partnership.
🐶💗 Your Dog Partnership 💗🐶
The part of my work with dogs that I don't share enough due to protecting client's privacy are their successes.
By 'their' success and wins, I mean my clients and their puppy and dog partnerships. These successes aren't mine. My role is to teach my clients how to train these skills through building foundations and broken down steps. It is the ongoing practice of behaviours of my clients with their dogs after a 121 session or class that sees success.
I always tell my clients to have realistic expectations, to work through steps slowly, go back, pause, take a break if you or your dog are struggling. And that, though I am a dog trainer, I have to spend many sessions teaching and proofing a behaviour to become reliable, often over months. More importantly, the process of doing so is enjoyable for your dog and yourself. Instead of focusing on just the task, or end result, consider the learning journey, set your partnership up for success preparing the right learning environment, listen to your trainer, or behaviourist about timing and reinforcement. Don't forget to have fun together!
Video Description
Here I am sharing with permission one of my puppy clients videos that shows a labrador puppy demonstrating a hand target on cue at a distance. The puppy hears the cue, sees the visual cue and recalls back to the owner, while off lead, nose touching the owners hand.
Nose touch to hand = reward/treat/play with toy
A hand target can be used as a recall skill, to move your dog safely on, off things and around the environment, during vet visits, and much more.
My clients worked on this additional behaviour, as well as their weekly challenge to settle their puppy on a blanket in a new environment. Thank you for letting me share the video and working together in partnership. This behaviour began in the home and practised in different environments by my clients.
🐺🐶 Loose Lead Walking 🐶🐺
A little while ago I made a post about loose lead foundations. Working in partnership with your dog, with no equipment or lead, capturing, marking and rewarding check ins, voluntary eye contact and walking near me. We did this in my living room, low distraction with Yuna and Okami. Increasing engagement and teaching my dogs that being near me pays.
After this step, we can add distraction, changing the environment, this could be another room or garden.
Next, we begin to change direction, continuing to reward check ins and staying with me. Then we add in our lead skills by teaching in a known environment. I teach loose lead skills on a comfortable walking harness, protecting a dogs delicate neck from injuries caused by lead tension, pulling or lunging.
I like to call this 'follow me on lead'. I use a long line or a longer lead, this will increase chances of a nice loop in the lead and success with no tension. Walking backwards, I encourage my dog to follow me, rewarding each step. If my dog is following me and aware of my movement, then they won't be pulling. I slowly change my position as obviously walking backwards isn't ideal forever to a parallel position utilising all the built foundations.
Teaching loose lead takes time, engagement, partnership and awareness of each other for both handler and dog. There is no magic fix and trainers that use tools, aversive methods and lead pressure are not only causing discomfort to the dog to suppress unwanted behaviour, but affecting the partnership negatively as adding something the dog finds unpleasant.
Slowly integrate your lead skills into walks, changing the environment. Adding distraction too soon may set the dog up to fail and you to feel frustrated. Separating training walks from your sniffy on lead strolls and off lead adventures will build successes.
Frustration on Walks
Yuna as a puppy and adolescent was a frustrated greeter and became overstimulated quickly from excitement of dogs in the environment on our walks.
Behaviour I would see would be her lying down, so we could not move forward, trying to jump towards approaching dogs and sometimes barking. Yuna couldn't meet every dog on our walk for many reasons, other dogs may be sensitive, an assistant dog, injured or aging for example.
As a larger breed I was also worried about other dogs finding her behaviour inappropriate and intimidating. So I needed to work on changing her response to aproaching and passing dogs. And for polite on lead brief sniffs and relaxed meetings.
We began by creating a little distance from approaching dogs and encouraging sniffy behaviour on walks. As dogs approached I would capture calm behaviour by sprinkling treats in grass or bushes. The sniffing behaviour helped her relax and lower frustration, plus she enjoyed it more importantly. It was shown in a study from 2018 that nosework increased optimism and that olfaction activities and foraging contribute to welfare and influenced mood.
We worked on capturing calm during the whole of adolescence, setting her up for success and result is a relaxed adult around other dogs. She made a great demo dog at my Hoopers course around lots of new dogs, that were not to be approached.
In the video, once the dog passes, I then begin to reward check ins and loose lead as we carry on walking together. This all ties in together for lovely loose lead, calm, sniffy walks. We worked on this for different stimuli such as bikes and scooters, creating positive associations and capturing calm behaviour at a distance Yuna was comfortable.
Duranton. C, Horowitz. A, Let me sniff! Nosework induces positive judgement bias in pet dogs; 2018.
