PAWS Dog Training

09/11/2023

🐾 Supercharge Your Dog's Skills: Master the Nose Touch Trick! 🚀🐶💥

Step 1: Treats That Rock 🌟🦴
Start with treats that make your pup's tail wag with delight! Choose their absolute favorites to get them fired up.

Step 2: Reach Out and Tease 🤲🏻✨
Extend your hand with a treat just out of reach, igniting your dog's curiosity.

Step 3: Nose Boop & Celebration 🐽🎉
When your dog's nose touches your hand, let the celebration begin! Reward them with a treat and a burst of enthusiasm.

Step 4: Spice it Up with a Cue 🎙️
Introduce a magic word like "touch" before presenting your hand, adding a dash of excitement to the trick.

Step 5: Conquer the World 🌍
Show off your dog's newfound talent in different spots to prove they're the true masters of the nose touch!

Have you and your dog mastered this one? It's a brilliant one to add value to proximity and to build focus - and once you’ve taught a Nose Touch you can transfer the learning to other objects and use it as the basis for teaching so many tricks and skills! 📸🐾

Keen to add fun purposeful tricks to your dog's repertoire? Our awesome Tricks bundles have you covered! 🐕🎩✨

Pre-order NOW and grab one of our bewitching pre-order bundles and skyrocket your trick training journey to new heights of success: https://absolute-dogs.com/product/trick-or-treat-bundles/

02/08/2023

The dog decides what’s reinforcing (or punishing). Not us.

You might wish that your dog would find your praise reward enough but if they don’t, they don’t! If your dog won’t work for kibble then you might need to up your offer and try something higher value like hot dog or chicken. If your dog isn’t excited by food you might need to try play instead.

Whether something is reinforcing (ie is increasing or strengthening a behaviour) is determined by outcomes, not intentions. If you’re seeing no increase in the behaviour you’re trying to teach despite rewarding it every time then that’s a good indication that (amongst other possibilities) your choice of reward might need to be reconsidered.

And think out of the box. What’s one of Charlie’s highest value reinforcers? Cucumber!

20/07/2023

Four fabulous teams passed their Silver Good Citizens award tonight. Thank you Sarah Jones for assessing. Onwards to the Gold!!

20/07/2023

Three lovely pups passed the Kennel club Bronze Good Citizens award. Well done to all and thank you Sarah Jones for assessing tonight.

15/07/2023

Whitney Fleming Writes ❤️

11/07/2023

𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙄 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙥 𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙤𝙤𝙙? 𝘿𝙤 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙤𝙙?

For the vast majority of dogs food is an effective reinforcer of behaviour. It's high value, highly motivating and highly likely to speed up the teaching of new behaviours. It's a necessary part of our dogs' daily lives so if we can use it thoughtfully* why wouldn't we? And it's easy for us to work with. So why are we often in such a hurry to stop using food when it's an effective, efficient & easy reinforcer?

I wonder whether the hesitancy is because we feel that we shouldn't have to? That we feel our dogs should 'just do it'? That we are somehow spoiling them by reinforcing the desirable behaviours they offer?

Or are we just more comfortable with punishment than reinforcement? Our society is built on a punitive model where we often behave to avoid punishment - we slow down at traffic cameras to avoid a fine or we don't talk in class to avoid a row from the teacher. So perhaps it's not surprising that sometimes reinforcing desirable behaviour doesn't come as naturally as punishing undesirable behaviour.

Being reluctant to use food to reinforce the behaviours we like but willing to use force to punish behaviours we don't is a perspective that's worth thinking about more deeply.

If we want to teach and maintain new behaviours they need to be reinforced by something. Because if they're not they'll fade away. Effective trainers reinforce consistently & generously. Food is just one of many reinforcers open to us but it has lots of advantages so don't be afraid to use it, especially in the early stages of training.

* 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘵 𝘐'𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘨𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘨𝘦𝘵, 𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘥 𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘳

02/07/2023

28/06/2023

For my classes, teaching the Hand Touch.

24/05/2023

If you can't call your dog back from a distraction then they're not ready to be off lead around that distraction. It's that simple.

It doesn't matter if they are friendly. Or just want to play. It doesn't matter if the other person has food, or a ball. If you can't recall your dog from a distraction then they can't be off lead around it.

That doesn't mean they can't have any freedom. If there are no distractions around go for it and work on your recall when you do. If there are distractions nearby then manage your dog and keep them polite & safe by using a long line and working with them around those distractions.

Having our dogs off lead is a privilege, not a right, and it's a privilege that needs to be earned.

19/05/2023

Four fabulous teams passed their GOLD Kennel club good citizen assessment last night. Well done to all of you we have had fun along the way. I am so proud of you. Thank you to Sarah Jones for making the candidates feel relaxed. X

24/04/2023

Bronze gate for 6pm class

24/04/2023

Focus on your hand

24/04/2023

Practice homework for my 6pm class. Luring with a small treat, keeping your hand steady.

16/04/2023

This is so true. We need to build a great relationship with our dogs the journey with them is teamwork! X

We expect a lot from our dogs don’t we?

• to be sociable with every person they meet
• to be sociable with every dog they meet
• to be relaxed & confident in every situation
• to understand the societal rules of a totally different species
• to want to interact with us
• to be happy left alone without us
• to be able to ignore their species & breed specific instincts
• to never display any sign of anger or displeasure. Ever. In their entire lives

And often we expect them to do all of this without ever actively teaching them how. We expect it ‘just to happen’. And that’s not fair…

It takes time, effort, empathy & understanding to teach your dog how to live in a human world. It takes more than 6 weeks of puppy class. It takes more than ‘obedience’.

If you haven’t taught it, it’s not fair to get frustrated when they don’t do it!

06/04/2023

05/03/2023

05/03/2023

When "training" your dog a harness is a much kinder way on their throat. x

28/02/2023

"𝘋𝘰𝘨𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘦'𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮, 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘦'𝘷𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘪𝘯" Susan Garrett

The next time your dog does something you find challenging or embarrassing or which makes you feel frustrated or even angry, take a breath and remember this statement.

They aren't being 'bad' or stubborn or manipulative. They're not blowing you off or being a jerk. It's not a deliberate act designed to wind you up on their part.

Their behaviour is what it always is. A reflection of their learning and their environment. If they are doing something we don't want it's either because we haven't taught them what we do want well enough or because they just can't (not won't) do it under the current conditions. And both of those things are on us, not the dog.

They're doing the best they can with the cards we've dealt them. If we want them to do better then it's only fair that we need to do better, too.

25/02/2023

With such beautiful weather at the moment why not make the most of it with a 'sniffari' walk- although our walks are limited in distance that doesn't mean they need to be limited in fun!

23/02/2023

👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻. This!!! This is what we’ve been working hard on this week in classes

22/02/2023

Instead of focusing on the "not" focus on the "what".

How much time & energy do you spend trying to get your dog 𝙣𝙤𝙩 to do things? Not to jump up? Not to pull on the lead? Not to beg at the table? Not to run away? And how is that working for you? Often it's a continual, frustrating cycle of dog does unwanted thing/we say no/dog stops (momentarily)/dog starts (again). And so it goes....

But instead of putting all your effort into stopping what you 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 want why not try actively teaching what you 𝙙𝙤 want? If you're spending time and effort managing your dog's behaviour anyway why not spend it doing something that will reduce frustration for you, increase clarity for your dog and lead to a more harmonious life for both of you?

It's not hard to do. Start to proactively reward the behaviours you like. Reward four feet on the floor, a slack lead, lying on their bed, settling calmly, checking in with you. Look for things you like & reward them. It's simple but it works.

Indie can struggle to settle under some conditions so all her family have done is start rewarding her whenever she chooses to lie in her bed. That's it. And they're seeing more and more of this picture ⬆️ and less of the unsettled behaviours.

"Behaviour goes where reinforcement flows"

21/02/2023