Team work makes the dream work
Bella is a 7/8 month old Staffie - she came along today to continue her loose leash training
Dog training - regardless of your style or method - boils down to a simple principle:
Create space for enough successful repetitions to create new habit!
Eventually habit doesn’t need enforcement. Habit is habit.
Bella’s owner is a fantastic breed advocate for this kind, hard working and intelligent breed!
Dolly the rescue and small challenges course
Dolly started life in an overseas rescue centre but was lucky enough to find her forever home here in Scotland!
Watching Dolly build confidence and find a zest for life has been an absolute privilege and I cannot praise her dedicated owner enough for not only offering her growing brood a loving home but putting time, love and support into her training approach every step of the way!
Dolly now has a passion for life and a fun and outgoing personality clearly shown here as we built bit by bit a small challenges course for her to work through!
Practise for success!
Practice everywhere!
I am a big advocate for training where you need it!
Here is an example of today’s training with Teddy who is into his second week residency - we warmed up, practised and played at Rabbit Rock before heading into Elgin high street.
Teddy did so well watching the world and other dogs pass by we stopped off at Birnie’s Pet Shop for a well deserved reward!
Free play - Learn by doing with a Reactive dog
Free play - learn by doing with a reactive dog:
A rainy day at Rabbit Rock Field didn’t put Teddy off from building his confidence and experience with free play today.
The goal was to let Tilly, Bell and Teddy explore boundaries, learn play styles and get along.
With plenty of room and no leads Dogs can be Dogs and generally work things out on their own with the human being present to be referee.
Although this isn’t the solution for surprise encounters on lead in public it does wonders to improve the dogs emotional expectation and creates opportunities for more open minded encounters when we take his training public later in the week!
Turbo wash
How do you clean yours? 😂 😜
Not really!
Pet Gundog training workshop!
Announcement: new and improved for 2024
Pet Gundog training workshop!
Force free methods and games tailored to unlock the genetic potential in your Pet dog.
Step by step tuition as you build your dog’s ability and confidence. Covering many aspects of gundog skills such as focus, heelwork, steadiness & impulse control, basic scent work, teamwork, retrieving, target & Place work, whistle work & more.
1-1 tuition ensure each lesson is tailored to suit your dogs breed and level.
Benefits include:
Increased attention and focus.
Exciting and effective ways to exercise leading to improved health, behaviour and performance at home.
Non food centric approach.
Off lead skills.
And much more
Single lessons are £25 with discounts for blocks of 4.
Open to all breeds, abilities and ages (6 months +)
Intact male dogs welcome.
Trainers POV - Puppy School
Week two of puppy school is all about Focus and Lead Manners.
Whilst half the class explore and conquer our small challenges course the other half work on lead manners and holding Stay around distractions.
Here is a silly video of me trying to up the ante and be a distracting fool!
Well done to everyone today! Good homework tells Great results!!
Play together - work together
Today at Rabbit Rock Tilly met Rebus and Cody who both have under gone Guide Dog training.
We’ve been working on Cody’s excitement levels around people and dogs and as you can see he is progressing really well!
After play and exercise we improvised some routines to test out the dog’s ability to work with and around each other!
If you have a friend you meet up regularly with why not consider a Duo lesson and learn some fun routines to mix into your training!
Thank you Rebus and Cody for a fun day out!
Train & play: Hoopers
Superstar Benji has started on another block of train and play - following on from agility lessons. Today we introduced him to Hoopers for the very first time!
Hoopers is a fantastic -noncontact type of agility. I think this is marvellous for bigger breeds like Labs and Rotties and quick agile breeds like border collies and boxers.
What a fantastic way to tire out your dog before heading out for training !!
When it all comes together…
Ending the week on a high as Lola completes her 4 week course and demonstrating attention, focus and synergy off lead!
This team have put in the work - smashed their homework and reaping the benefits already! Creating reward zones around you puts you centre stage and makes adventures more likely and more enjoyable!
Looking forward to seeing Lola at the weekend for our Prey Drive Course!
10/10 A**
Interrupted recalls- 5months
Daisy is a 5 month old Labradoodle Today we practiced interrupted recalls!
Lots of factors govern a successful recall and expectation and body language is often left behind -
A recall is only really a recall if the dog can turn around at full pelt. It’s an emotional recall aswell as a psychical one.
Standing in front of the dog and beckoning them over is one thing but often you NEED a recall when the dog isn’t looking at you.
As I call over Daisy I offer praise, fun, tasty treat - however in this fun game we can condition Daisy to choose her owners over the fun rabbit, dog or person.
Daisy did so well with her young handler and is well on her way to a successful assistance career!
If you’d like to improve your dogs recall - get in touch!
Trainers POV - Reactivity
Reducing reactivity is about creating positive experiences. Long lasting change can’t happen at the end of a slip lead - also positive reinforcement only works if the reward is given positively- imagine having a lovely steak being thrown at you - it’s going to affect the taste.
These “games” influences the narrative to create positive outcomes. Dave and his handler are such a good example of how to make these changes I just had to share.
Dave had a few moments but even in this one session recovered quicker and quicker - food wasn’t handed out as a distraction it was awarded for successful sequences - You can see Dave actively seeking his owners attention and being rewarded for doing so.
Building on these sessions Dave will reprogram the incoming threat he thinks is present and look to his owner for guidance instead in the future.
Following the “leader”
Practising follow is more important than practicing recall!
Desensitisation is more important than socialisation!
Focus is more important than lead work!
Foundation training gives the Dog, the knowledge of what we want them to choose to do when they have other options. The environments shape the Dog, so you can shape the environment which will lead to different choices.
In this game, as a warmup, each Dog took turns on lead (see comments for example) and therefore got all the attention. This teaches each individual Dog, where the best place to be is-right next to you!
So when the leads are off all the dogs that circle of reward stays the same
Before during and after WARM UPS
Dennis 2 year old lab - day two of residency
We are all a bit guilty of getting out the car and off we go! Going out of the front door and off we go!!
Training, warm-ups, especially in the early stages are the difference between successful walk and a distracted one.
Total training volume - or practice to success, creates better distance, better distractions, better duration, and make long difficult human walks possible!
Two different breeds Two different ages - same success!
Check out 1 yo Dalmatian Elvis and 2yo Labrador Indi playing the box walk game.
These two dogs are working on different goals - both are using their previous training to hone in to a “reward zone”
Over time this simple game will expand into a bigger and bigger square with more and more around.
Having a teaching mindset gives you and your dog the tools to be successful and tackle places and challenges you might otherwise feel inclined to avoid!
Proofing Recall: other dogs
With all the hard work put into the Proofing Recall videos recently - I managed to get a semi decent video of Tilly putting it to work where ultimately it really matters - around other dogs.
Neutrality is key and that’s why we socialise our dogs as much as possible. It’s not all about romping around and wrestling - imagine a shepherd with a team of 4 or a gun shoot - if those dog prioritise eachother all the time then nothing would get done.
Go out with friends and family dogs and practice working as a team
Mac The cocker - proofing & engagement basics
We have come along way with Board and Train Resident Mac. Today on our play and train walk we focused on engagement and reaction to the whistle.
This is a fairly long video but I wanted to show you how easy and fun a session can be if practiced daily.
Half way through the video I drop the long line entirely.
What we are looking:
Mac turning when I turn.
No shooting off at a tangent.
postive reaction to the whistle - first time every time.
Lots of unsolicited Check ins or “look at Me’s”
