Scatter feeding do you do this with your dog? Try it on your next walk 🐕🐾 #scentwork
Happy birthday to our lovely Sally from all the team & of course all the lovely Stay & Play Doggies 🎈🎈🎈🎈🎉🎉😀😀🎂🎂🎂 ps how nice is it to see sunshine in these pics 😀😀😀 #birthday #doglovers
Head collars / head halti do you use them for your dog? In an ideal world we wouldn’t need to but for strong adolescent dogs safety comes first and a good fitting head collar is like giving us power steering! Are they needed forever? No not really, but as dogs go through developmental periods and some struggle with over arousal, teenage hormones & little to no impulse control- a head collar can be a safe option for strong dogs - also we don’t want all the hard work on the collar to be ruined in adolescence, by our dogs finding out they can out power us and pull us over to that nice smelling bush 😅
So how do we introduce a head collar - step by step, take your time and you can condition the head collar to be the same association as you dog once had as a puppy putting on a harness.
Video below is the first steps to introduce for the first time 👇
Alfie’s reactivity journey 🥰 When Alfie first came to us he was reacting badly when approached by another dog both on and off lead, off lead he would run across the field and bark at unknown dogs, much to his owner’s embarrassment and not be able to get him back - when he was on lead, it became a battle which ended in them completely avoiding other dogs all together - which in this day and age is impossible!!
We don’t use avoidance techniques, we get out there in the real world and practise the training - we have been working with Alfie & his owner on lead passing lots of dogs, reading Alfie’s body language to see how he was feeling, accompanied by our reactive rover classes and neutral walks- today Mr Alfie came to the centre super confident, engaged with his owner and today was able to play with the other dogs and how much he loved it 🥰 him & his owner left today so happy, Alfie and with a wagging tail & his owner with a big smile on her face 🥰- this is the best feeling when we see footprints in the journey of a dog’s reactivity work - which is a journey and one owners work so hard at to get this far 🤗well done guys 👏#reacrivedog #reactiverovers #dogaggression #dogtraining #dogtrainer #connectbehaviour
TIPS IF YOUR DOG IT TOILETING AT HOME
Top Tips if your dog has started to toilet in your home - check out the video for my top tips to prevent this!! #doglover#dogtraining #toilettraining
Loose Lead walking - one thing lots of owners struggle with, but with time, patience & persistence it can be done!!! 💪 Video of two high drive, teenage boys walking beautifully on their leads 🥰 #looseleadwalking #looselead #dogwalking #gsd #blacklab #doglover #connectbehaviour #exeter #devon
Through Spring, Summer, Autumn & Winter, these guys train in the wind, rain & cold seasons to give their fantastic dogs an outlet and do a sport that they love together 🥰😙#agilitytraining #devonsogtrainingclub #connectbehaviour
TIPS ON BEING A RESPONSIBLE DOG OWNER & NOT BEING A JERK!!!
So we work with clients every day and these are the struggles we hear from our dog owners on a week by week basis - so check out the video and be a responsible dog owner 😀 #toptipsdogownership #beagooddowner #trainyourdog #longline #dogtrainer #exeter #devon
LETS PLAY TUGGY!!
Here at Connect Behaviour we absolutely love playing with our dogs! We incorporate it in our one to one sessions and group classes, playing with your dog can build such a strong bond, it helps build confidence & is used as a reinforcement the same way food is!!
Not all dogs like tugging and some will definitely prefer it more then others (think what your dog was originally bred to do) but finding out HOW your dog likes to play and playing with them daily will really make your dog happy 🤗
Video below showing how I play tug with my German shepherd Lakota who actually favours play over food…. How does your dog like to play?? #playwithyourdog #tuggy #dogtugging #dogtraining #dogs #dog #doglover
Being Neutral!! This is hard for lots of dogs, especially when adolescents hits and hormones kick in, and Mother Nature is telling the brain to go meet a mate!! Dogs are also naturally social beings and want to mix with their own kind, however allowing our dogs to mix with lots of unknown/ new dogs can lead to lots of issues, frustration/ expectation to meet all new dogs, dog fights where a rude, pushy “social” or a young dog with little to no impulse control, is around a dog who would prefer to keep themselves to themselves, not to mention the mix of different breeds that have complete different play style, social skills and body language!!
The vast range of breeds, that play in complete different ways and look completely different (think French Bulldog and Poodle) they are almost as if a different species!!
We believe that teaching dogs to be neutral to new “unknown” dogs is such an important part of a young dog’s education! At our Stay & Play we have small groups of dogs, that are carefully selected, that play with each other weekly and which is brilliant as they are their“play mates” and dogs LOVE to play with their own kind BUT and a big BUT, this does not mean that they should play with all new dogs!! Especially taking the risk of thinking these interactions will be good for our dogs.
Having a small handful of “friends” for our dogs that they can have off lead play with is great and so important for our dogs to be happy and then teaching on lead = to be neutral is equally, if not more important 🐕
Here is a video of our Neutral Walks - a group of dogs walking on lead, with space, around new dogs but being NEUTRAL 🤗#dogsocial #dogsocialskills #onleadtime #dogtips #dogtrainingtips #doglovers
What a year 2024 has been!!! We have had so many amazing dogs & owners through our doors and have seen transformations of dogs from reactive dogs being able to joining our stay & play days, owners going from crying over their dogs behaviour to tears of happiness and believe me we feel all these emotions with them!! Being a dog trainer & being passionate about your job means living these moments with your clients ❤️
Now to mention our absolute AMAZING team 🤗❤️ each and everyone one of them are so passionate about what they do & we really are so lucky to have a team of like minded, dog lovers who really care about what we do ❤️
Thank you to all our clients in person, to all our followers online who like & follow our content and here is to another year of our wonderful team, our wonderful clients and of course all the wonderful Dogs 🤗
Happy new year everyone 🎉🥂🤗🐕 #happynewyear #dogs #doglovers #2024 #2025
Dog Behaviour Specialist
