Sniffing Saturday!
Throwing a piece of food for your dog to find not too far away from you is a great game to help encourage them to sniff (which they love and tires them out!) But it also makes them look to you as the provider of fun rather than elsewhere in the environment, helping with recall, attention to their human and staying closer to you in general 🎉
Please provide plenty of opportunities for water when sniffing because it really is thirsty work! And avoid areas where there are grass seeds which can become lodged in your dogs, paws or nose.
#apdt #intodogs #exemplardogs #canineenrichment #dogsport #scentwork #ukrally #positivedogtraining #positivetraining #dogtraining #devondogs #dawlishdogs #dogtrainingpaysoff #doglife #cookiefeedernotpackleader
Video tour of the secure area at Dawlish Countryside Park 🐶
#exemplardogs #recall #recalltraining
Do you have an adolescent dog struggling with recall? 🐕🐕
Keep the faith! Keep going with rewarding when they come back and using a long line (only ever on a body harness) to prevent them from self rewarding when they can’t listen.
It’s been a very long 10 months with Mango but now her recall is getting really good, even in environments she used to really struggle with! Video below to show you where you will get to if you stick with the training methods we’ve taught…two months ago I didn’t know if this would ever happen 🙈
#apdt #intodogs #exemplardogs #puppytraining #puppy #puppylove #puppyoftheday #positivedogtraining #positivetraining #dogtraining #devondogs #dawlishdogs #dogtrainingpaysoff #doglife #cookiefeedernotpackleader #dogsofinstagram #dogtrainer #dawlishwarren #dawlish #holcombe #teignmouth #shaldon #bishopsteington #exminster #starcross #exeter
When you buy your dog a tasty chew and they don’t quite know what to do with it 🤣🤣🤣
When your dog wants you to practice recall 🤣🙈❤️
Natural check ins what are they and why are they so important?
A natural check in is when your dog voluntarily turns to look at you and “check in.” You may see this when a dog is on lead walking with a human and they keep turning to look to their human, you may also see this when a dog gets off lead runs ahead a little and then turns to look at their human.
Natural check ins are so essential and are the beginnings of all good training… If we can get natural check-in it makes lead walking easier, impulse control easier, recall easier, life more enjoyable!
How do I get natural check ins?
A dog that checks in with its human regularly, is one who thinks it’s going to pay well i.e. the human is going to provide the fun times! By doing lots of training, playing lots of games, being present with your dog you will start to build up their desire to look at you, which we can then heavily reward.
As with all training, there are two elements – positively reinforcing behaviours we want to see happen more and management to prevent less desirable behaviours from happening in the first place. A big example of this is recall! If you have a dog who doesn’t recall well (even if it’s just in certain situations) it’s essential to not only reward well when they do recall but also to prevent them from running off and self rewarding by playing with other dogs following a scent, etc and the way to manage that would be to have them on a long line (only ever on a body harness for safety reasons) so they can’t self reward away after you have recalled them.
A dog who offers lots of natural check ins is looking to his human for the fun rather than the environment and that’s when they will be able to listen more to your cues 🎉
#apdt #intodogs #exemplardogs #puppytraining #puppy #puppylove #puppyoftheday #positivedogtraining #positivetraining #dogtraining #devondogs #dawlishdogs #dogtrainingpaysoff #doglife #cookiefeedernotpackleader #dogsofinstagram #dogtrainer #dawl
🐶👃🎉 Scent Club 🐶👃🎉
Does your dog love sniffing? Would you like to do it more regularly with them? No experience necessary.
I have ONE space on a regular Tuesday 11am - 12pm Scent club which runs once a month with a different theme each month. Suitable for dogs who are sociable with other dogs and people 🐶
Only THREE dogs share these 1 hour sessions where we teach your dog how to search for an item sniffer dog style and then progress their skills.
Many of you will know how highly I rate sniffing - the more we can encourage our dogs to sniff, and play sniffy games the better.
Why is it so good?
For lots of reasons but here are a few:
-It makes our dogs feel good
-They enjoy it
-It gives them a mental workout
-Great for puppies who can’t walk far because of their joints
-Brilliant for older dogs to give them an all round workout without causing achy joints from walking too far
-Amazing for days when you don’t have long to exercise your dog
-Perfect for all dogs
-Leads to a more relaxed dog
-Promotes teamwork between dog and human which in turn leads to better focus/attention/recall/loose lead walking
-Encourages your dog to be near to you rather than getting their fun from the environment.
If you’d like more info, please get in touch 🐶
💥💥💥 Top Tip 💥💥💥
Instead of feeding from a bowl, you can feed your dog from a food toy.
This adds some fun to their day, makes the food more exciting for those who aren’t big eaters and slows down those who love their food lots! It allows them practice those natural behaviours of chasing and sniffing too 🐶
So ditch the bowl and add some enrichment to their day in a really easy way 🐶
#apdt #intodogs #exemplardogs #canineenrichment #dogsport #scentwork #ukrally #positivedogtraining #positivetraining #dogtraining #devondogs #dawlishdogs #dogtrainingpaysoff #doglife #cookiefeedernotpackleader
💥Easy enrichment idea 💥💥
Have you received any orders in boxes recently?
Before you recycle your cardboard boxes, turn them into a game for your dog to enjoy - providing stimulation and enjoyment and adding some extra enrichment to their day.
All you need are some of your puppies/dogs favourite treats and a box - preferably with some paper packaging inside.
This activity is suitable for any dogs or puppies regardless of age as long as they don’t like to eat paper. If they do like to eat paper this one’s not for them. Perfect as an activity to keep them busy if you need to do something e.g. cook dinner and it provides an appropriate outlet for natural behaviours such as dissection and foraging 🐶
Try it, your dog will thank you for it 🥰
Excuse the cut video - Facebook trims it to 60 seconds (you just missed the box being done up and the pooch enjoying it!)
#apdt #intodogs #exemplardogs #canineenrichment
Help! My adolescent dog won’t come back to me anymore…
As puppies get older, they get more confidence to wander further away and their recall can get worse (or become non existent especially around distractions (birds, smells, people, dogs etc)
We need to do prevent them from self rewarding i.e. realising it’s more fun to play with other dogs/sniffing in the bushes etc than coming back to their human. Otherwise they will practice and therefore perfect not coming back to you and it will get worse rather than better. One way to do this is when you get to an open space instead of having them off lead, put them on a long lead (5 or 10 metres) - only ever attached to a body harness (never a neck collar)- so they have some freedom but can't run across the field to other distractions, plus you can control how close you get to the distraction. Once their recall is more reliable, you can start to leave the long line trailing along the floor (so there is more to catch hold of if you need to) and build up to taking it off completely.
Of course, there are lots of other things we can teach to help with recall, the key is patience, persistence and perseverance. Adolescence passes although feels really tough while you dog is in that stage.
#exemplardogs #reliablerecall #positivedogtraining
