Training happens… As soon as you step out the door. Not in the garden, not in the house and not in secure fields if you’re trying to proof around distractions.
I say to clients to adjust your walks to where you need the most proofing.
Training should still fit in with your life. It’s just what happens on those walks/sessions/outings changes slightly to get your dog learning the best way they can, making walks less stressful and make the reps MEANINGFUL.
Clips from my walk and train with the gorgeous Roland. I took him for a general “walk” but instead of going to an empty forest, I went to a popular park and on that walk I encountered dogs to practice recall from. Dogs to practice on lead passes with/neutrality and got Mabel out half way through so he can walk with a neutral dog to learn from. This was a while ago and he’s now loving off lead life.
Massive shoutout to his owner. When I first met him, he couldn’t disengage, was super excited by everything and generally a big strong boy with no control becoming frustrated. Insanely proud of them both and the dog he’s become.
A Yogi kinda day today 🥰
I had the pleasure of walking this gorgeous boy while his owners had some time in Portsmouth. We went to southsea and it’s the perfect place for training around dogs. (And some beach time!)
I’ve been working with @yogi_the_dalmatian on a 121 basis and beyond proud of how well this boy did! There were dogs everywhere. I didn’t catch it but I walked quite closely past a group of dogs pulling and barking and he took it in his stride! Massive progress from when I first met him, he would lunge, fixate and bark at dogs across the field - he’s waving bye bye to reactivity 🥰
And a big shoutout to his owner Marnie, such a pleasure working with dedicated owners 🫶🏼 this is all down to her hard work and consistency.
My favourite thing about Mabel is she’s a complete nutter and knows how to have fun!
Once upon a time, I bought my very first dog, Mabel, to enjoy walks as it really is my happy time, but what happens when you end up with a reactive dog? Stress, anxiety, a feeling of dread stepping out the door.
BUT, training for it and enjoying your time together IS possible. It really is, I can’t stress enough. Please don’t lose hope or settle for any less because you deserve to enjoy your walks, as do your dogs ❤️
Notice how I haven’t got any food on me and I’m not bribing Mabel past.
In my training we don’t lure in behaviour modification. We change the dogs thought process through shaping. No distracting them or scattering ‘treats’ in sight.
Mabel is well and truly proofed and you can get to this stage too 💚
Guess what.. 🗣️ I don’t train engagement! 🗣️
Yes you read that right…
I don’t do engagement games and I don’t ask Mabel for eye contact before I release her to the environment… why?
It. Means. Nothing to the dog 🤷♀️
BUT. this is what I do train:
✨ MOTIVATION ✨
Engagement is a byproduct of motivation. In this video Mabel is extremely motivated by freeshaping the competition obedience AND the ball. She loves it! And that eye contact? It’s motivation.
I don’t bother asking her to look at me before being released to the environment because there’s no value in this, the environment is then the motivator. HOWEVER, she has 100% recall and heel and that’s what matters in this sense. She can go see her environment as long as she recalls 100% of the time, and in this case, the food was the motivator here to practice and proof this behaviour.
If you’re dog isn’t engaged with you, they’re just not motivated. My training starts with motivation, we find it, we unlock it and dog and owner work together 🤝
🙌🏼 GROUP CLASS 🙌🏼
These classes are a place for my clients to practice their training in a controlled setting with increased distractions, setting up scenarios that happen in real life that you can train for.
So, SO proud of all of their progress, some of these dogs came to me struggling with reactivity/over excitement, and they all absolutely smashed it, putting in the work 👏🏼
Excited for the next one on Thursday 22nd June at 6:30pm. Message me to get booked on* or for more information.
*open to current clients or book for an assessment to join.
Thank you Rhobull’s dog park for the location!
A big shoutout to my clients with Reggie 🙌🏼👏🏼 they’ve worked so hard on his recall, he LOVES to sniff and has a high prey drive, but with a lot of hard work on their part, Reggie is now off lead!
Here’s Reggie’s recall on the long line to now off lead and they are all loving a fulfilled safe life because they’ve trained for it 🥰
When off lead dogs approach, we just down stay 🙌🏼
Being ex-reactive, Mabel used to charge at other dogs to make space and get them away. So what I’ve shown her is an alternative, you down stay, and I’ll sort the situation out. A down position also promotes calm to the other dog. I’ll assess and sometimes heel her away, sometimes down stay depending on the situation but either way, that obedience is key 👌🏼
If you’re struggling with reactivity, remember that we can fix it! Because reactivity CAN be fixed and not managed. It’s not a lifetime thing 💪🏼
P.s cue tom listening to my ‘down’ command by stopping throwing the ball. He knows it means off lead dogs approaching 😂
Week 2 of our obedience classes has begun!
Impressed with everyone and all the dogs - here’s a short clip of this silver lab who was extremely excited by other dogs when he first arrived and so we practiced loose lead walking and sit stays and look at him calmly walking past 🙌🏼
Loose Lead Walking
Loose lead walking in one lesson for the gorgeous Lab puppy Milo!
When I first met him, he was a typical Labrador, over excitable and pulling on the lead, he just needed direction and obedience in his training and he picked it up super quick!
I don’t normally film my lessons as I’m busy training but he was smashing the reps, I couldn’t not capture!
Can’t wait to see his progress at my group class 😊
Excited for classes to start on Monday eve 🥰 last few spaces left for obedience course for anyone looking to join on, these will cover overall obedience around distractions, learning to coexist around other dogs, people, deal in varied environments etc.
Mabel giving us an example of what to expect 🙌🏼
Drop me a message if you’re interested!
🗣️ OBEDIENCE COURSES ARE BACK 🗣️
Absolutely loved working with this lot in our obedience classes. Upping the criteria and working on proofing in other environments.
In our classes, we focus on applying obedience in different environments and around different situations, we try and introduce as many real life scenarios to ensure your dog can apply this in the real world. Starting on May 6th:
👉🏼 Basic Obedience
👉🏼 Advanced Obedience
Drop me a message to get on the waitlist. Last few spaces available.
🗣️ CLASS START DATE 🗣️
My obedience classes with Wags Dog Services are commencing Saturday the 6th of May for a six week course. We are running:
- basic obedience
- advanced obedience.
We’re also running a PUPPY socialisation course which focuses on appropriate socialisation, the basics, exposure in different environments so you can train your pup to be a great well rounded dog, that’s neutral to external stimulus.
Here’s some footage of our current courses. If you’d like more information or to book onto our next course send us a direct message.
It’s been a full on few days of dogs and I absolutely loved it 🙌🏼 here’s a roundup from the weekend:
An assessment with the beautiful Bailey for my future group classes. We went into loose lead walking and using how to use daily food to get the best from him. He absolutely smashed it.
Bruza the pocket bully - this lovely boy needed recall and loose lead help and overall guidance in obedience and hand feeding. Looking forward to working with him and his owners in the future.
Reggie the Spaniel - I’ve been seeing Reggie for a while for recall mainly and now Reggie is off lead! 🎉 his owners have worked so hard to get there.
Monty - this lovely lab just LOVES dogs so I had my second session with him on his frustration reactivity. A definite improvement thanks to his dedicated owners. Excited to check in with them in a few weeks to see his progress.
And then I had my obedience and puppy classes with Wags Dog Services. Some brilliant progress being made from everyone! Loved the upping the criteria for everyone in obedience and going to a new environment.
Now accepting sign ups for the next lot of courses so get in touch!*
*obedience requires an initial assessment.
“Scatter treats when faced with a trigger, use lots of verbal praise, lure them past”
I’ve seen this advice being thrown around and I had to put my 5 pence in because. This. Doesn’t. Work.
You’ll distract them from the trigger, sure, but is that what you really want? Don’t you want to utilise it as a proper training session to get them through so the next time you see a trigger it’s that little bit easier? Distracting isn’t training and personally it’s not advice that should be given out to people seeking it and really trying to train their dogs through their triggers.
Importantly, dogs aren’t humans. Baby talk might reassure YOU but is it reassuring your DOG? In reality it’s stressing the dog out more.
When you face a trigger, you go back to the obedience you’ve taught your dog so they can follow through with the command no matter what and you’ll keep them safe, then you reward with their daily food, no treats. *disclaimer, every dog is different and a tailored training plan by me will ensure you know exactly what to do when faced with a trigger*
Mabel got this way through great dog training, not by luring her past, scattering treats, or baby talking.
Let me explain this to you on a deeper level > drop me a message 📧
Obedience course also started with Wags Dog Services 🙏🏼
In this course we’re going over the basics and applying it to real life situations and environments and learning how to coexist around other dogs without needing to say hello.
As the weeks go on we’ll look at introducing new environments, practicing the basic obedience and upping the criteria for the dogs.
Not to mention all these dogs are hand fed so have that increased motivation to train 🙌🏼
Message to be added onto the waitlist for the next obedience course 🙏🏼
Obedience Course
🗣️ OBEDIENCE COURSE 🗣️
I am running a 6 week obedience course with Wags Dog Services starting on March 4th.
Obedience is what helped Mabel fix her reactivity.
Obedience can really help your dog who might struggle with over excitement, or nerves. It builds confidence, it gives them structure and routine and will overall set your dog up for success, and help your dog through any given situation.
This is Mabel in a down stay, helping out a client and her dog who struggle with reactivity.
If you would like to book on please drop me or Ellen a message. Select spaces available!
Group Class
Loved hosting my group class this morning. This was a class for my current clients to attend and put into place their obedience, upping the distractions.
These dogs are all being trained through reactivity and the owners have put in the work and absolutely smashed it. I upped the criteria with having Mabel running past so we can really reinforce the dogs coping with this.
These group classes are a brilliant chance to train around other dogs in an extremely controlled environment. None of the dogs meet, they just learn to coexist and learn that they don’t need to worry about other dogs because all is well.
These classes are for my clients only but are open to anyone after an initial lesson/asssesment with me. This is so I understand each dog that comes into these classes and their training needs.
Drop me a message if you’re interested in the next one.
Shoutout to Rhobull’s dog park for the location
Reactivity Training
Training that works! 🙌🏼 this is Simba, dog reactive, who really struggles at the sight of a dog, let alone calmly walking past one.
During the lesson I worked with his owners on how we can use obedience to help Simba through his reactivity and already this was the closest they had got to another dog.
Now the training doesn’t stop there, in order to continue this, it will require consistency and perseverance from the owners; they’re so dedicated, I can’t wait to see Simba in a few weeks and progress his training.
Loose lead walking
Super proud of my clients with Reggie the spaniel for nailing their loose lead walking.
They came to me as they felt they had tried everything but Reggie still was pulling on the lead.
This is the result after only ONE lesson and with perseverance and consistency on their part.
Massive well done to Reggie’s owners 👏🏼 love seeing Reggie smash his training!
