Emma Patterson IMDT, Positive Reinforcement Dog Training

17/04/2024

We can all rest easy tonight knowing our neighbourhood watch is on duty 🙄

12/04/2024

FOX POO 💩💩💩💩💩.

My dogs enjoy applying their own fragrance 🤷.

11/04/2024

Good morning folks.

Do you have a new puppy or dog?

Do you need help with;

Recall
Loose lead walking
Impulse control
Engagement with your dog.
Manners
Being able to do all of the above with distractions!
Plus many many more?

Using classes in an outdoor environment, which mimic real life surroundings can help build on those core skills.

Using classes can ensure you are using the most up to date, kind, ethical training in a community group with fellow dog guardians.

Feel free to drop me a message for more info. If your ready to make yours, and your dogs life a whole lot more fulfilled then head over and book your slot.

5 locations, 5 days and multiple times to choose from.

https://www.facebook.com/BestBehaviourDogTraining

Dog Training & Behaviour - Ipswich, Martlesham, Stowmarket, Stowupland, Freston, Colchester, Barham,

11/04/2024

10/04/2024

Ham and cheese was a winner. Luna's first attempt at some gundog training.

Smashed it ❤️

10/04/2024

Do you want a dog that behaves well when you take them out places?

Pub dog training is for you. Training dogs to be confident and content in real life settings, with a trainer by your side to teach you all the top tricks and training for a lifelong sociable dog.

BOOKING HERE - 27th April - Limited spaces and not to be missed
https://www.bestbehaviourdogtraining.co.uk/training-masterclasses/pub-dog-training/

10/04/2024

What's your dogs choice of reinforcement?.

Luna will do anything for liver but we run out 😳😕.... Think ham and cheese has got her attention though🤷.

Let's see how today's training session goes ....

09/04/2024

Happy tuesday from Savage sunny 🤣🤷

02/04/2024

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PREPARING FOR YOUR NOVELTY SEEKING RESCUE DOG

When we adopt a dog, it's normal for us to think they might spend days, weeks or even years getting used to us and our ways.

We're all prepared for the anxious dog who takes time to come out of their shell.

But are we prepared for the dogs who come into our lives like Miley Cyrus and her wrecking ball?

Looking back on my life with Flika, I think she prepared me for another kind of adoption. The 'keep your eye on the dog' rescue.

To be fair, she had useful predecessor in Tobby. I adopted Tobby as a crusty old pensioner back in 2015. His very first act, despite his decreptitude, size and stiff limbs, was to find his way in to the henhouse. The henhouse my egg-loving breakfast-stealing 9kg cocker spaniel a third of his size couldn't get in to. I found him in there, looking sheepish. He'd thankfully got himself stuck as he tried to extricate himself.

But Flika, she was a law unto herself.

I couldn't take her anywhere.

Well, I could. And I could guarantee you that she'd have exploited any weakness in food management within minutes. She was a whirr of fur. I'd let her off lead, and she'd be gone. Once, I found her minutes later around the back of a barbecue, eating greasy remnants off stones. Another time, she was in a friend's son's bedroom, eating a pizza box.

Who knew that newly adopted dogs could get into *everything*?

Truth be told, I had a bunch of fosters and adoptees who were the same. New places energised them. Instead of taking their time to get a feel for the place, or even finding out their beds and bowls like most dogs did, like a bunch of others, Flika came in and got into everything.

She'd do the same in other people's houses too. If it was new, she was interested!

Novelty-seeking is a personality trait that crosses situations and age gaps. Where most dogs get less interested in novelty as they age, some dogs find it as fun as ever.

This isn't just some quirk. A curiosity, if you will.

When you think about how many dogs end up in shelters as young adolescents, it's important to understand that shelter populations may include a higher proportion of novelty seekers than we might expect.

Novelty seeking of course contributes to straying. While many dogs will stick to the safety of home turf if they get out, novelty seekers have no fear of going further than they've ever been - and then being unable to find their way back home. They may be more attracted by unfamiliar dogs and people - Flika was forever chasing people off down roads, finding new friends like the Littlest Hobo, Tobby was known for visiting the neighbours' dogs whenever I took my eye off my ancient adoptee.

If they're good at identifying and exploiting weaknesses in the perimeter, you may find yourself understanding exactly why your newly adopted dog ended up in the shelter in the first place.

Plus, adolescence tends to stoke the fires burning in our dogs to seek out new sensations and go exploring. It's a biologically conserved trait across mammalian species. Go forth and multiply, say adolescent genes.

It's little surprise then that our curious, exploratory, risk-taking, bold novelty seekers end up in shelters. Flika was on her seventh home by the time I adopted her.

While we expect our newly adopted dog to take their time settling down, if we've adopted an adolescent from a shelter of unclaimed strays, it may be useful to know whether you've got a novelty seeker on your hands. Knowing you've got an avid Dora the Explorer is important - because they're exceptionally good at exploiting weaknesses in the system.

How do you know? Because they hit new places like a formerly impoverished person hits the sales after a jackpot on the lottery... They want it all! They're into everything, exploring everything. If caution is required, they've not got one iota to spare.

Our novelty-seekers can be a lot of fun. Many will belong to working breeds or their crosses. As you can imagine, being a curious, bold dog has its advantages if you're of the hunting or herding persuasion.

They can also be a nightmare on legs, as you chase around your elderly senior who seems to have found a new lease of life and you wonder if any of your cupboards are safe at all.

This can be hard to spot in shelters or even in foster if they live a life of routine and security, but a walk in a new place will feel a lot different than a walk in a familiar one. All that fizz and energy you'll see will tell you that you've potentially got a novelty seeker on your hands!

31/03/2024

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NEW POWER HOUR - SOCIAL SKILLS - Ipswich 13th April

Booking now - LIMITED spaces

Booking here https://www.bestbehaviourdogtraining.co.uk/training-masterclasses/social-skills-training/

Do you want to improve your dogs social skills? Join us on this puptastic power hour to teach your dog how to behave well with other dogs

31/03/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/hGfurmEX5br5P2mu/

Yo, 16-18yr old dog lovers! Check it: Introducing the sickest dog trainer course ever just for you!

Get ready to be best. Learn all the dope tricks to teach your pooch, from basic obedience to advanced skills that’ll make jaws drop. We’re talkin’ fetch, sit, stay, and beyond!

💪 Flex those training muscles and unlock your dog’s full potential. Whether you’ve got a pupper or an OG pooch, this course got you covered! Plus, learn how to read their barks and body language like a boss.

No more ruff times with your furry bestie. Join our squad and start the journey to become the ultimate dog trainer. It’s time to unleash your inner trainer and bond with your pup on a whole new level. Let’s bark it up together! 🐾

Don’t miss out, peeps! Enroll now and let’s make fetch happen! Limited spots available, so slide into our DMs ASAP! Gov funding available too!

28/03/2024

This is a fabulous opportunity to learn some essential skills and what's more is totally free..,..

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/ZyRYawnz3bwYL5rU/

So this year we put together a completely FREE course discussing canine body language. It's available for anyone to watch (not just professionals) so if you're interested or know someone that might be (your clients included) please do sign up and share far and wide💚
https://pact-course.thinkific.com/courses/PACTtastercourse

25/03/2024

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💥 WHY IT'S IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND FRUSTRATION IN YOUR RESCUE DOG 💥

These days, we're much more prepared to rehome a dog. We know that the first few days, weeks or months might need us to take our time. We've read the books and the paperwork and we know that it takes time and patience.

What we may not be prepared for is frustration.

I remember fostering a little apricot toy poodle named Fripouille. He sat, looking forlorn and out of place in the shelter, his fur clipped neatly, his bowl and lead next to him on the chair. There was no way I could leave him there for the night. Some dogs just hit you hard in the solar plexus. Besides, I knew he'd be adopted quickly and it wasn't like he'd end up a failed foster.

Yet it was clear Fripouille was a little dog with expectations. He arrived home out of sync with how things operated. He didn't know what he was supposed to eat, where he was supposed to sleep, why he no longer went out for a walk at 8am and 6pm.

The next morning, he struggled to settle.

He'd not eaten the night before, and I put it down to nerves. Stress alters our appetite. We know that. What never really crossed my tiny mind as I put down his bowl the night before was that Fripouille had never eaten anything other than handcooked chicken or fish. He could very well have been hungry and then had to struggle with not having the meal he expected.

Surely a dog will just eat what gets put in front of them, right?

But that next morning, he was fidgety and ill-at-ease. I tried to feed him, but he wouldn't eat. I took him to the water bowl, and that wasn't the answer. I sat next to him and stroked him, but he got down from the chair. Only when he found his lead and sat next to it did I understand: this was walkies time.

Out on the walk, things didn't get much better. We did country walks along grassy paths and through fields, around forests. He didn't even seem to know where to go to the toilet anymore. Thinking of my other dogs, I know some of them struggled to know *where* to go if we did town walks, and I wondered if Fripouille was the same.

Sure enough, a quick spin around an asphalted courtyard and Fripouille found himself on more familiar ground.

No matter how kind we are and how patient, there will be times when the things our dogs are used to doing no longer happen. No matter how loving or how awful the home they will have come from, they can have strong expectations about what is supposed to happen, where and when. It can cause a lot of uncertainty and anxiety when routines change.

Dogs are much smarter than humans are at reading the environment. This is especially true if they've come from a turbulent home before. If your world is unpredictable, it makes sense that you'd get better at identifying what's supposed to happen and when.

Our dogs are also really good at forming habits. Those habits affect their eating, their drinking and their sleeping as well as other things in their life.

The problem is that when dogs move into different homes, those new homes change all the rules, meaning that old habits no longer fit as easily as they used to do.

That can cause a lot of conflict, confusion, anxiety and frustration.

Although this is normal and most dogs adapt brilliantly, there are two things that will really help.

The first is in having clear and consistent routines around daily activities. Although we feel like it'll be important to socialise our dogs and get them up to par with going out and walking around markets or sitting in cafés, these things can come later in life.

The second thing that will really help is in being able to identify signs of frustration in a dog.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing content here to help you do just that.

24/03/2024

Spring has arrived, summer is around the corner....all good things come to those that wait .... apparently! ❤️

22/03/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/etfYWYEwpZs5jCQK/

12/03/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/hyWo15zUg2RYqhwR/

10/03/2024

Still missing

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