🚨Obedience and neutrality class update🚨
The classes were due to begin next Sunday but since there is a couple of consultations needing done I am changing the start date will be Sunday the 18th of August. Everyone needs to have had a consultation first and just to remind everyone of the prices,
6 week course
£150 for new clients. Price includes consultation.
£100 for current or previous clients
£20 per class for current or previous clients wanting to brush up on obedience and neutrality.
Class will be covering
✅ ️Loose lead walking
✅️ Heel command
✅️ Sit stay
✅️ Down stay
✅️ Off lead foundations
✅️ Neutrality
✅️ Manners
✅️ Engagement
This is a video of Leo. He used to drag you out the door, along the street and didn't listen when outside. You'll see in the video he is walking a loose lead, walking to heel, holding a down stay and even off lead in Victoria park. All this was achieved in about 6 weeks.
If you want your dog to stop dragging you around and pay more attention to you outside then get in touch. Spaces are limited so DM us for a space and be able to do things with your dog you only dream of like, nice holidays, beer gardens, cafes, restaurants etc. If you are willing to learn then we're willing to teach you 🐾
🚨🚨🚨IMPORTANT UPDATE🚨🚨🚨
Just an update on obedience and neutrality classes. I am thinking of starting them next Sunday the 11th at 10am locations will change every week and first location will be confirmed.
£100 for 6 weeks but everyone interested needs to have had a consultation first. Current or previous clients don't need a consultation. If you haven't had a consultation yet then the price of the class and the consultation will be £150. So you'll get £10 off the consultation
We will be working on,
✅️ Loose lead walking
✅️ Heel command
✅️ Sit stays
✅️ Down stays
✅️ Engagement
✅️ Manners in public
✅️ Foundations for off lead
✅️ Relationship building
This isn't a reactive dog class however if you are a current or previous client that is already working on reactivity you could join this class. If interested please send us a DM. Spaces are limited. Any previous or current clients just looking to brush up on obedience and neutrality in a group setting it will be £20 per class 🐾
We have Obi boarding with us for a week and I couldn't resist having a retriever pack walk. Obi, Leo and Malcolm all walking on a loose lead. I even walked them all holding the leads in one hand. 🐾
Working Leo on the long line. By next week I'll have him off lead working on obedience all by building a solid relationship and an understanding. It isn't difficult to do. Make yourself more relevant than the environment 🐾
So we have Leo back to finish his training as he ended up with a nasty infection. In this video there is a few things to go through.
First of all how you and your dog leave the house. You'll see we leave together with no tension on the lead.
Secondly, loose lead walking. Our entire walk down to the park and even in the park was nothing but loose lead walking. No commands and no talking to him. Even passing a group of dogs the lead remained loose.
Thirdly the heel command and the difference from loose lead walking. Loose lead walking means walk on a loose lead and don't pull me anywhere. The heel command I want you in tighter and you cannot break that position until released from it. Loose lead is taught first as the dog should understand what the lead means. You should only use the heel command when you need it. If you have to say heel to get your dog to walk on a loose lead then your dog doesn't understand what the lead means.
Fourthly downstays. Leo already knows how to down but not how to remain there which we worked on a bit. I also put him in one command and then right into another
Fifthly leaving the park the exact same way we entered. Loose lead and no pulling.
Finally entering the house the same way. All this is so simple to teach. It's just about repetitions 🐾
This is Kirstenes second walk with all 3 dogs and we decided to walk through the park. Again it isn't perfect yet but none of the dogs are dragging her, the leads are loose and she held them all in one hand. She used her free hand for light correction and we practiced their downs as well which you'll see in the video as well. All of this is easy to achieve. Your walks don't need to be stressful anymore. Get in touch to book a consultation and open the door for a relaxing life with your dog 🐾
This is another tutorial on how to walk a dog on a loose lead. It also shows you how to walk multiple dogs on a loose lead. I have used Kirstene to show you as Kirstene doesn't walk the dogs as much as I do so they pull with her sometimes plus she has never really walked Cheeky. She was walking all 3 in less than 15 minutes. It wasn't perfect but with a couple of days doing repetitions it will be. I have also left in mistakes Kirstene made with the timing of a couple of corrections. The dogs all know leash pressure and we don't need food for this exersise either.
Step 1) practise with one dog at a time until you can get a constent loose lead.
Step 2) walk with 2 dogs on either side until you have consistent loose leads
Step 3) walk them both on one side holding both leads in one hand. This frees up your other hand to help the dogs.
Step 4) walk the third dog on the opposite side until he/she is walking on a consistent loose lead.
Step 5) walk all 3 on one side holding the leads in one hand and using your free hand to correct any of their positions.
If Kirstene can achieve this in under 15 minutes then so can you. It's really that simple. The key here is repetitions and consistency
. You'll notice towards the end Millie starts slowing down and limping slightly so we just ended the session and all 3 dogs went inside and fell asleep. You don't need long walks to tire your dog out. We tired out 3 with a 15 minute training session. 🐾
Where so many people go wrong in training is they overestimate what they EXPECT to achieve in a few weeks and underestimate what they CAN achieve in 3 months. Your dog trainer won't train your dog for you in training sessions. It's what you do with your dog inbetween those sessions. If you don't work your dog then don't be surprised if your dog won't walk on a loose lead, recall to you, listen to you etc. I'm going to use Thunder as a great example. I worked with him for 4 weeks but when he went home that is when the hard work started. Here he is loose lead walking behind dogs and walking off lead heels. His owner is constantly challenging him and herself and keeping up with his training. If you aren't prepared to work your dog between training sessions then don't be surprised if your trainer isn't prepared to work with you at the training session. Owning a dog isn't easy and is constant work. If you want to enjoy your dog then be prepared to put the work in 🐾
So today I took Rory out with Vinny. Previously they both couldn't be in sight of each other and Rory actually went for Vinny once or twice. Well that was the old Rory. The new Rory wasn't the slightest bit interested in any sort of conflict with Vinny. You'll also see in the video the same off lead dog that ran up to us in a previous video came to us again and neither Rory or Vinny reacted to it. Rory's owner actually said to me last week "it's amazing the difference something simple as given Rory guidance can make" and he is right. Giving your dog the right guidance can have a massive positive impact on his/her behaviour 🐾
We took Millie and Hunter for a nice walk yesterday and I was doing some retrieves with Hunter but Millie wanted to join in. So I decided to do blind retrieves with them and if you watch both of their vides, it's very interesting on both of their techniques. Hunter goe to the last place I was at but then pics up the scent in the breeze and runs all the way to the other side to where it was and finds it. He used nothing but his nose. Millie on the other hand didn't use just her nose. She used her nose and her memory of where I was. Millie wstarted from where I was last and to everywhere I had been in reverse looking for the scent. I did it a couple of more times just to see and they both used the exact same technique. Hunter worked harder but Millie worked smarter. Here are a couple of pics and their 2 blind retrieve videos 🐾
A video and some pictures from yesterday at the beach with Millie, Hunter and Ollie. Apart from hydrotherapy this is Millies first time going into the water. She usually would have avoided it and it was Hunters second time in the water. I think they enjoyed it 🤣🐾
Meet Kali. She is a 2 year old German Shepherd. Kali had been going to a PP/FF trainer for 8 months and still couldn't be within 30ft of dogs. She then went to a balanced trainer for 1 2 1's and group walks whose extremely harsh methods only made Kali's reactivity worse. In this session we worked on lead handling skills and engagement. This is the closest Kali had been to a dog with no reactions. This was from our session yesterday. I will be posting Kali's progress for everyone to see what proper training looks like. Remember, a lot of trainers in this industry charge a lot of money for either trying to sell you false ideologies and false hope or sell you their popularity. An expensive trainer doesn't always mean good trainer. Always do your research. A good trainer will always do less talking and not have a page full of quotes. Their page will be full of training videos and before and afters. As a lot of my clients have found out, if you find the right trainer for your dog then you'll save yourself a fortune 🐾
Here are some clips of Rory. The other day I took him to the extremely busy Victoria part with Mack and we met Baxter. So far that is the biggest group I've had him out with. He even politely stopped to allow a jogger to go past. Normally he would have lunged and chased him. We walked past loads of dogs wothout 1 single reaction. The last clip is Rory in an off lead heel with his owner walking past a house he usually explodes at. Such a massive improvement in only a few weeks 🐾
Another few clips of loose lead walking with a small group of dogs holding the leads in one hand. This time I used Millie, Malcolm and Leo. We went for a nice stress free stroll around the park. Loose lead walking in really easy to learn, even with multiple dogs 🐾
I was just sent this video. Rory's owner only took an 8 second clip but if you remember a previous post about Rory's owners and Baxter's owners couldn't take their dogs out together well would you look at this. Who would have thought something as simple as giving dogs clear rules will have such a positive impact. I was even told that Rory also encountered an off lead dog and handled it like a boss 🐾
Took Leo to Dalmuir park which was a different environment. We worked on engagement, heel, sit, down, long line work and manners when stopping to talk to someone. One of his issues is constant barking when his owners stop to talk to friends. We also had Fruich to help us with his neutrality 🐾
I want to talk about 2 questions I have previously been rightfully asked. Now it is imlortant to ask as many questions as possible to make sure you are getting the right trainer for you and your dog.
Question 1 was what methods do I use? Now the answer isn't quite black and white as you might think. I am not limited to 1 particular method, if I was then I'd be limited to the dogs I can work with. To understand better you would need to understand that reinforcement only reinforces behaviours and punishment decreases them. Punishment is not hitting, hurting, hanging etc the dog. It is creating an experience for the dog to not want to do that behaviour again. So the methods I use are whatever methods are required for the dog I'm training. It's all about the timing, delivery and when and when not to use a reinforcer or punisher. For example if a dog was afraid of noises I would not punish the dog around the noise. I would desensitize the dog to the noise and create a better experience.
Question 2, do I use prong collars and ecollars? Again it isn't a straight forward answer but yes. Do I use them for every dog? No. Infact most of my dogs I work with have never had them on and some dogs that have come to me already on a prong collar no longer need it. I am going to use Malcolm and Leo in this video as an example. Combined they will weigh about 60kg. Here I am walking them both using one hand. Neither of these dogs have ever had a prong collar on. So to answer that question, again it depends on the dog I'm working with, what is the safest option at the start of the training and what we are working on. I hope this helps answer peoples questions. If not feel free to DM us 🐾
Rory's owners and Baxters owners are friend but can't walk the dog together because Rory doesn't like Baxter. The reason for that is because when they took them out together they would play quite rough. The problem with that is one dog was playing and having fun but the other wasn't. Since then Rory has not wanted to be near Baxter. So as part of Rory's training I took him out with Baxter and Baxter's owner. See the difference once rules are in place? When dogs are constantly playing whether it's in day cares or with a dog walker just remember constant playing isn't natural and is causing more harm to your dog than good. In any setting with a group of dogs it's important that there are rules and the dogs understand them. If your dog doesn't know when to stop playing, can't read the other dogs calming signals or doesn't stop when you tell him/her to stop then your dog isn't ready for that type of interaction. Neutrality is the best way to have dogs get along. There will never be any conflict. That is why on my group walks all none of my dogs chase each other or play with each other. They are happier being neutral. 🐾
This is Leo's 3rd week and we are now proofing his commands in busier environments. Just remember, only a few weeks ago he would pull like a train and wouldn't listen to commands outside and now he is downing and heeling like a pro 🐾
I have taken these clips over the past few days. There is Cheeky, formerly reactive and timid, Hunter, formerly reactive and extremely dog aggressive, Leo, in his second week of training, just an overly friendly dog, very excitable with no manners and of course Millie. What are they all doing? Minding their own business. Anyone with a multi dog household or are thinking of having a multi dog household this is how dogs should behave around each other 🐾
