Merry Christmas everyone! Hope everyone had a fantastic day and got everything they wanted and more!
Not the easiest time of the year for me and my family personally but I would like to give a massive thanks to all my clients, friends and family - past and present, for making it worthwhile to continue doing what matters most to me and of course what I love!
I’ll always be grateful for the insane amount of love, support and learning opportunities I’ve had over the past couple of years and I very much hope that it long may continue into 2024!
Posts have been a bit sparse the past few months so engagement is low, so show me with a picture how you and your dogs spent Christmas together!
Have a pawsome festive period! 🐾
Little clip from Saturdays session with Diego, he’s about a year and a half old, absolutely lovely dog, very friendly but lacks impulse control and manners.
We done a session at home to dial in things like his leave it command as well as drop it and reconditioning him with crate training as he has separation anxiety when one of or both of the brothers leave the house.
He’s very intelligent and cheeky!
Didn’t even realise it was snowing til I took the dogs out. That’s one thing that doesn’t make sense is that Dusty hates being cold and wet, but she absolutely loves the snow? 😂
Hope everyone enjoys it while it lasts!
Diego’s impulse control training.
Diego
Just a wee clip from second session with Diego - he’s a 18 month old mix mainly Pit Bull, AmStaff and Husky with all sorts of others mixed in. Great dog though just pushy and boisterous.
The main point of this exercise is to build steadiness in his commands, teach impulse control and give him an off switch so he can more easily calm down!
Look forward to working with him more over the coming weeks!
Training 3 dogs at once
Teaching impulse control to 3 rowdy cockers!
Lady waiting all patient, while I wait patiently for my pizza 🍕 😋
Slip lead training
First session with Leo, a 6 month old Australian Labradoodle. His owner got in touch to help with some unsavoury behaviours - mainly jumping on people and leash pulling. As soon as I arrived I knew right away that the dog was being walked on a harness which nurtured these behaviours, and not even 30 seconds after switching to a slip lead he was a changed dog.
First session with Cody, the 3 year old ‘Cockapoo’ type who was completely all over the place. When his owners got in touch they told me they were willing to do anything to fix this behaviour as they were at their wits end.
First order of business was switching from a harness to a slip lead, which worked a treat and got the dog a lot calmer and under control within a very short period of time.
Beneath all his excitement he was actually a very responsive and engaging dog and he will be a doddle to train going forward. All he needed was some leadership!
Harnesses are just awful tools for training purposes. If your dog is already well trained then by all means if you want to use a harness, be my guest, but if your dog has behavioural issues or pulls and lunges too much then maybe it’s time to consider an alternative. Don’t let the haters put you off by telling you that the dog will be choked with a slip lead, as if you watch the video below that simply is not the case.
Have a pawsome day guys!
Chris 🐾
Here’s a video from my session with Charlie the other day, he’s a 15 month old beagle who was pulling his owners arms out of their sockets on walks making it a very unpleasant and stressful experience for both the owner and dog.
Straight away when I arrived the issue was apparent; the dog was walked on a harness and flexi-lead. His owners informed me that they had previously tried slip leads and collars before although the dog would completely throw a fit and didn’t like anything going over his head; so the owners gave up trying with such tools which ultimately meant the thrashing/tantrum behaviour was being validated and confirmed.
The first 5 minutes inside the house wasn’t easy with the dog resisting heavily, but once he got through that messy middle and realised that behaviour no longer got him the desired outcome he relaxed to it and within 10 minutes he was walking nearly perfectly.
Note in the video the dog still has some protests, this is called an opposition reflex and this happens when the tension on the lead is prolonged (note how when I tell the owner to relax the lead the dog immediately stops protesting and continues to walk)
Charlie’s owners were absolutely delighted to see that with just a little bit of patience and dedication getting him to walk nicely was quite literally a walk in the park!
For training enquiries please message me here on Facebook or get in touch by call/text on 07562697247
Have a pawsome day!
Chris 🐾
When the dog is too comfortable 😩 Ottie just wasn’t having it so we let her go back home for a few hours kip 😂
Was holding off posting this as I know many people have mixed opinions on e-collars, but I’m not going to sit idly by while every Tom, Dick and Harry is advocating for them to be outlawed.
I urge everyone to watch the full video below; the video is from last week with one of my long term clients Lubo. This was the very first session in which we used the e-collar.
Now pay attention - does Lubo look shut down or fearful, or does he look like he’s just business as usual? I am under no illusion that e-collars (or any tool for that matter) can be harmful in the wrong hands, but to call for a blanket ban on them is complete stupidity.
We wouldn’t order every single car off the road because one horrible person decides to deliberately run someone over; there would be chaos. The same applies if we totally ban e-collars - the number of dog attacks on livestock, other dogs and humans will increase significantly and it’s just not fair for the animals or their owners, when most of these issues can be circumvented and prevented by proper conditioning of the e-collar.
The way I like to describe the e-collar is that it’s a tap on the shoulder, like a tactile cue that can be given at distance where the dog would normally ignore the verbal command. During the conditioning phase which is usually a few weeks to a few months the dog is only stimmed at a very low level and when he responds correctly it is paired with food, or another reward which means the positive cancels out the negative sensation of the stim and overall makes it a neutral way of communicating with the dog when other tactics fail to do so.
Any hateful comments will be deleted, please use the comments for a civil debate only or don’t say anything at all.
Thanks and have a pawsome day as always!
Chris 🐾
#balancedtraining #dogtraining #obediencetraining
First session with Simba, a 1 year old staffy type. Possibly a bit of pit/AmStaff in him as he’s a big lad. Simba’s owners contacted me to help with leash walking, his over excitement, a little bit of dog reactivity and general obedience.
Facebook is being weird and not letting me put up any more than one video per post so I’ll post the other clips from this session in the comments below.
All in all the session went great and Simba was quite an easy dog to work with and he was eager to please us during the obedience work. The main things we went over today were proper leash handling skills and getting the dog steadier in his commands as well as working on his impulse control.
For training enquiries please contact me here on Facebook or by call/text on 0756297247.
As always have a pawsome day!
Chris 🐾
Anthropomorphism:
‘The attribution of human characteristics or behaviour to a god, animal or object.’
I see it time and time again; people who pass on human emotion and expectations onto their dog assuming the dog can think rationally enough to adhere to a completely different social construct that’s alien to them in every way imaginable.
Most cases that I work with involving nervous/reactive or fearful dogs all have this same thing in common, and while it’s a natural human instinct to comfort our loved ones, when we apply that human behaviour to our dogs it does nothing but validate their insecurity making it worse.
Your dog got freaked out by a truck going past at speed and lashes out, so you rub his head, cuddle him and baby talk him telling him he’s ok. Well that’s not how the dog sees it. What you’re actually telling him is “yeah that truck is a threat and I want you to continue alerting me to it and if necessary use aggression to eliminate the threat”
So if we shouldn’t comfort our dog in times of stress or fear what should we do?
Address the behaviour by showing the dog leadership instead of feeling sorry for him. Get him behind you and don’t let him load or build. Stop allowing him to fixate on triggers and stop trying to distract him with sausages and toys.
Most people don’t even realise that dogs benefit from, and respect being subordinated. Why? It’s simple really: because it’s stressful being the leader and it’s no fun. When the dog knows his place in the hierarchy is at the bottom he can be happy-go-lucky as he doesn’t have to worry about the drunk dude staggering across his path, or where the next meal is coming from and all the other stresses of having to provide and care for the pack.
Reactivity Training with Harry!
Say hello to Harry, a beautiful 15 month old GSD.
Harry’s owners came to me to help address his spontaneous reactive behaviour, 90% of the time he’s absolutely A-OK but occasionally he might lunge for a cyclist or passerby.
We picked the perfect time and place to do the session as there were hundreds of people, bikes, dogs and even two very kind mounted police officers who allowed us to teach Harry to be calm around new and exciting things like Horses!
If you or someone you know has a dog who could use some training or behavioural therapy you can get in touch with me via Facebook, Instagram and by Phone on 07562697247.
Thanks and have a pawsome day! 🐾
Walk along the Kelvin 🦮
A little jaunt along the Kelvin with Lady, Dusty and Ruben!
🐾 🐾 🐾
Dirty dog enjoying his mud bath!
Out earlier with the dogs they all seem to love this muddy hole and getting filthy! 🤪
