Laws For Paws Fife

15/08/2024

No matter the weather torrential rain no issues for this lad Lui today out on a walk around Whinnyknowe and the river park in Glenrothes.

09/08/2024

Training with reactive dogs requires patience, repetition and being calm. Reward the dog for good behaviour and ignore unwanted behaviour. Timing is everything for rewarding. Be situation aware anticipate an issue happening and prepare yourself to distract your dog away from the trigger. Good luck.

31/07/2024

Giving your dog a purpose such as carrying a ball or throw toy may help when walking them reducing them pulling. Also try a carry jacket putting something light in it. Worth a try. Dog training is trial and error so give it a go.

25/07/2024

So today whilst out with Lui we met a dog a little fox terrier who the owner said was very dog dominant.
Lui is calm passive a lovely natured dog and is totally ball focused. If you have a reactive dog as I have said in the past use a distraction technique but if you can find a socialisation group who have calm passive dogs then introduce your dog to it.There was no reaction from this fox terrier the owner was amazed.

20/07/2024

Dog training needed I can help. I charge £35 a session which is an hour. Lead training , recall, obedience. I also help with reactiveness, separation anxiety. The list goes on. Get in touch.

18/07/2024

Trying to get your dog to lie down? Here is the technique I use. Using a treat place your hand on the floor. Have your canine pal sitting in front of you and pull your hand with the treat along the floor encouraging your dog to lie down as they try to get the treat. Say down as you move the treat as soon as they lay down reward immediately with loads of praise great excitement. Repeat the same exercise to
reinforce the exercise. Keep the training brief but practice it throughout the day. Little and often. Good luck.

13/07/2024

Recall is one of the most important obedience commands for your dog. It’s a safe guard for your canine pal and gives you loads of confidence about your handling of them. I can help you get that recall. Get in touch let me help you.

11/07/2024

Out with Lui this afternoon. Very active dog loves to play with a ball. I walked about 7,000 steps with him. He would have tripled that at least. Brilliant activity off the lead as Lui has excellent recall and is non reactive.

11/07/2024

Reunited with Ziva. Helping her family out walking her a couple times a week as her Grandad is injured.

10/07/2024

Tip for training our canine pals always avoid training for at least an hour & 1/2 after they have had a meal.
They will be more responsive.

03/07/2024

Out with Nevis today he’s on restricted walks due to having surgery. A canny lad who loves having a ball to carry.

02/07/2024

A slight exaggeration below but lead pulling by your canine pals is not fun. Here’s my tip if your dog starts pulling simply stand still. He/She will turn around and look at you wondering what is going on. At that point walk on. Repeat as many times as you need to. Use a treat to bring them to your side rewarding them. It takes time and patience but keep at it nice and calm.

27/06/2024

I walk dogs separately or as households. I don’t take groups of dogs out as you don’t have control and it can cause issues such as anxiety leading to reactivity problems. I charge £14 for an hour walk with discounts available if 3 or more walks in one week or if households with two dogs.

27/06/2024

I walked this fine chap at Heatherhall this afternoon. The size of the ferns amazed me. Some are over 6ft in height. A great walk love this place.

24/06/2024

If your dog is reactive to other dogs, cyclists, cars, motor bikes or really just about anything then gauge the distance your dog first shows signs of reacting. This will most likely be the dog staring at the cause of its anxiety. This being the trigger distance. This then gives you the preparation time to distract your dog by using a reward. Keep your dog focused on you. Focus training is a must for reactive dogs. Keep moving using the reward to distract your dog past the object of reaction. Keep calm and speak in a reassuring voice. Put yourself between your dog and the object of reaction.
Judge the distance you can pass the object of reaction with the least reaction from your dog.
Again this is important as too close and the dog may lose focus on you, because it’s anxiety is too great and it only focuses on the object causing its anxiety. Practice this, it takes time and patience. Gradually reduce the distances as you grow in confidence. Don’t be disheartened if your dog reacts at the object of its anxiety during this training. Just try and understand why it happened and work to correct the practice.

17/06/2024

Do you dread going for a walk with your canine pal because they pull continually? I can help you correct that behaviour. I don’t use electric collars or choke chains or prong collars. I use reward based training which is kind. Inflicting pain on a dog does not correct unwanted behaviour it causes anxiety to a dog. All my dog training is reward based and kind. Let me show you how. Get in touch

11/06/2024

For the best training results use reward methods. Use food but use what I term a wow food. Chicken,sausage or cheese something that is a true treat. Some dogs may prefer a toy and the fun of the play with you with it. Some dogs love praise being made a fuss of by you. Find out what your dog best interacts with and use this as the reward training method. Start off with short sessions but repeat at intervals throughout the day. Don’t let it become a struggle between you and your canine pal. Stop when they are bored with it. Keep calm and be enthusiastic your dog will respond.

10/06/2024

Is your dog barking causing you to stress out? Are your neighbours complaining?Let me help you. I can show you easy techniques to help stop this unwanted behaviour. Get in touch now.

29/05/2024

Walking your dog on a lead isn’t always fun?
Your dog pulls you and it can be if honest very frustrating. They don’t seem to understand how to walk nicely. Just stop your dog will look to you for direction wondering why you have stopped. This might be almost instantly it could be a few minutes. As soon as they look at you then walk. Choose the direction you want to go not where the dog wants to go. If they pull again stop and repeat. When they are walking nicely on a loose lead praise them give them a treat. Keep on practicing this be nice and relaxed don’t get frustrated remain calm reward good behaviour. I can show you the technique.

27/05/2024

Focus training is an excellent technique to get your dogs attention to you. Improve your dogs training concerning obedience , lead walking, recall and reactive distraction. Get in touch I will show you how.

24/05/2024

Obedience training is the foundation of all training. Having good obedience allows you to move on to other aspects of dog training. Let me help you get basic obedience with your dog then you have a good base to move onto more complex training such as recall , managing reactive behaviour and unwanted behaviours such as barking, possessiveness.

Fully insured, Canine First Aid qualified ex police dog handler.
Puppy and dog training & correction

22/05/2024

Hi everyone sorry I have not been posting lately. I got an injury and was concentrating on getting fitter. I’m glad to say I’m on the mend and have started training again. So I will start posting again. Thanks Del.

02/05/2024

Perfect walking conditions at Heather Hall today. Fantastic place for dog walking Lui enjoyed being there today.

16/04/2024

Hello all I’m away for the next two weeks on holiday. I will look at my page for comments. So I will answer any questions when I can to help with any problems you may have.

09/04/2024

When training your canine pals with food reward, don’t use their kibble as it’s not a treat.
Use a different type of food. My term being a 'wow' food!
Find your dog's preference; use different types of treats and get your pal's attention.
They will react positively to such rewards. Reinforce the training with the treats, then once your pal is being consistent to reacting to the training, start alternatively praising your pal and the use of treats.
Your aim being to stop giving treats every time your pal completes the task, and praise becomes the reward. I still give treats to my dog's but it’s just that, a treat.

03/04/2024

Dogs pulling on the lead is a common problem. It takes the enjoyment out of walking your canine pal. Let me help you solve the problem. I use a kind reward technique which is easy for you to use and being consistent and repetition will get you results. Let me help you.

02/04/2024

When training dogs always think about what you want to achieve and set achievable targets. It must be interactive and fun. Use rewards food, toy or praise. You will know which reward works for your dog. Start off in a quiet place away from distractions and keep the training periods short to start extending the training periods as you progress over time. Also if you suffer a set back don’t be disheartened just take a step back metaphorically speaking and repeat being consistent reinforce the reward to ensure your canine pal understands positive behaviour.

27/03/2024

When dog training make it simple. Use one word commands such as sit, down, come, heel, stay, leave.
Reward them for completing the task( what you want them to do).
Being consistent and repeating the task so your dog understands what they are getting rewarded for is essential.
Be patient and light in voice make it fun for them and it will be fun for you.

20/03/2024

Hi,
I got sent this by someone who had contacted me and thought it very worthy of passing on.

A Day in the Life of a Reactive Dog 🐾🐾

👋"Hello. I’m a reactive dog. People call me ‘reactive’ because I sometimes bark, growl and lunge towards other dogs, people, cats, cars – some of those things, or all of them.

‘Reactive’ is a label though and I would like you to understand what it’s really like to be ‘reactive’ and how I actually feel when I ‘react’.

If you are a ‘reactive’ dog, certain things, taken for granted by other dogs – such as a simple walk in the park or a trip to a dog show, become a bit more complicated. While I would love to be able to investigate all the fantastic smells in the park, or have a great time in a training class, scoffing off some yummy treats and exercising my brain cells, life for me is sadly full of anxiety and fear, and instead of enjoying these events, I am constantly on edge.

Why, you might want to ask? Can’t you just, like, get over it?
Nothing ever happens to you when you are out, why get yourself so worked up?

The problem is, ‘getting over it’ is not that simple. My anxiety and fear stem from many things – I might not have been socialised properly when young, or I might have had a bad experience. That means that certain things (other dogs, small children, load noises, people coming up to say hello) fill me with anxiety, fear or sometimes even panic. In many of those situations, if I could, I would probably run away, but many a time I can’t as I’m attached to a lead or cornered (like when another dog comes up to me and doesn’t want to leave me alone). But what sometimes works to make scary things go away is barking and growling at them – even bouncy dogs eventually get it. And while I might not look pretty or friendly when I growl and bark and lunge – hey! It works to get me out of a sticky situation and makes me feel safe again.

It’s not easy to feel scared every time I leave the house, and it’s not nice to see my owner tensing up or upset every time I feel I need to react. People shout abuse at me sometimes, ask my owner to muzzle me or even never walk me. But frankly, I don’t mean anyone any harm, I just want to be left alone. My owner works so hard to convince me that life isn’t all that scary after all – she feeds me yummy treats when a scary things approaches, she keeps me safe by helping me move out of the way rather than walk towards what is bound to upset me, she really, really tries, and I am slowly learning to trust things that used to freak me out loads.
But every now and then, just when I start thinking that maybe other dogs, people, cars etc. aren’t that scary after all, someone or something comes up a bit too close and my old fears come back – and all I can do is panic and scream (that is bark, growl and lunge) to make them go away.

So next time you see one of us – reactive dogs – out and about, please please – don’t judge. Don’t shout abuse at my owner who is trying all she can to make me feel safe. If you’re asked to call your dog away, please do, and don’t ask questions or claim your dog can do no harm as he’s friendly (to us, reactive dogs, that’s sometimes even worse!). Don’t let your children stroke us unless our owner says it’s fine. Just give us a bit of space so we can be on our way.
Thank you so much!"

14/03/2024

Reactive dogs
I have had a couple of incidents this week whilst out with dogs when I have encountered reactive dogs. The main issues I have encountered is the handler of the reactive dog makes no attempt to calm the dog by moving it away from the other approaching dog. They have stood still instead of keeping moving. Standing still allows the reactive dog to increase its anxiety. Keep moving either walking past or turning away from the approaching dog. Don’t shout at the reactive dog this will only escalate the anxiety of your dog. Note the trigger point distances of the your dog reacting then anticipating potential incidents in the future use distractions to avert your dogs attention food ,toys can be used. Speak to the dog in a calm happy voice sing a song , tell it a story, describe the environment whatever. The purpose being to calm your dog and divert its attention. Speak to approaching person and dog even if is good morning. If you’re not worried about the approaching dog let your dog know relax don’t tighten up.
If your dog is reactive let me help you.