Positive Canine Coaching

24/08/2024

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24/08/2024

So you’re at an outing, standing next to your spouse or friend. Someone approaches you with a tray filled with hors d’oeuvres, and offers one to you. You look at the tray, but then say “no, thank you.” The waiter moves away.

Now, imagine if after saying “no, thank you” the waiter didn’t go away. Imagine if the waiter continued to push you to take one, and even your spouse started saying “come on, take one!” So you uncomfortably took and ate one, even though it wasn’t what you wanted. You’d probably be pretty aggravated with your spouse too. But you think it’s a one off and you carry on with the evening.

A few minutes later another waiter approaches with another tray, and the same thing happens. This time you feel yourself get more upset, especially after saying “no” multiple times. But your spouse insists also, even going so far as to take the snack off the tray and try to put it in your mouth. By the end of the interaction, you’re really on edge.

The third or fourth time you see a waiter approach you, you’re feeling either stressed, angry, or both. The waiter hasn’t even gotten all the way over to you yet and you’re ready to yell “no!” You look around for a place to escape to but your spouse/friend has their arm around you and you can’t back away. You end up physically snatching the tray from the waiter and throwing it on the ground, yelling obscenities and getting as quickly out of the room as possible. The guests look at you while your spouse simply says “I don’t know why she’s being so aggressive! They were just wanted to give her a snack!” I’m guessing you would be pretty angry at your spouse/friend by this point too. They aren’t helping support you at all. You can’t trust them OR the waiter.

You see where I’m going with this don’t you?
Try to imagine if your “no thank yous” were ignored. How many times would it take being ignored for you to get angry, get physical, or try to escape, or worse, just shut down completely. Everyone would handle it differently, but we’d all hate it.

Dogs deal with this EVERY DAY. They say “no, thank you” all the time. And we often times are guilty of ignoring that request and trying to convince them otherwise, sometimes even going so far as to force them through something because WE don’t understand. And then we wonder why dogs reach a point of aggressing or avoiding. Whether we are the waiter; trying to push something onto the dog like an interaction, or the spouse/friend not supporting the dog and backing up their request of “no, thank you” we are doing serious harm to the dogs confidence and even more harm to our relationship with them.

Your dog can only use his body language to tell you what he wants, so pay attention. If your dog says no thank you, listen. If they don’t want a stranger to touch them, support them. If they don’t want to meet a strange dog, let it go. If they want to take their time trying something different, let them take their time. I can tell you the more choice they feel they have the more likely they are to actually decide to try when they are ready. Just like you may finally get hungry enough to want a snack from the tray, but on your terms, and one that you get to pick.

Choice and consent matters in ALL species. Respect your dogs “no, thank you” and you’ll get a lot of respect back.

- Helen St. Pierre, No Monkey Business Dog Training. Please if you share give credit.

23/08/2024

Lovely week, again.

20/08/2024

Three IS the magic number. Put your paws together for these three fab doggos.....who've completed the Puppy Fundamentails course and smashed it. What do you mean, "cute"?.
Santi, Monty and Toby.

Next round is starting soon, get in touch if you'd like a spot.

16/08/2024

PUPPIES!!!!!!!
PUPPY FUNDAMENTAILS! There are a still a couple of spaces for my next round of classes starting next week.

Drop an email to [email protected]

15/08/2024

Another great evening.....

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

14/08/2024

This is what you need if you're thinking about bringing a puppy home! Prevention IS better than cure. Take a look at this workshop if you're about to add to your family.

✨PUPPY PLANNING WORKSHOPS ✨

Are you getting a puppy? 🤩 Do you feel prepared? Do you feel confident in knowing how to settle a young puppy into your household? 🤔Have you got a plan B for toilet training or crate training when plan A fails? 😱

We are here to help set your puppy up for success from Day 1! 🥳

In our Puppy Planning Workshop we cover:
🐕 Best set up for your puppy - crates pens, sleeping areas and more
🐕 Toilet training + how to make sure your puppy toilers outside
🐕 Feeding regimes and how to use their food in training
🐕 Exercise - how much, where and safe ways to burn off puppy energy
🐕 Car travel and how to make sure you puppy is settled in the car
🐕 Tackling puppy mouthing
🐕 How to appropriately socialise your puppy
🐕 Early training - what to teach first
🐕 Choosing dog gear - lead, harbesses, collars and more!
🐕 Enrichment and easy way to keep your puppy mentally stimulated
🐕 How to raise a confident and optimistic dog
🐕 Introducing your puppy to other animals in the household 🐈🐇🐓
And much, much more!

⭐️ Puppy starter pack with every booking ⭐️

Refreshments provided ☕️🍰

09/08/2024

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09/08/2024

Keep Sunday 1st September free and come and say hi. I'll be demonstrating scent work with pet dogs.
ithttps://www.facebook.com/share/tNfoHxDhLwDTJkS4/

🥁🪘🥁Make sure you arrive at 1pm prompt to see the opening event!! 🥁🪘🥁🪘🥁
So much to see and do:
🛍️Stalls for our canine lovers
🐶Dog show🎖️🏵️
🛍️A special ‘Made in Whiteway’ stall - crafts and produce made by colonists
🔮Tarot reading🃏
✨Glitter face painting (eco friendly!)
🪗Live music🎻
🍻Bar BBQ and tea tent🍔🍰
🐶K9 Scent work demos🐾
🔔Morris Dancers
🛍️SO many stalls!! 🛍️
🥥Coconut Shy🥥
🎳Skittles competition 🎳
📘Whiteway History tent👨🏻‍🏫
🌿Plant stall🌻
🍾Tombola 🧴
🎟️Raffle🎟️
And much more!!

07/08/2024

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05/08/2024

Introducing Constable Rip and Pepper.
Awesome work both and their handlers did a fab job too!
Looking to watching them progress.

04/08/2024

03/08/2024

When you've got a scent class followed by a Puppy Fundamentails class and know you'll run over and have very little time to get stuff ready!

31/07/2024

Dogs and heat.....Thank you Animal Love Pet First Aid for this.

Today I am grateful NOT to be working in clinic. No not to enjoy the sunshine, but to be away from the devastation that heatstroke still causes despite multiple warnings. I am grateful not to be battling to save lives, and witnessing unnecessary deaths of wonderful dogs who would have quite happily missed a walk today.

To all my veterinary colleagues, I just hope you do not have to see too many tragedies today. Sending lots of love and healing as it’s part of our job which should no longer be part of our job and has a huge negative mental impact.

KEEP THOSE DOGS IN THE COOL, AT HOME!

24/07/2024

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24/07/2024

Groomers! You have nothing to fear.....I won't be taking that up anytime soon. Just going to make a mess of my dogs face and noone else's. 🤭

24/07/2024

The Black Beauty is SIX!! This gorgeous being is by my side each and every day and I could not imagine my life without her. At the risk of repeating myself, she really has been my best teacher over the years. I truly believe she came into our lives for a reason and we are certainly better off . If you're lucky enough to share your life with a dog, or any animal, look after them. Their life is so much shorter than ours, so make it count, make memories and most of all build that bond of trust and companionship and always have their best interests at heart. I've not made her a cake or got her a card, but she'll be having lots of her favourite foods and we're off to a field for some fun. Happy Birthday Z!!

23/07/2024

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22/07/2024

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𝕄𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕄𝕦𝕫𝕫𝕝𝕖

Would you like to finally nail your dogs muzzle training?

Do you want to know the safest and most comfortable muzzle to use for your dog?

Don't know where to start with muzzle training your dog?

You will learn all of this and lots, lots more on our NEW Master the Muzzle Workshop and all for just £50*.

Starting Thursday 1 Aug at 6:30pm and every subsequent Thurs for 4 weeks (5 weeks in total) via Zoom.

Book your space using the link below 👇🏾

https://futurefocuscanines.co.uk/classes/

Jen

*(Clearpay and Credit Card options available)

22/07/2024

A bit delayed, but here are our new Inspectors.
Inspector Bentley
Inspector Rosa
Inspector Murphy
Inspector Leo
All worked so hard and are great students. Inside hides, outside hides, how to search buildings, vehicles and more.

21/07/2024

What a nice surprise for a Sunday.....

18/07/2024

What an absolutely awesome five days with Jo from Educating Animals, Jim Mackie, the keepers at Paignton Zoo and 16 other fab humans. Working on training plans for Baboons, Lemurs and Meerkats ...then Chicken day today. I have a new respect for chickens. They really are clever and have relly helped to hone my training skills. Such a wonderful experience.

15/07/2024

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

13/07/2024

I'll be "out of the office" from today, as I'm heading back to Paignton to take part in another awesome workshop with Educating Animals.

I'll be checking emails, but this will be sporadic over the week and I'll respond when possible.

Don't worry, I'll share lots of photos and tell you more when I'm back.....here's one from last year....
🐵🦍🦧🐕🦁🦊🦝🐗🦫🦨🐓🐔🦩🦜

12/07/2024

Still a couple of spots left for the Puppy Fundamentails classes starting soon (25th July).

For more information and details on how to book, follow this link https://bookwhen.com/positivecaninecoaching/e/ev-sz2k-20240725181500

11/07/2024

Yes, yes, yes.....

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The lament of the ‘beautiful dog’.

Don’t get me wrong, all dogs are beautiful, but there is something we have to talk about and that’s the exceptionally good looking dog. The dog with unique markings, the one with the long flowing coat, the blue merle dog, the one blue eyed dog, the dog with the spotted coat like in the movies, the so tiny and cute you wanna squeeze it dog, the dog that everyone wants to stare at and touch.

When I first got Aalto my Toller, as a puppy he was impossibly cute. Small and orange with bright amber eyes. I quickly realised that everyone would reach out to grab at my puppy because of how he looks. I started to walk him exclusively with my Stafford who wears a muzzle and people would visibly cower away once they spotted him. It gave my puppy room to breathe.

I’ve had people reach out to grab at my dogs, adults and children alike (adults are actually the worst offenders) I’ve had people crouch and push their faces into my dogs faces. I’ve had people stare hard right into my dogs eyes. I once had a small child pull my dogs tail?!

Here’s the thing. If you got a new car tomorrow, a top of the range super car, people would show it, an inanimate object, more respect than they’d show a dog. They’d look for sure, but they’d ask before touching. They’d ask you about the specs. They’d ask you before sitting in it.

If you got a designer handbag tomorrow, no one would just reach out in the street to touch it. No one would grab at the handles and rummage inside.

Why do people give more respect to objects than they do to dogs? Why do people believe it’s their right to touch your dog, to stare at them, to pull at them, to push their faces into theirs?

Meet Mabel. I met her for her first lesson today and it’s fairly obvious she is a Dalmatian. She finds children very spooky and will bark to try and get them to move away from her. Children have ran at her, stared at her, yelled ‘it’s a Dalmatian!’ At her. Parents have mostly intervened but many haven’t.

This is the lament of the ‘beautiful dog’. The knowledge that whenever you go in public with them they will be seen as public property to be touched, grabbed and ogled at. Can you even imagine if every time you stepped outside EVERYONE stared at you?

Please, give ALL dogs you see out and about some respect. All of them. Give them the respect any sentient being deserves. Even if they are beautiful, it doesn’t mean they are yours to interact with. Don’t stare, don’t shout at them, don’t grab at or touch them. Leave them the hell alone unless you’re invited to interact directly by the owners.

Signed, every beautiful dog on the planet

09/07/2024

Puppy Fundamentails!

Just a couple of spaces left on the next round of Puppy Classes.
What we cover.....
Stop jumping up ✔
Walk nicely on the lead ✔
Come back when called ✔
Ouch - manage that landshark ✔

And much, much more.......

For more information drop an email to [email protected]