Good Choice Dog Training

Good Choice Dog Training Accredited Dog Trainer (Puppies & Adult dogs) Puppy Specialist - 121’s - Training Walks - Classes

22/11/2025

Dr Julie kindly gave me a muzzle for one of my/our customers to try, and I thought it might fit Stan.

It did, so I also took the opportunity to refresh a few of my muzzle training demo videos.

I refer to the stages in this video as levels 1,2,3 and 4:

🔹Interaction - Muzzle is presented from behind the handlers back, if the dog shows interest such as looking at it, sniffing it. We mark with ‘yes’ and throw a treat away. We don’t force interaction and the reward away gives the dog a choice to return to the muzzle to ‘play again’.

🔹Duration - We build duration in the muzzle by increasing the length of time the dog is fed before breaking them away for a treat to the floor.

🔹Building reps - Where the dog is free to exit the muzzle after eating without a break away floor treat, instead they are invited back with a cue (I use boop) and again we can progress this to offer duration with multiple feeds.

🔹Movement - I’ve seen so many dogs that are fine statically in a muzzle, but struggle once asked to move, as it’s never been taught. For this stage and whilst learning, a lickable food is a better. I didn’t have a squeezy tube of anything, so I had peanut butter on my finger. We walk backwards to maintain eye contact with the dog and allow them to push into the muzzle as they walk, to accept the treat.

Squeezy food can be used through the muzzle for all these stages, and accompanied by a hard treat when feeding to the floor. When starting out it can be easier for them to lick than chew. Stan is very experienced at these stages so the hard food is not that much of a ‘level up’ for him.

ALL of these stages are done with an open muzzle.

Only after this is fluid do we start to work on desensitisation of the attachment straps, duration in an attached muzzle and then ‘doing stuff’ whilst wearing a muzzle.

It’s not a rush and it doesn’t need to be complicated.

Would you like to see this in a part 2?

Muzzle is from .muzzle.movement

21/11/2025

Dexter was given this Dinosaur toy by one of my customers, as a thank you for being a stooge dog at one of their 121s (Ted’s mum).

I’ve played with Dexter using the dinosaur many times now, and this is our little game together 🥰

It was born from one of my silly moods, where I made these noises during play, I should also point out that the dinosaur can also moonwalk 😂

When playing last night I realised that with without the sequence/pattern of the movement noise followed by the activation noise, he wouldn’t take the toy!

So ‘ba!’ pretty much means ‘get it’!

So as much as this is a mixture of funny, cute and clever it’s a reminder of how easily or dogs can learn and how fun it can be.

Realistically because of how the game has been interpreted he’s working on impulse control, arousal and focus during play.

16/11/2025

Walk and training session around Baldock High Street today.

Dealing with whatever we passed on the walk, which included several dogs, adults, children, bikes, cars, buses, food establishments, food rubbish on the floor, a dog left outside a shop etc!

Once we start the class section of the session, it’s an opportunity to keep transferring known skills to public places, and to run through drills that practice focus on the handler and disengaging from passing distractions.

There was a mixture of very neutral dogs and also dogs that have previously worked through reactivity in today’s session.

2 small reactions to a passing dog during the session but this was a result of the dog fixing on the handlers hand (with food in it) then suddenly realising a dog was passing. This is common and I’ll do a reel on how to avoid it, but this is why we get out and practice! So with some coaching on timing of marker words, food handling/delivery we were good 👍🏻

They did do well as it was busy and on one section of the walk we were passing other dogs quite closely, with some very interested in them.

14/11/2025

We built up such a positive association with a hand touch when Frank was young, which we transferred to a muzzle, during Frankie’s early muzzle training, so much so that it’s now also a pretty fantastic recall cue! 🚀💨💨💨💨

It’s like I tell customers with any cue, build value in it, make it fun, teach it outside of a situation where you need to ask for the behaviour. Then when they have it transfer it to the environment ever more increasingly difficult locations to set them up for success.

Recall and lead walking are typical examples of where this isn’t done, in particular lead walking.

How many times have you seen a handler repeatedly shouting ‘heel, heel, heel’?

My thoughts in this situation are:

🔹Does the dog even know where heel is?
🔹Have they been rewarded in this position?
🔹Have they been rewarded in position with a cue to build association between position and reward?
🔹Have they been taught in a fun way using really simple exercises in an environment where they can focus?

Often I would guess that the dog thinks ‘ah they are shouting heel again so I’ll brace for a tug on the lead or for the lead to be shortened’ which is obviously not nice and will not help.

If you need help building a positive association with any cue, comment cue and I’ll send you a link to book a free consultation call.

Thanks to Frank the Tank for inspiring this reel today! All his mum did was send me a video to keep in touch and show me how they are doing 🥰

Just 3 handsome floofs on their morning walk ❤️
10/11/2025

Just 3 handsome floofs on their morning walk ❤️

08/11/2025

I haven’t filmed any raw coaching footage for a while, so I just let the camera run during puppy class today to see what I got.

The exercise they are covering here is called ‘follow me’ it’s a calm proximity game that puts focus on the handler, and can help with lead walking.

It’s also a pattern game, so to keep the dog in the pattern is totally reliant on the handlers timing and actions as it’s also a silent game with no verbal cues.

The coaching I’m giving here will help the handlers to develop their skills, to seamlessly keep the dog with them, even when they change direction.

These little nuggets of feedback make a massive difference!

With classes, 121s & online coaching I encourage customers to film themselves training, watch it back and see if they can see any room for improvement or to send to me for feedback, as there is so much value in small tweaks to how we do things!

Very productive and focused class today and I’m looking forward to seeing how they progress.

02/11/2025

If you’ve worked with me and I’ve asked you if you play repetitive fetch games with your dog, you’ll have gauged from my facial expression response, that if you answered yes, this was not a good thing!

I’ll have also told you that Vinnie has the potential to be a ball or retrieve obsessed dog if I fed into this.

A dog obsessed with anything is not healthy, but in the case of retrieving, aside from the musculoskeletal damage caused by repetitive high speed take off > braking > turning > repeat, it’s also the hormones released during this activity which can have adverse effects on your dogs behaviour, lasting long after the play session.

It also feels so good to them that it can become an addiction.

So why is Vinnie chasing a frisbee?

I manage retrieves so that Vinnie doesn’t ‘go wobble’.

He loves to retrieve and he’s a retriever! So he works for them by giving me different behaviours, some easy and some more complex.

We keep sessions short and mix things up so it’s not retrieve after retrieve after retrieve.

I might swap to food rewards, add in some tug, scatter feed, switch to scent work or a high focus behaviour, to both manage arousal and check his level of focus.

In this clip he’s achieved his second ever frisbee catch when chasing after it 💪🏼

We did a few static catches and rolling catches too.

So all this requires focus.

Next level is a double frisbee catch but I also have to master the throw for that 😂

I did post this as a story last week, but thought I should probably make the most of the recognition and pop it on the g...
30/10/2025

I did post this as a story last week, but thought I should probably make the most of the recognition and pop it on the grid!

Really nice to receive this, especially as it came through when things were a bit tough after Stan being unwell.

This award is based on the location of my Google pin 📍 which is where I run classes in Lilley (between Hitchin and Luton), but I do also cover the wider North Hertfordshire and Central Bedfordshire areas.

I do also travel further afield, and have a few long term customers a bit further out, a small travel charge is added to these bookings.

If you are unsure if I cover your area drop me a message. I also offer online coaching if that suits you better 😊

Whats on!🔹1 space left on the adolescent class, starting 1st November. 🔹 1st November puppy class is full, but bookings ...
27/10/2025

Whats on!

🔹1 space left on the adolescent class, starting 1st November.

🔹 1st November puppy class is full, but bookings are open for the next puppy, adolescent and advanced classes starting 10/01/26.

There will also be a lead walking workshop and a recall workshop running in December 2025.

Lastly there are only a few slots left in 2025 for in person 121s!

Get in touch to book your space, or to book a free consultation call to discuss the best option for your dog.

Address

Good Choice Dog Training, The Paddock, Offley Hoo Farm
Hitchin
SG53ED

Opening Hours

Monday 7am - 7pm
Tuesday 7am - 7pm
Wednesday 7am - 7pm
Thursday 7am - 7pm
Friday 7am - 7pm
Saturday 8am - 1pm

Telephone

+447976732722

Website

https://linktr.ee/goodchoicedogtraining

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