Day 1 of the advent calendar!
So my advice on dog treats at Christmas is:
1. Keep it natural.
If you give them lots of processed yucky treats, apart from being no good for them, they will likely get the 💩💩💩💩🫣
Also remember there is a link between behaviour and food. So if the food upsets their tummy and they have cramps etc. it will affect behaviour. I also try to explain poor quality food as being like additives in food that sends kids hyper! Don’t undo the hard work and money you’ve put into giving them a good diet.
2. Consider the ‘habit’ that you are creating.
The expectancy of a treat at a certain time could cause stress when it suddenly stops, and also in anticipation of receiving it if the routine is like clockwork.
For the boys they have some form of enrichment/chew every day, but never at same time or in a set predictable routine to avoid this.
The bags in this advent calendar offer great variety with small treat(s) in each bag, which they can also rip open to satisfy their need to strip/dissect too.
Halle @ Petculiar puts a MASSIVE effort into these calendars each year, and although they are all now sold out, you can create your own version with safe paper bags (brown fruit and veg bags are a good option) and natural treats. I’m sure she will give you some ideas for healthy treats to fill them with if you pop and see her, or look on the website if you are a bit further away.
3. Make sure you supervise them, as anything edible is a choke risk, the same as it is for us humans.
4. Make sure they are left in peace to eat their treats (I’ll do a separate post on this in more detail) to avoid resource guarding, especially if the house is a lot busier than usual and the treats are a bit more special then usual.
Remember they don’t know what Christmas is all about! It is an opportunity for us to spoil them, I will hold both hands up to that 😇 what I’m saying here are points for you to consider, to make sure you
I was freezing after walking the boys so I wrapped myself in a nanna blanket 😂
#onlinedogtraining #dogtrainerlife #honestdogtraining #reality #nannablanket #cozyblanket
I received a few videos today introduced as ‘spam’.
Never are any updates spam, but these just showed me the effort that has gone into training, and totally made my day. Because I can see ‘my’ training in action, and the amazing bond the dog and guardian have, plus the start of many adventures together ☺️
Dexter is a 1 year old intact male retriever, and both him and his dog mum have been dedicated to training since we started 121s, and it shows.
Awesome job team Dexter 🙌🏼💪🏼
#dogtrainingprogress #recalltraining #recall #offleadheel #doghumanbond #dogtraning #goldenretrievertraining
Is this a problem?
For me absolutely not.
Could I make it an unnecessary problem by making it a problem, absolutely.
Vinnie does steal things occasionally in a cheeky way, and will give them back without issue with drop cue, but this is not stealing.
He also 🤔 collects things! These things are selected at random, and are usually also very random in nature 😂
When he selects what I call ‘treasure’ in the garden, which is only ocassional but he likes to bring it inside. He won’t chew it or eat it he gently transmits it. It’s almost like he’s doing me a favour, brining me a gift, doing a job and he needs to deliver it all the way home. We also need to remember that he’s a retriever!
I make payment for the treasure in the form of a ‘swap’ which is something I teach puppies to avoid recourse guarding, and to get things from them without conflict. I carried this on with Vinnie in these situations.
So in this scenario although I know he’d be happy to give it up once we are inside, we swap and his work and good deed of the day is acknowledged.
It’s his personality, and I don’t to want to suppress that and being perfectly honest I find it very cute.
I’ll post the swap game in a separate reel, but ultimately what I’m saying is if the thing won’t hurt them and they are not hurting the thing, so the thing is not a danger, then do we need to make it a big deal and cause a problem?
Scavenging and resource guarding are separate issues this is more about avoiding accidentally making something that is not a problem into problem.
I can confirm that this weed didn’t go into a plant pot I told a white lie, it went into the bin 😇
#dogswhosteal #dogresourceguarding #dogtreasure #dogtrainersdog #dogtrainingtip #doggenetics #retrievers #letdogsbedogs
Putting my new Predation Substitute knowledge (often referred to as prey drive) to work today, with Max the Bavarian Mountain Hound! Great place to start!
I really enjoyed the session, using new skills and seeing the progress unfold, plus working with guardians who have been dedicated to Max’s training since we started working together.
We started to lay foundations today which Max and his family will continue to practice, and we will progress this in future sessions.
We had to use rolls of tape as our exercise marker points as it was a bit windy for cones!
He’s a very smart boy and I’m looking forward to seeing him advance in his training and how this helps to improve his lead walking.
Again thanks to @predation_substitute_training for sharing her knowledge, which will help other dogs and owners work towards living their best lives 🙏🏻
#predationsubstitutetraining #preydriven #scenthound #bavarianmountainhound #dogtrainingjourney #hitchindogs #setyourdogupforsuccess #leadwalking
I didn’t use a leave it cue here, BUT I do add a cue after they get through the initial ‘problem solving’ stage of teaching, when first introducing the behaviour.
When I start to layer and advance a basic leave it, a cue helps dogs understand the task, or reminds them of the task, especially if they are excited or you do a lot of find it in terms of food or retrieves etc with play.
I also teach a ‘get it’ to increase enthusiasm as an alternative release cue depending on the scenario.
Yes, I do let them take ‘the thing’ I’ve asked them to ‘leave’ sometimes, but not every time (this can be another reel).
I don’t want to risk decreasing drive for food or play and for me it’s more important that they listen 👂🏻 rather than predict. Otherwise they learn a repetitive sequence (like leaving their bowl of food then releasing to eat it every meal) and it becomes a party trick rather than true impulse control, where they can listen, hear, and respond to different varying cues.
However, if a dog was a prolific scavenger I would come at it from a slightly different angle to address that first.
This is just a random video I decided to do during a pee break this morning, so low arousal etc and a very simple request for the boys, although still considering multi dog household training requirements which is another topic! So here there was no need to remind them to ‘leave it’ but in other situations I may still use it.
We cover lots of in depth impulse control exercises in the advanced class. Next one runs in March, get in touch if you are interested 👍🏻
#dogimpulsecontrol #leaveit #dogtraining101 #dogsofhitchin #dogsofhertfordshire #dogtrainingtips #dogtrainingclasses
Fun Circuit Class with a twist tonight! 🎃👻
We’ve gone inside for the winter and this was our first indoor class, so although we are a few days late with our Halloween theme, it was nice to have plenty of light, and to be warm and dry!
My rubber floor matting didn’t arrive in time, so I adapted the session slightly to account for that, but we’ll have it for next session 👍🏻
Classes will now run fortnightly on a Monday at 18:00 and next session we are doing a recap on all things recall.
#indoordogtraining #fundogtraining #dogtrainerhitchin #hitchin #luton #northherts #dogclasses #dogtrainingneverstops
A few clips of Baileys last training walk, we ran his walks alongside some 121s to work on recall.
We built up to this with a lot of long line walking, then a dropped long line, and this session he graduated to off lead.
His guardians have also had a lot of recall, play and proximity games to work on, along with impulse control and ‘minding his own business’.
The session prior to this we played some of these games on the dreaded cricket pitch in our estate (Bailey lives near me) and with quite a few off lead dogs around, he navigated this very well and kept playing with me and moving away from dogs attempting to approach us (I previously posted this as a story and I think it’s in my highlights).
I honestly didn’t feel as though I was even working for this last session, and I can proudly say that my job here is done! ✅
Check ins and engagement are so very important to acknowledge and reward. It is not begging! Plus the behaviours you acknowledge and reward you get more of!
A customer recently told me that they had been told to ‘get their puppy off lead asap’ DO NOT DO THIS! Or listen to people with no qualifications 🙈🤯🫠
Don’t ditch the long line too soon, they become what they rehearse, so if not listening and hoofing off is rehearsed it will become more and more rewarding and the new ‘autopilot’ response, plus it’s dangerous.
Do you need to work on recall? If so get in touch, it’s one of my favourite subjects to teach!
#dogrecall #dogrecalltraining #dogcheckin #dogengagement #dogsofhertfordshire #dogsofhitchin #dogsofletchworth #dogtrainer #dogtraineruk
