The Pawer of Love dog training

18/11/2024

Behaviour change. Is it always a training issue?

14/11/2024

Three emojies to explain your life with your dog right now.

No cheating 🙂.

03/11/2024

Do you want to improve your dog's focus and build their confidence?

Have you tried pattern games?

Pattern games are simple, repetitive activities that dogs can easily follow. They offer a structure, predictability and empower the dogs by giving them 'I can do' attitude.

They also release dopamine in the brain, speed up learning and improve memory.

In the video you can see an example of a pattern game.

Other examples can be the 1-2-3 or the Up and Down game

TIP: start in an environment where your dog can learn and keep the sessions short.

21/10/2024

🐾 ONE TO ONE DOG TRAINING POWER HOUR🐾

Hey amazing dog guardians!

Got 60 minutes? Let's make it count!

Join me for a Dog Training Power Hour designed to focus on specific skills and behaviours with your dog.

Whether it's basic puppy training, recall training, or resolving problem behaviours, we'll work together to start you off on the right path in just one hour!

🐶 Who it's for: Everyone looking to see improvement or fine tune their pup's skills.

🐶 What to expect:

🐾 Personalized training with real-time tips

🐾 Focused attention on key areas

🐾 Fun and engaging activities for both you and your dog

🐾 Follow up email about what we covered

🐾 An opportunity to message me any questions related to training we did for a week

🐶 Why it works: An intensive, focused session gives you the tools and confidence to practice and reinforce what you have learned.

🐶 Investment: £60 for a zoom session, £80 for an in person session.

Don't miss this opportunity to bond with your dog and level up their behaviour in a single hour!

Message me to book your spot today.

13/10/2024

The amount of 'cute' puppy (or dog) videos I see when they are stressed, uncomfortable around things is scary and concerning.

If you don't understand dog body language, you won't be able to recognise when they need our help and they might not have a choice but to escalate the situation to a growl, snap or bite.

Then we will label them as aggressive or bad or dominant. Or something along that rubbish.

Dogs generally do not want to cause harm or get into a fight. It will risk them getting hurt too and they want to avoid that.

They need us to respond to their body language so if they are stressed, you can recognise what they need and do something to reduce that stress.

If they know we have their back, they won't resort to unwanted behaviour.

Do you need help with understanding their needs and help them to fit in the human society?

Send me a message to discuss how I can support you both.

06/10/2024

Common mistakes people with REACTIVE dogs make.

1. Thinking they will grow out of it

Dogs are reactive mainly because they feel uncomfortable, fearful in a situation. If every time they react and the 'scary' thing goes away, their behaviour is reinforced by feeling better because the distance between them increased.

If a behaviour is reinforced constantly, it will become stronger and stronger. They will not grow out of it.

2. Social isolation

I don't mean to put your dog together with one or several of their triggers (e.g. dogs, people). That would be flooding which is a very dangerous path to go down on.

In order to teach your dog the proper skill around their trigger, they must have the chance to be trained around them from a safe distance.

Everybody's safety is paramount and distance is always your friend if you have a reactive dog.

3. Using aversive equipment

In my book causing pain and discomfort to a dog in order to change their behaviour, is not the way to help them.

Yes, punishment does work but I wouldn't want my dog to be fearful around me.

Examples for equipment I would not recommend:

retractable lead

shock collar

choke chain

slip lead

Do you need support to help your reactive dog? Drop me a message to discuss how we can work together.

30/09/2024

What's happening on the other end of your reactive dog's lead?

Let's talk about you. How your behaviour and feelings can affect your dog.

If you are struggling, it's very likely that your dog is struggling too. If you are frustrated, angry about their overreactive behaviour, remember they need empathy too because they are not feeling great either.

There was an interesting study done on horses but this can also relate to dogs.

There was a pathway where people either lead their horse up and down or rode them. They walked or rode up and down four times. However, before the fourth time they were told that somebody will open an umbrella as they pass them. The umbrella was not opened but there was an increase in heart rate for both the people and horses. (Link is in the comments.)

It shows, even though nothing happened, how much effect the people had on their horses.

The same happens in our relationship with our dogs.

If we put tension on the lead, breathe rapidly or 'forget' to breathe, the dogs will pick up on it and will start to get stressed even before they see the trigger.

Simple things like taking a deep breath can help you and your dog stay calm.

Our dog needs us to be confident, they need to know that they can trust us and that we have their back.

It all comes back to our relationship.

26/09/2024

What is REACTIVITY?

Reactivity is a word that is used a lot to describe a dog's behaviour that is inappropriate in our society.

If a dog reacts to external stimuli in a way that is out of proportion, they are overreacting. I find this word more appropriate. This involves uncontrolled emotional reaction, immediate response without conscious thought.

So how I see it is reactivity is normal and conscious thought is involved but overreactivity is an inappropriate, immediate reaction to a stimulus without conscious thought.

If your dog is overreacting they can exhibit the fight, flight or freeze response. We often tend to miss when they freeze because it is not as obvious as lunging, barking or trying to get away from something. If your dog stops moving around other dogs, people, gets rigid, they need your help to get them out of there.

What can be the CAUSE for this behaviour?

Pain and behaviour are strongly linked. If your dog is in pain, they won't respond to behaviour modification. You have to rule out pain first of all.

Lack of sleep. Just like us, we can get snappier if we don't get enough sleep.

Lots of stress inside the house. For example you're renovating your house and it involves people coming and going, making all sorts of noises that can upset your dog. Or you had a new baby and there is a change in the routine- less walks and/or attention.

Learned behaviour. It can happen in just one experience. Your dog was attacked, scared by another dog and they don't feel safe around other dogs any more.

Hormones, genetics can also play part.

Overreactivity is mainly caused by fear. Your dog puts up all this show but their aim is to make the 'scary' thing go away. They don't want to hurt others. They just want distance to feel safe. It doesn't mean that it can't lead to aggression though.

If we don't listen to our dog, constantly put them in situations where they feel they need to protect themselves, they can escalate the behaviour to nip or bite.

It can take months to change this behaviour. The sooner you start working on it, the less they can practice this unwanted behaviour.

Get in touch if you want to discuss how I can help both of you to achieve this together.

21/09/2024

Teach 'touch' for recall, reactivity.

21/09/2024

Reactive dog: sit or not to sit?

12/09/2024

Faster recall tip.

07/09/2024

05/09/2024

Sudden behaviour change? Watch for possible reasons.

01/09/2024

Tip for moving away from off lead incoming dogs.

26/08/2024

Finish the sentence.

Dog training is.....

20/08/2024

Quick recall tip. I was wrong. She did come back from sniffing 🙂. Wiggles favourite reward is praise and touch but you can use food or a toy. Whatever your dog loves.

12/08/2024

How can you help your reactive dog?

This is Daisy. I adopted her when she was 5 years old and had her for 10 years. I was lucky.

She was very dog overreactive.

We tend to say dog reactive but if you think about it, we all react to things. It is more accurate to say that a dog is overreactive when they react to things out of proportion.

Here are some strategies I always use with the dogs I am working with:

1. Management of the environment

This is not training but part of the training. If the dog practices the unwanted behaviour, it will take much longer to change the behaviour.

2. Safety

If the dog doesn't feel safe, learning cannot take place because the fight-flight response will kick in. Survival will be the priority not learning. The dog always needs to be at a distance from the trigger where they feel safe.

3. Positive association with the trigger

Emotions drive behaviour. If we change the dog's emotion towards the trigger, the behaviour will change. This is where that piece of chicken or favourite toy comes in.

4. Training plan

The training plan needs to be tailored to the individual dog because an umbrella approach will be dangerous.

It is much easier to change your overreactive dog's behaviour with help and support from a professional force free trainer than try to tackle it alone.

Get in touch if you want to have a discussion about how I can support you and your dog.

08/08/2024

Does your dog ignore you sometimes?