Muttley Matters

01/10/2024

Happy National Black Dog Day 2024!

Today’s day was founded to raise awareness of the added difficulties of finding new loving homes for black dogs in rescue. So the theme for today is adopt - a black dog - don’t shop!

27/09/2024

Milo the lovable Cavapoo had been struggling meeting unfamiliar dogs and had taken to shouting loudly at them. His mum has been working hard on her handling techniques to reduce his anxiety and reactivity and he has been doing very well. Today she wrote “Thank you for all your support. I took him swimming (it's his birthday) and he was so happy and well behaved. He went and say hello to few dogs today too and had a lovely play with one of his girl friends too.” Well done Milo. I am proud of you 🧡. Keep being a good boy and keep making new friends! And a very happy 3rd birthday!!

25/08/2024

Life skills classes for adolescents are hard to find. Georgie’s classes are well run and outdoors in a beautiful location. Can highly recommend 🐾

Teen (and adult) dog class spaces still available to start Sunday 1st September and Sunday 6th October. Located at GU28 0PT.

Interested? Please email [email protected] or call 07505040794.
Alternatively check out my website: www.thepawsitivetrainer.co.uk

22/08/2024

Tongue out Thursday 🤪 with Akela the gorgeous German Shorthaired Pointer who started training with me today. Akela has a lovable zest for life and gets utterly engrossed in everything on walks - scents, dogs, other people, feathers. Her pawrents would like her not to switch off from them but to keep those velvety black ears open so that she can start having off-lead time. Today she started to learn to do just that through focus and recall games. She was an absolute star and did super well 🤩.

20/08/2024

This type of thinking, based on the scientific findings of applied psychology, is what distinguishes positive reinforcement trainers from trainers that use punitive or intimidatory techniques. Well done to Good Guardianship to articulate it so well.

It can be all too easy to look at a behaviour, particularly one that we find problematic, as an isolated thing that just occurs, or is put down to false and outdated ideas like 'dominance' or 'stubbornness'.

Think of behaviour as a symptom - underlying that behaviour there is an emotion driving that behaviour. Behaviours don't happen just 'because', there is always a reason for them and so it's up to us to learn how to understand what they are trying to tell us so we can work out what that emotion is.

And at the root of it all there will be a need. Something that is causing the dog to feel that particular emotion and so lead them to show the behaviour that we are seeing. Once we have discovered the emotion the dog is feeling, we can work out what the dog needs and help them to get whatever that may be.

The three pictures here give an example:

Behaviour: the dog is barking at something. If you look at their posture and body language the body is leaning back, away from what they are barking at. The ears are back, whiskers flared, and eyes fixed on something. The front paw is slightly lifted and there is a back paw in the air, and the back end of the dog may be lowered towards the ground a little.

Emotion: what the overall picture of the body language is telling us is that the dog is scared of the thing they are barking at, so the emotion they are feeling is fear.

Need: What this dog needs is immediate space from the thing that is bothering them, so they can feel relief from that fear and feel safer again. What they need going on is an increased feeling of safety and security, more trust in us to help them if they need it or get them out of a situation if it's too much for them.

When we can understand the need and emotion driving the behaviour we can understand our dogs far better and see where they need our help.

14/03/2024

❤️

15/02/2024

Can highly recommend for all budding dog trainers.

Join the APDT Instructors Course and gain the skills you need to start your new career, teach dog owners how to train their dogs, or develop your existing career as a dog trainer.

The APDT Instructor Education programme provides comprehensive foundation and advanced courses, available online or as residential courses in the UK.

In our course you will learn
🐶 Learning Theory and how to use reward based methods
🐶 Teaching skills, and how to show owners with all styles of learning, how to train dogs of all ages and breeds
🐶 Canine body language and spotting stress in your learners
🐶 Marketing and Business information

You'll have hands-on teaching practise, with feedback from tutors, homework to do, and classes to plan. You'll also make friends for life, and get to join a community of top industry professionals advocating kind, fair and effective methods.

Whether you currently work with dogs or are just starting out, these courses offer unrivalled training to launch your career teaching dog owners, and becoming a full member of the APDT, an ABTC practitioner organisation.

04/02/2024

Great post by Dog Communication

WHY DO DOGS REACT BADLY TO SOME DOGS?

I was walking my easy pair today who love everyone and we saw a young cockapoo coming towards us who was really pulling on the lead. The lead was attached to a collar and the poor dog was making an awful choking noise and walking on his back legs as he dragged his owner along.

I could see Twig stop and growl slightly under her breath, she absolutely loves a curly friend normally but she wasn’t loving the look of this one and it’s entirely predictable that she wouldn’t and neither would many other dogs. Dogs who are really pulling on the lead and are up on the back legs are sometimes not loved by other dogs as they look like they are highly aroused and a bit out of control, they may feel unpredictable to other dogs.

Combine that with a choking sound or snorty sound and it’s a bit off putting for other dogs as they don’t sound at all at ease or relaxed and the snorting or choking may even sound like growling. If you have a dog that looks like this when they are walking onlead and they are getting bad reactions from other dogs it’s really worth working on loose lead walking and switching to a harness. Switching to a harness will mean they can breathe easier and aren’t potentially damaging their trachea and they will also sound a lot better to other dogs.

Other dogs who tend to get a hard time are the starers. Dogs who walk down the street staring and making prolonged direct eye contact with other dogs are often not well received. We say staring is swearing and it’s absolutely perceived like that by most dogs. Some dogs naturally do stare lots and are friendly but they are just intently interested in other dogs. If you have a starer it’s really worth trying to encourage them not to stare- encourage them to sniff (do a ‘find it’ with treats) or get them to check in with you to break eye contact. Dogs are likely to be friendlier to dogs who don’t stare. Staring can be a prelude to play and dogs who know each other well may stare and stalk their buddy before play bowing- that’s totally fine between friends and normal rules don’t apply between good friends. If you are trying to help your dog make friends with new dogs though, try not to let them stare.

Other dogs may get a hard time because of the way they look- certain breeds and types can be harder for other dogs to read or may have a body confirmation that makes them look unfriendly (like my Inuit (pictured) who looks permanently confrontational as she has a curled tail, prick ears and stands with her weight fowards!), flatter faced dogs and all black dogs can also get a hard time as other dogs may not understand them well.

Dogs can also be targeted by other dogs due to the way they smell- chemical messengers (pheromones) can tell other dogs everything they need to know about your dog and some dogs seem to not like the way other dogs smell. Stress hormones and other hormones are also detected by other dogs and are likely to influence how they react to each other. So much of a dog’s communication is by scent and that’s a whole world we have no access to.

Communication style can also cause some dogs to have a hard time, some dogs communicate effortlessly and have a great range of communication and some are more awkward and this can also cause issues around other dogs too.

Does your dog get a hard time from other dogs and do you know why if so?

Please share from this post and don’t copy and paste text or save my images or the original source gets lost

Laura McAuliffe, Dog Communication 2024