Resource GuardingIs a HUGE issue but one that is increasingly more common. Here are a few things you can implement to prevent/work through instances of guarding but it’s one of those behaviours that if you see any signs of it, reach out to a suitably experienced trainer/behaviourist to help with a proven track record of overcoming such an issue.#dogtraining #dogtrainingthoughts #dogrecalltraining #reactivity #dogreactivity #huddersfield #dogbehaviourtraining #dog #doglover #dogsofinstagram #resourceguarding #leave #drop #management #training
This Is EVERYTHING 👏👏
This Is EVERYTHING 👏👏
Fay DREADED walks with Harlow. With every reaction, her confidence took a knock and walks became more and more unenjoyable…
UNTIL….
Two days ago! Harlow’s owner Nathan has been putting the work in with Harlow and our final session two days ago was all around implementing everything we have done with Fay. We know Harlow can do it, it was just a matter of Fay believing she could do it too!
This was a video from their walk yesterday following that session. I feel like this is the first day of their new chapter together and I am absolutely here for it.
Well. Blooming. Done! ❤️
#dogtraining #dogtrainingthoughts #dogrecalltraining #reactivity #dogreactivity #huddersfield #dogbehaviourtraining #dog #doglover #dogsofinstagram #relationship #confidence
Leave 🛑 Does your dog truly know leave?
Teaching your dog this is a MUST. But most people take a GIANT leap from getting their dog to leave a treat on the floor when in a sit to shouting it when the dog is chasing a squirrel or lunging for a doner kebab somebody dropped in your local village on a boozy Friday night.
Teaching a solid leave command is made up of 3 key points:
1. Management! What does this look like? Preventing your dog from doing the behaviour you don’t want them to. Whether that be using a muzzle, using a lead all the way to ensuring the dog doesn’t have access to counter surfing when you are not there. Every time your dog gets to eat/chase that thing you don’t want them to, it reinforces the behaviour and therefore, they are more likely to do it again.
2. Training! Jumping steps and asking too much too soon is the biggest mistake I see people make. When your dog leaves that piece of food you placed carefully on the ground it is not the same as those real life situations where your dog dives into a bush and comes out with a dirty tissue in their mouth, despite shouting leave multiple times. Start by building that solid leave command in a controlled environment and when ready, build in more challenging scenarios. There are so many variables you can control here to make the training easier/harder. Those include but are not limited to the value of the item they are leaving (start low), the value of the reward (start high), how close you allow them to get to the item (start further away) and how far they are away from you (start close to you). Manipulating these variables will allow you to push the training bit by bit, not moving on until you’ve seen consistent success at that level.
Side note: Shouting leave 5 times does not mean your dog knows leave. They’re likely complying because of the tone of your voice, NOT the command itself. Following first time in a normal tone is your goal.
3. Reps! Do the above… over… and over… and over again. Build in difficulty, different loc
Unwanted, Rehearsed Behaviours….There are lots of them! Barking, jumping up, picking up rubbish, stealing, counter surfing, mouthing, pulling on the lead, running up to people/dogs when off lead… the list goes on.The more these behaviours happen and the dog receives a positive outcome, the more they are repeated; like Dexter and his barking!So many books and Internet pages tell you to ignore these behaviours. In fact, I would say every single house I go to where the dog jumps up or barks at people the owners tell guests to ignore the dog. Low and behold that behaviour is still there, stronger than ever. Whether you or the guest “says hello” or not, the dog is still getting enjoyment from performing the behaviour.So what do we do? The answer is multi fold! This is specifically focused on barking.PREVENT- the behaviour happening in the first place. If you know people are coming round, put your dog on a lead beforehand and give them an alternative behaviour such as a bed command.MANAGE - the behaviour if you don’t have time to do the training. Put your dog in a crate/ another room/ behind a baby gate and give them something to do or ask someone to remove them from the situation completely.TRAIN - the behaviour and more importantly the emotion you want instead. Know that if you allow a positive outcome from a negative behaviour it will reinforce it. Giving your dog an alternative job and waiting for them to calm down before allowing the positive outcome, will reinforce the thing you want.REINFORCE - positively what you want to see. Your dog is being quiet and calm? Give them a treat, let them say hello, let them get out of the carINTERRUPT - what you don’t want to see. If you can see your dog is loading/fixating and about to perform the negative behaviour, turn into them, create space and re approach when appropriate (just one way to deal with this).BOOK - in with a trainer to work through this sooner rather than later. It will only get worse. They’re not
Is your dog reactive to people coming into the home?
A lot of people hate to hear the word reactive when describing their dogs, but it shouldn’t be a taboo word. It simply means showing a response to a stimulus. This, most often in my line of work, comes from a place of fear or over excitement.
For Rosie, it is fear and uncertainty. Whilst we will be helping Rosie to develop more positive relationships with people, on arrival I needed to be able to have a conversation with her owners about Rosie.
Usually I would either meet on a walk or pop Rosie in another room but neither was possible. We couldn’t put her in another room because she has quite severe separation anxiety and it wasn’t possible to do this out on a walk because Rosie‘s behaviour on the lead is also quite erratic and would’ve made it difficult for her owners to concentrate.
What did we do?
We gave Rosie a little bit of guidance to stop her brain having to think too much about the danger (me). We added a lead to stop her running around and barking which was causing her stress as well as her family, we put her behind her owner on a loose lead, but still allowed line of sight so that we weren’t blocking her vision but we were protecting her space and we gave her a job (which was initially a sit) and rewarded her for doing it.
A dog in a state of stress often needs guidance from us to help them make better choices. This allowed us to have a chat and get started with the training in a much calmer state.
For those with dogs who react to people coming home, there are a few things you can do to help:
- meet outside and go on a walk first
- teach the dog an alternative cue such as a bed command and reward them for that
- having a lead on your dog to prevent them running towards the person
- YOU be the one to reward the dog initially, not the guest. For fearful dogs, they generally don’t want to take food from a stranger but you can make it a much more positive experience by rewarding th
