🧡🐶 On Lead Greetings - Puppies Meeting Calm Adult Dogs 🐶🧡
Did you know that it is great for puppies to meet calm adult dogs who are good with puppies?
👍Note how the leads are kept loose in this video which is ideal to minimise tension caused by equipment.
👍The interaction is kept short to minimise the potential for things going wrong.
Did your dog meet a calm adult dog when they were a puppy? Or do you have a calm adult dog who is great with puppies? Tell us about them in the comments ☺️🔽
🧡🐶 On Lead Greetings 🐶🧡
Did you know that on-lead greetings aren't always ideal?
😵💫On-lead greetings mean that leads can get tangled and dogs can feel tension on their lead which may result in them not feeling comfortable.
😲However, we don't want to avoid on-lead greetings completely (because they happen!), so here's what we want to teach:
👍Greet with loose lead
👍Teach a way out / move away (foor lure initially
👍Allow dogs to go back to each other if both are happy
❗️Please note, if your dog (or the other dog) has food guarding issues, avoid putting food between each dog.
❤🐶Enrichment Essentials!🐶❤
🌟Sniffing!🌟
❓Did you know that dogs "see" the world through their nose?
Dogs' sense of smell is up to 100,000 times more sensitive than ours 😲
Providing sniffing opportunities for our dogs not only allows them to "be a dog" which is so important for their wellbeing, but also enriches their lives too.
✅ One way to provide this for your dog is by simply scatter feeding on grass (nature's snuffle mat!)
👍This is super useful for times when you cannot take them out for their usual walk because the weather is too hot.
❤This helps them become mentally tired and satisfied.
Ensure your dog has fresh water available as sniffing is thirsty work!
#dogbehaviour #dogenrichment #dogenrichmentfun #dogsniffing
😍😍😍Puppy Recall - First Stage😍😍😍
In keeping with our recall theme, check out wonderful Winston learning the first stage of recall in our Puppy Beginner class 😍
🧡What a STAR he is! 🤩
Keep an eye on our page for more recall tips and upcoming posts to help when there are tricky recall distractions 😲
Want to give your puppy the best start in your training journey? Check out our next puppy beginner class here:
https://www.petbehaviourcompany.co.uk/puppy-beginner
👍👍👍👍👍👍 Practising Recall with an Adult Dog 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Here, Rogue recalls on cue ("Rogue, Come!") despite lots of things she's distracted by! 😇
👀Notice how her lead is loose so she is choosing to respond to the verbal recall cue rather than any lead pressure.
Recall is such an important behaviour to continue practising with our dogs, and it's especially important to make it a positive experience for them to come back to us 😍
😲Did you Know we Run Group Sessions for "Reactive" Dogs?😲
🧡Our Gnashurr Club is like the real world, but less random!🧡
👍Gnashurr Club offers support to owners of "reactive" dogs that show aggressive or noisy behaviour directed at other dogs - whatever their motivation - and to give them the opportunity to work with and around other dogs under safe and controlled conditions.
❗️These sessions are not suitable for every dog, and prior to attending each dog will need to have had an assessment first.
🔽Find out more details here🔽
https://www.petbehaviourcompany.co.uk/gnashurr-club
❤🐶Puppy Training Essentials!🐶❤
🌟Teaching Positions🌟
Here a young puppy is being lured with a piece of food into the down position.
✅ Teaching puppies positions such as Sit, Down and Stand can be really useful in situations such as for grooming, nail clips and standing on the vets' table, for example.
❤ Holding a food treat close to their nose and slowly moving so the dog follows into the desired position is a great way to initially teach these behaviours.
👍 It's essential to fade the food so your puppy doesn't become reliant on it, then you can add hand signals and verbal cues.
🐾 Notice how there is no verbal cue at this stage, this comes much later once the behaviour is well established and the dog is reliably following an empty hand signal.
#dogbehaviour #PuppyTraining
❤🐶Enrichment Essentials!🐶❤
🌟Enrichment to keep dogs mentally stimulated🌟
Here a dog is figuring out different elements of a puzzle toy to access pieces of food.
❓Did you know that mental stimulation is so important for our dogs?
✅ A way to provide this for your dog is via puzzle toys.
👍This is super useful for times when you cannot take them out for their usual walk whether that be due to injury (yours or theirs) or for any other reason, and therefore need to provide enrichment in other ways.
❤This also keeps them occupied if you're busy and provides a challenge to build upon problem solving skills.
❗Ensure you choose the right puzzle toy for your dog, if it is too difficult, it may cause frustration so ensure you build up the difficulty and observe your dog to ensure safety.
❔What is your dog's favourite puzzle toy?
#dogbehaviour #PuppyTraining #dogenrichment #dogenrichmentfun
❤🐶Puppy Training Essentials!🐶❤
🌟Introducing handling🌟
Here a young puppy is getting rewarded with small pieces of food for being in front of the handler and after being touched.
✅ Teaching puppies that touch = reward helps them build confidence with handling including when at the vets or groomers.
❤By teaching puppies at a young age that touch is a good thing, this can help them enjoy being handled so this can be built up to other situations such as grooming or vet visits.
👍It's essential to teach puppies this to prepare for grooming requirements, vet checks, towel drying after a walk, claw clipping, checking ears and eyes and much more!
#dogbehaviour #PuppyTraining
❤🐶Puppy Training Essentials!🐶❤
🌟Beginning Nice Lead Walking Training🌟
Here a young puppy is getting rewarded with small pieces of food when they're beside the handler and their lead is loose.
✅ Walking nicely on the lead is useful to prevent pulling behaviours.
Pulling on the lead is a really common issue!
❤By teaching puppies at a young age to walk nicely on the lead, this sets them and their handlers up for enjoyable walks and prevents the puppy from learning they can pull on the lead.
🌟Rewarding what we want the dog to do (walk beside the handler with a loose lead) let's the dog know that this is the behaviour we want when they're on the lead.
❔Notice how the lead is attached to the collar? This means that you can give your puppy (and yourself!) breaks from this training (as it takes lots of concentration), and switch the lead to the harness when you're not practising.
🥰Dogs learn very quickly that when the lead is attached to their collar, this means walk with the lead loose, and when the lead is attached to the harness, they can walk ahead!
👍It's super handy to have this distinction.
🐶As time goes on, the food will be used less and less and the action of moving forwards acts as a reward for walking nicely :)
#dogbehaviour #PuppyTraining
❤🐶Enrichment Essentials!🐶❤
🌟Enrichment to keep dogs occupied🌟
Here a dog is enjoying sniffing and eating food from a snuffle mat on the floor.
❓Did you know that dogs enjoy foraging and will often choose to work for food?
✅ Scattering small pieces of food into a snuffle mat is a great way to keep your puppy or adult dog occupied.
👍This is super useful for when you need to get on with something else or want to sit down and eat your dinner in peace!
❤By giving enriching opportunities like this, we are providing mental stimulation for our dogs which can help them be more tired and mentally satisfied.
🌟Does your dog like a snuffle mat too? Share pics of your dogs enjoying a snuffle in the comments!
#dogbehaviour #PuppyTraining #dogenrichment #dogenrichmentfun
❤🐶Puppy Training Essentials!🐶❤
🌟Beginning "Leave" Training🌟
Here a young puppy is getting rewarded for backing away from food in the hand.
✅ A "Leave" cue is super useful when we want our dogs to leave something alone, once they have fully learnt the behaviour.
So instead of, for example, eating something gross, or chasing a squirrel, we can eventually cue the "Leave" once they understand the concept.
❤By teaching that "Leave" = something positive, our dogs are more likely to enjoy responding to the "Leave" cue.
🌟This behaviour begins without the verbal cue and once the puppy understands that backing off the temptation = reward, then the verbal cue "Leave" can be added.
#dogbehaviour #PuppyTraining
❤🐶Puppy Training Essentials!🐶❤
🌟Building Good Associations with Humans Near the Food Bowl🌟
Here a young puppy is eating from their food bowl and their owner places an extra tasty treat into their bowl.
✅To help prevent guarding behaviours from developing, we can teach puppies that when humans are near their food bowl, good things happen!
❤By adding something extra tasty to the food bowl whilst pup is eating, they learn that humans approaching and hands near their bowl mean good things.
🌟This positive association with humans near the food bowl means that during puppy's mealtimes, they are more likely to feel comfortable with humans nearby.
#dogbehaviour #PuppyTraining
❤🐶Puppy Training Essentials!🐶❤
🌟Toy Manners🌟
Here you can see puppy Dougal is learning that when he sees the tug toy, he keeps his paws on the floor.
✅The reward is access to the toy and playtime!
This is a great behaviour to teach puppies to keep their paws on the floor in the eyes of temptation.
❤We teach this and many other self control behaviours to puppies to prevent unwanted behaviours such as jumping up and teach the puppy what we want them to do instead.
#dogbehaviour #PuppyTraining
Does your dog not like to give things up?
🐶🐾
Then have a look at this video for some tips to make it easier!
If there’s any aggression around items, please contact us!
https://www.petbehaviourcompany.co.uk
#dogtrainingadvice #dogtrainingtips #puppytraining
Socialisation with other dogs….
It’s not just about playing, it’s about learning to build confidence and interact appropriately in the longer term.
Want to know what and how we teach our puppy classes? All sessions are tailored to the puppies on the course with classes set up for succcess!
One of our behaviourists, Sara, has been speaking on Talk TV over the last few weeks about different topics on dog ownership. Take a look at the short clip below when she discussed the importance of preparing for a new furry family member.
In most of our training and behaviour consultations, we will likely discuss the importance of understanding dog body langauge.
To illustrate this, have a read of the following and how Sara's (one of our training and behaviour consultants) Golden Retriever, Hannah, was able to tell a story through her subtle body signals.
Hannah, is a 12 year old Retriever and through subtle communication signals, she was able to say that she wasn't 100% comfortable with Sara's toddler being laid on the floor next to her.
Sara had spent a lot of time in the early days of parenthood attempting to create positive associations between Jack, her son, and her dogs. As Jack grew from a baby into a toddler, he became mobile, louder and unpredictable. In this video, Hannah let Sara know she wasn't too comfortable with Jack being near her. There was no grumbling and no lip curl, as she didn't need to shout how she felt - only whisper.
You may ask, why didn't she just move herself? Well, Hannah has Osteoarthritis in her front paws and Spondylosis of her spine - it takes a lot of energy and, even though she is on pain relief, probably causes her pain to move, so Sara ensures that she doesn't put her in a position where she feels like she needs to escalate her behaviour.
Instead, when Hannah whispered, Sara answered by simply lifting Jack onto her knee and within a minute saw a difference in her behaviour.
Take a look and in the comments, let us know if this was useful!!
Stay tuned for our team introductions!!!
