Walking off lead doesn't mean that dogs should be racing across fields.
Did you know you can groom or examine your dog with their consent and cooperation?
Puppies are cute, but they need to build positive experiences. Think quality not quantity.
People often have difficulty in assessing dog play. We see dogs playing and assume that everyone is 'happy' without really observing and paying close attention. Watching videos can be a great way to improve observation skills.
Here is one for you. Observe, describe what you see and decide whether you would distract the dogs or let them continue.
Being Canine, Dog Behaviour and Training
Gaining more confidence together. A little mouth wrestling but not getting too excited or over aroused.
Dog Body Language and Communication
Understanding dog body language and communication is essential to everyone who works or lives with dogs. We all can learn and improve our communication skills. More information can be found at Without Worry Canine Education.
Dogs need time and patience when they first arrive at a new home. It's all to easy to overwhelm them or introduce new experiences too quickly. Here is Esme processing and gathering information , short sessions that don't put them under too much pressure will help to build confidence.
Keep the sound off as the phone picked up the noise of the wind and the sea.
I have spent years observing and trying to understand dog body language and communication signals, and although I have increased my skills in that area, no human can possibly understand or even notice the wide range of subtle signals that dogs can.
Much of dog communication is 'under the wire', it is subtle, quiet and clear, unless things happen to cause an escalation.
Dogs want to get along with us, they do not seek out conflict or attempt to become Alpha. It is not in the interests of animals who live in social groups to constantly be in a state of stress and conflict, it is costly on both sides.
The vast majority of dogs react negatively out of fear or not feeling safe, or being threatened or pushed far beyond their ability to cope.
Of course, all of this is well known and has been written about by academics and those with excellent dog skills, it's based in a foundation of solid research and not simply opinion.
The key message is that while dogs see us as part of their social group, they know that we are not dogs, we don't really speak their language particularly well and we do miss lots of the subtle cues but they mostly are patient with our clumsy attempts.
It can go wrong and what happens if you are forced into a corner, or can't take any more ? Well, you escalate. In that sense, dogs are similar to all other mammals, when you feel unsafe, you have to work to achieve a better situation for yourself, either stopping the actions of another or escaping.
There is so much more to communication than looking for liplicking and the dog looking away, these taken in isolation may not mean anything. Context matters.
In this video, Eric communicates clearly that he wants to keep they toy in his mouth and Ethel responds to that. No noise, no intimidation, just two dogs understanding each other. It's worth noting that at other times Ethel will take a toy from Eric and he is accepting of that.
Training should be fun and did you know that setting achievable challenges builds confidence?
In training classes, people often ask how to get their dog to go into the 'down' position. There are a couple of important things to consider, does your dog really know how to do it? Is being in a down position appropriate at this time? Dogs will find it difficult if they feel stressed, anxious or are experiencing pain. It certainly isn't something that I ask my dogs to do often but this video shows the process of luring into position. You will notice that I don't push on Eric's back or continually say 'down' to him. The first stage is to help the dog to get the action first and then we can introduce a cue word and a hand signal.
Hattie and the wheelbarrow
