Me and Barney had a fantastic morning yesterday learning all about tracking and man trailing. The fabulous Jack Fenton a real specialist in this line of work came down to Plymouth to run these workshops. This is our last search of the morning and Barney was brilliant just enjoying himself so much. 😀
I teach positive reinforcement training, here Barney shows a great example of a strong recall when distractions are high. He has a very high instictive chase and herd drive, when we first rescued him, he would chase vehicles if he could. 1 year on and lot's of positive reinforcement training, there's 3 tractors working just the other side of the hedge, he's very focused on them. A lovely instant attention on me when I use our recall verbal cue.
We took the Paws home team for a bracing walk on the beach yesterday, a lot of fun was had by all !
Gorgeous snowy walk with some of the Paws Hoofs & Snouts gang today, a wee bit chilly!
Getting the basics right is the foundation for all training. Dogs don't talk they communicate using body language, we teach visual and verbal cues all with positive reward, making the questions as easy as possible for our dogs to succeed. My 3 dogs have had a lot of practice in stage 1, here they are all enjoying a noodle away from me, I start stage 1 this is purely visual using my body language, I don't use any verbal cue, Barney is first back, closely followed by Skye, Lyra is out of sight enjoying herself but as soon as she sees my visual cue she's straight over. Teach this visual cue at home with no stimuli, then as in this video it's quiet with no other doggy distractions giving them every chance of success. It really helps to get the basics right for when you encounter situations that you want a solid recall both visual and verbal 😁
This is a video taken by one of my paws owners, Albie is a one year old border collie highly intelligent with a fabulous character [ he's Barney's younger brother ] . Albies owners did all the right things as a puppy, puppy classes etc but just as he's hitting adolescence his owners needed a bit of help with his training. I've been working with them a couple of months, the job is easy when owners want to learn and do the best for their dogs. Here Albie is checking in, showing great recall, getting fabulous positive reinforcement from his owner, vocally, visibly and of course getting a tasty treat reward. And he can now go and say hi to other dogs, have a play but still able to come back to his owner. Training young dogs is always ongoing, to really establish these behaviours and they'll always be times when the distraction trumps us and rewards. On a recent walk we bumped into Barney's breeder with his mum and another younger brother, all our recall training went out the window as playing with mum and brother trumped coming back to me 😁.
In this video Barney is enjoying a lovely noodle with his buddy, I call his name and recall cue and start stage 1 reinforcement without repeating the verbal cue. Dogs communicate with body language and we can help our dogs by teaching them body language cues. Barney has learnt that I place hand in treat pouch, bend down and place treat on the ground, stand up and repeat [ I'm doing this with beautiful footage of the ground ! ] Barney clocks my body language which is backing up my verbal recall cue, and calmly starts his recall, I continue to place treats, he understands the question and finds it easy to give the answer I'm looking for.
His buddy hasn't worked out the question and to be fair I only called Barney's name at the recall cue. He quietly stands watching what's going on then I call his name and he has a light bulb moment ' oh that's what you're asking' and happily joins us.
In this video Barney finishes his recall and I ask for a 'wait', this is actually a big ask as one of his dog pals noodles past and he could have very easily broken his wait. I reinforced the cue with a second verbal 'wait' cue and only took 3 steps back. Its important to make it as easy as possible for our dogs, so they understand the question, the 'cue', and learn to give the right answers, desired behaviour. He's intently watching my treat hand and also the visual signal, what you can't see is that to help the 'wait' cue I hold my hand palm side up and it drops as I give him his treat and release the wait.
One of the most important things I teach my paws behaviour training clients is to train and practice the basics. The better the basics are the easier more advanced training is especially for behaviour issues. Here's one of my own dogs Barney with a 'sit' cue leading to a ' wait' cue, on his first sit he stands as treat is offered, if I had given the treat I would have been reinforcing a 2 second sit then stand, timing is everything in training. Instead I withdrew treat, asked for sit and he immediately understood what I was asking and gets his treat. On the first 'wait' cue his focus drifts, I ask again and he responds with focus, keeps his attention on me as again he understands the question, always reward with positive reinforcement. I have also taught him a release cue ' off you go'.
Our rescue collie the gorgeous 'Barney' finds tractors super fun and loves nothing better than to run around them barking. I've trained a 'settle' cue which I use when we are in the workshop. Barney now understands that settle means go on his bed and he gets a delicious treat, which trumps his desire to have tractor fun ! Continuity, patience and practice using positive reinforcement, I teach this in all my behaviour work and it really does pay off. Look how totally focused he is on me and the treat pouch 😁
In video 3 skye and barney respond to a high pitched cue, notice lyra waiting looking to see them coming back, she knows more treats are coming when they return. As they come closer, I put my hand in for treats, reinforcing the visual cue. Lyra got a treat for her recall, another for quietly waiting and again with the others when they arrived, Lyras smart !
In video 2 skye and barney are further ahead investigating some great smells and I'm out of visual range, lyra is already looking at me as she heard the zip and visually saw my hand go into the treat bag, lyra recalls straight away the other 2 take slightly longer see video 3. I'm practising where there's not much distraction, lots to sniff but no people or other dogs.
3 short videos showing recall, I have 3 dogs so can class them as a 'pack' and I cue recall a lot on our walks. In this first video I am in all of their visual range, I always walk with a bum bag and an olfactory and visual cue is unzip and hand in treat section. In this one I cue a sit when they recall, I vary this. All my training is positively reinforced with treats, so they love coming back on recall. Verbal cues high pitch and jolly, visual cue hand in treat bag, body language. 3 very different dogs, all keen and happy recalling for delicious treat. Practice, practice, practice start at home with little distraction, using a long training lead is very helpful. We want to make things as easy as possible for our dogs, using all the cues 😁
Here's one of paws super dogs, who I've helped with training over the last few months. Here he is showing off his door opening trick he's been taught by his family. Once puppies / dogs have got the hang of basic training, using positive reward based training there is no end of things you can teach them whilst having lots of fun in the process 😀
Olfaction- action or capacity of smelling aka sniffing. Dogs LOVE to sniff, they have incredible noses.
It's so important they are allowed to sniff, they gather loads of information from sniffing. I hate seeing dogs on halti's, you've instantly taken away something that's important ' sniffing '. ' but my dog pulls without it ', all dogs can be trained to loose lead walk. Ditch the halti and train your dog to loose lead walk, they will love having freedom to sniff. Skye is a sniffer, here she is doodling along as she sniffs ❤
Positive reinforcement training within a happy, calm environment is an important part of a dogs life with his family. Innate behaviour is in their genes, making the right breed choice is as important.
Here is Barney, a border collie with an Innate 'herding ' behaviour. He was an emergency foster on Christmas eve as none of the local rescue centres could take him and his immediate future was bleak.
Barney is a much loved member of the family, I've worked with him using positive reinforcement training, which was very easy as he's a loving, goofy boy. He instinctively herds, as you can see when I'm driving our little tractor and that's fine. We communicate together and his desire to please and happiness when responding to my asks overrides his innate herding instinct when it comes to our sheep and horses but he can happily herd the tractor 🚜
