Educational Walks & Therapy Tails

03/05/2022

If you are on our walks, or waiting to join them, why not have a listen to Jess and I talking on our podcast, Therapy Tails.

We sit in Starbucks and record ourselves while we discuss Dog Vs Human Psychology.

You can find it on any podcast platform by searching for "We're all screwed up and that's OK"

If you want to listen to the latest episode, Episode 8, you can click on the link here https://anchor.fm/wereallscrewedup/episodes/Therapy-Tails---Episode-8-e1hv3qo

Dawn Walton a human therapist and Jess Probst dog behaviourist have chats in Starbucks about human vs dog psychology. This episode is about Altruism vs kindness in humans and dogs. Core attributes versus behaviour and how that relates to genetics.And Ginger ninjas! Find Jess at on...

03/05/2022

Here is how to find us in Camperdown Park

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CbPat29pRkY/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D&fbclid=IwAR36o6JpjO0zN76c7W_LhKMomicrj2zS0pACkJ3P2VCnSD21g6UgbCtymFE

06/05/2021

Rewarding “bad” behaviour

Super interesting video especially for those interested in behaviour, absolutely brilliant real life example of how we can clicker train our way out of a previous reinforcement history.

*Please don’t try this without expert help*

This girl has had an abusive past and much like Quiver did, reacts negatively when she feels threatened.
This is an example of perceived threat v. real threat.

It’s my first meeting with her in real life but her guardian has had a few weeks to practice what was learned in my theory workshop. She’s now ace at clicker training and enjoys it.

Next steps are body parts awareness and confidence with items and obstacles.

Our second session but the first time I’ve met her in real life.Clicker training well under way, brilliant, dedicated guardians with fantastic timing have re...

26/04/2021

03/04/2021

Adult Newfoundland female presenting with car chasing behaviours which has developed over a year into negative reactivity to passing dogs.

She came to meet two accredited behaviourists who form Aggression Anonymous in Scotland.

We worked on engagement with the handler, formed the start of a positive association with a new lead and exposure training to traffic and desensitisation to dogs. The purpose of the video is not to show a “quick fix” but rather what can be done in 2.5 hours to help her guardians in their task for the next few weeks.

https://youtu.be/hi3dK2lpKzc

Adult Newfie female presenting with car chasing behaviours which has developed over a year into negative reactivity to passing dogs. She came to meet two acc...

28/03/2020

Max - Update

Max is coming along well.. see his progress.
This morning we had such a beautiful experience, we had our ten dogs outside walking the whole perimeter after they had their breakfast.

07/03/2020

Our dogs are our tool kit.

Without a group of dogs even with our knowledge we agree we wouldn't be nearly as effective at helping other dogs.

05/03/2020

Are you Label Able ?

We all want our dogs to live to a ripe ol' age. To do that diet is an important consideration.

As a general rule supermarket pet foods are poor quality with cheap ingredients. It's with the trip to a pet supply store to source higher quality kibble. The money is saved in vet bills in the longer term.
When you read the packet ingredients are listed in descending order of weight (first ingredient is the highest content) make sure it isn't cereal or grain based or uses the words "derivative" or "meal".
The label will also break down the percentages onto protein, carbs, fats, fibre and moisture but these can be misleading:
Leather has a high protein content but you wouldn't want the 30% protein to be derived from it ¿?

Most people are aware that coming from a science background and a degree in chemistry means I'm pretty hung up on the what's and the why's, there is a third label too which tells us about trace elements are found in the food and by which means. I've been highly suspicious of Copper Sulphate for almost two decades now as a manufacturers choice of preservative (simply because it's cheaper than Vit. C and allows the body essential copper. However it is a pesticide and beautiful though it is in colour and crystal it's bad news for the skin and respiratory. The higher the meat content, sadly the higher the amounts of this toxin.

I have done years of research (and I don't mean googling, I have visited abbitoirs and had meetings with pet food companies and seen first hand the extrusion process in an effort to understand the process and what it means for my dog's and yours.)

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My conclusion was where there is money to be made there are short cuts and corruption. I chose to feed real food, cooked, raw and fit for human consumption. It's not luck that my dogs are fit and healthy and have hardly stepped foot in a vets office. My two older girls have only been in for neutering (age 5 if your interested) and accidents like torn skin from a tree and having a fish hook embedded in the mouth.) Diet is a very important consideration, worth a thought or two 🐾

Happy birthday to Riley who celebrates his 14th birthday!! 🎉

03/03/2020

"Liking" or " Disliking" something are human terms.

Since dogs don't have the same cognitive abilities as us they base their behaviour on previous associations.

It's easy to overcome this by intelligent training 🐾

03/03/2020

On Digging

A lot of dogs enjoying Digging! Some even bury excess food or chews for later 😊

One of the ways dogs learn by is imitation, it's a fun thing to teach a puppy to dig where it's appropriate. Rather than having your beautiful lawn ruined and getting upset, being proactive and creating a sand pit or earthy area can be useful!
Failing that allow him to dig at the beach or the woods, put gloves on and join him in the game.
It's perfectly logical to tell him where is ok to do this behaviour and where it's not. Same as putting paws on when I ask is different than putting paws wherever you feel like it 🤓🐾

29/02/2020

Crate training

We are living in a society where everyone is entitled to an opinion, rightly so, but sometimes conclusions are drawn without factual back up.

Indoor kennels /crate/cages can be very useful for restriction of exercise, freedom, chewing up your house and generally getting up to no good when you aren't able to supervise. But we do need pre-training and that's helpful with some enticement and positive reinforcement training.

Here we have a cute but naughty child who is being crate trained with Positive Reinforcement. The reward for going in the crate and staying out of trouble is to play with some cute but naughty dogs. She doesn't know she's being trained, she's just having a good time.
Great training is done without the subject being aware it's even training 🐾🤓🌈🎉

28/02/2020

Sausages that sniff

As well as rewarding effort and offered behaviours, occasionally we NEED a dog to do something for us.

Practice makes perfect so that when it counts, like when they are distracted or otherwise engaged, you have that history of practice which is formed a habit demonstrated here when I call them away from the sniffy smells.

"My dog is ok unless it's distracted"
"My dog can do this at home just not in front of other dogs"
Trainers hear this all the time. All the time. You reap what you sow!

28/02/2020

Our collective group that you can meet when you visit.

Always assess your dog trainer by their dogs, if they don't rehabilitate aggression or if you can't meet some of their dogs then perhaps they won't have the tools you need for helping with your reactive dog. If their dogs are not able to self regulate, if they are constantly barking or pawing for attention then perhaps they can't help you with your issues.
The evidence is there if you look 🤓🐾