Hare to Hound Behaviour and Pet Care

25/11/2024

A very chilly week of walks ❄️❄️🐕🐕

18/11/2024

The word "no" is commonly used when training but does it actually work? 🐕🐕

Its a word you see lots of trainers and dog guardians using for when their dog barks or jumps up or any behaviour that they may not want. But Is it actually an effective method to use?

Ask yourself this, when using no does your dog stop the behaviour immediately, does the behaviour decrease in occurrence or does your dog even do what you want them to do instead? If the answer to all of those questions are no then it is likely not as effective as you think. And here's why!

First off its how the word no is used, most people use it for anything their dog does that they don't like. This can be very confusing for a dog though if every behaviour they do ends up with them being told no as how will they know which behaviour won't elicit a no.

Next is for the use of the word no to be effective it needs to be aversive enough to the dog. And it can be for some dogs, especially since we tend to say no in a very sharp and unhappy way. Some dogs may not find this aversive at all though and for dogs that are seeking attention this may in fact reinforce the behaviour you are trying to stop.

There are many other ways we can prevent a behaviour from happening, no is not your only option! I will be addressing these other options in future blog posts, so keep your eyes peeled!

18/11/2024

A fun weekend of cat sits 🐈🐈

16/11/2024

Already started 😂😂

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15/11/2024

Lots of cheeky faces 🐕🐕🐕

09/11/2024

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09/11/2024

Another fun week of dog walks 🐕❤️❤️

05/11/2024

Another great training session with Sandy! We are working on introducing him to other dogs without him lunging or growling. By the end of the session he was feeling confident enough to sniff the other dog.🐕🐕

03/11/2024

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26/10/2024

Here at Hare to Hound we consider ourselves to be force free dog trainers, which to us means that we use ethical and science based methods that don't cause fear or pain. We utilise positive reinforcement and management to teach our animals suitable alternative or incompatible behaviours to reduce unwanted behaviour.

Part of being force free means that we do not use corrections to stop unwanted behaviour. Before we go any further into our explanation of why, let us first explain what a correction is so that we are all on the same page.

A correction is something that we add to reduce behaviour, this can be shouting or a pop of a lead. However, for a correction to work it has to be considered aversive to the dog, meaning that the correction has to cause some level of fear, discomfort or even pain for the behaviour to be reduced.

This leads us into the first reason as to why we do not use corrections, as such methods have to have some level of fear, discomfort or pain present for it to work and as force free trainers we do not want to cause any level of fear, pain or discomfort. We want the animals we train with to enjoy their training sessions as much as their guardians do. We want them to be excited by our training sessions, to look forward to them and see them as time for them to bond with their guardian.

Not only this, but how can we ever expect an animal to learn what behaviours we want them to do if we punish them for every unwanted behaviour. If we don’t ever teach them how we want them to behave, how can we expect them to know? If they never know what the right behaviour is and all we do is punish them for the wrong one, that can lead to an anxious dog who never knows when and for what it will be punished. And why would we want to cause that?

The use of such corrections can also lead to the dog's behaviour becoming worse. Common fallout effects of positive punishment are escape or avoidance related behaviours, these are behaviours the dog does to avoid punishment. An example of this is when dogs are punished for toileting inside, instead of learning to toilet outside instead they could learn to toilet inside but away from the guardian or when the guardian is not around. Other common fallout effects are aggressive behaviour, for example if you correct a reactive dog every time they react towards another dog, you cannot be sure that they associate the correction with the reactive behaviour. They could instead associate the correction with the other dog, which could lead to their reactive behaviour becoming worse. We do not want anything like this to happen when training, which is why we make it clear to the animals we train what we would like them to do instead by using positive reinforcement.

The use of corrections also does not consider the dog's emotions when it comes to why a dog may be doing a behaviour. This can be especially damaging for reactive dogs that may be reacting due to fear or anxiety. We do not want to punish such dogs for reacting, we want to help build confidence in these dogs and teach them how to cope with being around other dogs at a level they can deal with.

It is for all these reasons and many more that we do not use corrections in our training. We want to help guardians help their dogs become happier and more confident dogs!

25/10/2024

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25/10/2024

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19/10/2024

Message me for more information! 📱🐶

18/10/2024

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18/10/2024

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16/10/2024

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16/10/2024

Flip, flop, blop and callie 🐇❤️