Little Gracie
Her owners have been working tirelessly, both independently and with me, to get Gracie to this point of loose lead walking and an off lead heal.
Genuinely couldn't be prouder of Gracie and her owners for their consistency and determination which has gotten them to this point! Amazing work 👏
Meet Baxter the Beagle!
(Loose lead results in the comments 👀👇)
Hounds are renowned for being stubborn, vocal, extremely confident and ignorant, generally because they've got their noses to the floor. From these breed characteristics I often see a lot of posturing and vocal reactivity from beagles I work with. These quirks generally stem from a mix of their genetics and lack of socialisation from isolating themselves as they will fixate on various scents.
Baxter is the definition of his breed, he is led by his nose and can be quite vocal towards other confident dogs due to his minimal social etiquette. I thought it would be quite difficult to get him to engage and work with us because he was in a constant alert state watching for other dogs. His owner was frustrated at being pulled around and it was taking the joy out of their walks.
Baxter was a keen study with a very good food drive and got amazing results in just one session! You can see the process of adjusting to the new boundaries and how he begins to engage with his owners throughout the video. We had a lot of distractions around too, plenty of people as well as various dogs both intact male and two females to help desensitize Baxter to busy environments as we want to make sure there's longevity to this behavior change.
Who doesn't love a puppy! How gorgeous is Reggie the rotti x doberman pup, who is making a fantastic start to their basic training! We spent some time building up Reggie's toy drive which we will use in time as his high value reward for his success in training and to also help solidify a good relationship with his owners.
Training your puppy is so important because it helps you to establish a line of communication as well as giving you the tools and knowledge to ensure your puppy is able to perform the behaviour you expect as it develops into adulthood. The oxytocin which is released from training and exercise is what also helps you to create a good strong bond with your pup and in turn they will trust and respect your guidance.
Socialising your puppy and exposing them to different environments is also extremely important, just as important as putting the basic training foundations in. Puppies have what's called a 'critical socialisation period' which is between 3 -17 weeks. The puppy's experiences during this time can influence and shape their behaviour well into adulthood so it's crucial to start on the right foot, just like Reggie!
Billy...
This lovely lad has been with us for the last ten days and as you can see he's walking beautifully and is with other dogs too which is what he came for!! His owner was ecstatic and in a little disbelief when we showed her the videos because of Billy's reactivity. This is a small glimpse into two weeks of hard work and consistency and it definitely reiterates our work ethos 👇👇👇
Three of the most important and easy things to follow on a daily basis which is our recipe to success;
• Nutrition - correct nutrition can and will help your dog's physical and mental well-being
• Conditioning - A good regular exercise regime with structure will benefit your dog massively
• Enrichment - Breed specific enrichment. Working with breed traits that make your dog happy aside from formal training. This is what helps to form your bond with your dog and will stop him/her from being miserable
A small glimpse into a session working on lead manners and reactivity and the impact just two sessions has had on the owner.
Its never too late to start on your training journey!
Reggie...
The hardest part of this sort of training is always saying bye at the end of the dogs stay because they become an extension of our family and team!
Reggie has various quirks that his owner wanted us to work on such as his skills with strangers and other dogs as well as his overall nervousness. We jumped straight into socializing in new environments and from reinforcing the good behavior Reggie was immaculately behaved.
He absolutely smashed his stay with us and took to his new training and intense exercise routine effortlessly! I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed working with him and watch him flourish over his stay 🖤
Reactive dog? Need a smaller none judgemental group session?
We've got you 👇👇👇
Jett...
This lovely collie came to see me for pulling and reactivity whilst on the lead. I caught the video a bit late but you can still see Jett lunging and pulling towards our young pup at the start of the session.
We got right into it and once we nailed the lead technique it was all about repeating the process until Jett understood what was expected of him. He responded really well to a high value treat so we pushed his food drive to get him to a good point of checking in with his owner when he saw another dog and by the end of his hour session he was great at ignoring any distractions. Well done Jett 🙌
We love an English Bull Terrier 🙌
Ozzy is working with us to tackle his pulling and disengagement on the lead as well as aggression with strangers. Imagine how proud I was to receive these videos of his owner walking beautifully with a loose lead and to watch them both enjoy their walk!
We've stripped it all back to basics with Ozzy and will be working up towards a healthy socialisation process for him to be around strangers but he's made wonderful progress in such a short space of time with his lead manners! Well done Ozzy 👏
This is what we do it for.....
We've been working with Gracie for the last couple of months now and she initially came to us because like most spaniels Gracie's led with her nose and pure excitement. It was difficult to redirect her attention back onto her owners who were at the point of frustration because they'd tried every tool and tactic in the book to work towards good recall with their dog.
This type of frustration is quite common among owners, as everyone has different desired training levels but I just think it's important to point out that we as owners should be a little kinder to ourselves because we are often our harshest critiques when it comes to our dogs progress. Training your dog is a process that takes continuous time, effort and patience so don't be hard on yourself or your dog if training isn't going as expected, be consistent and things will definitely get easier and proof is in the pudding with these video updates we've received from Gracie's owners.
They have listened to all advice that's been given, applied it to their everyday life, been consistent and are now enjoying their hard work! Massive well done 👏
A little glimpse into our obedience booster....
This small group session is aimed at enhancing the skills your dog has already obtained. If your dog walks nicely with you that's great but let's polish up that formal heel and encourage eye contact, if your dog has good recall but are hit and miss around distractions then this group will help you work on that as well!
We specifically tailored this particular session to both dogs current needs as we did get some cancellations due to the rain so each session will vary depending on the dogs that are booked onto the session. Message us for more details 🙌
Bonnie....
One of the gorgeous rusky sisters came to brush up on her general obedience. She is extremely toy driven so it made her session really successful using something of high value to her.
I'm really proud of Bonnie and her owner's progress, especially around the festive season because it's so easy to let your training drop off over the holidays but consistency really pays off!
This standard of obedience from doberman pup Nala was absolutely brilliant!
Her owner has been absolutely smashing it with her and you can see she's putting the time in at home to follow through with her training! 👏
Taff...
This handsome lad came to stay with us for residential training a few weeks ago and we worked hard on his impulse control and maintaining a good threshold.
We worked continuously with other dogs to maintain good socialisation and on busy roads to discourage and car reactivity and Taff absolutely smashed it!
Now the weather is improving it means we can get the weight pulling equipment back out 💪
I love sessions like this as they are not only great for fitness and building your dog's muscles mass but it's a fantastic source of mental stimulation and fun between you and your dog while you work on recall and obedience! 💯
Drop us a message if you'd be interested 🙌
We absolutely love receiving updates like this!
Hard work and dedication by Midnights owners have helped massively turn her reactivity around and we couldn't be more proud, especially since they are still working just as hard with her when they have just had a baby!! Amazing 👏🖤
The end of a wonderful residential camp with Zubi and Daisy ✨
It really is so sad for us when the camp is over and the dogs go home because they are an extension of our family unit. They are with us, our kids and our dogs for the majority of the duration of their stay and we literally only do not see them when we sleep so you feel like your missing a limb at the end of they camp 😂
What is lovely is these dogs are repeat customers which speaks volumes to us and we cannot express how grateful we are to be trusted in this capacity. We worked one to one sessions with Zubi over the last year and a half as he was initially extremely reactive while on the lead when he saw other dogs, cyclist, joggers ect. This can be common with sighthounds as they are bred to hunt/ chase with their eyes instead of their nose so anything that they see move is highly stimulating and can fuel the reactivity!
As you can see, after a lot of hard work, Zubi is no longer phased around dogs and will generally ignore them so he can enjoy his walk, which is massive! And Daisy, well she's just happy to find sticks to carry 😂 It's been a pleasure to work with them and have them stay with us for residential training 🙌❤️
This is just what I needed on a fine Sunday afternoon with my little helper!! I am so proud of this video, I know it just looks like a little girl walking with her dogs but to me its a display of absolute respect and trust between all parties!
Our daughter understands that she needs to be calm but authoritative because the dogs could easily drag her to where they wanted to go but they don't because they respect her instructions and are happy to follow her lead!
Ensuring that your dog/s respect the boundaries you set is not something that happens overnight, teaching them impulse control and to walk well on a lead has been constant work over the years as both these dogs were rescues and both came with their own set of issues but what you put in you get back and that's the same with any dog and owner 💯🙌
⚖️ Putting Too Much Pressure On Yourself And Your Dog ⚖️
It is so easy in today's society to feel the pressure of social media when you are constantly seeing a 30 second video of a dog behaving immaculately, fully engaged with their handler and ignoring all outside distractions.
BUT....
You have to remember that to make that 30 second video the dog and their handler will have worked anything up to 3hours a day to achieve it. For their dog to act that way it's taken time, effort and consistency over a long period of time.
Be kind to yourself and set more realistic goals to achieve with your dog and work on things that will help with real world problems. Seeing a video of a dog doing off lead heeling with 100% focus, which is generally herding breed so it is potentially more biddable than the breed you own is nether realisic nor helpful.
1. Maintaining a full heel is not sustainable for a full walk.
2. Not all dog breeds or handlers are capable of achieving this.
Impulse control is something that can work on with any dog and it will help in everyday life! This is a small clip of some obedience/impulse control work that I do daily with Acrux. I do this to help maintain my engagement and good relationship with him to ensure he listens to the instructions I give him. Acrux is not a dog that I will ever be able to walk to a full heel or do fancy tricks with. He will also never be that dog that I can go sit in a pub with because he suspicious and weary of unknown people and dogs so he is a prime example of playing to a breeds strengths instead of expecting something he will never be able to achieve. This ten minutes is something that will 100% help with your daily training.
Also I'm seeing alot about hand feeding to raise food drive and help with reactivity. This in my opinion is not only unnecessary but is also unhygienic and can be attributed to salmonella and other gastro issues whether your doing this with kibble or raw foods. The main reason for
