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!
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
Leo & Shenzi 🔥
The hardest part of this sort of training is saying bye at the end of the dogs stay because they become an extension of our family team! But what an absolute pleasure it was to have these two stay with us for a two week residential training camp 🙌
They both had a long list of various issues their owner wanted to work on such as people and dog reactivity, loose lead walking, resource guarding and recall. We jumped straight into socializing with dogs and people and they spent time at our shop where their behavior was immaculate as well as joining the Saturday group sessions.
They both absolutely smashed it and took to their training and intense exercise routines effortlessly! I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed working with these two vastly different breeds, tailoring their training to suit their breeds strengths and needs! It's been lovely to watch them flourish over the last few weeks 🖤🐾
...Long Feel Good Post...
🔥Red 🔥
We have been working with Red for a few months now to help deal with his explosive reactivity. Reds owners started to notice certain issues not long after they brought him home from the rescue centre and they have tried absolutely everything to deal with the issues he was presenting.
It has been a long process but we are finally getting those little wins of being able to walk without constant reactivity or thrashing around and that's all thanks to his owner's treadmill! By exerting all excess energy Red is entering a calmer state and is ready to embrace the outside world and all its distractive triggers!
I am writing this because not all dogs will be a quick and easy fix you have to dedicate time, effort and remain positive while working through your dogs issues! Sometimes you might feel like nothing is going right but when you persevere like Reds owners you'll start getting your little wins 🙌🏆
I always try for a bit of early morning training with the dogs so they are mentally refreshed and switched on for the day.
This video was taken yesterday and it shows that picking short snappy commands and sticking to them helps your dog to fully understand what you're asking of them. It makes the learning easier to digest especially recall, if you're stood shouting your dog's name, "come here", "I'm leaving you", "here now" all in one moment your dog will just tune you out. Pick one short snappy word and stick to it and you'll see a difference 🙌
This dog just lives for exercise! 😅
8.5k total with Nell today and she doesn't seem to be phased at all🤦♂️
But the mental benefits from it will be massive and she'll more than likely sleep all afternoon. I've said it once and I'll probably say it a million times more...
GIVE YOUR DOG PLENTY OF EXERCISE! 👈 You will benefit massively from it 🙌
Many people I meet will tell me it's impossible to tire their dogs out without doing a two hour walk, that once their home its not long before their dogs unwanted behaviour starts again and doing this amount of time consuming exercise daily is just not feasible. To slightly expand on the post from the other day each dog/breed has different needs to remain balanced and stimulated.
This video shows a small portion of a 20-30min session with our dog Nell, is absolutely tireless and will cause mischief and mayhem if she's not well conditioned and mentally challenged! She will come on 5-8k runs weekly as well as her regular daily training but this is my main way to tire Nell out. Hill sprints with a game of tug once she has retrieved the ball.
Three of the most important and easy things to follow on a daily basis -
• Nutrition - correct nutrition can and will help your dog's physical and mental well-being
• Conditioning - A good regular exercise regimen with structure and your dog will benefit 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
There is 100% no excuse for not exercising your dog on a daily basis. You do not have to be an athlete yourself to have a game of tug or throw a ball!
Our last residential client of the year, Rocky🥊
When your dog stays with us whether it's for residential training or fit camp they become a part of our family. Wherever we go, they go and depending on the dog they also spend time with our children too!!
We've loved having this lovely bulldog with us and can't wait to welcome more clients in the new year!! 🎉
Make recall a part of your everyday routine from an early age 🙌
Interactive exercise such as using a tug or flirt pole is a great way to engage with your dog and also work on their obedience as they have to follow your vocal cues and the more you do it the better it becomes.
This has been a part of mine and Acrux's morning exercise routine for the last two years and it doesn't matter what is going off around me he is solely focused on my cue. It's never too early or later to work on anything with your dog 💥🐾
💥 Rocco 💥
This fine example of a doberman has been with us for a residential training camp to work on his over stimulation and the redirection of his excess energy. As you know dobermans are a really energetic breed and are often used to work because of their breed characteristics.
The first thing I wanted to do was to drain all that excess energy so we could start to build his training from the ground up. I thought we chuck him in at the deep end so here's his 8k run next to the bike for the first time and he would've done more 😮💨
Dobermans need plenty of exercise to keep them balanced and stop unwanted behaviour. This is imperative to all high drive breeds and I must say since doing this type of exercise with Rocco he's become so much more biddable and eager to engage.
If there's one thing that will stop most, if not all behaviour issues it's correct exercise and breed specific enrichment 🙌🐾
Ziggy
This handsome lad had a residential stay with us a few weeks ago and the main issue his owners were having was his pulling on the lead.
These videos were taken within ten minutes of each other and the only difference is the equipment used to walk him on. When a dog pulls like a train I immediately take them off a flat collar and put them on a form of slip to avoid any damage to their windpipe that they could inflict on themselves through pulling.
Also consistency is key with lead manners! Just look how changing something so small can make such a big difference 💥🙌
