There is so much nuance here but I’ll try to explain my thoughts as best as I can 🤣
If your reactive dog doesn’t want to eat outside, the chances are extremely slim that I'm going to tell you to just use toys!
Toys are great and I use them all the time. And also, I put a lot of time and effort into building food skills: I don’t think food/toys are always interchangeable.
The behaviours we train change depending on the reinforcer we use. BW, for example, has big toy feelings - toys get him riled up! This is fun for behaviours that I want to be explosive and intense (e.g., recall of wildlife), but I would not want him to look at cars and think explosive or intense thoughts!! I used no toys in our car-chasing rehab (I have another reel on what I did do instead).
BW can also be quite uncomfortable (emotionally) and still latch onto a tug. I don’t want to mask these feelings with toy play! I also wouldn’t want him redirecting from triggers to an intense and arousing game - arousal can tip from good feelings to yucky feelings quite easily!
So, can you just use toys if your dog doesn’t want to take food outside? I'll have to give you the unsatisfactory answer of “it depends”. Just keep in mind that the reinforcers you choose influence the behaviour you’re trying to build, so that stuff is worth thinking about.
Got questions or need a hand? Get in touch!
#dogtraining #dogtips #reactivedog
Learned helplessness is basically passive resignation. It happens when you are repeatedly exposed to negative events/stimuli that are perceived to be unavoidable, so you just stop trying to change your circumstances.
Imagine consistently putting your best effort into studying, for example, and getting poor grades anyway - it will eventually feel like no matter what you do, you’ll get poor grades, so what’s the point in even trying. This feeling of having no control over your outcomes is not nice!
Back to dogs… there is a lot of emphasis on choice in dog training now, which is cool and good! And we must recognise that not everything can be a choice. AND we must also adequately prepare our dogs for these “no choice” moments, in ways that do not rely on learned helplessness (i.e., struggle and panic as much as you like, it’s not going to get you anywhere).
As always, it’s hard to get nuance across in a simple social media post. However, learned helplessness has been associated with increased anxiety, poor motivation, resignation, and low self esteem in children. These are not feelings we should be aiming for in animal training (or human teaching, for that matter). “No choice” moments should not, in my opinion, be taught by showing the animal that their efforts to escape are fruitless. There are better and kinder ways to train!
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✨Easily accessible reinforcers✨
Seems obvious? Is actually not super obvious! How you plan to carry your treats/toys is one of the things I chat through with clients! You don’t want to be fumbling around with a resealable treat pouch if you need to manage a situation quickly, for example. You also don’t want your dog unable to disengage from reinforcers! Clean and predictable reinforcement delivery can make all the difference when training, so it’s worth giving some thought to!
Are your reinforcers a help or a hindrance? Have a think about it! 😎
#dogtraining #dogtips
It’s important that we speak up for our dogs, especially in situations where their body language might not be properly heard. If we listen to our dogs’ subtle communication, there will be less need for them to escalate their signals and show behaviours that we as humans don’t like to see (e.g., barking, lunging, snapping, etc.). How can we be better advocates for our dogs?
⭐️ Observation - what situations does your dog like? What do they find hard? How can you tell? Getting familiar with basic dog body language and really observing our dogs in different contexts can give us so much information that we can use to help them when required.
⭐️ Be proactive - recognising what our dogs struggle with is the first step in making a plan to help them. Neither of my dogs enjoy being crowded by strangers. So, I am proactive in teaching them skills that can be used when out and about. I am proactive in considering where/where not to walk them. I am proactive in speaking up about their needs in situations where touching is necessary (e.g., vets, physio, etc.). I don’t just wing things and see what happens.
⭐️ Rehearse management for your dog and *yourself*! - my dogs are interesting looking and people often want to say hi. Neither of them particularly enjoy this, but the thought of offending a stranger mortifies me 🤣. So, it is helpful for *me* to have easily accessible phrases that I can use to tell people not today, thanks.
I want my dogs see me as a “safe person”, and not someone who will put them into situations they’re not comfortable with. If you’d like to know more about this stuff, drop me a message and we can have a chat!
#dogtraining #dogtips
Young dogs may go through periods where they need more/less management, and this is normal. Maybe they are less able to make good choices in some environments than in others? This is also normal.
We’re told that adolescence lasts until about 18 months, but really it can last much longer (up until 3 yrs or even longer). An 18 month old dog may look like an adult, but they do not have an adult brain! So they probably behave quite differently to how they will as an adult.
These “steps back” can be super frustrating: but he knows a recall, he was fine here yesterday, etc. etc. But it’s important that we observe our dog’s behaviour, and respond to what we have in front of us *today*.
And this doesn’t necessarily mean that we accept how they are and just leave it at that - I always recommend tracking progress, to make sure that we’re trending in the right direction over time (and to adjust/make plans if we’re not).
Adolescence is largely a time for management and survival 🤪. If your young dog is showing you that he can’t do something today, listen to him, even if he could do it yesterday.
#dogtraining #dogtips
Budweis loves working on retrieves! I normally have to focus on him *not* grabbing the dumbbell before I ask him to. But here, he won’t take it. Is he being stubborn? Defiant? Naughty? What on earth is happening??
I offer the dumbbell a few too many times (😅) before I wisen up to the fact that something is wrong and inspect the dumbbell and BW’s teeth. The wood had splintered (somebody chewed it 🙄) so I figured the splinters were bothering him, and he had a little piece of wood stuck between one of his teeth and his gum. I removed the splinter, I swapped articles, and low and behold he was putting the thing in his mouth again. How interesting!
As humans, we’re very quick to assume that our dogs are wilfully ignoring us to spite us in some way. But often, when we get curious about *why* they might not be responding as we expect, we can find legitimate reasons. Here are a few things we can ask ourselves:
❓Does my dog know the behaviour I’m cueing, in the context that I’m cueing it?
❓Is my dog appropriately motivated to perform the cue?
❓Is my dog physically/emotionally comfortable?
❓What can I change to make it easier for my dog to perform the cue?
Your dog doesn’t get things wrong on purpose! If they show you they can’t do something, take that as information (rather than insisting like I did in the video 🙄). Getting curious is more productive than getting frustrated!
#dogtraining #dogtips
We spent the bank holiday weekend walking around Pewsey and surrounding areas! It rained. I forgot my wellies. But we had a great time, doing what we love best: exploring the countryside!
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I love food scatters so much that whenever I get the bribery comment I have to fight the urge to explain that it’s a hard-earned trained skill 🤣
Food scatters can be a great management strategy to keep your dog’s head down as triggers pass, for example, or to help lower arousal. But staying committed to the scatter in a variety of situations really can take some training! Just eating outside really can take some training, for some dogs!
Eating is a behaviour, and we can build it just as we would build other skills, by starting at a place where the dog can be successful, and building from there.
#dogtraining #dogtips
Welcome to today’s episode of dispelling bad advice that I find on the internet 🙃😎
Should we stop our dogs from scent marking so that they don’t develop behaviour problems like reactivity? Is scent marking a slippery slope towards “reactivity”? Is the dog peeing on stuff because they think they want to be in charge of us/the world??
Scent marking is a natural and normal dog behaviour. It isn’t always socially acceptable (I don’t want my dogs to mark in my house, for example), so we can teach some boundaries around this (you can’t pee on my curtains, but you can pee in the garden and out on walks, for example). But if your dog is peeing on stuff and it’s not a problem, it’s not a problem. It doesn’t mean they’re going to become reactive, it doesn’t mean you should be worried about their behaviour; they’re just being a dog 🤷🏻♀️
If you have a reactive dog and the first thing you’re told to do is to stop them from peeing when out on walks, I’d seek a second opinion - there are much more productive things to train, when it comes to reactivity.
#dogtraining #dogtips #reactivedog
