Many dogs I work with come to me struggling to eat outside or around distractions. If that sounds like your dog, this is for you! âŹïž
First, think about what and where your dog will consistently eat. This might start as something novel and delicious, right in your living room!
Then, I want you to really think about how youâre delivering the food: how can we make this as clear & predictable as possible?
Some questions you can ask yourself might be: how does your dog know itâs time to take food? Do they know? Are you delivering the food in a way thatâs easy for the dog to access? Etc.
As you both get good at this, take this skill to gradually more distracting environments. If your dog can do this in the living room, can they do it in the kitchen? How about the back garden? How about right in front of the house?
Food is often the most efficient âcurrencyâ we can use to train our dogs, and taking food is a skill! Just like with any other skill, itâs easier for some dogs than others! But worth putting time into.
Of course, if your dog is not keen on eating, there might be more that needs looking at - the above is just *one* of the things.
If youâre running into some challenges with this stuff and youâd like a hand, drop me a message! Letâs talk about what we can do!
#dogtraining #dogtips
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There is so much nuance here but Iâll try to explain my thoughts as best as I can đ€Ł
If your reactive dog doesnât 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 donât 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 donât want to mask these feelings with toy play! I also wouldnât 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 doesnât want to take food outside? I'll have to give you the unsatisfactory answer of âit dependsâ. Just keep in mind that the reinforcers you choose influence the behaviour youâre trying to build, so that stuff is worth thinking about.
Got questions or need a hand? Get in touch!
#dogtraining #dogtips #reactivedog
Does your puppy have a perfect recall? Do they stick close to you on walks? Do they ignore wildlife? Do they know a variety of cues?? Thatâs a great start!! But donât make the mistake of believing that theyâre âfully trainedâ!
Puppies can lull us into a false sense of security, just because they tend to be quite happy to do what we want them to do!
BUT⊠remember that the brain goes through significant changes during adolescence!! It is really normal for our dogsâ behaviour to change during this time, and it is wise for us to observe and respond to that! You may see your dog developing bigger feelings about things, becoming more interested in the environment & other dogs, or generally âlistening lessâ.
Make sure youâre really rewarding the behaviours you like while your puppy is being âperfectâ! This increases the likelihood of those behaviours continuing into adolescence. And be observant of things that maybe need a little more practise, or a little more management - donât take anything for granted!
Are you starting to notice changes in your young dogâs behaviour? Drop me a message! I can help đđ»ââïž
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Sometimes, itâs difficult to train for the exact triggers our dogs might encounter, or the exact environment they may need to be in.
We can, however, consider what about that trigger/environment is hard, and how we might be able to work on that in other contexts.
Budweis, like many border collies, is very interested in movement. He would love to chase things. I do not want him chasing things!
We have put rules around chasing/not chasing in many different contexts. I canât âtrainâ for everything he might encounter and want to chase, but I can think about what might be challenging (movement/size of thing/does it make noise/etc.) and work on those bits in as many scenarios as possible.
What does your dog struggle with? Think about what elements of the trigger are hard, and how you might be able to isolate these different pieces to work on them, rather than working on the whole picture at once.
Need a hand? Drop me a message - Iâd be happy to help!
#dogtraining #dogtips
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, youâll get poor grades, so whatâs 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 âno choiceâ moments, in ways that do not rely on learned helplessness (i.e., struggle and panic as much as you like, itâs not going to get you anywhere).
As always, itâs 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). âNo choiceâ 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!
#dogtraining #dogtips
âšEasily accessible reinforcersâš
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 donât want to be fumbling around with a resealable treat pouch if you need to manage a situation quickly, for example. You also donât want your dog unable to disengage from reinforcers! Clean and predictable reinforcement delivery can make all the difference when training, so itâs worth giving some thought to!
Are your reinforcers a help or a hindrance? Have a think about it! đ
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