BARKING
It's pretty annoying. Us humans often have low tolerance for it.
But most dogs bark. And like all behaviours, it serves a purpose.
If your dog's barking results in you raising your own voice, that's because that's what's been normalised for you, or you're being triggered yourself.
Barking is a natural and normal dog behaviour. It's not our place to try and shut it down.
If your partner or parent shouted at you every time time you spoke up for yourself, you wouldn't have a great relationship with them.
It's up to us to work on our triggers so we are able to respond intentionally, proactively and appropriately.
Exactly what that looks like will depend on WHY they are barking.
If you're not sure why your dog is barking, you're concerned they're barking too much, and don't how you should respond, I'm here to help figure it out.
when I forget to save a scrap
Muzzle training using a bell curve
Do you want more motivation in your training sessions?
Lots of things affect motivation.
Type of rewards
How quickly they get each reward
How well you communicate
But also how you structure your sessions.
Often, we move on to the next step as soon as they've mastered the first.
If the behaviour you're working towards is going to be naturally fun and rewarding in of itself, there's probably nothing wrong with that.
However, sometimes we need them to do or tolerate things that aren't going to be intrinsically enjoyable. Like wearing a muzzle.
When training these types of things, if we don't make the training process itself more enjoyable, each time we move up to the next step, it can actually end up feeling like more of a punishment.
The way I get around this, is with using a bell curve in my training sessions.
This means they start easy, gradually build up to the most challenging step we're working on, and then it gets easier again finishing on the thing they enjoy the most.
Maintaining the feel good-factor is key for good training.
If you want to boost your training, or feel like your dog's been looking interest in training, give it a try.
Is your dog tired of you calling them all the time? Try adding a bit of spice #recalltraining #dogtraining #torquaydogtraining #dogbehaviourist #torquaydogbehaviourist
6 Ways to Spice up your Recalls
6 Different Ways to Spice Up your Recalls
Seizing the opportunity
Young dogs that are still growing their confidence often like to stay close to their person on walks.
It's important to not to take this forgranted and get complacent. Just because they are great at coming back now doesn't mean they always will be.
As confidence grows, and especially as adolescence takes over, this is where they might start to be more independent and not care so much about coming back to you.
So, while they still want to hang around you, make sure they're getting lots of rewards for it. The more reinforcement history a behaviour has, the more likely it is to be repeated.
Lovely Mable here started a game in which she'd run to the other dog we were walking with, then run back to me.
Essentially she was choosing to recall all by herself.
So I seized the opportunity to call her name as she started running and reward her when she got to me.
Yes she was going to do it anyway, but now we started a pattern. When she hears her name, she comes back, she gets a treat.
Patterns with lots of practice become habits. And a behaviour with a reinforcement history is more likely to be repeated.
This will hopefully pay off in the future when a recall is actually needed.
Button Press Training
I've got some new buttons that I thought would be fun for me and the dogs.
These are recordable buttons so I can have each one say something different. In the long term, the idea is they would be able to use them as another way communicate different things with me. Like requests to go outside and activities like scratches, play or a walk. The possibilities are endless.
But to start with, they first need to be able to push the button.
Puppy and Batman are well on the way, but we have some small kinks to iron out.
Batman being a large dog with enthusiasm will sometimes scratch or kick the button rather than press it. But as becomes more thoughtful of his actions, this is improving. Eventually the buttons will also be held in place with a tile board which will help him too.
Puppy however, is on the other end of the scale. Her small size and delicate nature often means she doesn't always push the button hard enough to activate it. I reward effort because that's the important bit. But on the times she does activate the button, u try to give her extra information to say I REALLY liked that and hopefully we'll get more of it in the future.
These two are a great example of how every dog is different. We all can have different experiences of the same thing, which is why it's importance not to compare your dog or yourself to others.
Parsley Body Language
Body Language Breakdown
Can you spot anything I missed?
Shake Off
The Shake Off
Dogs do this when they're wet to get rid of excess water, but did you know it also has a behavioural function?
The shake starts with the head and rolls down the body. If your dog isn't wet and you see them do the shake off, there's a couple of things that it could mean.
Shake offs seem to be connected to tension. The shaking seems to help release built up tension in muscles and act like a bit of an emotional reset.
So you might see shake offs after minor or major stressful events, such as interactions with other dogs or people, or really anything that might have concerned them enough for the body's nervous system to respond to it.
Even positive experiences such as play, excitement or exercise can create that body tension warranting a shake off.
You might also see shake offs during transitioning between activities. Such as when they first wake up, or when they get home after a walk. Again this is like a reset.
It's one of the ways dogs can regulate their emotions. So it can be seen as a good thing. The dog is shaking off an event so they can feel calmer.
However, if you see your dog shaking off often in a given situation, that might be a sign you need to step in to help change or calm the situation down, or remove them from it so they don't get overwhelmed.
You can also try the shake off yourself.
Stressful day at work or nervous before a big event? Shake out your body and see if you can feel that ease of tension.
Does your recall word matter? It’s the training that counts, not the word right?
Yes, regardless of whatever word you use, you’re going to want to put lots of work into training it. But could you be making it harder than it needs to be simply by using the wrong recall cue?
The wonderful behaviourist and author, Patricia McConnell Ph.D, discusses the findings of her dissertation on how different sound properties affect responses in mammal communication in her book, ‘The Other End of the Leash’, and also in her blog post https://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theotherendoftheleash/its-how-you-say-it
She found universally, that short, rapidly repeated notes are effectively used to increase motor activity and approach, so to call them over or speed them up. Whereas long, continuous notes are effectively used to inhibit activity, so promote slowing down or stopping.
So what does this mean for our recalls?
A really common recall word is a single, abrupt ‘Come!’. And sure, you can train a dog to respond to such a cue. But based on Patricia’s findings, it may not be particularly natural for a dog to be inclined to approach with such a short, singular noise. Meaning you will probably have to put more work into teaching them what you are trying to communicate and building desire to do it.
Or, you could switch it up to a noise your dog will be more naturally inclined to respond to anyway because it just makes more sense to them right off the bat. Something you can repeat easily.
I like to use Pup, Pup, Pup, Pup, Pup… and the response I get tends to be way more enthusiastic.
Other options could be a whoop, whoop, whoop or even come, come, come if you’re attached to that word. Just make it easily, quickly repeatable.
There are other aspects of our communication, such as our body language, that can also help or hinder our training, but that’s a topic for another post.
What recall word do you use? And have you noticed how your dog can be more n
Want a dog that loves coming back to you?
Did you know there’s way more ways to spice up your recall than just better treats?
Recalls don’t just have to look like a person standing in a field calling their dog. In fact, I actively avoid stationary recalls.
Anything that gets your dog coming back to you is a recall. Here’s some ideas to try out.
🦴1. The Call and Run. Most dogs love to chase and chasing you can be super fun! Bonus points if you can evade their capture longer by running around trees or other obstacles.
🐶2. The Hide and Call. Find a tree or bush to hide behind when your dog isn't looking and then call them. Just don’t make it too hard as we don’t want to panic them.
🐾3. Teach them a fun trick that involves being close to you and use that in place of a recall. For example a nose touch to your hand or standing between your legs. Adding in moving away from them as you cue the trick also adds a fun chase element.
🐕4. If you don’t need them to come all the way back to you, direction changes can work nicely. Call out to them something like ‘This way’, and start to turn and walk in a different direction. This ones also nice if you don’t need an immediate response from your dog. They can just finish up on a sniff spot and join you when they’re ready.
Let me know what tips and tricks you have that keep your dog running back to you.
Recalls. Why can they be so tricky to master?
We are under ever increasing pressure to keep our dogs under ‘control’ in public, a reliable recall has become a necessity. And as a result, lack of a reliable recall can be a great source of stress on walks.
But our dogs aren't robots, we can't simply programme them into compliance.
It can be quite simple to teach a dog a recall word. It doesn’t take them long to learn that if they come back when you call, good things happen. So isn’t that the end of it?
Unfortunately not in most cases. Because again, dogs are not robots.
When we go outside, they are presented with enormous amounts of information. They have to process all of it and decide how best to respond.
When we are in training classes, at home or just somewhere with not very much going on. Recalls are much easier, because there's less information and fewer alternative options.
But introduce a more difficult environment, say a park, where there are lots of smells, perhaps other dogs and people, the dog now has lots of information, and multiple options for how they want to handle it. When we give them our recall word, we are simply providing just another piece of information, and another option for how to behave.
They then have to decide what their top priority is at that moment. Do they come and get a little snack from you, or do they go investigate that smell the last dog left behind?
So you can see, the question isn’t simply, how do I teach my dog to recall, but how do I make recalls the priority choice for my dog?
This is where it becomes frustrating for the human side. When it feels like they know how to recall, but are choosing not to.
But I encourage you to shift your perspective in those moments.
From the dog's point of view, they are just doing what makes sense to them at that moment. As a domestic animal, living captive in our homes, much of what they can and cannot do is dictated by us in most aspects of their li
