Dobercademy

09/01/2025

IF WALKING YOUR DOBERMANN IS A STRUGGLE AND A CALM OUTING CAN FEEL IMPOSSIBLE then follow our tips below to start to buck that trend :

If you go for your walk and your dog is completely in his own little world of sniffing, pulling or showing displacement behaviours, if he or she is anxious, then first you need to recognise the environment & stimuli there may be too much for your dog and you need decide whether or not there is even a realistic chance that you can continue this walk and it will be of use to you and your dog.
Ie : is he getting too over aroused and out of control or is he aware you are with him and can engage with you?

It is NOT always possible on walks to train. My top tip always is that we need to train for the walk & not on it. Preparation is key & establishing behavioural patterns we want our dog to adopt on walks must start at home.

But when we do move our training into walks what then?

Our training journey can sometimes feel overwhelming because often, despite the work you’ve put in at home, your dog's current abilities or the environment we choose can still be so mismatched that you cannot get focus and you will be dragged along with your dog feeling insignificant & out of control. So what can we do?

It’s necessary in this scenario that we have the ability to recognise that if we’ve attempted to train with our dog in a quite distracting place and our dog is too over stimulated to take the tasty chicken or some other high value tasty treat, we may need to abort & move on, and this is key to our training success. It may be that we need to turn around and go home at this stage. Try again at home. Tomorrow is another day! This would be a great decision for building your dog’s reinforcement history. Sometimes it’s possible to move our dog to a different area & observe his behaviour & body language and if he’s calmer there and able to take some food then we can start again with our training. If not - go home.

What is best is, rather than giving our dog a chance to further practice over arousal and disengagement (the inability to engage with you) and choosing the environment over you, then just move on or go home & don’t reinforce it by practicing it.

Sometimes you just have to know when it’s not working and limit the behaviour being practiced. This is good management and definitely “damage control".

On these occasions you are unable to train you and cannot get your dog’s interest in your offerings of games and food and engagement you can prevent it from becoming a negative learning experience.

It’s better to not have your dog learn anything at all than to have him learn something you later have to un-train or re-train. Constant practice of over exposure & over arousal is one of the hardest and most difficult behaviours to turn around.

Sometimes a dog can settle & work after he’s had the opportunity to “check out” his environment he’s just arrived in first, so it’s often really useful to allow him 10 minutes or so of sniffing & exploring before one asks for engagement. Observation here though is key: Is he OTT and straight into “hunting” mode as he sniffs; or is he looking relaxed in his body language and his sniffing indicates he’s just “reading the newspaper” checking information about who’s been here before him?
Observing and assessing body language & your dog’s demeanour in this way is a biggy in making a decision as to whether to give him 10 mins before trying to engage him or whether to just move on elsewhere or go home.

If you are really not sure then a little test you could carry out is to go right up to your dog and pop a tasty treat right on his his nose. If he’s too over aroused & zoned out he will not be able to take it & will not acknowledge it.
If that is the case then your dog is too distracted, he is so lit up he is unable to eat. What’s happening if this is the case, is that his physical nervous system responses to his environment have temporarily shut down the part of the brain that controls digestion whilst pumping him full of adrenaline & cortisol for action. At this point we need to move or go home.

However, if the treat on the nose reminds him you are there and he takes it, have another immediately ready to get him to follow you & then you can engage in a pattern game that’s well practiced to retrieve his focus. Once he’s focussed you can try following up with more training games using food & toys to keep focus & practice fun & engagement in that environment. Use plenty of fun re-enforcement your dog loves & keep the session short.

If your your dog does not turn towards you and the tasty treat & continues his over excited behaviour you may not be able to turn this training situation around.
This is a learning situation for you, not a failure for your dog, who is just responding to his automatic nervous system responses & hard wired prey drive, so just treat it as such - IT’s information that’s all, and abandon the area and try again in an easier location later or somewhere else next time.

Adopting this advice will help you progress your dog’s focus & engagement with you and prevent those miserable walks that are not serving either of you.
Patience & observation are key and this approach means you can work your way up through the different levels of environmental distractions with your dog gradually building his ability to cope without unnecessary stress and increase his learning ability and his focus on you too.

Dobercademy: Training through kindness, knowledge & understanding

07/01/2025

DOES YOUR DOBERMANN FEEL LIKE A ONE DOG TORNADO?

Calm the Storm and get the help you need at a price you can afford

All you want to do is go for a nice chilled walk, let your dog run freely or maybe to see them able to just ignore other dogs - but if you’re here, reading this, that’s probably not your reality.

Does any of this feel familiar?

* Your Dobermann turns into a whirlwind when visitors come over, leaving chaos in their wake. Maybe visitors are not even possible!
* Walks feel like you’ve been hit by a truck - frustrating, stressful, and never what you hoped for. You dread them!
* The lead makes your dog more reactive, but you're terrified of letting them off, unsure of what might happen.
* Your Dobermann spins, barks, and screeches in a frenzy - it’s like a Tasmanian devil on a rampage. It’s so embarrassing
* Their wild, over-the-top play style can quickly spiral into trouble, leaving them labeled as the bad dog, even when their intentions are good.

You’ve probably tried everything from online advice to expensive gadgets, but nothing seems to work. In fact… they might be making things worse.

At Dobercademy We know Dobermans are special.
We understand the unique needs of Dobermanns

They’re not like other dogs. They’re driven, opinionated, and they’ve got big feelings, in a big body.

These intelligent, alert, and driven dogs can easily become over-aroused, especially in high-stress environments. But that doesn’t mean they can’t learn to manage their big feelings, and neither does it mean you have to live in constant stress and anxiety.

Reactivity usually stems from fear, frustration, or over-arousal. And if these emotions are repeatedly practiced, your Dobermann's reactivity will only intensify.

Think of it like walking a footpath.
If you regularly walk down the same path, it becomes easier and easier to follow. The grass on either side dies, and a clear path forms. But if you want to switch paths, you need to walk on the new path more than the old one.

The trick is to focus on the right behaviours:
* Walk down the new path often, and the old one will gradually disappear.
* Keep practicing the behaviours you want your dog to master, rather than the ones you don't.
* Over time, the new path will become the easier one to follow.

“What we want is to keep walking the new path - practicing the right behaviours - until they become second nature.”�— Sharon Chamberlin, Founder of Dobercademy

From chaos to calm - it is possible!
Changing your mindset and the habits you practice every day will be key.
The first step? Learning to observe and understand your dog.

You might have a reactive dog, but you also have a privilege - the chance to deepen your bond and learn more than you ever could with an easier-going dog.

If you learn to understand, observe & work with your beautiful reactive Dobermann, you’ll experience a relationship so enriching & unlike any other you’ve had before.

Starting here is the difference between failure & success.

Our Reducing Reactivity programme has been created specifically to help you and your Dobermann overcome reactivity, creating a life of harmony and understanding.

Our unique approach, coaching & support will progressively walk you step by step through a treatment & training process that will change your lives with your dog and your mindset forever.

What’s Included in Dobercademy: Reducing Reactivity?
Comprehensive, Breed-Specific Training
* Tailored Guidance: Designed for Dobermanns, focusing on over-arousal, reactivity, and emotional regulation.
* Learning at Your Pace: Video lessons and written resources cater to all learning styles.
* Practical Solutions: Integrate training into your daily life in just 15-30 minutes a day.
Live Expert Support
* 8 weekly Zoom Calls: Get personalized advice and ask questions with Sharon Chamberlin, a trainer with 30+ years of Dobermann expertise.
* Recorded Sessions: Never miss out - catch up anytime.
Ongoing Community & Resources
* Supportive Facebook Group: Share progress, celebrate wins, and get feedback from a like-minded community of Dobermann owners experiencing the same challenges and journey as you
* Bonus content: Explore topics like health, wellness, and dog sports.
* Access to Experts: Directly connect with your trainers throughout your journey - it’s like having an expert trainer on speed dial!
* No need for formal training - integrate your dog’s learning into everyday moments.

Here’s a snapshot of what you’ll learn:
* Understanding Reactivity: Discover the root causes of reactivity and how to recognise it in your dog.
* Why Punishment Fails: The science behind why punishment backfires and what works instead.
* Trigger Stacking & Candles: Learn to spot stress triggers and “blow out” your dog’s emotional candles to remove the heat
* Body Language Basics: Decode your dog’s signals to understand what they’re really saying.
* Management Strategies: Instant solutions to reduce stress for you and your dog.
* Mindset Shift: Build confidence and calmness at both ends of the lead.
* Therapy & Enrichment: Reset your dog’s mind and foster relaxation with practical exercises.
* Breed-Specific Needs: Tailored exercises for your Dobermann’s unique characteristics and energy levels.
* Handling Challenges: Tips for multi-dog households, tricky vet visits, and those incoming “friendly” off-lead dogs.

If you are Tired of the wild ride we invite you to Find calm with Dobercademy

Sign up for our eight week specialist Reducing Reactivity programme starting 11 January 2025 at 7:30pm here ⬇️

https://portal.busypaws.app/customers/dobercademy?booking_id=991240

06/01/2025

If you are still on the fence or wondering whether our Training & Behavioural programmes truly work we are going to share some more real life experiences from some of our lovely clients here on our page.

This is beautiful Koda, his mum D-anne telephoned us for help as he was causing so much chaos she was desperate and thinking of rehoming him but loved him so much she couldn’t do it. She embarked on working with us instead. We’ve loved helping her & Koda.

Here is what she has to say now :

“Since working with Dobercademy reducing reactivity group with guidance from Sharon, members and the syllabus, I have been able to tap into Kodas true potential, he is an overall 10/10 dog now who is improving every single day. He can now play with toys, chill out when home and not be on edge and in waiting mode all the time. He is able to just be, outdoors and indoors. He used to have to be doing something all the time and now he is happy to laze around. The biggest thing we have took from the page is understanding that he wasn't misbehaving, he was struggling, and stripping it all back to bare and building solid foundations of love, trust and expectations has helped Koda be a valued , happy and safe member of our family! At only 2 he can loose lead walking down our street, he can listen and ignore the cats he lives with, he knows cooperative care and we are able to groom and do nails without issue, his recall in low distraction areas is fantastic! He is loving parkour. Most importantly this programme has made me challenge myself, the way I think and the way I work, to help Koda. When he has a tricky day I don't get mad and think here we go again, I assess what has went on this week and target what has caused it. I have had more fun than Koda learning the games, and playing with him. Last year Koda couldn't see a toy without jumping and nipping, he thought the end of the lead pulling like a sled dog was what he was supposed to be doing. He thought I was his and the kids couldn't lie with me, my partner couldn't cuddle me, I couldn't leave the room without him being on edge. This has all changed and we can now all enjoy Koda as the dog we always wanted, to strengthen our family, not weaken it. Koda still has a long way to go but every day we are improving and that's all I can ask for! I am so glad we found Dobercademy and didn't send Koda to a rescue as we had originally planned as he was " beyond saving and beyond help" , Dobercademy proved that all false and our best boy has an amazing life , loved wholeheartedly by our family! X”

05/01/2025

What is it like to work with us online?

I was looking back on some of my work I did with clients last year and this stunning picture of Xena came up which I just had to share again as Xena is so beautiful. She belongs to Molly Chowdhury.

Molly gave us some lovely feedback.
She’s a member of our very special Membership group: Reducing Reactivity and all things Dobermann and she said :

“I can’t recommend Sharon and all at Dobercademy highly enough. Although I have had dogs all my life and my last was a 55kg Rhodesian Ridgeback, I now have my first Dobermann Xena who is trying me in ways I have never experienced. I have been taking her to obedience training face to face sessions as well as ringcraft weekly since she was 12 weeks old but although she can do all the tricks and is a star performer, her over arousal meant she was a nightmare in between each activity and couldn’t settle at all. At 8 months I was covered in scrapes and bruises along with tennis elbow and felt completely at the end of my tether and my partner was talking about rehoming options. After an intro call with Sharon I joined the ASBO adolescents course as a last resort and even after only a few short weeks Xena is a changed dog. Sharon has such a deep understanding of Doberman behaviour and their breed specific needs and provides a wealth of tools and management techniques that have meant peace is already restored at home and Xena herself is able to relax as well as me! I have now signed up for the monthly membership which will mean we can still get this much needed support for the next 12 months in an affordable way. Although I had my doubts about online training I am a complete convert as is Xena and I wholeheartedly recommend anyone who is struggling with managing their Dobermann (or I am sure many other similar breeds) to take the plunge and reach out to Sharon and the team 😊”

If you’d like to know more about our programmes, membership, how we work and can help you with your dog, why not book a free 15 minute discovery call with us when you can tell us all about your dog and find out what we can do for you.

Whether you’ve worked with other trainers or not and whether you have had dogs for years or this is your first dog we know our passion for our breed & in depth knowledge & experience, together with our kindness policy to both ends of the lead will be both enlightening & refreshing.
You can ditch those struggles & start a learning journey which will be enjoyable for both you and your dog & will take the stress out of your daily lives together.

https://portal.busypaws.app/customers/dobercademy?service_id=2988

03/01/2025

REACTIVE BEHAVIOUR
is one of the hardest behavioural challenges to deal with.

Do you wonder why it is so and if it will ever get better for you and your dog?

Have you tried many different trainers & ways to “fix” it ?

You may never have even thought about reactivity before you got this dog, but now when your dog starts reacting, you find yourself reacting too! Life is hard!

You may get stressed at the very thought of going for a walk. “What ifs” are largely looming in your mind every time you pick up the lead - you dread it!

Of course, it is not your dog’s fault or yours. Your dog is reacting in response to an emotion he’s experiencing.
This emotion may be real fear, it could be anxiety or even frustration. Sometimes he reacts just because he’s over excited and doesn’t know what to do with that feeling.

He’s barking, lunging and growling because he’s learned, or he feels, that it serves him in that moment: The target of his fear goes away when he does this for example, or perhaps it’s just all he knows how to do when he has feelings he can’t cope with.

If we just keep repeating what we do with our dogs every day then we are just going to experience the same behaviour. It may even escalate or get worse.

How do you feel when I say there is a better way?
You can change this?

I can teach you to show your dog a better way. Life can be enjoyable for you with your reactive dog and you can enjoy the journey of learning how to change too.

We can teach your dog new ways to respond that also help him or her to feel good and over time they can start to ignore what once caused a meltdown or maybe even enjoy meeting other dogs or new people & learn to enjoy new experiences.

In order to make this shift, initially we need to create a more calm space for our dogs. They can't learn when they are stressed.
We can look at changing ourselves & thinking about what we can do to change what is currently happening for us and our dog. We can do things differently. We can learn to manage unwanted behaviour so it’s not repeated & practiced daily. We can start to live stress free with our reactive dogs. Next we can start working on alternative patterns of behaviour to help equip our dog with a different response and we can build his calmness & confidence, finally implementing the new skills we’ve learned to reintroduce a different way in the real world.

This is how Iv designed my custom programme to help those of you struggling with reactivity right now. It’s called “Reducing Reactivity.”
This program has helped many already and not only teaches you how to immediately relieve the stress for you and your dog, gives you all the understanding & skills you need to help your dog change his response, but we also give you all the support you need for the duration of the programme - we are literally with you every step of the way on a daily basis when you need us.

In Reducing Reactivity you will develop the right skills to teach calm and accommodate your dog's reactivity! You will learn easy and fun practical ways to keep your dog's focus when there are distractions, how to manage situations where things are less than ideal and how to bounce back when everything has gone belly up! Plus you get to join our awesome community of Dobermann owners who are experiencing just the same challenges as you with their dogs and will be learning with you & offering their understanding & support to one other on the journey! So you are not alone.

If you want to stop the hurricane of reactivity, get off that treadmill of repetition and get the help you need at a price you can afford then join us :

Our popular & successful Reducing Reactivity Programme runs again starting Tuesday 11th February for 8 weeks

Why not book a no obligation free call with us to discuss your dog’s needs, find out more & join up?

This programme is also open to those who would like to learn more about reactive behaviour, where it comes from & why & how to change it.
Reducing Reactivity is a full & thorough behavioural modification programme for both ends of the lead with full support from your behaviour & training coaches.

Dog trainers or those who’d like to become trainers are therefore also welcome, or even if you’d just like to learn more because you love dogs!

https://portal.busypaws.app/customers/dobercademy?service_id=2988

03/01/2025

HIGH PREY DRIVE/CAT OBSESSION?

These are often top of the list of challenges us Dobermann owners face in reality in the real world of Dobermann high drive, prey drive & often a very highlighted chase drive which is alive and kicking so well in our breed.

Sometimes, whether it be prey drive to the point of oblivion in our Dobe or just chasing the family cat, it can seem so overwhelming to us owners & seemingly impossible to overcome.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be impossible at all. When you have the right knowledge & training skills anything is possible, but importantly the first step is to understand that we cannot start training our ott Dobermann around the cat or the rabbit.

First we must establish the patterns of behaviour that will help us educate & calm our dog around prey, and we must start these at home.

In this video you can see we are quite advanced around cat chasing in the home. Importantly, the patterns of behaviour we are using (“place” & “ping pong” game) were well established first in Sassi before we introduced Simba, first at a distance she could cope with & then we’ve just closed the distance gap.

If you have issues with reactivity, prey drive or just general ott behaviour or you just wish to learn & understand more about dog training then we have an exciting announcement coming for you soon.

If you are new to dog training and you’d like to be a dog training instructor or behavioural practitioner or if you are already training & looking to further your knowledge & education,then our announcement holds opportunities for you too to learn much more, particularly around large, high drive working breeds so watch this space.

This is where we are now after lots of work

02/01/2025

I make no New Year’s resolutions & I am not ashamed of bucking the trend! I always think if I want to do something & I want it badly enough then I will do it at any time of the year, but most importantly when i have time & head space for it & when I really want to do it. Then I’m more likely to be level headed about what I’m trying to achieve & more likely to be reasonable about my expectations of myself & then I’m also more likely to achieve my goal.

With these New Year thoughts I am also not setting myself up for self criticism or beating myself up when one day early in my resolution I’m not able to commit.

Feeling like one has failed and beating oneself up is a sure fire way of ensuring our own misery.

Let’s take a look at how our thought patterns automatically work given the resilience and negativity bias for example :

Our brain is naturally biased towards noticing negative things rather than positive things. This is a survival mechanism from when early humans were at risk from predators. If you assumed something was bad and it turned out to be good, you might have missed out but you lived to fight another day. If you assumed something was good - and it turned out to be a predator, however, that was the last choice you made.

Psychologist Rick Hanson says "The mind is like Velcro for negative thoughts and like Teflon for positive ones." You have to make an effort to remember positive things because they flit through your mind quickly but negative thoughts stick automatically.

In fact it takes 12 seconds of focused attention for a positive experience to stick in the same way.

So you have to work harder to remember the successes you have with your dog for example and that’s why training can feel hard, but you will continually come back to every experience where something goes wrong!!

This then has an impact on your resilience to stress. Research shows that when you increase the ratio of positive to negative experiences you have, you get better at handling stress. So, because of the negativity bias, we absolutely must spend time focusing on the positive experiences we have with our dog so that we remember them.

If we aim to have between three and ten positive experiences to every negative one this is most effective to improve our resilience.

So - lots of Frequent small positives are better than one big one.

During life & importantly, when training our dogs, particularly if they are reactive or have high prey drive, then our days can feel challenging.

It’s a great help for us if we therefore start by simply getting into the habit of noting & remembering the many small positive experiences we have daily with our dog, or remembering the wonderful things he represents or does.

So instead of New Year’s resolutions to achieve the unachievable which is a quick fix for your dog then let’s all write down something positive that we notice daily about our dog & put it in a jar. At the end of each month take the slips of paper you’ve noted all these dog positives out & indulge yourself with reading them. A simple compliment about your dog from someone else for example, or something good your dog did such as recalled from the garden will make all the difference to how you feel. This will keep you buoyed & positive on your training journey and enable you to take the next step each month!

Remember your dog is not a bad dog - he’s a dog who needs your help & understanding.

Why not start now by writing down and sharing with us a positive comment on the thread below this post. Share a picture of your beautiful dog too ❤️

I’ll start :
Here is Sassi who is the most loving & funny girl who makes us laugh every single day.
I can never feel sad around her.

Your turn now : Go ⬇️

02/01/2025

Feeling Like You’re in a Tornado with Your Dobermann?

Let’s Fix That….

Stop the hurricane of reactivity - Get the help you need at a price you can afford

Our popular & successful Reducing Reactivity Programme runs again starting Tuesday 11th February for 8 weeks

Why not book a no obligation free call with us to discuss your dog’s needs, find out more & join up?

https://portal.busypaws.app/customers/dobercademy?service_id=2988

01/01/2025

Happy New Year’s Day Everyone.

I’m always talking about how important it is to employ a Dobermann, largely because as a Working Guarding breed they can be so high drive & walks can often be just a nitemare for us owners, particularly with the high prey drive that’s also prevalent in many Dobes too!

Training for the walk & not on it is my motto & a habit I follow & recommend clients to follow too.

The environment is hard for Dogs like my Sassi who is extremely environmentally aware & very excited by it always & on top of that she has huge feelings and emotions too, not to mention her ridiculous prey drive 😂. Nobody ever said Dobermanns were easy lol Traditional Walks therefore, for us have been limited & prepared for and they don’t happen every day.

Instead we practice walking alternatives which provide extremely well for all Sassis needs, we play, run, sniff, toilet, eat, scavenge, hunt, we practice calmness & stillness around prey & other distractions she finds challenging, we practice stop&go exercises to keep her arousal from getting ott and importantly we have lots of fun. So what does that look like.

What do our clients get to learn when they decide to jump into a programme with us?

This is what our “deconstructed” dog walk looked like today.
We teach our clients lots of different techniques & skillls to enable them to get the best behaviour they want sharing their lives as we all do with our beloved but sometimes challenging breed.

We were out for around an hour and a half :

Our deconstructed dog walk today :

Various food games that involve Sassi doing “go” “stop” “stillness” and her focus

Catch

Flicky feet & Heelwork using play food & toys (We alternated this with pattern games to prevent the play getting too ott)

Go rounds

Then we went inside & did stop go game

Played on shaping the skateboard more

Worked on static positioning for Heelwork

Down stays whilst I did jobs

A bit of platform shaping

We’ve now come in & she’s had a filled horn filled with some of her butternut box food from the freezer now she will sleep ❤️

What do your walks look like - are they easy or filled with conflict? Share your experiences with us in comments below
The more we know your struggles the better placed we are to help ⬇️

31/12/2024

Happy New Year to all our wonderful clients & followers
We are truly blessed that we have your support
Do you have any New Year’s Resolutions with your dog? Share below if you’d like to ⬇️

Tonight Sharon & Wendy are largely spending our time hugging Sassi & Cooper ❤️

Whatever your plans thank you for following us and we look forward to seeing you here to share our new & exciting plans for 2025 ❤️

31/12/2024

Re-Homing a Dobermann

It is exciting to be able to give an unwanted dog a brand new start & chance at life and love in our newly offered “forever” home, especially if he’s had a rough start in life. There are however, lots of things we need to know about our rescue dog and how he may be feeling when he comes home to us and if we are appreciative of these facts and we understand what to expect and what our dog may be experiencing & feeling then it will be easier for us to enjoy him and settle him into his new life with us. I hope in this article I can give you all a little help and guidance to get you through the early days.

Join our free training group to read the full rehoming article :

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2485973378281515/?ref=share_group_link