When Polly came to live with me, I dreamed of her being my demo dog when I teach classes. It never crossed my mind that she could in fact one day be my agility demo dog 😱
Look at her go! First introduction to the tunnel and she did so well! 🥰
Although I hadn’t planned on using the tunnel, I had done lots of foundation work around surfaces, noises and objects.
Grab some objects with different surfaces, boxes, bath mat, rug, packaging appear, bubble wrap etc the list is endless. Scatter some food around and on it and let your dog explore! Gets them used to novelty, not just prep for agility
What’s better than a recall? 😱 (there’s something better?!?)
Proximity! Choosing to hang out with us, regularly checking in and staying close. This is what dreams are made of. No need to be calling them from a distance, they chose to do this! ⬇️💪🥰🥳
So proud of Polly, this is her first off lead experience! Couldn’t have gone any better!
How’s your off leash freedom going?
Yesterday this happened😱🥰⬇️ Polly’s first venture out on a lead 😍🐶🥰
Now I have gone against the traditional socialisation with Polly of meeting every dog and person. Instead, she’s had lots of confidence building games, been getting used to novelty and ‘none of my business’... all at home! We’ve been playing lots of 3 minute games and spending majority of her day in calmness. She’s had the odd car drive and been carried around Pets at Home...
And this is the result...
✅cars
✅a very fast car!
✅barking dogs
✅music
✅people
✅a van
And the most she did was look. Some calm feeding to create a positive association was all she needed.
😱💪👏😍❤️🐶
How’s your walking on lead coming along? Tell me in the comments ⬇️⬇️⬇️
And the best news.... You can absolutely have this with your dog!! Take a look at Train with the Flo and make today day 1 of your dog training transformation! 💪👏🐶
I finally managed it! 👏 even if it’s only 20 seconds!
Here’s a video of Polly learning that her bed is a cool place to be and choosing to go back on it when she’s been released off 🥳🥳
What a clever girly!
This is part of the early stages of teaching your dog to stay on their boundary and relax until released off
Try it with your pups, let us know how you get on ⬇️⬇️⬇️
It seems Polly goes shy when the camera comes out ☺️
So here muffin demonstrating value for the bed. She’s still very new to this as we’ve taken it slow since she arrived.
We want our pups to value the bed, to enjoy the bed, to think their bed is the best place EVER! We do this by feeding on the bed and then test it by releasing them off and seeing where they go.
Remember wait them out if they don’t go back to the bed straight away
P.s Flo barks so volume off if you’re near your dogs 😂
So here it is! A lot of you commented that you’d love to have a dog stay on its bed and continue to relax when you got up! 👀😱🐶 Not only will this build independence, it will also help prevent any separation related behaviours.
Polly was a little distracted when filming today. And that’s okay! I kept sessions short and let her rest afterwards.
Part 1 - introducing the bed
In this video I’m rewarding anytime Polly looks at the bed or puts her feet on it. I want her to develop stillness so i feed quite often, all the time keeping it slow and calm to set our dogs up for success.
Next I would place a piece of food on the floor and say my release cue. We want our dog to go back to the bed. If they don’t, put the food under their nose and guide them back to the bed.
Sessions literally need to be no more than 3 minutes. If you dog looses concentration like Polly or finds it too exciting, think of it as information, end the session and be okay with that.
The most important part to remember is this is about the journey not the destination 🛣
More videos coming soon! (Polly permitting😂)
Multi Dog Households 🐶🐶🐶🐶 introducing your new puppy 🐶
A lot of planning went into this before Polly had even arrived. I’d planned where my dogs would be when I arrived. Had made sure their morning had been calm, they’d had plenty of sleep, had all their needs met and were happy. 🙂🐶
Calmness 😴 is key when it comes to introducing the new pupper. It’s natural to want to be excited near your new puppy. Making funny noises and engaging in play is inevitable, so I really had to work on myself for the next part. I needed to set the scene! I needed to be calm! 🙏
With the others in the garden it was time to introduce them to Polly one at a time. I’d thought through the order and started with the dog I knew would be more stressed going outside (in her eyes she doesn’t need the loo so why go?!) 📝
I had boundaries ready, high value treats and with a few deep breaths I was calm and confident. Polly sat in between my legs and Muffy came to say hi. Then she disengaged! This is so important! We want our other dogs to lead the way. We want disengagement! We don’t want full on play fighting continuously. With Muffy done, she went to the garden and in came Flo.
Flo is an old pro at this as I’ve introduced 3 others into her life. She was so happy to have another sister. My legs created a barrier between her and Polly as Flo just wanted to play. Short interactions were all that was needed.
Spud can be a little nervous around other dogs so he came in with Flo as she oozed confidence, followed by Vi. And they’d all met! 🥳
Don’t get me wrong, this went better than I had ever expected. Take your time!! There’s no rush!
Afterwards I had my 4 on their boundaries whilst Polly ate. This created some distance between them. If your dog doesn’t have a strong boundary yet, crates, puppy pens, baby gates are perfect for this. Let them live in a gated community for some time. So they can see each other, be near each other, yet still h
Arriving home Part 2
Advancing the food follow
So none of my pups have been massive foodies when they arrived. But oh my!! Polly has the belly of a Great Dane! She’s a hungry girl! My first thought was worms! But she’s been wormed, nothing in her toilet and no swollen stomach. Her breeder also gave us her next wormer so it’s not that. She just has a big appetite!
The next step of the food follow is to begin placing food on the floor and pointing to it for her to find. This then moves into rolling and pointing. Polly was having a great time!!
Sessions are kept short! No more than 3 minutes at a time and as soon as we stopped out she went for a toilet. (That’s a post for another day!)
Part 1 of being home
Polly was hungry, hungry, hungry! She instantly ditched the bowl herself when she started eating the other dogs’ left over biscuits on the floor. So I grabbed hers and the games began!!
The Food Follow! 🐶
I love this game because it is the foundation of all games! Polly quickly picked up that she had to follow the food in my hand. She’s quite a confident little thing, however for those less confident dogs take it slow!
We quickly moved to placing the food down and pointing it out for her. She soon began to realise she needed to look, smell and track the food. 🥰
Our relationship was kick started right there! She’d connected me with food and fun! 🥳 she wanted to hang out with me! Not the other dogs, not the environment... ME!! 😍
Concepts began building just from that short game
💡proximity
💡confidence
💡body awareness
💡flexibility
💡optimism
💡calmness
I changed it up between fast following and then slow, being aware of where she was placing her feet. A great start to arousal up and down and building her dimmer switch.
Wow all from that little game 🥳
Polly and I would love to see your food follow videos ⬇️⬇️⬇️
Polly is my Shih tzu x Poodle puppy who came to live with me, a games based dog trainer, at 14 weeks
