Heart Of The Hound

15/05/2024

Possible the most handsome GSD I've ever laid my eyes on 😍

Many moons ago, I had a GSD called Tessa. Incredible dogs to live and train with.

Still got a soft spot for the breed.

13/05/2024

Buddy the stooge dog earning his dinner tonight!

12/05/2024

Did you know a dog's resting respiratory rate is 15rpm? On lead walking, this increases to 30rpm. Offlead running about, it's about 60rpm. When doing high intensity sniffing, it increases to anywhere between 140-200rpm, making scent detection an excellent activity for you and your dog to do together. It's both physically and mentally tiring for even the most energetic of doggies!

11/05/2024

Scatter feeding. An evening meal scattered around the garden for the dogs with "find it" as the verbal cue to search and sniff it all out to nom. Keeps them both busy (and quiet) for a good 15 minutes.

11/05/2024

Hot afternoon in the shade catching up on some homework. My boys seem to have other ideas. I can't concentrate!! 😂😂

11/05/2024

Lola the German Shepherd and Bob the Rottweiler having a little play after this morning's puppy class at Kate Harper Dog Training. My fave photos are the bloopers!!

09/05/2024

I've become a bit obsessed with the super powers of a dog's nose! 🐶

Did you know a dog's capable of detecting the scent of half a teaspoon of sugar dissolved in an Olympic swimming pool of water?

What scent games do you do with your dog?

⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Congratulations to our newest Bronze Scent Detection Instructors. We look forward to seeing you get started.

09/05/2024

Hi all!

Anyone that knows me know that I'm absolutely awful at keeping up with the old social media!

I'm still here, still training, still evolving and growing!

In keeping with trying to be more active, I've decided a revamp is well overdue of the logo and website.

What do you think? I do love a dachshund!

29/10/2022

This is that gorgeous Arnie. Terrible picture I know but he was a busy boy!

Arnie grew up during lockdown, meaning he lost out on a lot of critical socialisation that he should have had but couldn't.

Arnie struggles with anxiety around people and dogs.

Today on our second session, we worked on building his trust and making him feel better around humans. By the end of the session, he had his tongue down my ear 🤣

Good boy Arnie ❤

15/10/2022

Amazon sniffy noise box enrichment. Instead of throwing it out, I ripped up some of the packaging paper and threw in some treats to find. It's crunchy and rustly and the dogs both love it.

03/10/2022

Does your dog go crazy at the vacuum?

Do you wish you could change how your dog reacts to your daily/weekly cleaning routine?

I have two dogs that absolutely hate vacuums. Any kind, it doesn't matter. They bark like crazy and lunge at the vacuum. Usually I pop them in a different room so they don't have to worry about it, but it's not been possible to do that for the last few weeks.

So I've set to work on changing both my dog's emotional response to the sound and movement of vaccum & carpet cleaners. This is week 2.

There's actually two dogs in this video. Gizmo is sitting behind me.

In the first video, we're just working with sound. In the second, we've built up to adding in motion. You can see a flash on concern on teddy's forehead when I start to move the handle in the second video, which isn't ideal, but he recovers quickly and the session ends on a high.

It's still a work in progress, but essentially I'm changing what the sound and movement of the machine means to the dogs.

If you change the emotion behind the behaviour, you change the behaviour.

Done correctly, when the vaccuum comes out or turns on, they come running happily because the appearance/sound means good things happen for them.

This is the same technique I use to help clients with fearful dogs who bark/lunge/whatever when they're afraid.

27/09/2022

Perfectly said! I often use the analogy of not teaching children to swim by throwing them in at the deep end, but this is a great analogy

Your first driving lesson was not on the M25!
(So teach new behaviours away from 'crisis' situations)

08/09/2022

Very happy to announce I'm now also teaching group classes for the lovely Gail at CIP Puppy & Young Dog Training

15/07/2022

Teach your dog an emergency stop. It could save their life one day.

An emergency stop is when we teach our dog to stay on the spot they're on, whether they're running towards or away from us. It's not a recall.

I train this strongly so the word 'stop' creates an almost reflexive response from my dogs. They then hold the position until I come to get them. I don't care if they're sitting, standing, lying down, as long as they're not moving away or recalling towards me.

This is a little messy as it's the first time we've practiced in months but it's to give you a good idea of what this would look like.

Imagine how useful this would be if your dog ever got loose and crossed a busy road?

I teach this both in my group classes and my 1-2-1s. You train it well but hope you never need it.

14/07/2022

With the sudden significant rise in temperature expected this week and next, it's important to remind us all to adjust our walking habits with our dogs.

In this kind of heat, dogs can burn their paws on hot concrete and asphalt, so restrict exercise to very early or late. Missing a walk or two isn't going to do them any harm, but the alternatives can be devastating.

Flat flaced breeds often struggles the most with their breathing in these temperatures.

So if you absolutely must, stick to shady spots, keep walks short, bring plenty of water and focus on slow sniffy walks. Leave the toys at home.

12/07/2022

Now I'm not a massive Star Wars fan, but you can't deny, the resemblance my Gizmo has to an Ewok is uncanny 😂

06/07/2022

Trigger stacking. It's not just for humans!

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐡𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐞 “𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠” , 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐠 ?

Have you ever found your dog reacting in a situation they wouldn’t usually react to? Or have they all of a sudden had a severe reaction to something they aren’t usually bothered by?

You have no idea why they have suddenly reacted like this when they wouldn’t normally – well this reaction is likely due to trigger stacking.

My favourite analogy for this is a bucket. Your dogs’ bucket holds 10 litres of water. Every event in your dogs’ life adds or takes water out of their bucket. However, if the bucket reaches that 10 litres, it will overflow and your dog reaches their threshold and reacts.

Each dog will have different values to things they experience. For example, food may be one litre, play may be one litre, the postman or door bell may be three litres, a cat could be two litres. A calming activity like scent work may be minus one litre, chewing may be minus one litre, a massage from your owner may be minus one litre.

The other key thing to remember is that cortisol is a stress hormone. This is produced in our dogs in exciting or stressful times and can take up to 72 hours to leave their bodies.

That means you need to consider your bucket over a 72 hour (three day) period and even longer if you have a series of threshold events.

Let’s look at this in a real-life scenario. Most dogs will hover around four of five litres in their buckets most of the time. This gives them a good capacity for additional stress events before they reach their threshold. Even if the dog were to wake up with their bucket completely empty, they then have their breakfast (+1L) and have a play with their owner (+1L = 2L in bucket). They then have a sniff in the garden (-1L = 1L in bucket). The owner takes the dog for a walk and they see a cat (+2L) then a tractor (+2L = 5L in bucket). This is still fine, they can cope with all of this.

Get home from walk and have an enrichment activity whilst owner is busy (-1L = 4L in bucket).

However, then a workman comes to the house (+3L = 7L in bucket), closely followed by the postman with a parcel (+2L = 9L in bucket). We are now very close to threshold but dog still hasn’t gone over threshold, so owner isn’t aware, as they don’t know about trigger stacking.

They head out on their afternoon walk and it is a nice sniffy walk (-1L = 8L in bucket), but then at the end of the walk they see another dog, who barks at them as they approach (+3L = 11L in bucket!!). Oh dear, our dog barks, lunges and is pulling on the end of the lead.

Our poor owner is shocked and mortified and says the common ‘I’m so sorry, he never usually reacts like this’. However, both dogs were on leads so no real harm done, both owners move on. Our owner wonders if it was something about the other dog that triggered them, as they are usually fine with other dogs, although a bit more wary if the other dog barks.

No! It was Trigger Stacking. Those events over this past day have overflowed our dog’s bucket. This same scenario could have played out over the space of three days with the same result (although likely more water out activities).

Obviously, if you have a dog that is reactive to a number of triggers anyway, they will have a much fuller bucket in general and reach their threshold much quicker. This is why we recommend at least 3 days off after a stress event, to really ensure that bucket is fully empty before we expose our dogs to more stressors.

This is also why we work with our dogs to desensitise them and counter condition them to triggers, so instead of a trigger being worth four litres, it is maybe only one or two litres. You see this as you work through counter conditioning, your dog reacts less and recovers quicker from stress events, as the litre value of the trigger reduces.

We also use plenty of calming activities, those licking, sniffing and chewing activities, plus enrichment activities (so long as they are not frustrating or exciting for our dogs) to reduce the amount of water in our dogs’ buckets, as well as time itself to give that cortisol time to dissipate and the water to naturally evaporate from the bucket.

Therefore, if your dog has an unexpected reaction to something that doesn’t usually bother them, think back over your last few days. What events have occurred that could have contributed to filling that bucket?

If you have a reactive dog, who you know has a number of triggers, give them plenty of time off between exposure to these triggers, to allow that bucket to empty, so you prevent them reaching threshold.

Plan your desensitisation and counter conditioning sessions, so there are calming activities in between as well as time off, so again, you don’t risk pushing them to that threshold by exposing them to too many triggers in a short space of time.

©Abby Huxtable for Dog Training Advice and Support

03/07/2022

Not a bad way to end the weekend. Nelly is a stunner 😍

24/06/2022

Do your dogs have any funny little quirks?

Gizmo here is a big fan of the handstand wee. He regularly oversteers and pees straight down himself 🙄🤣

12/06/2022

I absolutely love to just take time out to watch my dog's joyful little moments. This is my dachshund chihuahua cross Teddy enjoying one of his toys 😍

11/06/2022

Do you ever feed your dog fresh food? Does your dog like fruit and vegetables? What's your dog's favourite?

Gizmo's meal is on the left as he struggles with the larger chunks and he doesn't like mushrooms, Teddy's is on the right as he likes to chew, so I keep his chunky.

The sweet potato is a good slow release complex carbohydrate, which helps to prevent those mad energy spikes you may see in some dogs shortly after a meal.

I've also treated them to some steamed carrot and peas but these are to be fed in moderation as they're quite high in sugar and starch.

Usually I'd add more dark leafy greens but I've run out! Favourites are spinach, kale and pak choi.

**Warning** do not feed your dog grapes, raisins or onion!

10/06/2022

It's common to hear outdated trainers tell people to put their hand in their dog's food bowl to establish 'dominance', but did you know, interfering with a dog's meal in this way can actually cause not only anxiety around food but also resource guarding?!

You're presence around mealtines should always be a good thing for your dog, not a stress factor!

To prevent your puppy developing resource guarding issues at mealtimes (don't do this and consult a qualified professional if your dog is already exhibiting aggression with food), practice dropping treats towards your dog as you pass them instead. As they get more comfortable, start dropping these treats into their bowl too. Tasty bits of chicken are sure to be a winner!

Teach your dog that a human hand moving towards their food bowl is the predictor of good things!

Remember, prevention is always better than cure, so start early!

😂 😂

09/06/2022

When you have to put together an Ikea dog but the instructions weren't in the bottom of the box 🤔🐶📦😂

09/06/2022

Stunning countryside walks. Check out Kohta's reflex to his name. What a clever boy he is!

09/06/2022

Kohta and Maya have quite the interesting dynamic. What a gorgeous pair 😍

08/06/2022

Meet Kohta. This beautiful boy was in my puppy class and is now quite the scentwork champ! Isn't he stunning? 😍😍😍

08/06/2022

When you need to get out of the car to visit a client but the weather is against you 🚙🌧️🌧️🐶

04/06/2022

Teaching classes for Kate Harper Dog Training this morning.

Sometimes you have to think outside the box. Luring a tiny dog can be hard on the back, so we're using a wooden spoon with treat paste instead. Otto is quite the fan! Here he is learning 'middle' in jubilee style! 😊

02/06/2022

This is the beautiful Wella, a brittany spaniel rescue and quite the escape artist I'm told (hence the tracker) 😂. We're getting to know each other ❤️

I'll be looking after this lovely lady for a few days, plus doing some work with her around loose lead walking.