In this clip you can see a working English Setter from Spain who spent the first years of his life as a hunting dog. He has never lived in a family home before. He had no recall, was not interested in treats or toys when out in the country. He has been trained to recall without treats or toys and without the use of electric collars or aversive tools. He is watching sheep through a fence and two weeks ago he would not recall from this position. You don't need treats, toys or aversive tools to teach recall.
MY DOG MILO
In the fourteen weeks since adopting Milo, his learning has flourished. In this short clip I am utilizing Milo's love for playing fetch to excel his recall. There is a muntjac deer right in front of him as he goes to fetch the ball. He has already spotted the deer but his only interest is getting the ball back to me. You can see the deer just above Milo's head and moving away to his right.
No whistle, words or treats used. Engagement, Calmness and trust.
Milo my dog.
12 weeks ago Milo was in a rescue found on the streets in Ireland,
no collar or microchip. He's a Staffie crossbreed. He's between one and two years old.
He pulled hard on his lead had no recall.
Now, he doesn't pull on his lead and has fantastic recall.
Hours and hours of training, no, not at all. It's about building our relationship, trust and respect for each other.
I now trust him and respect him.
He now trusts me and respects me.
As you can see in this clip Milo checks in with me when he is off lead I don't have to call him or whistle him.
All I have to do is stop walking forward and he will come to me every single time as you can see here.
It took me a couple of weeks to teach him this using a 5 meter long line, treats or a ball.
Now, I don't need treats or the ball or any verbal command, just stillness.
If he sees a deer or rabbit I will call him or whistle him and he will come back to me.
I will of course give him treats or his ball occasionally to keep his interest in returning to me.
In just 12 weeks he has the freedom and enjoyment that all dogs need. To get there, there has to be trust, respect and confidence.
The training of it is a very small part of it.
If your dog loves to play games such as fetch there has to be rules to the game. The lovely Staffie cross in this short clip would never give up the ball once thrown.
We added simple rules to the game and now the six year old child can play with his friend. Well done.
Here we have a very high energy dog with his owners. They came to see me because their lovely Weimaraner x Husky x Spaniel didn't have any focus on them when out and about. He would chase after a ball but never give it back. The owner was using a ball chucker to get distance, and yes, the dog would run after it and sometimes would run off if he saw something that interested him more, like another dog. In one session we changed things. No more running off, no more holding on to the ball. The dog is off lead and enjoying the game without the need for a ball chucker. There are rules to the game that the dog understands easily, no words needed, just fun and all achieved in one session.
The owners sent me this clip they day after they worked with me. Amazing dog and happy owners.
In this very short video clip you will see a lovely Giant Mastiff with his owner. They came to see me because the lady had lost her confidence with him because he will pull her towards other dogs. At a massive 100kg, not many people can hold him back. Walks with him were reduced to almost zero because of his actions. What you see here is his owner, after just 30 minutes teaching her how to walk a dog that is reactive and no matter what size of dog. Although she did really well here, there are a couple of errors that I filmed so that the owner can see her slight mistakes. She jerks the lead a few times to get the dogs focus and that is something that I do not teach. You can see an off lead dog coming close to her but the Mastiff does really well and follows his owner and although he looks at the other dog he largely ignores it. This is great work from the dog and owner in a real life situation. No prong collars, no shock collars, and no words except praise and no treats. The dog had a bucket full of treats at the end of the session. We changed this dog's life moving forward and the owners life with her dog too.
I very rarely post any videos of my work on social media. I felt so sorry for this dog and the owners that I felt it necessary. There is never a need to use aversive methods to change behaviours.
This dog has reactivity issues anywhere near other dogs.
I am at least the 5th person (trainer) that has tried to control this dogs behaviour around other dogs.
Local trainers to me have used shock collars, prong collars and violent lead jerking to try and get this dog to not react. Nothing worked in fact the problem got worse.
The dog named Timmy is a female aged 5 from Greece and has been with this family for 3 years.
The family have spent a fortune on so called trainers who either abused her with shock or prong collars, or trainers that had the right attitude and certification but unfortunately not the skill and gave bad advice.
They came to me desperate for help and I am happy to say they got it. The video clip shows the first session after 1hour 15 minutes.
The handler is the mother of the owner who is away on business.
When Timmy turned up she was waring a muzzle, and in the clip she isn't . She also barked at two dogs that were way off in the distance when she came into the field.
We worked on focus training without treats first then added treats later when the focus improved. Her owner said she won't take treats when out.
As you can see in the clip she is now taking treats and the focus is much better. No reaction at all apart from a head turn towards
the other dogs. Even when one of the other dogs barked at her, she ignored the dog and stayed focused on the owner. This is the start of the process in the right way.
This poor dog has suffered in the hands of abusers that call themselves trainers because they don't know how to teach a dog.
She is a lovely dog, she went home happy and calm.
Working Cocker Spaniel in a kennel environment.
Please see previous post.
My goal is to create a real, true, loving relationship with a fellow creature who chooses to do things WITH me as opposed to anything else they could be doing.
The counting method.
With the owner's permission.
In this short clip, you can see how the counting method works.
This lovely Pointer has learnt that counting 1,2,3,4 by his owner is predicting a treat.
I've added the down position to this method also. This is a good way to work the dogs brain without the need of commands.
This can be used for dogs that are anxious, boisterous or dogs that are reactive on the lead and dogs the lack focus on their owner/handler. Each dog is different and may need a different kind training to get the same result.
One instruction "place" = 3 behaviours.
A client sent me this short clip of his amazing 6 month puppy. I worked with the puppy for an hour or so to teach her to 1 go to place. 2 to lay down and 3 to stay by just using "place". This was the next morning after my visit. Well done to the owners and the little pup, she is so sweet.
All animals are trainable 🧡💛
Not my usual client but I was happy to rescue this little piglet from the road. Happy to say I got him to come to me and was able to get him home to his mum.
9 month working Cocker Spaniel taking the job to heart. This is her first home with her new owners. She is a lovely dog and her first ever training session went well. She has found the perfect owners and the perfect home.
