Rat Pack Dog Services

Hensol Woods: Info in the comments ⬇️

Hensol Woods: Info in the comments ⬇️

Hensol Woods: Info in the comments ⬇️

Hensol Woods: Info in the comments ⬇️

Does your dog have any behaviour hotspots? A behaviour hotspot is a place where your dog has a negative change in their behaviour. This could be your dog suddenly losing it and getting over-excited where you normally throw their ball or a dog getting tense and reactive near a house where a resident dog barks at them. Hotspots can be in your house or out on walks. Being able to identify them will make it much easier to fine tune your training.

Here are some of Max’s Tricks old and new that I like to play around with in the evenings. Trick training is also tonight’s topic for Canine Sporty Club. What to give it a go? You can book your class online! Trick training is a great and accessible thing you can teach your dog that is fun and mentally stimulating. I love using this for reactive dogs and dog who lack confidence. You don’t need any equipment and YouTube has a tonne of free tutorials.

Penarth Beach📍Postcode: CF64 3AU

Meet the cutie patootie pups in the Practical Puppy Course. 😍

I look for something every day that makes me laugh at what goofs my dogs can be. There is great joy to be had, living in the moment of a dog’s joy. They are creatures that really live in the moment ❤️ What’s your dog done today that’s made you laugh?

Archie: …there are pigeons UNDER the floor? 🤯

As humans, I don’t think we often appreciate the sensory overload our dogs experience while out in the world; especially if they are not used to it! I’ve recently been a bit lax with regularly taking Max out to busy public spaces, mostly because I am finding them a bit over whelming myself at the moment. In this short clip just watch how much input Max is processing. ⭐️ Balls being thrown ⭐️ dogs walking in close proximity ⭐️ people walking passed ⭐️ children running about ⭐️ music blaring ⭐️ food smells ⭐️ clattering of fair rides ⭐️ scents of the beach and other dogs ⭐️ barking I could go on… that’s a lot of information to take in and decide what to do with. Dogs who are used to dealing with this are likely to take it in their stride but for a dog who isn’t, situations like this take a lot of brain power to try and make sense of. Be sure to assess how your dog is handling a situation and that you’re not asking too much from them while they are still trying to take it all in.

I’d like to make a special shout out post to Miss Jellybean! This video might not look like much but it is one hell of an improvement! Jelly finds the world a very scary place and Jelly’s mum came to me looking to do Scentwork to help with her confidence. When Jelly started, just a dog barking was enough to shut her down and that would be the end of that. We have worked and experimented with a variety of reinforcers til we found what clicked (it’s getting spanked on the bum, I kid you not). We also tried different odours until Jelly found one that didn’t overwhelm her (chamomile tea). We have since worked in different environments to get her searching and building her resilience to recover from things that scare her. This is still very much an ongoing process that her owners are dedicated to. Today, Jelly worked in a group for nearly an hour, doing 6 searches and, most importantly to me, enjoyed it! We even had a few sudden sounds that spooked her but she recovered from to do one more search. Well done, Jelly-belly ❤️

Archie found a ball on his training walk today, as he was suitably excited about his prize!

Wind direction matters! Luna is one of our newest Super Sniffers and she is currently at the stage of learning to search for her motivatior, food in this case. Today was a very windy day, so I decided to set up a search and have the dogs work one from down wind and one from up wind. When you set your dog up to search, you want to do it down wind, to give your dog the best chance of working up into the scent cone. Working up wind means your dog will struggle to locate odour until they are on top of it or moved past it and then have to work back up. In this video Luna displays some very different body language. The first clip shows her searching from up wind, she's a bit hesitent and has to go past the hide, head snaps once she's caught the odour downwind and works her way back up. The second clip is the downwind search and she in the scent cone from the start of the search and powers straight to it. Always take a minute to assess your environment before starting your search, how can you best set your dog up to go into a search area and locate a hide?

Captured a few spare minutes between clients to work on some heelwork with Max! We all live busy lives that can often clash against things that need to be done, like your dog training homework. I am a big fan of fitting training into the little empty moments of my life where I’d otherwise be doom-scrolling. Most of Max’s training happens in the 5-10 mins spare I have either waiting for the kettle to boil for my evening cuppa, or slotting a few reps in between my clients. Your dog won’t improve without working them, it’s just that simple. So if you’re struggling to find the time, pause and look at where your own empty moments are. Fill them with sexy dog training instead!

Training with Tanni! Today I wanted to work on some more lead walking foundations with Tanni in a more distracting environment. There were quite a few people out with their dogs so a great opportunity to work on her reactivity too. We played a variety of pattern games, which due to their predictability, are great grounding for reactive dogs. Tanni also finds luring super stressful so this game below, takes away the hand luring part of lead walking and also helps her to focus on a destination to aim for. You can see I started out fast to get ahead of Tanni and get her to stop at each bowl for a reward. By the last clip, she had understood the concept and would stop with me before I placed the reward down. It's not very flashy, but it is a great game to play with dogs who like a bit more clarity and due to its simple repetative nature, works great for her choosing to engage with me in a simple way rather than shout at dogs. Good job, Tanni!

Is this good dog play? Or is this just anarchy? Jessie's caught in a three-way, No escape for recovery. Open your eyes, Look at the body language and see...... Right, now I am done serenading you, I want you to have a look at the video below. It is two clips of the Rat Pack playing, slowed down so you can have a good look at what is going on. Does this look like good and balanced canine play? Are all parties having fun or is there something else going on? Comment below with your observations of what you think is happening and what it is you see that drew you to that conclusion.