Amora Dog Training

24/11/2024

22/11/2024

Hows this cold 🥶 snap affected your dog?

Dogs see in Scent

Annie has never done so much sniffing in the last 24 hours!

It’s SO lovely to see!

Did you know just how much the weather affects Scent?

Understanding air movement and air pressure….

Areas of high pressure are created where molecules in the air are more tightly packed together; areas of low pressure are where the particles are spaced further apart. In an attempt to balance this out, particles move from one air pressure to the other.

This creates movement in the air that we might feel as wind or a draft.

Differences in air pressures are the reasons that weather systems exist, it’s what keeps planes in the air, and it's why when you’re out driving and a big lorry goes past you, you feel that you're pulled towards the lorry immediately after you’ve gone past it.

Temperature affects air movement. When particles in the air get warmer, they gain energy, meaning they are able to travel faster and further apart from each other.

The less-dense warm air floats upwards. If you’ve ever been in a sauna, you’ll have experienced this first-hand.

If someone pours ladles of water on the hot rocks. It gets a bit too warm for you, so you stand up to walk out only to be hit in the face with scalding hot air at the top of the room.

Hot air rises, you probably know this already!….

Oh how I miss summer days already 😉

As warm air rises scent particles are carried upward.

Differences in air pressure create air movement, warmer air rises and you guessed it

cooler air sinks….have you noticed more noses to ground too?

Other things to bear in mind are how winds affect scents too…!

Scent work is much like dogs having access to social media….be patient please let them catch up with the news!

22/11/2024

Its always so hard (and a little ‘inappropriate’) to film and try at the same time to support when they are having a rough time, emotionally. My priority will always be to support. This tractor 🚜 wasn’t here when we initially walked this way, but then was here on the way back today. Rude….Annie was understandably a little upset by its presence, and dogs generally bark to add distance or at things they just don’t understand. We have worked ALOT together at naming things…eg Tractor 🚜 and also choose to disengage with support (with a whats this cue) which is now quickly followed by Annies understanding that thats what pays, so ‘choosing’ now to do that herself. This helps to regulate her much quicker. If this was ‘problematic’ I would work at creating distance, however this distance is fine…I have also worked hard at a cue of ‘its none of our business’ and to keep moving. I added in the STOP and come at the end NOT to be ‘flashy’ but to sense check that Annie was emotionally okay, and had an ability after the shake off to use her ‘thinking’ part of her brain, rather than her emotional part of her brain 🧠 She has come a LONG way, and she helps me understand dogs better every day, as we tweak, adapt but always keep trying, always staying in the game…always showing up. Every day is a school day for me and for her ❤️😉

22/11/2024

Shall I go further without Mum? You can see the cogs turning….I am praying she doesn’t. But do know I have toys, treats, whistle, the training of the foundations and I am also an ‘environmental engineer’!

22/11/2024

This week in Puppy School we discussed all things recall ❤️😉
This week in Scent Class we looked at changing some pieces of kit, increasing the height of the hides and discussed next taking their homework 📚 outside with distractions…
Recall depends on so many factors
But lets face it
If you unclip them
Without training
Without any toys, food or engagement
What will happen?
Self employment for one! 😉😜🤷‍♀️
Puppies get to say hello by week 5 or 6 inside the hall…with supervision
It helps for all of us to chat pros and cons
Verbal (barking frustration behaviour)
Or fear…
And non verbal body language signals
It also helps to discuss breeds, sizes and leads…!

22/11/2024

Happiest of Fridays to you all! 🧡

In the comments, add your best tuggy face photo! 📸👇

21/11/2024

How nice is this? ❤️

What exceptional Customer Service?!

This was a client giveaway and the WINNER has x 2 dogs!

This will mean they will both get one, thanks to Denzel's

hashtag proud to work with such professionals
hashtag proud to give back to my clients
hashtag love it when companies look after loyalty and deliver ❤️
hashtag grateful

Amora Client Community Emma see you tomorrow 😉❤️

21/11/2024

Puppy - ‘’For a split second I thought you said some people don’t allow their pups on the sofa Auntie Jilly 😱🐾❤️😉’’

I did little one!

And for some thats okay….

This cute puppy has the best of everything
During our session worked on:

❤️ Middle (and when this may be helpful!)
❤️ Loose lead techniques (always useful!)
❤️ Touch (and when this may be useful!)
❤️ Paws up (by invitation!)
❤️ How distance is often your friend to avoid mistakes with things that puppy finds exciting, like humans that just feed them treats without permission out on a walk! 😭 inadvertently reinforcing running up to humans!

Their human had one of the best understandings of how dogs learn in a long time, they have read lots

Was exceptional with the process of cue, mark and reinforce. With food or toys…

Didn’t over fuss their puppies head 😉🤷‍♀️ during training

Control & Management so that puppy succeeded often and whilst their training is taking place.

I left them having a tired 😴 puppy snuggle with permission to over fuss their head 😉❤️

Up on the sofa 🛋️

Human and puppy worked REALLY hard 🐾🐶

21/11/2024

This 🙌❤️🐾 Annie has come a long way since introducing her to LOTS of well mannered social dogs to help show her the way…..
I am forever grateful for fantastic clients, friends and family ❤️

I love seeing tiny dogs enjoying the company of large dogs! 🥰

Murphy enjoyed a social walk with Amigo yesterday as part of his dog-dog reactivity behaviour mod and training package.

A confident and calm dog can promote an increase in confidence in fearful dogs- safety in numbers!

The supporting dog can also act as a social preview or barrier to other dogs. This allowed Murphy to have a handful of close encounters with passing dogs without reacting 🤘

19/11/2024

Update your snow ❄️ photos!
Its the first time some puppies have ever seen it!
Are they Excited 😜 or Nervous 😬

18/11/2024

Living in the Dales, You have to choose your training priorities, Ours has been sheep 🐑 From day one Thank goodness! We have used desensitisation and counter conditioning….Moving to habituation, its just life 😉 and the 3ds……always mindful that also I would never purposefully walk in a field with livestock. I have done it successfully because of this training but I would never just do it, just because….and I would never have an off lead dog in with livestock, its not fair on anyone, and unnecessary really 😉🐾🐑🤷‍♀️

18/11/2024

Appropriate alternative to a retractable lead ❤️🐾. https://churchproductsuk.co.uk/collections/police-style-dog-training-leads/products/police-style-dog-training-lead-double-ended-multi-functional-25mm-soft-air-webbing?variant=39555309404247

18/11/2024

Completely agree
Whats your thoughts?
Not all dogs like all dogs
Not all humans like all humans
Having no interaction
Being trained to ignore other same species can be detrimental (in my opinion)
We need to support them to make good choices
Depending on the environment, their health, their size and breed and some dogs won’t be safe
But its simply not realistic to expect them to ignore other dogs, whilst also being ‘trapped’ on a lead…
We discuss this alot at Puppy School
We have small classes (4 or max 5 depending on size and breed) for this reason
❤️🐾

The “Neutral” Dog

On just about every post concerning puppy socialisation these days, you will find comments or advice such as, “remember that socialisation means teaching your dog to be neutral about people and dogs – it doesn’t mean encouraging them to interact.”

These comments have started to really bother me, as I don’t think they reflect the reality of how living creatures respond to the world around them and set impossible requirements for dogs, especially for young puppies. I sometimes wonder if people making these comments understand anything about the mammalian brain or what the word neutral even means.

Just like us, dogs are emotionally driven creatures. They respond to the environment around them according to how they feel and how things in the environment make them feel. Feeling is the essence of what it means to be alive and conscious. It is the difference between an animal and a robot.

The term “neutral” means feeling neither positive nor negative about something. It implies feeling nothing. I would ask you to try and think of things in your life that you feel absolutely nothing about. Can you think of any? How many situations in our lives evoke zero emotional response, where we feel absolutely nothing about the environment we are in or about the people we are around? Maybe routine things like eating breakfast or cleaning our teeth in the morning don’t make us feel much on the surface, but if you scratch a little deeper, for most of us eating always involves some small level of pleasurable anticipation and hygiene chores can feel like drudgery or even an annoyance when we may be in a hurry. Driving to work we may feel pleasure listening to a radio station or music, but we may also feel frustration anticipating traffic or anxiety about being late for work. Arriving at work there may be people that we enjoy seeing and who make us feel cheerful and motivated and there may others who make us feel uncomfortable or slightly stressed. Our emotions are likely to fluctuate with every situation – not always extremely – but just little ebbs and flows of feelings throughout the day.

We are seldom, if ever, completely neutral and I believe that it is the same for our dogs. The idea of expecting dogs to ignore people, dogs and situations because they should not have any feelings about them, seems quite ridiculous to me. Dogs are sentient, complex emotional beings – they are not robots. They are going to feel something in all situations and that something is going to tend towards consisting of either positive emotions or negative ones, depending on their predisposition and life experiences.

So, what about habituation? Does that not mean learning that something has no meaning and so ignoring it? Yes, it does – however, this usually refers to learning to ignore simple stimuli in the environment as inconsequential rather than having no feelings about social situations and other living beings. For example, while I am writing this, there are insects creating a constant high-pitched hum in the garden outside on this hot summer day. However, I only become conscious of them, when I stop typing for a second and take a moment to reconnect to my surroundings. I can also hear the distant hum of the sea, but all these sounds are so familiar and constant that my brain habituates to them and almost blocks them out. This is a vastly different situation in comparison to me deciding to go for a walk down to the beach and passing various neighbours or their dogs – while I may be quite used to encountering other people or dogs on walks, having my brain tune them out completely would be completely bizarre and rather inappropriate.

Yet that seems to be exactly what people advocate for and expect from dogs these days. Dogs must be “neutral” and dogs that actually have feelings about other living beings and any desire to engage or interact are “rude” and poorly trained. Of course, dogs cannot always go up and engage with other people and dogs and we do absolutely need to be able to teach them how to cope when it is best to disengage or stay away – but never allowing them to engage at all in the first place as puppies or to have any positive interactions is not going to create a “neutral” dog. It is in fact more likely to create a frustrated or anxious dog that has no idea how to respond if they are approached and engaged with - something that will happen at some point if you live in the real world.

The socialisation period is a time of high social attraction in dogs – they are drawn to interact with others, because by interacting they learn social skills and communication. They also learn associations and whether other people and dogs are safe or unsafe. Puppies may be drawn to want to go up to everyone and everything, but contrary to popular opinion, this does not mean that they will have the same desire to do so as adults, if you allow them to engage and enjoy interactions with other dogs and people as puppies. Again, of course every dog is different and some dogs may remain more social throughout their lives as adults and require a bit more management and training in how to cope when they cannot interact, but for most, the high level of social attraction that makes them want to run to everyone wanes as they mature and they naturally become more reserved.

It really concerns me that people are being encouraged to expect puppies to keep to themselves and never interact with people or dogs when out and about. The idea of a puppy enjoying themselves playing with friends or learning that other people can be friendly, fun and pleasant to be around has become a terrible thing to be avoided at all costs. Heaven forbid that a dog actually develops a liking for other people or dogs and enjoys their company – don’t you know that this leads to all manner of “bad” behaviour and that a “neutral” dog with no feelings towards other dogs and people is a good dog?

Of course, there is a balance to strike. Of course, we can’t allow our dogs to run up to everyone and everything all the time. Of course, we need to protect them from bad experiences by choosing who is appropriate and isn’t appropriate to meet and greet and of course we need to teach them to handle not being able to engage or approach with minimum frustration or disappointment – but these are training issues which we can work on throughout our dogs’ lives and not an excuse to skip socialisation altogether.

At the end of the day, I would rather have a dog that was a little too friendly, than a dog that was uncomfortable in social situations due to lack of positive experiences. A dog that is uncertain is far more likely to become defensive than a dog who has positive feelings. Regardless of what we aim for though, our dogs will have all sorts of emotions, some positive and some negative – just like us. That is what it means to be alive. It is our job to understand and help them, not to try and isolate them into becoming robots.

17/11/2024

❤️ Middle….watching…waiting ❤️For her carriage to arriveMargates Queen Annibell (thats what it says on her KC papers she came with 😉❤️)