After a really challenging walk today with Lulu, I am just so desperate for the world to change, just a little bit 🌎 I want more and more people to understand that dogs that are growling, lunging and barking need one thing and one thing only from you (and your dog) - SPACE. Can we create a world where we help and support each other? Instead of rolling your eyes or judging the behaviour you see, try harder to understand it. When dogs demonstrate such big behaviours, they are more often than not afraid 😢 by stopping or just adding a few extra seconds to your own day by standing out of the way or moving back, you could start to change how a frightened dog starts to see the world. You could change the life of an owner who is trying so hard to help their dog to feel safe ❤️ I work with so many people with scared, reactive dogs and whilst we do everything we can to help that dog to cope with this unpredictable world they live in, the answer is not actually in changing all of the worried dogs, trying to make them into something their not but rather educating society on what they can do to make a difference. Resulting in more and more owners not giving up on their dogs, resulting in more worried and nervous dogs finding homes and creating a society where we take others into account and help them where we can. Please share this if you can, there are so many dogs like Lulu that never find that person who will fight to keep them safe in a world that doesn’t understand them 💔#dogreactivity #dog #collie #lurcher #dogbarking #positivereinforcement #rplus #misunderstood #rescuedogsofinstagram #rescuedog
A first for me yesterday helping Dexter the Cockapoo feel happy about riding in the bike buggy. Dexter has recently had surgery and is still on limited exercise but his active owners still want to bring him along on adventures if they can. Dexter had mixed views on the buggy before I arrived and would howl lots when it was moving. We started off really slowly and at a point Dexter was comfortable. His owners have done a good job initially with building a positive association with the buggy and we built on this. In the whole session Dexter didn’t bark or howl once and actually found the buggy quite enjoyable, especially when we paired it with the things he loves - food! 🐶 Very impressed with him and looking forward to our next session where we will help him to get feel just as positively about his owners’ boat 😁#cockapoo #adventuredog #doginbiketrailer #bikebuggy #positivedogtraining #positivereinforcement
Anyone who has followed my page in the early days will recognise this boy! I fostered Dobby from the RSPCA when he was 8 weeks old. As you can see he has grown a lot since then and is still only just coming up to 11 months old😱I had the pleasure of looking after him today whilst his owners were away for the day. He helped me with some unexpected jobs that came up at the field as well as practiced some of his scentwork skills when I was finished which he did great with 🐕 #fosterpuppy #doggrownup #malinois #dobby #positivedogtraining #dog #scentwork
Libby the horse often wants to join in with the dog training classes. This week she broke through the fence to the left that dared to contain her so that she could get a closer look at the action! I normally purposely keep the horses further away as not all dogs are used to them but Libby wasn’t having that 😂 we used this as a great opportunity to work through the unplanned distraction and the dogs did great! One of them is actually reactive to horses but Libby provided an opportunity to practice desensitising them through scentwork. The progress these three dogs have made is incredible 🤩 testament to their wonderful owners!
#scentwork #scentworktraining #horsedistraction #horse #positivedogtraining #ryanreynolds #scentdetection #vizsla #spanishwaterdog #gsp
Had a good laugh in our Sunday puppy session working on recalling off of a distraction - specifically prey! All of the owners and their puppies did a great job and the little sheep on the car survived another day 😂 🐑 for some of them their prey drive wasn’t triggered but they were certainly curious of the distractions! Still a great opportunity for the owners to practice successful recalling and giving their puppy rewards for doing so. We worked on using play with a toy as a good outlet for recalling off of an item that triggered their prey drive… when recall is always followed with something great, it will become far more reliable in the future and your dog will happily leave the distraction to return to you! I don’t ever encourage anyone to have their dog off lead around sheep but it is still useful to be able to call our dogs away from them on a longline without having to pull or yell. Just a gentle cue followed by something great for the dog! 🐕 practicing around distractions makes the world of difference for when we are presented with it occurring in real life, it’s just as much an opportunity for the owners to practice a calm and collected recall which they can hopefully replicate, even in a potentially stressful situation as our dogs will be expecting a positive outcome from returning to their owners 😃#recall #sheep #fakesheep #dogpreydrive #recalltraining #positivedogtraining #positivereinforcement
I hope you are all keeping nice and cool in this lovely, warm weather ☀️ Marty loves nothing more than paddling in water, the horses water bucket is his main victim and this is a daily occurrence 😂 for those that have seen it, now you know who is responsible for the nibble marks around the edge! #dogloveswater #dogtraining #hotdayrelief #sunshine
Pippin has been victim to a number of off-lead attacks from other dogs and he has developed reactivity as a result. Pippin actually has no desire to interact with any dog and we are helping him to learn to feel more relaxed when other dogs are around. As with many owners, Pippins reactivity would make his owner nervous and Pippin would pick up on this tension immediately 🐕 we’ve worked really hard in a controlled setting to help Pippin and his owner to relax 🧘♀️ Pippins reactivity has occurred for a while now and there are still moments where he will lunge towards the dog, an ingrained habit but he is quickly able to disengage by himself. Following this session Pippins owner reported that he was able to walk past other dogs without any lunging or barking at all. Still very early days but a huge improvement already! Reactivity training takes time and reactions WILL still happen, it just takes time to help our dogs to feel safe. We as owners just have to brush it off and see how we can make it easier for our dogs next time. All of this training has been using positive reinforcement to teach Pippins how to engage with his owner or focus on something else 😊#dogreactivity #dogreactivitytraining #positivereinforcement #cockerspaniel
When our dogs struggle to ignore certain things out on walks such as people, other dogs, children, whatever! We can help guide them by teaching these three cues. Once these cues are well established, you’ll often find your dog will choose to offer these behaviours rather than focus on their triggers.
“What’s this?” - used to get our dog to look at us. Once we have our dog’s attention, we can help guide them if needed. Great to practice randomly on walks, even when nothing is around. Not only does it help make the behaviour a strong, reliable one, it is a great way to reward our dogs for engaging with us and strengthens our relationship with them.
“Close” - used to help keep our dogs walking nicely by our side for short periods. This helps young dogs to learn that it is far more rewarding to walk alongside us rather than jump up on a passing person or go nose to nose with an unknown dog. As soon as our dog has offered us this for a short period, we can then allow them to go off and sniff to their hearts content. An entire walk by your side is not realistic or fair to our dogs, they will find it far more enjoyable to focus for short periods of time and enjoy the rest of their walk doing dog things 🐕
“Let’s Go” - ideal for dogs that show reactivity behaviours, when you come face to face with another dog on a narrow country lane, you can do a quick change of direction and find an area with more space. The more you practice this, you can rely less on having to pull your dog away from a trigger and rather have a dog follow you willingly because they understand the cue and know a reward will be given.
The aim of these behaviours is to help guide our dogs when they need it. Our goal is to always aim for our dogs to feel emotionally balanced and able to eventually make these choices themselves without needing our help. These behaviours soon become so rewarding that our dogs will offer engagement without being asked. Helping them through challen
Engagement on Walks
When our dogs struggle to ignore certain things out on walks such as people, other dogs, children, whatever! We can help guide them by teaching these three cues. Once these cues are well established, you’ll often find your dog will choose to offer these behaviours rather than focus on their triggers.
“What’s this?” - used to get our dog to look at us. Once we have our dog’s attention, we can help guide them if needed. Great to practice randomly on walks, even when nothing is around. Not only does it help make the behaviour a strong, reliable one, it is a great way to reward our dogs for engaging with us and strengthens our relationship with them.
“Close” - used to help keep our dogs walking nicely by our side for short periods. This helps young dogs to learn that it is far more rewarding to walk alongside us rather than jump up on a passing person or go nose to nose with an unknown dog. As soon as our dog has offered us this for a short period, we can then allow them to go off and sniff to their hearts content. An entire walk by your side is not realistic or fair to our dogs, they will find it far more enjoyable to focus for short periods of time and enjoy the rest of their walk doing dog things 🐕
“Let’s Go” - ideal for dogs that show reactivity behaviours, when you come face to face with another dog on a narrow country lane, you can do a quick change of direction and find an area with more space. The more you practice this, you can rely less on having to pull your dog away from a trigger and rather have a dog follow you willingly because they understand the cue and know a reward will be given.
The aim of these behaviours is to help guide our dogs when they need it. Our goal is to always aim for our dogs to feel emotionally balanced and able to eventually make these choices themselves without needing our help. These behaviours soon become so rewarding that our dogs will offer engagement without being asked. Helping them through challen
The “I do love my horses” chant that I usually self soothe with in Winter has come out in July 😳 anyone else sick of the rain?☔️ of course you are 🤣 horse ownership is not for everyone that is for sure 😅 time to head home to see if these shorts actually come off or if they’ve shrunk and become one with my legs 😱 #rain #horsesintherain #horseownership
LOVED our scentwork session this evening despite the rain! ☔️ first session for the dogs outside and the added rain makes scent detection even more challenging. All of the dogs did fantastic and they were undeterred by the weather! 🌦️ special mention to Seve the Spanish Waterdog, his first session with us and first time searching for Kong and he and his owner were doing blind searches at the end like the others! 😱 such a great team of dogs and handlers! Well done everyone and hope you’ve all dried off now 😂 #scentwork #scentdetection #scentdog #gsp #viszla #spanishwaterdog #dogtrainingintherain
Whilst everyone else is watching football I am embracing a usually busy walking field being quiet with my dog reactive dog 🐕 enjoying a bit of freedom in a public space! To be honest I behave like this with her whether there are other people & dogs there or not 😂 she feeds off of my emotional state so happiness it is 😆 don’t care too much about what other people think, enjoy your time with your dog 🐶 #reactivedog #peaceandquiet #dogtraining #positivedogtraining #dogowner
I often meet owners at a variety of locations to support with their dogs behaviour and training progress. Accompanying dogs and their owners on walks means I can give lots of tips and advice on how to deal with real life situations in the moment. 🥳I met Will and Eva at Colwyn Bay beach today, always busy on a Saturday of course and the busiest beach she’s been to so far. We took a stroll on the beach so that Eva could get acquainted with all the dogs and people around. She could sniff and explore whilst also getting rewarded for checking in. We then went on the prom where there were lots of people and dogs to weave in and out of! 😅 Will was able to ask Eva for short periods of focus when passing dogs or people and once clear she could go and sniff and explore again 🤩 this provided Eva a great opportunity to be rewarded for very known behaviours such as walking ‘close’ and she offered this behaviour lots all on her own despite the busy distracting environment! 🏖️ great work today 😁Eva is still so young but you wouldn’t think it watching this! #dogbeach #positivedogtraining #positivereinforcementworks #gsp
I challenged Eva and Laura this week to attempting their first blind search. I hid several magnetic tins around the entire hall but only one had pieces of kong inside. Neither Laura or Eva knew where they were so they had to use their new skills to find it 😬 they were fantastic, Eva knew exactly which Tina were empty and gave a lovely, clear indication when she found it. I was really mean and placed it high up for extra difficulty 😎😅 love watching this team go! It took less than 2 minutes for Eva to find! #dogscentwork #scentdetectiondog #gsp #dogtraining
Positive mounted archery gone wrong 😱 an unfortunate mistake but both of us were fine and I’m sure it won’t be the last! I did fall off but landed on my feet which is much easier to do apparently if your crouched on their back like a jockey 😂 I know what I need to do to avoid again - invest in a new quiver that will stay put! You can’t hear in the video but I apologise to her just before she bolts 🥹 she is definitely much more resilient than she was and I love doing these weird and wonderful things with her. I just need to be less clumsy! Positive reinforcement training has made a huge difference to our relationship and what sort of things we can bounce back from. I wasn’t sure if she would opt into me getting on again after that but she was happy to line herself up for me to do so which is her go ahead cue to me. As always, do not try attempt to do this with your horse unless being overseen by a professional, preferably one with better archery skills 🤣
#horsebackarchery #positivehorsetraining #positivereinforcementforhorses #clickertraininghorses #fallingoffhorse #horsebolting
I really think this song is what goes through Marty’s head daily 😂 I LOVE how much spirit this dog has and his love for life is so contagious 🤩 embrace your dogs wild, cheeky sides! That’s what makes them so great to be around 😅 believe it or not, he has actually calmed down over time 😂 I like this song because we actually shouldn’t think about stopping our dogs from doing wild things but rather give them appropriate outlets for their very normal dog behaviours 😃🐕 #collie #energeticdog #thinkyoucanstopwhatwedo #dog #dogtraining
Scentwork outdoors
I was so JEALOUS of the wonderful dogs and handlers in the scentwork class this evening that as soon as I got home I had a go outside with Marty. I hid the first kong piece before I even went into the house to get him! Still need a stronger indication from him (and help him resist the urge to lick the kong!) but he was incredible 🤩 having so much fun getting into this sport !
#scentwork #scentworktraining #scentworkuk #scentdetection #scentdetectiontraining #positivedogtraining #welshcollie #dog
LOVED our scentwork session today 🤩 both dogs did so well and are clearly showing a real enthusiasm to find the pieces of red kong - too much enthusiasm at times 😂😂 both dogs are working separately on building up longer and clearer indications but it was so great to see them so focused on finding the scent in these various items 😃 #scentwork #scentdetection #scentdetectiontraining #scentdetectiondog #germanshorthairedpointer #viszla
The very first thing I teach every dog and owner partnership for every class I do is about being able to settle on a mat in a public space. If our dogs can’t have any opportunity to relax they’ll never be in a frame of mind to learn anything. This class takes settling to the extreme 😂 I absolutely love it! I often feel bad getting each dog to get up and do the weeks exercise as they’re all so chilled 😅 #settletraining #dogtraining #positivereinforcementtraining #rewardingcalm
Great session this morning in our puppy class. 🐶We worked on teaching our puppies that they don’t need to rush up to every dog they see to say hello and that actually, staying calm and focused when approached with another dog is really rewarding! The owners were able to practice chatting to the other dog owner and deciding whether that “unfamiliar” dog would be suitable for their dog to interact with 😊 after all, we want our dogs to have positive experiences with other dogs as much as possible and we need to find out what we can about potential friends for our dogs are going to be like? Are they ‘grumpy’ 🚩 are they elderly or potentially in pain 🚩 are they a ‘bit much’ 🚩 and is our puppy going to be suitable to play with them? Being more picky with who our young, susceptible puppies interact with is important 😊We also went over what on lead interactions can be like for dogs and how that when they are on their normal walking leads, play with dogs is unlikely to happen and our puppies will learn that staying calm and focused is the goal on their leads instead 😃 playtime is best on a longline or eventually off lead 🙌🏻 Well done today! 🤩#puppytraining #puppyclass #dogtraining #postivedogtraining
