There’s always time for fun with my long tongued Belgian land dragon. There are no words that can convey my love for this dog. She’s truly phenomenal and I’m very lucky to have her in my life 🐾
Another raw walk and talk with the wonderful RonDog (this is not my dog) he’s just got a good trainer 🤷♂️
Lots of lovely exposure during this session, taking advantage of what the world gives us on the day, is what training is all about. Some good nuggets of wisdom here that hopefully some of you can find helpful.
The majority of the industry simply does this for money, of course we all have bills to pay - but my highest value reward is being able to help people with their dogs. There’s truly nothing quite like it. Having been through my own struggles with my own dogs, I know how life changing it can be. Have a great weekend 🙏
An unedited clip of Ronnie’s last socialising session.
I’ve been working with this dog for around 2 months now, doing one hour each week.
The progress that he’s made in such a short peace of time is truly fantastic. And a credit to his owner for keeping on top of things.
Part of the first message I received from his handler was that he was a nightmare on the lead, awful with other dogs and animals - in general a dog with bad manners who was becoming unmanageable. He’s a different dog today, and we will continue to build on these successes.
We have been installing some solid foundations for this dog, giving him a job wherever we go.
Of course we initially started in a very controlled environment, solidifying what we were asking of him.
We wanted to build his engagement with minimal distractions present, to then slowly increasing the amount of distractions in the environment. Teaching the dog that the rewards come from being engaged with us.
This is what you can see here, we really pushed the environmental pressures by walking through a narrow woodland path, with lots going on. Other animals, dog walkers, kids playing in the background - and we were able to yield lovely results.
I’m always aware watching things back, that mistakes are made. For example, under correcting his heel position while trying to talk and film. You’ll also see Ronnie stay say when I expected him to walk with me for one rep. Do bare in mind this is a relatively new behaviour for him, something we only started doing the last time I saw him. But we set it up again, and achieved success. Rome definitely wasn’t built in a day, and this dog won’t be either. Although I’m sure the builders of Rome weren’t trying to film and narrate at the same time! 😂
HOW IT STARTED VS HOW IT ENDED
This is an ex police dog. Who only washed out because he used to be funny with metal stairs! His owner has had him for around a year and within that time, has done of his own accord, some solid work. So this dog is no longer fearful of these surfaces. However, being a well bred dog with high drive, that lack of a job created some frustration which has led to a complete lack of manners on the lead and reactivity toward dogs and an interest in other people.
You can see what walks looked like in the beginning, in a minimum distraction environment. But this environment could have potentially become too overwhelming or overstimulating for the dog, so we headed back to base for some exercises in lead pressure and engagement. The results here speak for themselves. We all of a sudden had a dog checking in with us constantly and looking at us for leadership and reward. You’ll notice this engagement dwindles when we head outside, but the lead manners have improved tenfold. This is in order to show the client why it’s so important we add distractions in very slowly, and solidify the behaviour in a more controlled environment, slowly incrementing things like duration distance and ultimately the distractions.
However being able to cross a road outside and the dog showing far reduced interest in the strangers passing us, was a result in itself.
All of this achieved from a couple of hours of commitment on a weekend. And what a handsome dog 👌
Teaching a reactive dog how to follow us
Frank has issues with reactivity and a complete lack of engagement with his handler. He was very unsure of me when we met. We had to spend some time breaking things down for him initially, but as you can see we were able to achieve what we set out to. While there is plenty of work to do, to achieve this during the assessment is always the goal.
Frank has issues with reactivity and a complete lack of engagement with his handler. He was very unsure of me when we met. We had to spend some time breaking things down for him initially, but as you can see we were able to achieve what we set out to. While there is plenty of work to do, to achieve this during the assessment is always the goal.
‘Why do you have your dogs sat away from you or by separate benches?! What’s the point’ It prepares them for the real world!
I like my dogs company, so I take them most places I go. Just because they can’t go inside, doesn’t mean they can’t come for the ride!
What does control of your dog look like?
Two dogs who are under control vs 2 who really are not, enjoy.
Huge thank you to Bradley and Laura who allowed me to include them in this short video. They spoke to me on their way out of the park while watching me and the dogs train. We got carried away chatting as humans do, but the dogs knew their job. Didn’t move an inch. #WeLoveToSeeIt
No fairytale dog and deer friendships, here.
It’s very important to be able to maintain control of your dog, no matter what enters your environment!
Throwback to one of the best days. Asa working Luna, definitely not the other way around.
Collar from @jtac_k9 - great collars and excellent service
Check from @vonwolfk9ltd - fast deliveries and a huge range of equipment
Hoodie and lead from @unleashedk9store - has absolutely everything you could need for you and your dog and again, great service
What a day 👌
Ronnie the dog - second session after his initial assessment.His handler has clearly been putting the work in - and it shows 💪 Consistency is Key!
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As important as structures walks are - there is always the time to let dogs be dogs 🐕
Something we often forget, in life and when training our mates. WE GET OUT WHAT WE PUT IN!!! Be more fun :)
We always look for distractions to help us bulletproof our sit stays/down stays. (A little muddy for a down, for me personally)
