GoodK9 - Dog Training

GoodK9 - Dog Training One to one dog training in Eastbourne and the surrounding areas. Day training. I provide 1-2-1 training with you and your dog.
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My name is Peter Cassidy, I live in Eastbourne, East Sussex I am a relationship based dog trainer and a member of the IACP (International Association of Canine Professionals). If your dog is pulling on its lead or lunging and barking at others dogs, bikes, children, I can help resolve this. I provide a balanced approach towards dog training, rewarding and encouraging "good" behaviour in your dog b

ut also addressing the "bad" behaviours that are ruining your relationship. Dog ownership should be a rewarding experience for both you and your dog, I can help you achieve this through balanced training.

Beautiful day on the South Downs
27/07/2024

Beautiful day on the South Downs



13/07/2024

Folks have a tendency to conflate ideologies and equipment. I frequently get inquiries from people who have never trained a dog and want to know what 'methods' I use.

I use methods that work. Are they 'humane'? Certainly. Are they 'positive'? I'd like to think so.

The goal, I think, should be to get the issue resolved, in an efficient manner, yielding reproducible results, in a way that is mutually beneficial to the dog and to the end-user.

Trainers usually don't start out with combative training. If they do, they aren't what I'd consider to be very good trainers. That's not a tool issue or even a method issue. That's just a common sense issue.

The only tool I rely on is the grey mush between my ears since every dog is different, and each one requires a nuance of application that can only be achieved through knowledge and experience.

One size does not fit all.

I use a thorough outline that renders results on many different personalities, ages, breeds, and behaviors. I follow this formula because I handle many dogs, and I have found that having a plan reaps far more predictable results than approaching things haphazardly.

The tools I use may vary, depending on the dog at my feet, the goals for training, and who that dog will be going home to.

The tools someone in another discipline would use, are being used for the same reasons I would not, with a pet dog. Performance dog trainers want to increase a specific response to stimuli that the companion animal trainer wants to suppress.

Allowing a dog the latitude to pull into defense and prey are two primary things pet owners are trying to stop, not exploit. Demonstrating how it develops is easy. Explaining to a pet dog owner how and why it's happening in ways that can translate into a resolution is where the talent lies.

It's no great revelation that the methodology used within any discipline has more similarities than differences to another. It's the *goal* that matters. None of this was created out of whole cloth, nor was it 'discovered' recently. It has been a facet of how dogs learn for many many years.

There really is nothing new under the sun, only new to folks that are seeing something for the first time.

It all starts with selection, but that is a conversation I have initiated more than once, here. If a person acquires a dog of a certain breed, there can be a reasonable expectation that some of those behaviors are genetic, and are specific to the breed.

Livestock guarding dogs guard. That is their purpose. The best you can expect from one as a companion is indifference, and a high probability of defensive behavior behind barriers, within homes, on properties, etc., because it is by design.

I don't care how far removed from a performance breeding program that individual is, or lack of suitability for work on a 6 thousand acre spread in Montana, there is still vestigial behavior, and it will manifest in that suburban home, on those suburban streets, behind those suburban picket fences.

Same with any of the guardian breeds.

Herding breeds herd. There are associated behaviors that accompany those genetics. Same with retrievers. Terriers dig. Nordic breeds howl and do other stuff that are diametrically opposed to peaceful existence as a companion animal.

So before you asks "what methodology do you use", maybe consider the type of dog you own, and what the problems you are experiencing are.

The first choice an owner must 'own', is whether the dog they chose to be their companion is suitable as such?

24/06/2024

I feel bad for folks who think that training a dog is something you do *to* a dog as opposed to something you do *with* a dog.

A puppy shouldn't be handled the same way as an adult, yet many puppies have already developed some behavioral variances due to environment, genetics, etc. We still need to consider that animal's age and experiences. Too much too fast, and we compound matters. Not enough, and the behavior gets worse, quickly.

Adult dogs coming for training have learning deficits that need to be considered carefully when approaching training. They have already established a lifetime of learning.

Convincing them to change their minds takes a little more provocation than a youngster.

Although I have declared many times that good dog training looks the same, the dog itself is the divining factor in determining at what speed one goes about it.

My training is fairly formulaic. We move through a series of exercises that temper the dog’s ability to control its emotions and actions in a very specific way, building one skill at a time.

The biggest issue, however, is helping the owners master emotional neutrality, which would allow them to achieve the same results. Humans believe that dogs deliberately try our patience.

It requires that they actually *know* what we want in order to defy us. The majority of the time, the dog simply doesn’t understand.

By the time I see an adult dog, there’s always a behavioral history. The frustration the owner feels about the dog’s behavior influences their handling of the dog, so we spend a lot more time ‘undoing’ old handling problems before actually creating new skills.

Dogs are bright. Dogs are also not going to lead with violence unless they have been conditioned to believe that defense is necessary. Humans create that. They start their work with a mindset of resistance, and their bodies read like it. They become stiff and wooden in their movements.

Unnatural.

To a dog, those are warning signals.

Defense is the act of self-preservation. Folks are surprised once they realize they are the catalyst for almost 100% of their dogs' behavior.

Once the human learns to turn off their frustration, anger, fear, etc., their hands get calmer, and their actions become much more deliberate. We become much more ‘readable’ to the dog.

The dog prefers that. Now we can make more sense to it.

You can not punish fear. You can only redirect it. You can not really punish aggression. Not in the context that people imagine when they see the word ‘punishment’, anyway.

I resolve it by not addressing it.

I resolve it by not creating it.

What the dog learns is that certain behaviors, fear, aggressive acts, etc., are not good strategies. Over time, the dog learns not to choose those as options.

Those behaviors will always remain options, but if the dog learns better coping strategies, their previous responses become far less desirable. The juice ceases to be worth the squeeze.

It does require that one non-renewable resource of time. There is no magic bullet that will get you there any faster except time and mindful practice.

That ecollar may help you with communication, but it’s not changing the dog’s mind about its emotional state. The opportunity to practice the new behavior isn’t something one can compel. Learning must be given the room and the opportunity for the dog to discover it on its own. Nothing we to to compel that learning will make it happen any faster.

Time, quiet handling, emotional neutrality, and gentle persistence are what gets you there. It may not be quickly, but the results will be permanent.

The two components folks overlook when it comes to dog training, which remain the two most critical factors, will always be time and practice.

Unfortunately, in the era of instant gratification, somehow dog training got shoved into the same fantasy as getting rich quick, or losing weight fast.

The absolute nonsense people are fed about dog training makes it difficult to navigate the landscape of idiocy, and it’s easy to see why folks get a little lost or frustrated and just give up.

The mysticism that surrounds dog training is yet another hurdle folks can't seem to overcome, especially since multiple philosophical armies carpet an imaginary battlefield about which 'way' is the moral high ground, while the shadow of plain old common sense is always struggling to make an appearance.

Training is the gift we give our dogs. We owe it to them to provide it in a way that makes the most sense to the dog itself.

Sundown on the South Downs
24/11/2023

Sundown on the South Downs





20/11/2023

You honor your dog when you train it.

You honor your relationship to that dog when you take the time to help it understand your language, and you honor your dog when you take the time to understand his language.

Because both of us have things to say.

I miss the days when training a dog meant something important; that an owner took the time to nurture a mutually beneficial relationship with a non-human animal in simple ways. Where the quiet companionship of a well trained dog in the field, in the home, on the road was commonplace. Expected, even.

Dogs are a part of our lives. They aren't an accoutrement to signal a lifestyle, they are a reflection of who we are.

They become comfort. Like a well-used garden glove, complete with imprints of the tiny holes from puppy teeth, or the most comfortable seat in the house enhanced by the variety of hairs deposited by the many 4 footed users that scatter when you approach, only to wait the invitation to return and somehow meld into the same space that now includes you.

I can't imagine a life without a dog, and I can't remember the last time I was without some quiet shadow slipstreaming behind me as I left the house to do some mundane thing outside of it, or the bumbling enthusiasm of a youngster wishing to forge ahead but mustering some self-restraint because they just knew the fun was coming… only if they mind their manners...

Dogs lived alongside humans who valued them for their contributions and willingness to share their fate. I make sacrifices for my dogs because they make sacrifices for me.

They could chase game. They could raid trash. They could be miserable, pushy houseguests. But they're not.

Because I took the time to train them.

Even when it's cold. Even when it's raining or snowing or windy or all of the above.

Eventually the work will be less of a chore. Eventually, I will be able to settle in my favorite chair and some old slipper of a dog will eye my lap and request an engraved invitation to sit with me.

And I'll grant it.

20/10/2023

There is nothing harder to overcome in a dog than a poisoned recall cue.

You know the one- you call the dog to come to you, the dog refuses or dances around, and you get frustrated and angry and start bellowing at the dog to come to you.

The dog learns over time that your recall command means you are mad and to keep away from you.

Owners don't intend to poison the cue, but 100% of every dog that comes to us for remediation has learned that the recall command is something to be suspicious of.

So here's a handful of rules for teaching your dog a reliable recall:

1) Never give your dog a command that you cannot enforce. Your dog cannot refuse if it's wearing a leash and collar, and you happen to be holding the leash.

2) ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS positively reinforce honest effort. If your dog comes to you, praise the dog SINCERELY and offer something of value in return for that effort.

3) Don't run your dog down if it refuses or is reluctant to come to you. You did that, not the dog. You breached a sacred trust, and you have to earn it back. It starts by not chasing the dog because you planned poorly and are now frustrated and angry.

4) 100% of recalls should be positively reinforced.

5) The recall should be the behavior you practice the most, with the greatest ROI for the dog. If every time you call your dog, you are locking him up, leaving him or any other activity the dog finds de-motivating, you are diminishing the value of the recall.

6) NEVER NEVER NEVER punish your dog for coming to you. I don't care what the dog did before that, but if you're not adhering to the short list of things above, that's a YOU problem, not a dog problem.

Think about it. When you were a kid and you heard your mom shout your first, middle, and last name, you knew you were in for it.

You didn't want to come to that, why do you think your dog would?

20/10/2023

We talk in terms of reinforcement and punishment all the time. We understand the concepts behind adding something to make something happen (or stop happening) or taking something away to make something happen (or stop happening).

All of this is the basic rudiments of the Skinner 4 quadrants of learning theory.

The one thing that many owners and even trainers overlook is the power of self-reinforcement, or self-correction. Everybody thinks that *they* must be the harbinger of that effect to impact the behavior of the dog they are working with.

Well, they don’t.

I’ll even go as far as to say that dogs actually learn faster if they make these discoveries on their own.

We all know the dog that gets its panties in a twist when the owner breaks out the jogging shoes and the leash. Through the power of predictability, the dog has learned that certain things, in a certain order of appearance, can only mean the dog and its owner are getting ready to leave the house.

These ritualized predictors are powerful signals to a dog and can be exploited in a variety of ways. They are usually so well-developed before the owner recognizes the issue, that they become incredibly difficult to extinguish.

As my friend and fellow trainer Nate Czarnota of Baltimore DogWorks has said a time or two, “Give me at least half the time it took for the dog to develop the behavior, in order to fix it.”

He’s not wrong. Moreover, regardless of what direction of the emotional spectrum the dog aligns the presence of that predictor to, it will impact the strength of the dog's reaction to its presence.

A fearful dog will seek opportunities to escape. A bold dog will seek opportunities to investigate.

We see it attached to all types of behaviors.

I currently have clients with dogs that become inconsolable in the presence of their owners’ car, toys of a specific color, several other triggers that each dog has been conditioned to recognize as a predictor to a specific form of reinforcement, simply because the presence of those predictors in a specific sequence of appearance have indicated that object, activity or other event is inevitable.

That’s the key, and it’s also the key to breaking the cycle that previously terminated with that reinforcer.

Dogs that get to engage in bite sports are rewarded with the opportunity to bite. It is a powerful reinforcer. Dogs that are trained to retrieve, are reinforced with the opportunity to retrieve. Dogs that hunt… well, you get the picture.

Companion animals are generally denied access to express genetic drives. What the working dog trainer wants in their dog, the companion animal owner usually doesn’t or works hard to control, extinguish, redirect or otherwise disable.

As a result, companion dogs tend to develop a lot of “anticipation anxiety” associated with specific events, and the predictable triggers that signify that event is on the horizon.

Owners tend to create predictors without even knowing it. I guarantee your dog knows what’s going to happen the second your alarm goes off in the morning, with a high rate of accuracy. I am even willing to suggest that they know what foot hits the floor first, and whose foot it is.

So, we can use this knowledge to frame behavior. Both behaviors that we want to see repeated, and behaviors we wish to extinguish.

We just have to remember what the goal is, and how to make it easy for the dog to succeed.

It doesn’t take much, really. No big explanations of “bMod” or other BS, just the tacit understanding that we can use what the dog wants against him in the operant sense.

What people don’t have is the patience to work with the 4-year-old dog that has persistently dragged its owner through the parking lot on its hind legs to escape whatever terrors it perceives, because it has been a successful strategy to escape or avoid those things it doesn’t enjoy. People choose to use leveraging devices in order to facilitate that process, but what they generally end up doing is trading one stressor for another.

If I bang the dog with a collar correction (pick your device, the result is the same for any of them), the neurons that fire will pair the new event and layer (stack) new trauma to old events. You may achieve better control to the car, but you have not changed your dogs mind about the events leading up to its arrival there.

If the dog I am working with wants to escape his surroundings and scrabble towards my car because he perceives safety in its presence, I am going to deny him access to it, until he walks politely at my side (initially, I’ll settle for just -not pulling-). I don't have to add anything to the equation. All I have to do is deny the dog access until he understands that access is unavailable until he assumes a calmer state.

How long does that take? It takes what it takes. I can stand like a statue for hours. I am going to reward successive approximations until we accomplish the task, and believe it or not, when I start, I am right next to the car. I am not a football fields' length away. I don't need to be. I just need to create desire in the dogs' mind.

Going to the park to ‘socialize’ your dog isn’t working for dogs like this, if the end result is your dog dragging you to the car at the end of each training session.

What *will* work is practicing that approach in a less stressful environment, and being more aware of the signals that your dog is stacking within that path to arousal, waiting for the signal that gives him permission to pull your arm out of its socket on the way to his emotional sanctuary.

Your ecollar isn’t going to stop that. Neither is your prong collar. All of that additional pressure will actually increase your dog’s desire to escape that which is behind him, in favor of what he has been guaranteed that lies ahead of him.

Because you leave that way. Every time. Your dog knows this. He gets to win regardless of the struggle you may have with him. He has never been denied access to his conditioned reinforcer.

It's never too late to start synaptic pruning your dog's response to emotional triggers!

Spot 😊
30/05/2023

Spot 😊



😧 It was scary there for a moment, they suddenly appeared out of nowhere and ran over excited and curious, wanting to ch...
10/05/2023

😧 It was scary there for a moment, they suddenly appeared out of nowhere and ran over excited and curious, wanting to check-out these new animals and possibly chase them, but finally they lost interest………….. and the lambs moved on 😄

But seriously.. teaching your dogs to ignore any livestock is very important. Making them understand being around livestock means they need to increase their focus on you, their owner. This should be done in a safe manner however.

Whenever it is possible to walk your dogs avoiding livestock entirely, take that option.

Sometimes having your dog on a lead is not enough. The vast majority of attacks on livestock happen when the owner is not present. This means the dog has either escaped from their garden or more likely was off-lead and caught a scent of livestock at a distance away and left their owner behind.

Hey chaps, with my first donation in place (thankyou David Greenwood) I've received my woolly hat for my sleep out. Stil...
08/03/2023

Hey chaps, with my first donation in place (thankyou David Greenwood) I've received my woolly hat for my sleep out. Still needing donations however to get to my target of £150. This is a project for the Royal British Legion to support ex-servicemen sleeping rough on the streets.

Rocco the GSD back for some additional board & training.
20/10/2022

Rocco the GSD back for some additional board & training.

Got to love a Mali mix 😊
19/09/2022

Got to love a Mali mix 😊




Early morning on the Downs
23/04/2022

Early morning on the Downs



27/01/2022



Getting the dogs back in the house calmly is a good exercise after a walk




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Willingdon Road
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