I had a big long post planned, but I've decided I'm just going to say on behalf of myself and Kelly.
Thank you to all the amazing people and dogs we've met this year, you're the reasons our year has been so fantastic.
See you all soon
Dan & Kelly
🐾🤎🐾
Don't worry too much about making mistakes during training, getting it wrong is just the first step in getting it right.
A few clients recently have been a bit frustrated with themselves for making little mistakes here and there, it's normal to make mistakes, I made a lot in my journey to becoming a trainer, I still make the odd one here and there, I own them though and learn from them!
It's more important to not get discouraged, frustrated or upset, your mood effects your training, which effects your dogs behaviour, which effects your mood even more. It's a vicious circle!
To make you feel better and make myself look worse, here's one of my more stupid mistakes caught on camera. I've never made this mistake since!
Excuse the quality this was filmed around 10 years ago.
Happy Friday everyone. You know what's great about the weekend (for most)?
That's right, more time to spend with the dogs and do some training.
I've said to a few people this week, a tired dog is a well behaved dog, this is Logan after 45 minutes of laser pointing training, due to him going partially deaf at 12 years old I have had to implement some new methods to help direct him and reduce his anxiety.
Get training folks 😎🐾
Finally, I'll be doing my best to catch up with emails this weekend, apologies for the delay it's been busier than expected recently.
Have a great weekend all 🐾🤎🐾
Today, our little Lola is 8 years old.
Here are some photos through the years from age 1-8. She's barely aged 😳
This dog had taught me so much over the years, the most important things being patience and understanding.
She was never going to be the dog I wanted her to be, so instead she became the dog I needed her to be.
Happy birthday Lolly Bobs 🥰🤎🐾🐾
Send away & recall
A few weeks back whilst working with an extremely reactive dog, 3 off lead dogs that not only had no recall, but absolutely zero interest in their owner at all, ran over to me.
Not only did this require me to use my body as a barrier to avoid a serious incident, resulting in me being bitten in the leg, getting a mouthful from the owner for explaining this is why dogs should be trained or on lead, it also caused a huge setback to the dog I was working with.
If you want to let your canine off the lead, train it!
Off lead training is important and needs to be kept up. I do this exercise with my dogs at least weekly to ensure they have a good solid recall and a redirect command to move them away from a situation if needed.
If you are interested in training off lead control with your dog(s) drop me a message.
Lots of clients and friends have asked me what training I do with my dogs for fun and to keep them well exercised
I made a little video a few years ago of some of my down time training, yes I really do train for fun in my spare time.
I'm aware this won't be to everyone's taste
I've always been reluctant to post this sort of content for that reason.
However, this is what I do, I don't recommend doing this sort of training without a professional, be it with me or another trainer, you have to know what you're doing.
(No harm came any dogs in this video it's all simulated aggression)
Reducing anxiety with obedience, engagement and mental activities.
This St Bernard I worked with a few years ago was highly reactive and had to be muzzled around people. As scary as the concept of a reactive 64kg dog is, the muzzle came off and the work began. Using positive reinforcement and positive association, he soon began to engage well, after a few sessions we had covered obedience, heelwork and just started search games. Here is a video from our 3rd session, doing a short engagement recap. From what I can remember, a few trainers had tried before me with poor results. No matter what dog or behaviours you are dealing with, there is always a solution, you just need a trainer/behaviourist who is confident enough to get stuck in.
Logan joined me this week to help with some desensitisation, positive association training with some reactive dogs, and to demote a few possible disciplines to be trained into some of the older dogs.
He's still in great physical and mental shape, can go for hours with tons of drive, but at the grand old age of 12 he definitely needs more time to recuperate these days.
Body language & filming yourself.
I usually suggest to film yourself training for a few minutes once a week. Here is the reason why I recommend doing so.
Early on in my dog training days, I encountered an issue with a certain discipline. It took me weeks to figure why I just couldn't get consistent results or why the dog I was training would randomly preform the command without being asked.
Dogs associate more than just the command words we use, every time I tried the "stand" command I would sometimes slightly nod my head, other times I wouldn't. This left the dog a little unsure, as he had started to associate that head nod with the command.
I filmed myself working on the stand command around 150 times and noticed the sporadic nod.
Here is a video from when I tested the theory of hand signals only in 2015, with a different dog I hadn't done signal training with yet. It goes to show what dogs notice during training.
As you can see, he responded pretty well to the regular hand gestures I seem to do.
If I hadn't have filmed myself, I would never have spotted the mistakes I was making, it also gave me a huge confidence boost to see the progress I was making after thinking I'd hit a brick wall.
Even if it's only 5 minutes a week, take a video, watch it back a few times. Trust me it helps.
Also be mindful of your body language during training, try to keep it the same and you may just end up with a few party tricks you didn't even know you'd trained 😎🐾🐾
Lots of things in dog training are preemptive, including properly preparing your canine for certain situations they may not have faced before.
As we've reached the last quarter of 2024 fireworks are going to start being more common in the skies of your home town.
If you haven't already started your desensitisation process, now is the time.
There are videos on the page (I'll post links in the comments) showcasing some great training methods and preventative measures you can put in place ready for the inevitable.
As with anything, dogs need guidence and exposure to as many different scenarios as possible.
Every residential visitor I get, I work on firework desensitisation with, last year I got to put this puppy' training to the test after only 3 days of exposure. See how he's happily playing with my dogs during these fireworks going off.
I hate to be that guy but complaining can't stop your dog being scared, training can.
No field? No problem!
Contrary to popular belief, you don't always need a huge training area to get good results, in fact, obedience like this is best done in a smaller space, such as a position box or platform or by using a pivot box. If you don't have one, you can always improvise, use a raised bed, doormat, garden table, the possibilities are endless 🐾🐾
