LongLeash Canine Behaviour & Training

07/01/2024

www.longleashcanine.com

One-to-one canine behaviour & training support in Cork.

Full assessment (1-2 hour home-visit) and tailored behaviour modification plan, 4 week one-to-one support packages.

Whether it's a new puppy, jumping up, pulling on the leash, issues with re-call, reactivity, separation anxiety, we're here to help. Using only the most up to date, ethical and humane training methods.

Qualified & Vet recommended.

10/10/2023

To celebrate our return to business in Cork after some time in the UK, we're offering 33% off introductory sessions until November 1st.

That's a one-to-one home visit for €50.

•Puppy training
•Re-call
•Loose-leash walking
•Reactivity
•Separation anxiety
..and much more, using ethical methods and a holistic approach that looks at every influence on your dog or new puppy's behaviour.

For more information or to enquire visit
www.longleashcanine.com

LongLeash Canine dog training & behaviour modification.

13/08/2022

My news feed has been particularly awash with sponsored posts from ‘balanced’/aversive trainers lately, making all the usual unfounded claims against force-free dog training and behaviour modification as well as making complete misrepresentations of the commonly suggested or advised approaches to clients with dogs in need of behavioural rehabilitation, in a way that is clearly intended to demonise force-free trainers as being ironically enough the ones that cause the most harm to dogs.

Parallel to this, I’ve notice a narrative that suggests that all dog training and behaviour modification qualifications are biased and incomparable to the holy grail that is “20+ years experience working with dogs”.

To the extent that I no longer view it as a matter of ‘balanced’ vs force-free trainers, I see it more as unqualified vs qualified.
Something you can rely on to appear in any ‘discussion’ of methodology in any comments section, is the suggestion from an aversive training advocate to one from the force-free side to ‘educate’ themselves on for example “the correct use of an e-collar” before commenting.

When I was undergoing my first diploma, we had to study all training ‘tools’ in depth. I remember clearly having to write about how I would train a behaviour using something like a prong or e-collar, in order to demonstrate my understanding of how these tools work within the framework of what we know about canine learning theory (everything we had studied and been assessed on in the months prior). It’s not that we don’t use these tools because we’re ignorant to their ‘benefit’ or haven’t researched them enough, we have, thoroughly. We would regularly be given a hypothetical behaviour or training issue and have to give 4-8 examples of completely different approaches to resolving that issue using either one of or a combination of the quadrants of operant conditioning (R+,P-,P+,R-) again for no other reason than to demonstrate our understanding of how canine learning and different methods of modifying behaviour align, the pros, cons and considerations of using each.

Not once did any of my coursework include the words “force-free” or indeed “purely positive”, it just so happens to be that anyone with a brain that has gone through the process of studying and proving their knowledge of canine behaviour has arrived at the same conclusion – it is illogical to use aversive methods or punitive tools in behaviour modification.

I had been a ‘balanced’ trainer myself prior to undertaking qualifications, so were a few of my classmates and many other colleagues I’ve met since. We all went through the same process of sitting there in class and having the realisations of “yep, that’s why that never worked” or “that’s why I always still had to” and just accepted that what we knew up until then or what we thought worked, didn’t actually work while unfortunately giving the appearance that it did- often just being the result of behaviour suppression or what we had now learned to be called ‘learned helplessness’, a dog realising it can’t do anything about the situation and shuts down completely. Why I’m so confident that there’s a distinct lack of real knowledge in this community is that ‘reactivity’ has long been the upper echelon of ‘proving your abilities’ as a trainer, at least for ‘balanced’ trainers anyway, and all of these trainers rely on ‘learned helplessness’ to get “results”. With the odd exception of including a long-standing force-free method without proper explanation of the purpose/logic behind it and calling it a “game changer”, much to the confusion of their followers.

The reason I say that it is a logical decision as opposed to being an ethical or ‘emotional’ one is that this is something I see being missed out an awful lot, I’ve often stated even if you didn’t care about dogs at all you would still choose to train force-free if presented with the facts around how dogs learn. I saw a sponsored post recently from an aversive trainer saying that dogs “need” ‘balance’, in that deceiving way that makes choking your dog seem as necessary as your 5 a day, and not to “let your emotions get the better of you when deciding to train your dog” as those pesky force-free merchants of death might sway you to. It was never an ethical or emotional decision for me to train exclusively force and aversive free, it was a decision very much rooted in my mechanical engineering background understanding cause and effect in combination with the new information I had around how dogs learn. This is how I would get to the root cause of my client’s behavioural issues and have real resolve instead of tackling symptoms like reactivity head-on with reprimand.

There are a lot of very popular personalities on social media engaging in this demonising of force-free methods, and while I wouldn’t expect the everyday public to pick up on this, in these rants they only expose their lack of foundation knowledge of canine behaviour and learning further and further. I’m sure there’s one name in particular that comes to mind for any other industry professional.

They’ve recently claimed that force-free trainers advise completely abstaining from walking reactive dogs indefinitely and would rather have the dog ‘put to sleep’ than be exposed to any level of stress. This is a massive misrepresentation, absolutely I ‘prescribe’ that clients suspend ‘traditional’/short-leash walks initially, but it is only a means of preventing the reactivity being rehearsed and reinforced further and further each day against the work we are doing, that work, being ‘exposing the dog to stress’. Controlled, sub-threshold desensitisation which absolutely involves the dog being exposed to a trigger and feeling stressed, albeit in a place where they can learn and gradually desensitise as opposed to throwing them right into the deep-end and harshly correcting their reactions until they shut down.

If you ask me, that’s a very logical and rational approach when you understand the limitations of canine learning and what we can and can’t do to aid this process. A very emotional and even insecure approach would be to make it about being the ‘alpha’, ‘in control’ or just not having the humility to study new and well researched methods that aren’t the same bully tactics we’ve had on our TV’s for, oh, 20+ years.

23/07/2022

🔔 Barking at the doorbell 🔔

A frustrating and stress inducing issue for many dogs and their owners/carers.

Here we take a look at how we can use counter-conditioning to make the sound of the doorbell a cue for an alternative behaviour that we want the dog to do instead of barking.

Not only does this gain some peace and quiet for the human end of the leash, it also greatly benefits the canine end. Dogs can become conditioned into barking at the doorbell through positive or negative experiences equally, if it has become a coping mechanism used to manage a fearful reaction to visitors as a potential threat then this alternative behaviour has the added benefit of getting the dog to bring themselves sub-threshold in the safe space of their crate at a distance from the door. This goes a long way to prevent reactive dogs from rehearsing the behaviour which may further reinforce their perceived 'need' to engage in the behaviour on a daily basis.

For dogs that are over-excited greeters, you can further chain the behaviour to include waiting to be released in order to greet guests, completing avoiding the flash point that the front door can become.

04/07/2022

LongLeash Canine Behaviour & Training

Force/aversive-free training and behaviour modification in Cork.

www.longleashcanine.com

02/07/2022

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

My dogs know their place.

Every year, I hope the people spewing nonsense about being pack leader, about being the alpha, about how you need to show the dog who’s boss, will disappear. Every year I’m hopeful that they will pick up a book (that isn’t written in their little echo chamber), do a course worth its salt, or even just watch the most basic YouTube video explaining why they are wrong.

Every year I am hopeful that I won’t see any more dogs wearing prong collars, e-collars, being strung up on a slip lead, being yanked back, alpha rolled, pinned to the ground, shaken, prodded, hissed at, kicked. Dogs that are just babies, dogs that are traumatised, dogs with behavioural problems that, whenever they ask for help or reassurance, are punished. Dogs that are petrified of something scary, only to be told “Stop crying!” as the thing they’re phobic of is drawn closer and closer to them.

Every year, I’m disappointed.

It’s 2022. The basis of this training was debunked DECADES ago. Why do people still feel it’s acceptable to treat dogs this way? To lazily slap the word “dominant” or “stubborn” on their foreheads and take that as an excuse to now treat them however they like.

Do freaking better.

“Oh, but my dog is a German shepherd/ Rottweiler/ staffie and they need a strong hand”

No. If you are incapable of handling a powerful dog without beating the crap out of it and walking it with ligatures, sometimes spiked ligatures, constricting their throat, seriously consider getting a smaller breed. It doesn’t make you look like a tough man, walking an incapacitated large breed dog, it makes you look like a coward. Nothing screams “I’m an incompetent trainer” like somebody reliant on choking their dog just to get them to walk nicely.

One day, we will look back as a society on the people who treat their dogs like this, and be totally repulsed. We will think “how did they get away with it?” I hoped, by 2022, we would be at that point already. But clearly not.

Yeah, my dogs know their place. It’s right beside me.

TLDR: you’re not the alpha, you’re insecure.

21/06/2022

This is something I see a lot, particularly as an attempt at justifying a personal decision to opt for using aversive training tools such as “e-collars” (shock collars), prong collars, choke chains or their poorly disguised relative the slip-leash.

It’s a statement intended to absolve the owner or indeed trainer of the decision to do so, that although they acknowledge it is possible for others to achieve whatever it is they wanted with their dog without using forceful methods or aversive tools, there’s something innately different about their dog and that the fact they made attempts to resolve the issue by rewarding with food or toys before changing tact proves this.

1) Motivation goes beyond food and toy rewards.
2) More often than not, there’s more that needs to be considered than how and what we use to reward.

Even with my own dogs, what I use to reinforce the behaviour I want to see and how I go about doing so will differ massively between the two of them, but also depending on the scenario and what it is I’m trying to achieve. Not only because they’re two very different breeds, but they’re also unique individuals at the end of the day.

Take Moose my Hungarian Vizsla for example, absolutely rewarding with food is more than enough to achieve a reliable re-call with him, but even at that I’ve had to tweak how I do so depending on what competing or conflicting motivators are in the environment. If we’re in an environment that is rich in game-scent and he’s snuffling a lot, food straight from my hand as a reward wears thin pretty quick as it is a very one-dimensional reward and involves disengaging completely from the environment he’s engrossed in. I’ve instead opted for rewarding with a scatter feed in the area immediately around me which has had huge success as instead of fighting against the immersive snuffling he’s engaged in, I’m now facilitating and adding to it in a way that he has to discriminate between the many organic scents and the bits of cheese and hotdogs that are now in amongst it. This is essentially what he was just doing (albeit away from me), but now with a bit more fun and excitement mixed in so it becomes a no-brainer as far as he’s concerned to dart back to me when he hears “Come!”.

As for Rudy, my Springer Spaniel, it simply won’t cut it. Although he loves his food and is very food motivated when at home, as soon as we’re out and about he’s focused on one thing and one thing only: retrieving. If I have a tennis ball launcher in my hand, I can take almost an entire treat pouch worth of the highest value food rewards and hold it in front of him and at most he will offer a little muzzle-bump at them, purely thinking this is something I’m asking him to do as a pre-requisite to throwing the tennis ball for him. I take a back-pack with me when I’m walking them and no matter how far away he is, he responds to the sound of me just slipping the back-pack off one shoulder by darting back and doing a little dance around me in circles while whining. I reward Rudy’s re-calls by taking getting a ball out of the back-pack and tossing it in the air within 1-2 metres of me.

Absolutely, these are both examples of just food and toys, but when it came to getting Moose to walk on a loose-leash or in a ‘heel’ when I need him to, no amount of either were ever going to be enough for him to not want to go off and engage with his environment. He doesn’t want food, or toys, he wants to go off and snuffle his brains out. The only way I was able to achieve it was by appreciating that this and this alone is what he was motivated by. I went back to the drawing board and over a couple of months of communicating to him that walking on a loose-leash is the quickest way to get to the dense undergrowth he wants to investigate, and be allowed to. He was more than happy to ‘play-ball’. Again, this was only applicable in the environments and scenarios where this was his motivation, when it came to going to the local park where he wanted to be let off-leash to play I had to again change what I was using to reward: being let off-leash. I started by parking as close as possible to where I could let him off, got him to do a small 3-4 metre stretch of walking nicely by my side where he was then rewarded by being immediately let off-leash. Day by day I would then park further and further away and this just became routine for him, I could also walk further and further into the park before leaving him off. Purely by listening to what he was telling me he was most motivated by.

I always think of a conversation I had once with a security dog handler who was “mostly” force-free (in the same way that someone is “a little bit pregnant”), but he was adamant that with his 30+ years of experience that “no amount of treats or tug toys is going to get a Malinois or Dutchie to release from a bite” and this is why he has “no choice” but to use a prong collar in training. In my early years, before ‘crossing-over’ to being force-free, I went to a few IGP/protection sport trials and in hindsight it’s painfully apparent why one or two competitors would have the cleanest most immediate response from their dog on the “aus” or release from the bite: they had trained it by rewarding the release with a bite on another sleeve that the dog considered more fun to bite. A simple exchange that understands what the dog is motivated by. Facilitating behaviour instead of fighting against it.

When I say “there’s more that needs to be considered” in regard to why food or toy rewards aren’t working in a given scenario for your dog, what I mean is that there’s something much more compelling going on from the dog’s perspective. This is often the case with dogs that are engaged in fearful reactivity, if we’re talking about competing or conflicting motivators, keeping yourself safe from a clear and obvious threat to your wellbeing or survival is always going to win out over a piece of hotdog or a tug on a toy. The obvious solution is to take the time that is needed to address the reactivity, however lengthy that may be, so that we then end up with a dog who is ‘sub-threshold’ in this environment and now in a place to learn and perhaps even see the benefit in working for the piece of hotdog.

Although you as an owner may feel that you’ve tried everything, the unfortunate reality is that you perhaps have never really begun to implement what you need to in order to help your dog and yourself manage these scenarios and environments.



www.longleashcanine.com

02/06/2022

Our website www.longleashcanine.com has recently been updated!

All necessary information on our services, what's involved and an online enquiry form to avail of either one-to-one or virtual/online consultations.

*** IMPORTANT UPDATE: We have recently relocated to the United Kingdom. Republic of Ireland clients can now only be accommodated by online consultations ***

02/06/2022

Canine training instructor Roy Long said he was shocked to hear from a client whose young children were encouraged to stand “toe-to-toe” with a pet ...

23/05/2022

Welcome to LongLeash Canine Behaviour & Training, located in the S64 area of South Yorkshire but also offering online consultations for those further afield.

100% force-free (no prong, no shock, no choke) methods. Modern and scientific dog training and behaviour modification. We advocate for both ends of the leash, helping owners form a better understanding of what their dogs need in order to establish a more harmonious relationship.

www.longleashcanine.com