Always love to see the Houndy hangout gang! Today we were joined by Sergi the greyhound who came all the way from Kerry to help out with social walks and stayed for the morning’s activities!
The regular pups were amazed by him and he took the attention as calmly and majestically as only a greyhound can!
#greyhound #houndyhangouts #kennedysfoodstore #clontarf #socialisingwithdogs
Awh! ❤️
Love this little group of dogs! It’s always kinda sad when puppy class ends, so I love it when the pups continue on to Houndy Hangouts and I get to keep seeing them every Sunday!
This group is open to all dogs who are good with other dogs. We walk together, sometimes do some training and/or scent work, and then go for coffee and cake. Pay as you go, €10 per session. Get in touch to join!
Thanks to @elaine.bury for the photos and to @kennedysfood for squeezing us in despite the late booking!
#dogpals #socialisingwithdogs #dogfriendlydublin #dogfriendlycafe #kennedysfoodstore #clontarf #dogtrainingdublin #poochon #cockerspaniel #springerspaniel #bichon
Fia made the most amazing progress yesterday! 😍
During the consultation, her humans admitted that it just wasn’t enjoyable walking her as she pulled so much. They said she just couldn’t walk slowly…
This was her first training session, and already look at how brilliantly she’s doing! Of course, there’s a lot more practice required to make this her default speed- with dog training, you get out what you put in, and sadly, there are no magic wand solutions! But this was a super start from Fia and her parents.
Even big, strong dogs can learn to walk nicely on the lead without the use of painful or uncomfortable equipment! 🐶
#dogtraining #redsettersofinstagram #clontarf #looseleashwalking
Another lovely houndy hangout! We were practicing our ‘lost-retrieve’ (see Sandy finding her pouch in the hedges!) and of course, having coffee and snacks in @kennedysfood!
#socialisingwithdogs #dogtrainingdublin #scentwork #dogfriendlydublin #dogfriendlyireland #puppiesofdublin #clontarf #dublin3 #kennedysfoodstore
Dog mentors are the best! Otis is a teenage rescue shepherd cross. He gets super vocal when he sees other dogs and can come across as being aggressive. However, once he can actually meet the other dogs he really calms down, and tries to follow their lead. His barking and lunging seems to be more related to frustration and fear than anything else.
So we’ve been introducing Otis to mature dogs with good inter-dog skills, who can help teach him calmer ways of interacting.
As a social species, I think it’s really important for us to try and meet their need for con-specific contact, while at the same time, not giving them an outlet to practice inappropriate behaviours. Well-managed, calm parallel walks with other dogs can be a great way to do that!
Thanks so much to Lexi and Joni (@harleyjonimitchleximagoo) for helping out and being amazing mentors!
It’s always such a treat to meet the new puppy groups! In this group, we have a #poodle (I *think* this might be the first pure poodle I’ve had in puppy classes in nearly 10 years of running them!), #shichon, #mini labradoodle and a golden retriever (looking forward to meeting her next week!)
#puppyclass #dogtrainingdublin #clontarf #raheny #dublin5 #puppysocialisation
Social walk for reactive dogs on Sunday! We were back after the Christmas break, and had a couple of new dogs along! We were stopped here for a sniffy break.
Long leads, harnesses, choice and space are our tools of choice. The dogs (and humans!) all did brilliantly, and one of the new dogs’ humans commented that it was the calmest she’d seen her dog.
#reactivedogs #dogtrainingdublin #socialwalks #rescuedogs #scentwork #mindfulnessfordogs #bordercollie #labrador #yorkshireterrier #pomeranian #dublin5 #dublin3
Gigi practicing her recall at Houndy Hangouts yesterday! We’ll do a few minutes of recall training at the next few Houndy Hangouts so that the dogs can practice doing recall around other dogs. This is often a big challenge, especially for younger dogs!
#rescuedog #dogtrainingdublin #dogfriends #socialisingwithdogs #dublin3
Our final social walk of 2023 was a quiet one, with just two dogs in attendance! 🤣 But we had a lovely calm stroll in the winter sun, and the dogs each went home with a nice Christmas chew! Well, actually, that’s not true. Echo ate his chew before he’d even left the park! 🤷♀️
Looking forward to seeing everyone back in January for more social walking!
🎄🤶
#reactivedog #dogtrainingdublin #socialwalk #labrador #terrier
‘Absolutely thrilled with frankies progress already 🥹 he’s so much more relaxed!!! 🥰’
Another lovely social walk success story! Here’s Frankie and his new friend Yuki (incidentally, also smashing it). Thanks to @zooat32 for sharing this lovely snippet of the two pals!
#socialwalk #dogfriends #dogtrainingdublin #reactivedogs #raheny #dublin5 #clontarf
I managed to swing a private audience with all nine of the puppies and their amazing mum!
Their human was telling me that after about 3 weeks, mum began to get fed up of the babies. But she still does her best, and of course her human tries to support her the best she can.
Poor mum! I really empathised. As soon as the puppies saw her they were trying to get milk. As a human mum of just one baby, this can get tiresome. Imagine having 9 babies constantly hanging out of you??
Amongst free-ranging dogs, alloparenting is common, and other female dogs will even lactate for the puppies and regurgitate food for them. So it’s no wonder that breeders will often report that their dogs grow tired of their puppies- with no other dogs around to help, so many babies would be a huge burden!
Incidentally, allonursing has also been witnessed among our companion dogs.
You can read more about natural dog behaviours and how we can apply them to raising puppies in our book ‘How to Raise a Puppy: A Dog-centric Approach’
#puppies #puppyclass #dogtraining #dogbook #learningaboutdogs #naturaldogbehaviour #dublin
With people away on holidays, we had a very small social walk with just two dogs last week. They were both pretty chilled and relaxed, so I didn’t stop to do a treat search.
But when we got to the area that we often do a treat search, someone wasn’t very happy to find no treats were produced. 😬😬😬
I wasn’t aware I was so predictable, but obviously Bones was. Now, as I said, these dogs were doing really well and I’d say arousal levels were pretty low. But the dogs almost certainly experienced a dopamine drop when they were so clearly expecting a reward that didn’t come. With another dog, or in a situation where emotions were running higher, this could have had a greater impact and could even have given rise to some redirection of frustration towards another dog.
When we’re working with dogs who could already be experiencing strong emotions, it’s so important to think about our behaviour and how we can be unintentionally making things more difficult for them.
#dogtraining #socialwalks #behaviour #bedlingtonxwhippet #dogsofdublin #raheny #clontarf #dublin5
Puppy classes in Raheny!
New group starting mid-August and we still have some spaces if you’d like to join us!
It’s that time again! Taking bookings for August puppy classes, starting the second week in August!
#puppiesofdublin #puppyclass #puppytraining #puppysocialisation #dogtraining #raheny #clontarf #killester #artane
More puppy classes starting in Raheny next week!
🐶 small groups for gentle socialisation
🐶 learn useful life skills like recall and walking nicely on the lead
🐶 find out about managing common issues such as toilet training, mouthing, separation anxiety, jumping up and barking
🐶 learn about the things your puppy needs to grow up healthy and happy!
This month we’ll be running not one but two puppy classes to meet demand!
If you’ve got a puppy under 5 months, I’d love to see you there!
Get in touch to book your spot!
#puppiesofdublin #puppyclasses #dogsofdublin #puppysocialisation #dogtraining #puppies
This morning was pretty warm and humid, so on our social walk, I decided to offer the dogs a few scent-based activities that we could do in the shade. We started with a mini enriched environment (it all had to fit in my bag, so it was mainly interesting smells!), then a treat search, and finally a scent discrimination exercise.
The adolescent dogs were not that interested in the scent discrimination, but Alfie was a natural! Within a couple of minutes he was distinguishing his regular tea bag from a flavoured teabag, when both were hidden in the leaves! We were all super-impressed! 😍😍😍
#socialwalks #dogtrainingdublin #nervousdogs #reactivedogs #overexciteddogs #puppiesofdublin #raheny #dublin5 #dogsofdublin #rescuedog
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People just love asking dogs to sit! It’s an easy behaviour to teach, and very reinforcing for the human when the dog complies.
But how does it feel for our dogs? Often, not that great. It can be physically uncomfortable getting in and out of a sit position, and many of the surfaces we ask them to sit on are not that nice to sit on. As puppies, this can put pressure on their developing bodies, and as our dogs get older, like ourselves, they become less agile and lose condition. Ask most adult humans to get up and down from sitting on the ground a few times and they’ll attest to this. In fact, I’m in my mid thirties, reasonably fit and active, and I’m finding this much harder than I would have done 10 years ago!
We must also remember that sitting is a calming sign, part of our dogs’ way of communicating with each other. Asking them to sit is asking them to use their language in a way that might not feel natural or appropriate.
But most of all, it’s a pretty useless behaviour to have on cue! Starting my adult dog- guardian journey with greyhounds, who find sitting even more uncomfortable than most dogs, I quickly learned that it wasn’t a problem that they didn’t sit. I never came across a situation where them being still, in whatever position they chose, wasn’t just as good as sitting.
#turidsway #naturaldogtraining #lifeskillsnotobedience #thinkbeforeyouteach #dogtrainingdublin #dogsofdublin #raheny #clontarf #killester #dublin5 #puppiesofdublin
