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Paws Plus Ltd Canine Training & Behaviour

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Paws Plus Ltd Canine Training & Behaviour

We offer qualified and professional dog training and behaviour modification using modern, science-ba

We offer qualified and professional dog training and behaviour modification using modern, science-based methods using positive reinforcement techniques. We are based in South Auckland, but can travel Auckland wide, and provide services including 1-on-1 training and coaching sessions, group classes and solo training walks.

16/11/2024

We've had a great time the past 2 days attending the dogmanship seminar, hosted by
There was lots of great theory shared and awesome practical demonstrations, and I was particularly proud of my boy Peanut for attending the second day and being used for a demo. It was his first time in a seminar environment and he had a great time playing tug with Chad and working on a bit of impulse control. I also got to meet some new people in the industry and catch up with a few I hadn't seen in a while.
The skills learnt in this seminar were perfect for coaching pet owners and I'm looking forward to trying some of them in future with clients.

16/06/2024

Last Wednesday we had a coaching session with Ellie and her mum. I filmed the whole process which consisted of 7 training sessions which range from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. We used my clothing/shoes as a prop, allowing her to gather scent information without the need to approach me, as well as to establish a predictable pattern by using it as a physical marker for both the owner and dog. I am very happy with the progress made during this session and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the next one goes.

The video (sped up) and captions are fairly self explanatory, but below are some further details about the choices made in this session.

- Ellie is off leash to allow her to make choices as to how close she wants to be and whether she wants to leave. She is not a bite risk, so we don't need to use leashes or physical barriers for safety. Her dad is in the other room so that she is not stressed when we put her away in between sessions (she has separation anxiety), and she also feels confident to leave the room rather than being conflicted because she wants to get away from me but doesn't want to leave her mum and be alone in the other room.

- Session 2 was an important one and I think it had a big influence on how well the rest of the sessions went. She comes out with no barking and immediately goes over to sniff my shoes by the door. I have mum put her away immediately as that was a great moment and I don't want to wait too long and risk Ellie getting triggered and barking again. In fear-reactive behaviour cases there is often a big focus on controlling distance between the dog and the trigger, and I don't see a lot of consideration of the duration of exposure being a factor to control and vary throughout the session.

- When Ellie does bark at me there is no direct consequence. We don't ask her to stop, punish her, or physically remove her from the room. I want her to recognise that a) barking is ineffective; it doesn't cause me to move away or leave, and b) if she needs space from me she can create this distance herself by simply moving away or leaving the room.
All behaviour serves a function, and in this case the function of the barking is an attempt to create distance. By completely ignoring the barking and providing Ellie with alternative options (leaving the room) we allow her to figure out that she can get the same result (distance from me and a feeling of safety) without the need for barking, and instead by performing a more desirable behaviour (leaving the room).

05/06/2024

FLEXIBILITY IS CRUCIAL!

Meet Ellie. She is a Chihuahua X Papillion, and she has some big feelings about strangers in her home. She is also reactive to dogs and some people while out for walks, which is something we'll eventually be working on, but for now our priority is getting her comfortable with me so that we can then do training around the things that cause her to react, without my presence being an extra trigger.

This consult was a challenge and had me experimenting and improvising to figure out what was going to help her feel more comfortable with me. When I arrived she was confined to another room and I scattered treats on the floor and sat down in the furthest seat from the entrance. When she was let into the room, she ate most of the treats off the floor but barked at me continuously while keeping her distance. Other than tossing treats far away from me, I ignored her and waited to see if she would habituate to my presence, but after about 10 minutes it became clear this wasn't happening, so I had her put away again to decompress.

Over the next hour we would bring her out for very short periods of exposure, and then put her away again. After a couple of repetitions it also became clear that she has some separation anxiety, and therefore having her put away by herself was causing more stress rather than giving her time to decompress like intended. We resolved this by having her owners leave the room and stay with her for a couple of minutes and then bringing her back out.

By the end of the session she was able to enter the room without barking and there were even a couple of times she approached me and sniffed my foot before starting to bark again. I then had the idea to remove my headband and place it away from me, so that she could sniff it and gather scent information without needing to get close to me.

This consult really highlighted the importance of flexibility when working with extreme fear or reactivity. There is no set process for these cases and the ability to adapt the plan as you go depending on how the dog is responding is so important. Moving forward, we will be doing short training sessions of no more than 30 minutes.

27/12/2023

This morning we had a second day of group coaching with Cruze, Buddy and Bear. Today generally made exercises more difficult than yesterday with the 3 'D's; Distraction, Duration and Distance. We'd have one or two dogs in down stays while others moved around, did some recalls past distractions, dropped treats during stays, worked in closer proximity to the other dogs, and increased duration of eye contact. I am beyond proud of how well these guys are doing.

02/12/2023

Some clips from today's final group class. So proud of all these handlers and dogs for how well they've progressed over the past 4 sessions. Check them out settling in close proximity at the end! Well done everyone!

21/11/2023

A big milestone moment for Buddy! He got to interact with another dog off-lead for the first time! I was so impressed with his social manners as well as his responsiveness to recall and staying close by. Well done Buddy! Thank you Echo from AL'S PALS for your help!

11/11/2023

Some clips from this morning's group class. Today we had a big emphasis on luring skills and mechanics, as well as touching on some engagement games, focus, and you'll see Cruze working on a coin indication too! All teams made a great improvement from last week, with less reactivity and much more handler focus.

04/11/2023

This morning we had our first small group class for reactive dogs. We had Cruze, Bruno, Buddy and Bear who are all varying levels of reactive in some way. The class was set up in a circuit of 4 exercises, with each dog-handler team spending 10-15 minutes at each station. This is our first time running a group class, so we're trying out different ideas and set ups to figure out what is going to work best for future classes. There were some challenging moments, but I'm extremely proud of all the dogs and handlers that attended and looking forward to seeing the progress over the next 3 weeks.

10/10/2023

REHOMING: PLEASE SHARE!
Photos from training with Marshall last Thursday.

Marshall is a 7 month old border collie, looking for a new home. The reason for rehoming is that he has some resource guarding behaviours, which is too much of a risk with young children in his current home. I am happy to discuss details of Marshall's behaviour with any potential adopters.

Marshall needs a home with no children. He is a timid dog and doesn't appreciate rude or over-exuberant interactions with unknown dogs, but he has socialised with family members dogs and would probably be fine in a home with other dogs and pets so long as the personalities match.

Marshall thrives at obedience class and would suit someone wanting to do sports like obedience, agility or nose work. He is incredibly smart and loves to learn. His new owner will need to be reasonably experienced and enthusiastic about training, as he has a few problem behaviours that will need to be worked through. I am happy to work with his adopter and provide training plans for this.

Please share this around and get in touch if you'd like to know more about Marshall.

16/08/2023

"Out" with no food and only one toy.

Some common ways to start teaching an "out" (or "drop") include trading the toy for food, or for a second toy. But what if your dog doesn't want food? And one day you'll probably want your dog to "out" without a second toy being present right? So how do we get there?

First I should mention the exercises we have worked on before getting to this point:
1. Teaching him to drop a toy that I am not holding on to, by rewarding with a second toy AND/OR food. I throw two 1 and when he returns I say "out" and hin show toy 2 and wave it around to make it enticing. When he drops toy 1, I throw toy 2.
2. Same as above, but now I ask for a simple behaviour like a sit or down before rewarding with the second toy.
3. Again, same as above. I still use toy 2 to convince him to drop it, then I ask for a sit or down, but now I pick up toy 1 and throw that one as the reward.
4. Teaching him to drop a toy that I AM holding on to, using a second toy and rewarding with toy 2 as soon as he lets go of toy 1. In this exercise and the following ones, as soon as I say "out" I immobilise toy 1 and start waving toy 2 around to entice him to switch/let go.
5. Same as step 4, I am holding toy 1 while he tugs, then I ask for an "out" and show him toy 2. When he "outs" I ask for a sit or down, and then reward with toy 2.
6. Same as step 5, but this time I reward with toy 1 instead of toy 2.

Once we are at step 6, we now pretty much have an out with only 1 toy involved, but we are still using a second toy to entice him to choose to let go of toy 1. This video is showing how we begin with eliminating the second toy. It's important to consider that the tugging and conflict of the fight is what Cruze enjoys and wants from the game. A game of tug with lots of movement and opposition is far more fun than just holding the toy still, so we are aiming to teach him that the way to re-start the fun part of the game is by letting go of the toy.

Throughout the video you'll hear me use 3 different markers:

"Yes" - this means "you did it, come get your reward from me!". In this context, it gives Cruze permission to bite the toy and continue playing tug.

"Good" - this means "you're doing the right thing, keep going and you'll earn your reward." You'll also notice me drawing the word out so it's "gooooood" and suddenly stopping if he re-bites the toy. This makes it clear to him when he is correct and when he isn't.

"Ah-ah" - this means "that's the wrong thing and won't lead to reinforcement". You'll hear me use this when Cruze tries shaking his head in an attempt to resume the game of tug, to let him know that's not what I'm wanting.

This exercise is designed for dogs who find tugging and conflict to be highly rewarding and I think it's important to mention that doing this with a large, strong dog is a VERY physically demanding game, so be aware that this exercise may not work if you aren't physically strong enough to passively resist your dog's tugging. It's important that you stick to the rule that once you've said "out", tug is off the cards. If the dog does manage to yank the toy from my hand, I let them win it rather than trying to fight and struggle to hang on to it. Separately to this exercise, I will teach the dog to re-engage and bring me the toy when they win it, teaching them that playing with me is more valuable than possessing and playing with the toy alone. (Here's a video example https://fb.watch/mrWwSu0nK8/?mibextid=Nif5oz)

Once the dog understands this, I can drop the toy if needed without having to worry about the dog feeling like they got what they wanted. Sure, they wanted the toy, but what they wanted MORE was a game of tug!

09/08/2023

I think this is one of my favourite photos I've taken over the past 7 years of dog training. Getting 5 dogs to sit and stay for the camera is a challenge itself, but getting all 5 looking at the camera, with ears forward and happy, relaxed expressions is another level! It's usually a balancing act to get them all looking attentive and happy, without them being tempted to break position. And, on top of that, the symmetrical posing and composition of the photo is on point. Well done Roku, Ruby, Arlo, Bodee and Vesta ❤️

25/07/2023

URGENT REHOME OR FOSTER REQUIRED.

Please share this around.

Unfortunately Cruze is looking for a new home, or someone who can foster him temporarily.
He needs to go to a home with NO children, no cats, and probably no other dogs (can provide more details about his level of dog sociability if someone is interested, but has a dog already).

He is an 18 month old mastiff mix with a big personality. He is good around horses, chickens and livestock. I am happy to discuss his behaviour and the details of the reason for rehoming in private. He will need to go to an experienced and/or knowledgeable home. He is currently housed in Pukekohe.

He loves to work and has awesome food and toy drive. He loves tug and with the right handler he could potentially do well in dog sports. He would make a great "dog trainers dog" for someone who enjoys a bit of a challenge. Please reach out if you know anyone who may be interested. This is URGENT as it is not safe for him to stay in his current home for any longer than absolutely necessary.

10/07/2023

This afternoon, we had a coaching session with Roku and her owner. Roku LOVES food and gets very snatchy when taking treats from the hand, so we spent a lot of time practicing techniques to present the treat in a way that minimises her ability to bite hands/fingers and delivers the treat fast and efficiently. We worked on heel position for our leash manners skills, but without the leash to start with so we could focus on reward timing, presentation and positioning. Once this was going well, we went over leash handling skills like how to lock the leash length and pick up slack effectively, before then transferring the skill of heeling to be done on leash.

Just like with the dogs, separating the different skills and working on them individually with the handler tends to create a more complete picture and better accuracy than if we were to try teaching all the different criteria at once. Well done team Roku 👏 I love the engagement in these photos!

03/07/2023

Dusty meeting a new dog off lead today. The initial sniffs were a little tense (nice body language examples here with the fast, high tail wags, lifted paw and leaning away posture) but I called her away after a few seconds and then kept her moving while the other dog followed us. There was not a single growl, snap or escalation in her behaviour which I would have expected from her a year ago. Having a really strong recall has been a huge step in improving Dusty's tolerance of other dogs approaching as she can move away when she feels uncomfortable and I know I can instruct her to do so if required by just calling her back to me. This dog was polite enough that I didn't need to intervene much, but if this had been a rude pushy dog I would have called Dusty to me and put myself between her and the other dog until it either backed off or was retrieved by the owner. Advocating for your nervous/reactive dog's space is so important to making them feel safe enough not to react.

29/06/2023

This was just about the cutest learning process I've ever witnessed. I began teaching "paws up" to Obi today by using a treat lure and holding it just out of reach above this tree stump. After a bit of moving around and experimenting with ways to get to the treat, he put one paw on the stump which I marked and rewarded. He took his treat, thought for a couple seconds, and then put his paw on it again. Yes! He gets another treat. This happens twice more.

I then continued holding the lure just out of reach and he sat there for a while with one paw on the stump. When this didn't earn him the reward he became frustrated and jumped up towards my hand. As his paws came down, they both briefly scraped the top of the stump, so I marked that moment and rewarded him. I'm pretty sure I saw an actual light bulb hovering above his head right then. He promptly put both paws on the stump very deliverately, standing tall and proud and now easily able to take the treat from my luring hand.

This process is shaping in action! We use guidance in the form of a lure if necessary, but the main focus is on timing the marker just right when we see criteria being met, so the dog makes a clear connection in regards to which behaviour earned the reward. We start by marking and rewarding a behaviour that is heading towards the end goal (so in this example, our first criteria is one paw on the object, but the end goal is both front paws on the object with the dog standing up). Once the connection has been made and that behaviour is being offered by the dog deliberately, we withhold the reward. This creates some minor frustration and the dog tries a little harder to earn the reward. In this case he jumped up, causing him to accidentally touch both paws on the object. I reward this unintentional behaviour and he figures out that he now needs to use both paws to receive his reward. As a basic summary, Shaping is slowly increasing criteria by creating expectation of reinforcement and then using this frustration to get "better" behaviours which we can then mark and reward, and now this becomes the new criteria. Seeing puppies figuring out this concept for the first time makes my heart sing ❤️

26/06/2023

A very basic tutorial/example of collar grabs with Rua. Being able to hold your dog by the collar is important, as in an emergency situation when your dog is off leash, the collar will probably be the most effective way of restraining and controlling your dog. We also want to be able to lead the dog by the collar if necessary so that we can move the dog from A to B without needing to get a leash first. This video shows two basic steps for working on collar grabs, starting with basic counter-conditioning of the collar being held and then adding in some movement. After completing these steps, the next thing to do would be adding in some panic and grabbing the collar quickly and unexpectedly, as in the real world it is likely that you will be needing it in a stressful situation where you are having to react fast.

21/06/2023

A quick muzzle training tutorial showing Bear going through the process. Read the captions for a basic summary of each step.

11/06/2023

This is about 10 minutes of training with Cruze from Thursday morning. We're playing a game of tug, with a few different goals in mind.

Impulse Control: Cruze is not allowed to grab the toy until I give the release cue. You will see me presenting the toy and waving it around. If he breaks position to get the toy without permission I say "no", remove access to the toy by placing it behind me, and then we re-set.

Engagement: Cruze gets highly aroused during tug and when he wins he likes to celebrate by running in big circles, parading his toy. This isn't something I want to discourage entirely as I can use it as a jackpot reward, so instead I am focusing on having him re-engage tugging with me when he wins, and allowing parading when it is encouraged and cued by me running around with him.
You will see me drop the toy and move backward a few steps. This draws Cruze in to me, and when he moves forward, I grab the toy and then mark"yes" and reward him by tugging. If he sidesteps me or starts parading, I continue moving backwards away from him and use the long line to reel him in if necessary. We want tug to be a cooperative 2 player game and for Cruze to feel that playing together is far more fun than playing alone.

Targeting: Towards the end of the session, when Cruze has used up some energy and is less aroused, I start focusing on tidying up his targeting so he is putting the toy straight into my hand. While he is holding the toy, I ask for a hand target, which is a behaviour he is very confident with outside of this context. Cruze does exactly as asked and targets my hand with his nose, and when he does I mark "yes" and give a few little tugs on the toy as a reward.
A common problem I encounter here is that the dog will struggle to multi-task and will drop the toy to target the hand. Luckily Cruze has enough possessiveness that this didn't happen as he doesn'twant to drop the toy, but if the dog did drop the toy I would work on first teaching the dog a solid "hold" of the object before starting to ask the dog to perform other behaviours while holding.

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http://www.pawsplus.co.nz/

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Videos

I forgot to take a photo of Cruze this morning, but here's a video of how our down in motion is going. I don't think it'll ever be fast, but the concept is finally starting to click, so I'm happy!

Can you see/hear the difference? We've been working on improving the consistency, intensity and rhythm of Spooky's barking. When we started his bark was more of a squeak and he would only do 2 or 3 before pausing. The first clip is from a little over 3 months ago, the second clip is from today. Great progress 😊 Thanks @malijp72 for helping develop this

Bear was very nervous of Lena in her rain coat this morning, so we spent some time working through it, as well as having Oscar present as an added distraction. We would approach, reward a few times, and then move away to relieve the pressure and give him a break. Once Bear was comfortable with Lena standing still, we progressed to having her moving, and at the end we had a stranger pass by which was another extra thing to work through. Very proud of how well he handled all this.

Heelwork practice with Cruze today. Had a great day training despite the rain. Thanks @nzwolfedogs for filming 🎥

Beth demonstrating one of our favourite games for increasing engagement; ready... get it! One thing I actually really like here is that she misses where the treat lands a couple of times, and instead of searching for ages she quickly checks in with me, which prompts me to throw another treat. Although you could say this might indicate a lack of persistence in finding the treat, I think it shows some intelligence. Why waste time searching for a lost treat when she can simply offer eye contact and get a new one?!

Expanding on visual targeting with Cruze, working on switching between looking at the target and looking back up at me in heel. We also vary the pattern a lot so its not too predictable. This keeps him focused and listening closely, reducing the risk of him anticipating the release cue and wanting to immediately break position every time he's asked to target.

Is your training effective? This video shows the first 2 minutes of Indi's training session today. Upon getting out of the van, she was very externally focused, looking around a lot and struggling to engage with me. So I set up the camera to demonstrate the very very start of how we improve engagement. It's extremely simple, I just wait for her to make eye contact, and when she does I mark "yes!" and reward with food. What you'll also see in this video is a clear improvement from beginning to end. To show this, I have included a timer in the bottom right corner, which is measuring how long it takes for Indi to offer eye contact each time. I have taken each of these times and separated the 2 minutes into 30-second blocks so that we can assess how effective this training session was. In the first 30 seconds, she engages twice. The times are 15.42 and 4.32 seconds, and they average out to 9.87 seconds. 30-60 seconds, we get 3 engagements. These take 14.50, 7.21 and 3.80 seconds, averaging 8.50 seconds. 60-90 seconds; 3 engagements, 13.52, 5.77 and 4.06 seconds, averaging 7.78 seconds. 90-120 seconds; 4 engagements, 1.44, 3.48, 2.23, 8.98 seconds, averaging 4.03 seconds. As you can see, the data shows a gradual increase in the number of times Indi offers engagement, as well as a decrease in the average time it takes her to choose to do so. A great example of positive reinforcement; adding something (a food reward) to increase the frequency of a behaviour (offering eye contact). Now, you don't necessarily need to be taking down and analysing detailed data like this every time you train, but it IS important that you are regularly reflecting on your progress. Are you seeing more of the behaviours you want and less of the ones you don't? If not, it's time to take a step back, assess why this may be the case, and make changes to your plan if required. If your training is not effective, it's not training!

Spooky starting to show more powerful, consistent barking 🥰 Decoy: @malijp72

Yesterday I did two searches each with Buddy and Bear, with just one hidden article. Really pleased to see they both remembered the task from last week. Bear is showing really nice stamina and persistence in his searching. Buddy is quick to look to me for guidance if he doesn't find the article immediately, so I start him searching closer to the article and next week I will probably go back to using multiple hides to increase his chance of success.

Huge improvement with Spooky's barking and his grip today. Thanks @malijp72 for really bringing it out of him in this session 😁 Thanks @fh_dogtraining for filming 🎥

A few clips of Awa and his mum doing the engagement game "ready.. get it" during today's coaching session. In the first clip we are practicing in the carpark with minimal distractions while mum learns the mechanics and cues, and in the next two clips we are working with another dog on the field a decent distance away.