Kool K9 Dog Training

23/06/2025

The puppy socialisation ‘window’ is up to 16 weeks old. If you have got a pup when it was older or you didn’t do any socialisation before 16 weeks all is not lost. However it will take longer for your pup to learn about “life’. You still need to take your pup or older dog out to experience the world around them but you need to have a lot of patience so you do not overwhelm and you also need to make the experience a pleasant one.

17/06/2025

I know there is a lot to think about when you have a young puppy and want to socialise it but if you possibly can, have your puppy visit a well behaved adult dog who will tell your puppy that it is being rude much better than a human would. I do see too many young dogs that want to greet every dog they see and get frustrated when they can’t, barking and pulling forward. So if you dont want this, ask around your ‘doggy’ friends and take your puppy for a visit.

17/06/2025

In the past we have been told that we need to show dogs that we are the ‘boss’, we need to eat before our dogs (letting our dogs see that we were eating a cracker for example before they ate)and that we must always walk through the door before the dog. This way of thinking has been disproved. Instead we need to teach our dogs to be polite, to have impulse control (to wait for their food etc) and to fit in with our family life - all of these behaviours are taught in Kool K9 classes 🙂.

16/06/2025

This subject particularly comes up when talking about toilet training a dog. A person sees a ‘puddle’ and the dog ‘looks guilty’, so it often gets told off. When in fact the puppy has just responded to the unhappy look on the person’s face.

14/06/2025

When you work you would expect to be paid wouldn’t you? And you need some sort of reward to reinforce a desired behaviour. Yes you could use praise and I always would use praise even with a food reward but it is usually not suffice reward to teach a new behaviour.

11/06/2025

This is so much what I believe! I do one on one behaviour consults and so often not much if any training has been put into the dog and further down ‘the line’ the dog can have a significant behaviour problem. You need to do the training with your dog to build a relationship, doggie daycares and dog walking by another person is great to help exercise your dog but they don’t build a relationship with YOU!

This graphic is what no one tells you about training: it’s never a straight line. It’s messy. It’s frustrating. It tests your patience. But you either do the work now—or you deal with the chaos later.

A trained dog gives you freedom. An untrained dog controls your life. Pick your hard.

11/06/2025

Registration open - Out and About With Your Dog Class - Level 2 🐕
🐶 What: Level 2 dog training
📍 Where: Hamilton Hounds Day Care, Grasslands Place, Frankton
⚅ How many classes: 6x classes, one every Monday
📅 When: Starts Monday 14th July final class Monday 18th August
💰 Cost: $195
➡️ Sign up here: https://koolk9.co.nz/classes/
Have you already done some basic training but might feel that you need a little more help? Then enroll in the Kool K9 Level 2 Class.
This class is much more than the standard sit, down and stay.
You will learn to teach your dog life skills.
What should you do when your over-excited dog wants to pull you over to see everyone you encounter in the street? How can you calm a dog that is worried by 'strange' people or dogs and barks at them? This class will cover these things and more!
On the final night, we will take a small field trip so you have the opportunity to use your dog's new skills in real life.

10/06/2025

Being able to read the early signs of arousal in your dog is very important if you have a reactive dog. Once your dog reacts it is not in a ‘thinking state’ so you need to do a U Turn, move further away and try working at this greater distance. At this greater distance you dog can process the training that you are doing with it and learn.

This is one of those little wee secrets with reactive dogs.🤫
If you are really struggling with your reactive dog and have never thought about u turns...this little gem has the amazing ability to help you both.

The biggest reason this helps?

It’s not what most people think.

It’s because you become more in tune with your dog’s body language those first subtle signs they’re becoming unsure, overexcited, or frustrated.

That is key!

Reading those tell tale signs allow you to help your dog and stop those reactions.
I really do appreciate some of these signs can be tricky to spot and they can happen fast !!!

Give it a go if you haven't tried it.
Well worth it.

03/06/2025

I know winter doesn’t feel like a great time to go out and train your dog but you and your dog need it! Your dog is more likely to be bored on the long winter evenings and training is mental enrichment and of course your dog is leaning to be well mannered companion! Join the upcoming Kool K9 class starting Monday 9t June

This basic-level class begins focusing on simple tasks like getting your dog to listen, walk with you and come when called. Basic behaviour is covered – stop your dog jumping up, get it to leave items on the ground and give you back toys and balls. By the end of the class your dog will have the st...

03/06/2025

Because it was raining this morning( often I scatter it across the grass) I got Wave to sniff out and find her food hidden around the garage. She had to practice Stay while I hid her food in little handfuls - some in boxes, some up a higher so she had to get on her hind legs to get them, some under a towel etc so she really had to use her nose. Enrichment ideas do not have to cost you money!

If a dog receives every meal from a bowl it may mean missing a great opportunity to add some interest into their daily lives. In the past, the dogs and their ancestors would have spent a proportion of their time searching out food, and we can use this to include interest and give opportunities for them to carry out natural canine behaviours.

There are many food toys available for purchase, but they can be very expensive on a limited budget. The good news is that offering food-based enrichment doesn't have to involve spending a lot of money!

Three simple food games require no spending and are very simple to prepare, so they are easy for anyone to carry out.

Scatter some pieces of food or treats along the length of a towel/tea towel or some other piece of cloth and roll it up so the dog needs to unroll it and find the food as they go.

Scatter a portion of your dog's daily ration around the garden for them to sniff out. If you don't have a garden, you can hide the food around the house for them to find.

Keep carboard boxes and safe packaging materials like paper from any deliveries and hide food in the bottom of the box and scattered among the scrunched-up pieces of paper for the dog to hunt out.
The added bonus here is also that dogs who love to shred things can then also destroy the box and paper and the only inconvenience for us is the clearing up afterwards. (It is important to note that dogs who may attempt to eat the packaging materials should not be allowed to carry out the destruction phase as this could be dangerous.)

Not all dogs enjoy working like this for every meal - one of my dogs is fine to have one meal a day that he needs to search out but gets hangry and grumpy if it occurs more than once a day. As with many things, it's important to find out what works for your individual dog and keeps them happy.

03/06/2025

I often see a dog having a ‘shake off’ during training. Having a shake off is a good thing as it is a ‘reset’. I often liken it to when there might have been a little stress and just like we might move our shoulders to loosen off some tight muscles the dog has a good shake.

JUST SHAKE IT OFF

A “shake off” is one of many types of body language and is one of the easiest ones to notice.

The shake off can provide us with important insight as to how our dogs are feeling.

Besides being a very effective way to get rid of dirt, bugs or water - dogs can remove up to 70% of water in one single shake off - the shake off is often seen just after something that a dog needs a mental reset from.

It’s a way to flush out adrenaline and could be compared to us taking a deep breath to reset our nervous system and calm ourselves down.

Dogs instinctively know they feel better when they just shake it all off!

It’s their way of saying “Phew, I’m glad that’s over, now I can put it behind me and move on”.

Shaking off is a positive way to calm down, reset and cope with stress – be that negative or positive stress.

It’s a healthy way of transitioning from one emotional state to another.

It’s important to be aware that shake offs may sometimes be caused by an underlying medical issue like an ear infection, allergies, itching or pain.

If you notice a shake off, look at what has just happened beforehand. This will provide a good clue as to what it is that your dog feels they need to reset from.

02/06/2025

It can be hard when you are faced with so many different opinions about dog training to know what to do especially if your dog has a behavioural problem. You need to ask the trainer what is their training philosophy because most do not advertise what that is. I believe in positive reinforced training where a reward of some sort is given to encourage a behaviour that you like whether that is a Sit or to change the way your dog thinks about a scary person. This is combined with management to prevent the dog being able to keep practicing the undesirable behaviour. Positive reinforcement is not permissive so the reward may be removed. For example if the dog is jumping all over you to get you to throw a ball you might put the ball behind your back (remove the reward) until your dog is sitting and then reward by throwing the ball. This article goes into why balanced training is not ideal and to the evidence behind that statement.

Balanced dog training is anything but as negative reinforcement can heavily outweigh any positive reinforcement in a dog's mind.