Us humans have a way of constantly being on the go, always busy, always rushing around.
For some of our dogs this doesn’t help them handle the environment well.
Here we have Junebug. We’ve come to a busy place and if I marched her right in there she would not handle it well, she would get over excited, or a little unsure and be pulling at the end of her leash. So we are slowing down and hanging out on the edge so she can acclimate and adjust to the environment. When she checks in with me I offer her food to get an idea of where she is at. Can she eat? Is she eating calmly or frantically? Can she follow a simple cue? The answers to these questions give me an idea on if she is ready to keep moving or if we need more time.
This slowing down goes for not just out on the walk, but also before the walk. Before you leave the house, before putting on your harness, collar, leash, before getting out of the car and then before taking the first steps of the walk.
This is not about any position, I could care less if the dog is sitting, standing or in a down. This is about assessing if they are ready to move to the next part of the walk.
Do you rush to get out onto the walk? Or do you take the time to allow your dog to process the environment or the changes going on around them? This is especially important for anxious or reactive dogs.
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Do you feel like you are so limited because your dog is reactive? Like your world has gotten smaller? Maybe you thought your world would get bigger with all the adventures you had planned but it’s not quite reality yet?
Let’s help open your world up again.
So Daiquiri here can be reactive to sudden environmental change. When one person appears suddenly out of nowhere she has a hard time. For now it has meant that narrow bush trails aren’t always the wisest choice for her. Sometimes cafes aren’t the wisest choice for her either. Street walks can be unpredictable and scary for her. But her world is far from small!
My walks might not look like the boring mindless march that “normal” dog owners do, but I think we have a lot more fun and an enriching time.
We can:
✅ do trick training in an open space like industrial areas, fields etc
✅ play her favourite games (flirt pole) in an open space
✅ be prepared for the random people that appear with pattern games we have practiced
✅ scentwork
✅ agility training
✅ have a picnic in the park
✅ go camping
✅ go to bush trails with wider walkways
✅ hoon around at the beach
I’m ok skipping the mindless marches when we get to do all this fun stuff together instead. And you know what, she enjoys these things way more than a street walk or cafe visit. You don’t have to have a perfectly well behaved dog before you’re allowed to do the fun stuff! A perfect street walk isn’t the only way to exercise your dog.
Today I challenge you to get creative and think about different ways you can exercise your dog both mentally and physically. What does your dog actually enjoy? How can you do that together out and about? Share your ideas for your dog in the comments below.
This doesn’t mean we avoid the hard bits entirely though. In our next video, I’ll share some of the pattern games we use to navigate our way through the challenging times.
#DogTraining #DogsOfInstagram #ReactiveDog #React
Practice practice practice!
Technical and precision skills have never been my forte. Throughout my whole life I would describe myself as average at best at a lot of things. Probably because I have lacked the precision skills to take the next steps.
It’s very easy for me to tell my clients to keep practicing, 2 minutes every day all adds up, keep going. All those delicious motivational things. So I need to make sure I am doing the same right!
A personal goal of mine is to nail teaching a formal heel. Cookie is my guinea pig for this. She’s very forgiving of my mistakes. This week I’ve been focusing on my body movements and luring skills and how that affects her rear end movement. You can see to begin with we are both fish out of water! We still have a very long way to go but look at her booty swing round now! We are finding our groove. We just needed to practice! I could watch videos and read about heeling all day long but it won’t come together until we PRACTICE!
If you are stuck on training something at the moment, get out there and practice. Worst case scenario it’s a shambles, best case scenario you have a lightbulb moment. But even in those shambles sessions we still learn things and refine our skills.
Go get out there and train your dog! 2 minutes, see what you can achieve!
Video description: clips from multiple sessions practicing formal heel work with a black dog.
#Heelwork #FormalHeel #Obedience #DogTraining #DogTrainer #DogTrainerNZ #DogsOfAotearoa #DogsOfWellington #DogHandler #DogHandlers #DogTricks #BullyBreed #PittieLove #ShutUpAndTrain #RunYourDogNotYourMouth #RewardBasedTraining #PlayBasedLearning #BalancedTraining #LIMADogTraining #DogTrainingAdvice #DogTrainerLife #LifeWithDogs #AdventureDog #Practice #PracticeMakesProgress #PracticePracticePractice #PutTheWorkIn #DoTheMahi #PracticeDaily #MessyTraining
How to teach: walking backwards
1. Lure or shape your dog onto a platform or target of a different texture. Reward them a few times here to build value for this position. If you don’t understand luring or shaping let us know, we have some videos planned to explain these training techniques.
2. Pop a piece of food on the ground slightly ahead so the dogs body has to rock forwards to get it. When they rock their body back to that original position mark yes and reward.
3. Now you can start placing that piece of food further forwards away from the target so the dog has to come off the target, wait to see what your dog offers but we want to mark and reward movement of the back feet. You may have to splice this down into baby steps so just marking and rewarding a shuffle of the back feet, lifting a back paw.
4. Once they get the idea that moving that back legs to the target is the criteria we are after we can go further distances.
5. Name the behaviour. We don’t name it til we love it and the dog knows what it means. Call it what you like, back up, reverse, beep beep, it doesn’t matter what you call it.
6. Fade out the target.
7. Pat yourself on the back, you just taught your dog to walk backwards.
Trouble shooting:
My dog circles round and walks on to the target instead of backwards?
Try this is in a hallway or somewhere narrow so the easiest option is to use the back feet.
My dog just stares at me blankly or barks at me?
We’ve just moved a bit too fast, go back to the previous step.
Practice this a couple of minutes every day and your dog will soon be moon walking!
Give it a go and tag us in your attempts.
#DogTraining #DogTricks #Tutorial #DogTrickVideo #DogReels #DogReelsOfInstagram #DogOfTheDay #WalkBackwards #BackItUp #BeepBeep #Reverse #Muttstagram #MuttsOfInstagram #BullyBreed #ShutUpAndTrain #ErrorlessLearning
Clarity. A lot of trainers or handlers speak about clarity in training or living with your dog, but what does that actually mean? Clarity: clear and easy to understand is one definition I found. One way I like to provide clarity for a dog is through a marker system. Most of you have probably been given a clicker or told to use yes as a marker. But what does your clicker or yes mean? Was that explained to you? Do you have a criteria it’s used for? How does this help provide clarity? A clear marker system makes it predictable and clear to your dog - When they’ve done a correct or incorrect behaviour and exactly where their reinforcement is coming from. We proofed Juno’s marker system with me as a new handler to her, which her mum has done a sterling job implementing. Yes = direct reward from human Get it = indirect reward away from human/go find the reward. When Juno hears these markers she knows exactly where she is going to get reinforcement. And we have pinpointed the exact behaviour we liked that led to the reinforcement. I could just make it obvious to a dog where the reinforcement comes from with my body language but there could be uncertainty still or my body could be saying one thing when I really meant something else, dogs pick up on such small body language that we don’t even realise sometimes. So by having predictable patterns and outcomes this plays a role in building confidence and resiliency in our dogs. But it also helps us humans be more clear about what we mean. I know I certainly feel more confident when I know exactly what to expect from a situation. Do you have a marker system with your dog? If you don’t I am here to help, book in a coaching session or zoom call with us and we can get you started on helping you and your dog understand each other a little better. #DogTraining #MarkerSystem #ClickerTraining #YesMeansYes #DogTrainer #GermanShepherd #WorkingDog #GermanShepherdsOfInstagram #Clarity #ShutUpAndTrain #DogTrainerNZ #DogsOfWellingt
Just a bunch of cool owners and dogs developing play skills at our play club last weekend. If you would like to join future events or our play Facebook group drop us a message.
The chin rest. Great little behaviour that can help with vet visits and grooming.
Once the dog has learnt the behaviour with duration you can start to add distractions, such as lifting a paw, an ear, touching their body, making a loud noise, whatever you like.
The goal of this behaviour is the dog stays in place until we give them their marker (the sound we make that means the task is finished get a reward from me). So we could get to the point where your dog is in their chin rest position, the vet inspects them or gives them vaccines or whatever else and then we release them.
We’ve been working on this for a couple weeks with George and he is getting some great duration now. Our next step will be the distractions!
How does your dog handle vet visits? Would you like help with behaviours like these to help make the experience easier for you, your pup and your vet? Send us an email to book in a session with us either in person or via zoom.
Video description: a training session with a golden retriever working on their chin rest
#CooperativeCare #ChinRest #VetCare #Grooming #DogGrooming #DogTrainer #DogTrainerLife #StartButton #GoldenRetriever #GoldenRetrieversOfInstagram #DogsOfAotearoa #DogsOfNZ
Weekend Warriors Assemble!
We are going to try a new location of Evans Bay Parade for our group walk on Sunday 4th December at 9am.
This is a casual session to work on your loose leash walking around other dogs and the general distractions of the real world.
The whole family is welcome to attend and it’s a fun wee community of like minded owners.
If you have any questions or would like to RSVP, flick me an email to
[email protected]
#WeekendWarriors #WeekendWarriorsAssemble #DogWalk #DogWalking #DogTrainer #DogTrainers #DogsOfWellington #LoveWelly #DogLover
When you feel like you aren’t getting anywhere, look back or take a think back to your before!
Cookie’s loose leash walking didn’t change overnight. It came from consistently putting in the work a few minutes at a time. When I look at Cookie’s after it would be silly for me to think that being a few paces ahead here or there is a problem. Look where she came from!
So here’s your reminder to have a little reflect on where you and your dog have come from. Take a moment to celebrate the wins, big or small.
A huge thank you to Parrotdog Bar for hosting us at Pup Pub Club last week!
We had such the variety of dogs, from young puppies, to reactive dogs, to excitable dogs and all the varieties in between. These sessions are for everyone. If you want to invest the time into your dog we are always going to support that and do our best to make it accessible for you!
For our pub club we go through exercises to set you off with great foundations you can practice anywhere and everywhere and give you the owner tips and advice on how to manage and prepare for your next visits to the pub with your pup.
I am a big fan of real world training and making the environment realistic but achievable for both ends of the leash!
Big thanks to all that came to our session.
If you are interested in our next session, sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know the next dates
www.cosycritterspetcare.com
Training or quality time with your dog can happen in the small five minute windows you have through the day. We’d done our morning walk and I needed to pop in the supermarket. Supermarket car park was a great opportunity for a five minute play and train session. There’s all sorts of noises, especially in an underground car park, people and cars going past and random things.
This little session will have been a great confidence building exercise for Daiquiri. She’s often very unsure about sudden changes in the environment and when she’s unsure she communicates through barking about it or at it! Whilst that communication is fine in some ways, I also want her to feel confident and safe even when things appear suddenly or something changes unexpectedly in the environment. I’m so proud of how she handled the trolleys going past, she didn’t care one bit and her body language was nice and loose.
She’s not magically not scared of things now, but this has added a positive experience around sudden change that will be beneficial to building her confidence, optimism and resilience.
Video description: Abi training and playing tug with Daiquiri in an underground car park.
#DogTraining #DogTrainer #ConfidenceBuilding #Relience #BullyBreed #PlayWithYourDog #TugLife #DogFriendlyNZ #DogsNZ #DogsOfWellington #DogsOfAotearoa
Easy wins
Sometimes you or your dog just need an easy win! Behaviour modification can be really draining and it’s easy to get sucked into keeping on pushing and changing criteria. But you’re allowed to have an easy win sometimes. I encourage it. In fact it can boost your confidence and your dogs.
In play we often talk about giving the dog an easy win to boost their confidence and I think that applies to many aspects of training too. If the criteria is always getting harder and harder it can be tough to stay motivated. It’s a fine balance between pushing a bit to make sure we stay on track and reach our goals and not just staying in our comfort zone. But if the learner could do with a little confidence boost, an easy win here and there might be a good call.
Video description: reactivity training session with Hadlee the Airedale, just existing and watching and engaging with the handler on a grass field with a golden retriever in the distance
#DogTraining #DogTrainer #BehaviourConsultant #ReactivityTraining #ReactiveDogsUnite #PositiveReinforcement #PositiveReinforcementTraining #RewardBasedTraining #Airedale #AiredaleCommunity
We’ve started teaching Koda the value of being on a bed/place/mat/whatever it may be.
This girly is great at switching off when she is in her crate but left at liberty for now she is in everything. She’s a pup, of course she wants to be involved and into everything. So we’ve started teaching her “place” and how to choose to settle by herself.
Yes management with a crate is easy but I think it’s important to teach an off switch and show our dogs how to relax at liberty too. I made sure Koda’s needs were met first with toileting, feeding, play and physical stimulation, this was the piece of the puzzle to her mental stimulation needs. All I’m doing is showing her there is value in being on the bed and doing nothing. She chooses to get on it and she gets rewarded for that. It’s a lot of off and on the mat in the beginning.
Koda is a super star and so much fun to train with.
Next we will start working on this behaviour with the three d’s (distance, distraction, duration). Stay tuned for her progress!
Breaking the behaviour down into tiny steps. Remember if you need help breaking down behaviours or creating training plans you can DM us to get some guidance on this.
Video description: a Merle collie puppy learning to go to her bed. The video is sped up and is the puppy getting on and off the bed. She is given a food reward each time she chooses to go on the bed.
#DogTraining #DogTrainer #DogsOfAotearoa #Merle #MerlePuppy #BorderCollie #BorderColliePuppy #BorderColliesOfInstagram #BorderColliesOfNZ
Reactivity training
This is a clip from a training session with Indy from a few weeks ago. We are working on helping Indy feel more comfortable in the presence of strange dogs. We stay at a distance where Indy is intrigued but not intensely focused on the other dogs. Every time he looks away, I mark that with a yes and then give him a food reward.
Does your dog bark, lunge or get over excited when seeing other dogs? Drop us a message to work with us and make walks more enjoyable for you and your dog.
Video description: an Australian shepherd sat on a park bench, watching two dogs run around on a field. When Indy the Aussie shepherd looks away the handler says yes and gives him a food reward.
#ReactivityTraining #DogTraining #PositiveReinforcement #PositiveReinforcementTraining #ForceFree #ForceFreeTraining #ReactiveDog #ReactiveDogsUnite #MuzzleUpMonday #MuzzleUpProject #MuzzleUp #MuzzledDogsAreGoodDogs
Puppy class
Puppy class!!!
Week 1 is done and dusted. I’m not gonna lie guys I was actually really nervous before class!
Puppy class can be a bit of an overwhelming environment for some puppies. But it’s also a great place to build some solid foundations. Some of our puppies started learning that it’s not always play time and the fun stuff comes from their handlers.
Today we spent a bit of time chatting through how dogs learn through associations and consequences. We introduced a clicker or marker. We found out what each puppy enjoyed most as their reward. We worked on the behaviour of eye contact and then started luring any behaviours their handlers wanted to try (sit, down, spin).
I feel so honoured to be working with these great teams and I can’t wait to watch these pups grow!!!
Video description - puppy class being held in a village hall. We have 7 puppy and handler teams practicing new skills.
#PuppiesOfInstagram #PuppyClass #DogTraining #PuppyTraining #PuppyLove #PuppyLife #PositiveReinforcement #PuppiesOfWellington #LoveWelly
Well dogs are always learning whether we are in an active training session or not! So use that to your advantage, capture behaviours you like when they offer them, create positive or even neutral associations with the things going on around them, be consistent with your expectations or rules for them. Training can happen all through your daily life with your dog, it doesn’t always have to be something you struggle carve out time for. Of course it can do active training sessions for specific things and I encourage that too. But training can be as simple as sitting and doing nothing in the environment, practicing waiting at the door before charging through, going to their bed whilst you do the cleaning or whatever else.
Video description: various clips of dogs and Abi practicing loose leash walking
#DogTraining
#DogTrainer #DogTrainerNZ #PositiveReinforcementTraining #ForceFreeTraining #ForceFree #LooseLeashWalking #DogsOfAotearoa #DogTrainingTips #DogTrainingAdvice #DogTrainingIsFun
Coming Soon!
When you run a business you wear many different hats. It turns out you can’t just be good at the thing you like doing. But you have to learn stuff about social media, marketing, building a website, accounts, tax, many many boring admin things!
Admin is my least favourite part of running the business BUT we have some exciting new things coming your way in the near future so updating the website today is getting me enthused for what’s coming next!
Random fact, I don’t drink coffee! I know some of you may shun me for it but I haven’t drank coffee in years. I’ll take all the herbal teas under the sun though! Today’s brew is green tea and mandarin. Mmmmmm!
#BusinessOwner #SmallBusiness #SmallBusinessOwner #SupportSmallBusiness #SupportLocal #DogTraining #OnlineCoaching #ContentCreation #Admin #PositiveReinforcementTraining #DogTrainerLife
What you would like to see more of from us? Drop a comment or ping me a DM!
Video description: Abi is sat at the laptop updating the website, a close up of one of the new pages and a sneak peak at what is coming soon. Abi celebrating with a well deserved cup of tea!
What was your dog bred to do?
When looking at a behaviour “problem” it’s really important to look at the whole big picture.
Let’s look at Franklin.
What’s the behaviour? Reactive displays to other dogs when they run.
What was his breed bred for? Frenchies come from English bulldogs bred to take down bulls and a French terrier that was bred for ratting. Sooo we have a dog that is pretty tenacious, alert and reactive to fast movements and quick to arousal.
Now we know what the breed was bred for its quite easy to understand why reactive behaviour happens around fast moving objects, even if those objects are other dogs at the park.
So yes we could go down a very boring strict obedience and suppression route which likely would lead to frustration for one or both ends of the leash and we wouldn’t be honouring where the breed came from or what they are. OR we could work with those genetic traits and provide outlets for Franklin to do all those things that are hard wired in him. Then when we have found an appropriate outlet we can incorporate obedience into that.
Those reactive behaviours aren’t bad, they are currently just misplaced. So let’s put them some place useful, onto the tug toy! In this session Franklin was outside of a dog park where other dogs were running and playing, he was no longer interested in reacting to them because he had an outlet where he was able to satisfy that need.
Next time your dog does something “naughty”, ask yourself what need they might be trying to fulfil…
Video description: Franklin the frenchie and Abi the handler are playing with a rabbit fur tug outside of a dog park, doing reactivity training.
#Frenchie #FrenchiesOfInstagram #FrenchBulldog #FrenchBulldogsOfInstagram #DogTrainer #DogTraining #PlayWithYourDog #CanineEnrichment #PlayWay #DogTrainerLife
I get to work with some pretty cool dogs! Thank you to each and every one of you that invite me to be part of your dogs training journey! It’s a massive privilege and I’m forever grateful!
