Evie Update
Evie Update;
Great progress wiith Evie over the past few days.
Thanks to Lisa for spending hours just lying around with Evie (literally), and with time, patience and some very basic trust building exercises, we have got to this point.
Evie really struggles with trusting humans and new environments. Allowing her to have lots of regular decompression times and building things up at her speed has allowed Evie to feel safer, more realxed and be able to learrn and enjoy herself.
For the first week of her stay there was no way she wanted to interact and certainly bolted away from any attempts to get near her or touch her.
It's still gently, gently with Evie, but we have certainly started the road to recovery.
More reactive dog training
Do you watch those lovely training videos of the perfect end result? ...Well, this isn't one of them, and most of mine aren't.
But I LOVE this video of the recent session with Tig and Taffy and their dedicated humans. Both dogs were highly reactive, nervous and co-dependent, liked a scrap or 2, very 'stranger danger', chase cars etc. Their owners Robyn and Greg have put a lot of work, patience, compassion and understanding in learning to understand their dogs, their needs and their genetic tendencies.
My coaching training sessions include a huge amount of support to help the owners learn as this is often as difficult for us to change as well as dogs. It is a mutual relationship and as in any relationship, there needs to be good communication. We are all in this together.
Little reactive dogs (or not!)
Little reactive dogs (or not!)
One of my favourite things to do as part of my job, is to help dog reactive dogs feel better and have better skills to navigate life. Often people assume this is 'normal behaviour' of little dogs. This is NOT normal behaviour. Often it is because little dogs have been exposed and handle in situations they didn't learn to feel safe in and thier body language cues were not understood. Generally, big and little dogs stuggle with reactivity for the same reasons, but people wouldn't put a big bully dog in the same situation as little dogs, and ignore their behaviour.
In this video we have Evie and Pia who have had serioulsy big feelings about dogs, and Bella (Bella the beautiful). Bella was one of my very first dog cases many years ago and she just wanted to kill other dogs, especially little fluffy ones.
Watch the 2 littlies stroll past kennels full of big, barking dogs without beinng fazed at all.
Timid Evie & Flirt pole
Exciting progress with very timid Evie. Still not keen to be touched or have direct interactive play, so I brought out the flirt pole with the aim of getting her to realise not only is she safe around me, but we can have fun without her fears coming through. She's been here 3 days now and today is the best so far. It helped that she saw me having fun with the other dogs and having little fence plays with Sammie which I think lifted her mood a lot too.
Cleaning time with Evie and Pia
I just cannot understand why it takes me soooo long to get my morning dog chores done🤔🫣🤭😂😂
Little (in size/ big in attitude!) Evie and Pia are having a holiday. I have been working with Evie for a few weeks on her 'reactive' behaviours, especially around other dogs. Pia is her housemate. They do have a bit of a co-dependent realtionship, so also helping them to be able to be seperately occupied when attention is being given to one. Play is a great way to establish this.
Wait for the coming videos of Evie around other dogs, and not really being too bothered.
Bracken ear cleaning
Update on the Curlies needing homes.
Hannah from thinkdog.co.nz is AMAZING - she has volunteered to foster x2 of the kids so she has Rea and Neo (x2 black male & female) and I have the beautiful Bracken.
Very busy afternoon for the pups, 1st meeting Hannah, then being transported to each of our facilities and after all of this Bracken is still super chill.
Bracken has very dirty ears ( pups play hard and get stuff in their ears, and ear cleaning is a regular part of husbandry for all dogs), so we gave it a go.
Honestly, I am super impressed with how trusting this little soul is.
Someone must adopt her before I can't let her go!
Drax & the flirt pole
Yesterday I introduced Drax to the flirt pole.
It took him a little while to get the hang of it, and he is still learning that when his big feet go on it, it becomes a 'dead' toy, until his feet are off it.
This is a great way to provide exercise, enrichment, nuture your relationship in a fun way and promote nature dog behaviours.
We are having the best time.
Sorry Aimi - looks like you will have to get another present for Draxie.🥰
Neo & Bracken lead training
Here are the lovelies Neo & Bracken having their 2nd lesson.
Today we are starting positive lead training.
Love these fresh minds, they are such calm and motivated pups to work with. No real 'issues' to overcome, so getting them confident and well trained early is super important.
Positive name conditioning
Does your dog REALLY understand their name and feel good when you use it?
A lot of my clients don't understand why their dog 'goes deaf' when called.
How many times do you place a 'condition' or negative association with their name.
Think how this comes across to your dog - Neo = come, Neo = stop it, Neo = leave it, etc etc.
I want the name to mean 'YAY' in the dogs mind - not another instruction. I want their name to mean ' pay attention' that's it. Once I have a good positive response to name with attention then what I ask next is more likely to be 'complied' with.
Here is the very first session with 2 young curly coat retreivers (5 months).
How I teach this is name = food
If you watch the full video, you will see how both dogs start to become much more responsive to their name and then start wanting to offer more wanted behaviours, which can then be positively reinforced.
Yes it looks chaotic (especially with 2 dogs at once), training can be chaotic - as long as it is fun.
These 2 beautiful dogs are looking for awesome new homes, so we are starting their training off for the lucky new owner. Neo male (has only 1 eye) and Bracken female
Draxie's ritual
Here's Drax going through his rountine of love and attention.🥰😋🥰🥰
As you have probably realised, Drax is a very regular boarder. He has a very small group of people he feels 'safe' with and his family is big and has lots of family adventures. Bonus for me as I get lots of time with this handsome fella.
In the start of our relationship he was very scared (and scary), but patience and training for what his breed needs to know and now we are super close.
This is is ritual that we go through most days (usually just before bedtime).
Nothing like having a dog that knows what he wants LOL
Zoe station training
Remember little Zoe?
Andrea is doing a great job with her training to help Zoe with her reactivity.
Brinnging in more enrichment and problem solving skills, along with training some new coping skills, Zoe is already showing positive improvements.
Evie - fearful puppy
I am delighted to introduce the very sweet Evie.
Evie is a recent rescue and is very fearful and nervous. She has likely been over exposed and become overwhelmed, while not having any skills to de-stress and build her confidence.
I have been working with her and her fabulously dedicated owner for about 3 weeks.
Progress is slow to build up trust (as expected) but she is coming to stay a few days here so we have started a slow intergration program.
Today was her 2nd 2 hour stay. Last week, there was no interaction and no food taking. Today, much more relaxed, taking in her environment and coping pretty well. Even had moments of investigation, before getting ready for a little nap.
I am so excited to share the progress on this wee treasure.
Professional Dog Trainer with extensive experience training dogs with behaviour and/or psychological challenges.
