Coaching owner engagement with their dog
Coaching Blue's Mum to build Blue's engagement and focus with her.
A lot of my work is supporting and coaching owners on how to build strong relationships with their dog.
In case you can't guess from the sound, I totally LOVE seeing this union start to blossom.
Building engagement with Blue
Building engagement with Blue.
Blue is easily excited and likes to rush towards things of interest to him. This can have unfortunate outcomes, especially as he can take you by surprise with his enthusiastic lunges!
Getting him to be highly engaged in working with his handler is essential. The more eager he is to respond to anything we ask him to do, the easier it is for him to learn that he can get more pleasure from his handler than other distractions. There was a person that Blue would usually rush towards and give an energetic greeting😆
The more his brain is in 'working mode', the happier he is.
Camera shy Charlie!
Charlie is such fun to have around, but keeping him out of the water is always a challenge - not that I restrict his access in this heat, however I am conserving water so the trough is only half full, much to his disappointment.
Charlie gets camera shy, He doesn't realise how handsome he is!🥰
George patience!
George!
George is super obsessed with his toys and finds is difficult to contain his excitement, so we practice patience for little periods to build up his frustration tolerance.
Building connection
So many videos of dog training shows the end results, but in actual fact, these videos may have taken many weeks/months to get to the desired outcome.
Depending on the breed, age, past expereinces, learning history and a stack of other things can impact your dog's ability to learn.
Rowan is an older, ex-racing industry Greyhound. He has likely not had a lot of positive training experiences (more force & punishment) His relationship with humans is not a wonderful one so we are working hard to change it for him.
it's a duck!
Eventually Floki was able to get the duck and realise it wasn't anything scary - but he still wasn't sure about the trough (even though he drinks out of it frequently). All I can say is "thank goodness it wasn't a rat" as I was starting to get concerned too!😂😂
Floki & the duck!
So...... Floki might be a great skink hunter, but it seems a rubber duck was a bit unnerving for him.
It's important when your dog is a little unsure of something that we allow them the time to gather the information required, process it (risk assess) and then resolve it in a healthy way.
I will only intervene if it creates a level of stress that the dog cannot tolerate.
You will see Floki leave it and do some sniffing - likely to relax himself and assess it from a distance, before he goes back to reconsider if there is something to actually be concerned about.
Run free Bossy Boy
Run free Bossy Boy.
Today I will say goodbye to my big beautiful barky Bossy Boy.
My heart is broken but very sadly his leg has deterioted to the stage that I cannot manage his pain and the bone is so fragile that there is a high risk that it will break at anytime. He is unable to have any surgical procedure to save the leg.
I feel so blessed that Maureen allowed me to take Boss on after fostering him for several years before finding a home that was right for him.
Boss has grown so much, from the fear of males, hands and things that moved to the big, bouncy, happy and toy/cuddle obsessed dog. He has shown once again, how dogs can recover from a traumatic past to be loving, happy and trusting. Although it's only been 2 years, I love Boss as if he has always been with me.
Until we meet again, run free, bark your head off and play with Monkey.
Layla landed in Aus
They made it!
Layla and her parents have made it safety to Australia.
Super proud of how Layla seems relatively calm - and definitely interested in all the new smells!
Hayley and Michael have spent nearly a year helping Layla with her anxiety and reactivity, along with travel crate training so that the journey was as less traumatic for layla (and them).
Looks life their new life is off to a pretty good start.
Floki the great hunter
Floki the great hunter!
Floki is a working dog breed mix and lives in a residential area. At times he gets over stimulated by the noise of traffic and in particular the rubbish truck and postie (poor posties always become a trigger for some dogs.) While his parents are doing a fabulous job with his training etc at home and they have all come a long way in helping Floki manage his big emotions, He gets to come and stay for a night or 2 on a regular basis. It is a chance for Floki to decompress and just do dog stuff. HIs favourite thing - skink hunting. He's a great hunter (not sure if he actually ever catches any though!)
Daycare didn't work out for Floki (too busy for him) so massive kudos to his owners for looking for something that works better for their boy.
Mayhew massage
Not all interactions that are bonding involve action.
Mayhew plays hard and is having some pain in his legs which is being investigated with the vets, however he loves a massage.
Massage is a bonding experience for both owner and dog but it also increases production of some lovely relaxing brain chemicals as well as helping to keep muscles soft. I also am hoping it will help his sore wrists.
There are several professional dog massagers but you can learn the basic techniques with someone who can train you to massage your own dog. (It's not the same as massaging a human.
It's just another way to provide holistic care for your best friend.
Shadow new toy
Shadow stayed for the weekend and loves his toys.
I introduced him to a 'giggle' toy and initially he was unsure of it - but that soon passed!
Professional Dog Trainer with extensive experience training dogs with behaviour and/or psychological challenges.
