Puppy Foundation
Toto, the Shihpoo puppy, learning the "Leave It" and "Take It" cues with his mummy and korkor. His mummy is also using the "Touch" cue that he has just learned, as a recall game.
Nori puppy learning the "Leave It" and "Take It" cues with his family members.
Celebrating small wins! We are happy for Aiko and her mummy especially for her patience and understanding. We received a beautiful update that Aiko is more relaxed now and is able to roll on the grass and enjoy the outdoor!
Puppy Foundation
Pompom the puppy learning Leave It and Take It cue with his mummy.
The first time we met Lottie for her Puppy Foundation Programme, she had already displayed resource-guarding behaviours towards her pawrents if they approached her food bowl. Since our first session, her pawrents have diligently worked on the food bowl protocol through positive association.
During our third session, Lottie's daddy told us that she would bite him when he was holding and offering Lottie her favourite chew. Lottie does not display such behaviour towards her mummy. In fact, Lottie would allow her mummy to pick up the chew for her. We worked on addressing this issue during the session by demonstrating to her pawrents how to create a positive association with Lottie for her to allow her daddy to hold the chew and be rewarded for releasing the chew.
After some conditioning work, we passed the chew to Lottie's daddy to continue the exercise. In this video, Lottie chews comfortably on the dehydrated bone while her daddy holds it.
Fun time with Taro while her pawrents learn about various canine enrichment activities, prevention of Resource Guarding behaviours towards the hands, and helping Taro be comfortable with being handled, through various Cooperative Care exercises.
Thank you Venusology Cafe for hosting Paws for Cause and the video shared on their instagram.
Leo and Bonzai are currently being looked after by a wonderful fosterer while they wait for approval to fly to join their owner after they receive their relocation quarantine approval dates. To prepare them for the flight, we have been guiding their fosterer through the process of crate conditioning to help them feel comfortable and relaxed in their crates. This process requires time and patience, especially for rescue dogs who may have negative associations with crates due to past traumatic experiences.
Bonzai has shown braver behavior compared to Leo. We have received updates from their fosterer, reporting that Bonzai is now comfortable relaxing and staying in the crate while enjoying his food chew. Leo, on the other hand, has shown significant progress by putting one paw into the crate, compared to his initial reluctance to go near it.
In working on crate conditioning, we focus on the following steps:
- Introducing the sight of the crate
- Encouraging the dogs to enter the crate willingly
- Helping the dogs relax inside the crate
- Gradually increasing the duration the dogs stay in the crate
- Introducing the sight of the crate door
- Helping the dogs feel comfortable when the crate door is shut
- Gradually increasing the duration the dogs stay in the crate with the door shut
- Getting the dogs accustomed to various sounds and movements associated with the crate while they are inside their crates
By conditioning the dogs to feel positive about their crates, we aim to make their journey less stressful and reduce the risk of them panicking and breaking out of the crate, having them running loose at the airport, which would be a nightmare for their owner.
We would like to extend our appreciation to Leo and Bonzai's fosterer for their amazing dedication, patience, and care in helping with the training and always keeping the well-being of Leo and Bonzai in mind.
Behaviour Modification DSCC-Dogs
Behaviour Modification
DSCC protocol by Toto's mom and family helper: To help Toto with his reactivity towards dogs by using positive association, desensitization, and counter-conditioning. The goal is to elicit positive conditioned emotional responses in Toto when he sees dogs, so he learns that encountering dogs leads to good things and there's no need to react to make them go away. Toto did excellently well while observing the beagle sitting under the bench.
Sora would previously mouth her mummy because Sora didn't like the hairdryer. After much conditioning efforts from her mummy, we are happy to receive an update that Sora can ignore the hairdryer and no longer mouth her mummy's hands to get her to back off.
"Hi Jen, thanks for the guidance. I have managed to blow sora without her mouthing me!!! So happy!"
Leave It and Take It cue
Puppy Foundation Programme
While teaching Ollie the "Leave It" and "Take It" cues, we noticed that the other dogs from the same household were observing the training session intently and social learning from Ollie. So, we took the opportunity to teach them at the same time!
Behaviour Modification
Snowy the Samoyed learns that staying on the floor is more reinforcing than jumping on the humans including their family helpers.
Puppy Foundation Programme
When teaching your dog the "leave it" cue, the goal is for them to ignore any food or item completely and then deliver the reward separately. Some owners make the mistake of teaching "leave it" while placing food on the floor, then cueing "ok" for the dog to go for it. In this scenario, the correct cue to teach is "wait" instead of "leave it".
Teaching "leave it" is essential to prevent the dog from picking up food, dead animals, or dangerous items outside. If the dog was previously taught to receive the reward on the ground, then they may have learned that the reward is what the guardian has cued to "leave it".
Here's an example of Toshi and his dad practicing the "leave it" cue. Toshi is a fast learner and understood the desired behavior quickly.
It's not uncommon for puppies and dogs to bark, chase, or even bite vacuum cleaners if they're not comfortable around them. However, positive associations can be created by pairing the sound and movement of the vacuum cleaner with good things.
Buttercup's family shared with us that she would often chase after the mop, broom, and vacuum cleaner, and they wanted to learn how to help her with this issue. It's vital to understand that what we perceive as harmless household items can be frightening to our pets. As their guardians, it's our responsibility to help them learn through positive associations to make them feel more comfortable around these stimuli. Scolding or punishing them, or leaving them to deal with it on their own, will only exacerbate their distress.
We began by pairing the visual sight of the vacuum cleaner with positive reinforcement, followed by gradually introducing movement in small steps. We noticed that Buttercup was coping well, so we proceeded to introduce the sound, and eventually, we vacuumed the area. Buttercup had the choice to move away if she wanted, but she chose to stay and wait for rewards while we vacuumed. Well done, Buttercup!
Do you know that dogs can watch TV? Although dogs can see limited colours compared to humans, they can still observe sights and sounds from the TV screen. This is why some dogs barked at the TV screenings when they were not previously accustomed to seeing movements and hearing sounds from the TV.
Some TV programmes have a calming effect on dogs hence the creation of DogTV which was meant to be a canine channel. DogTV programmes have been known to have a calming effect on dogs. We tried watching it before, trust us, it’s sooooo calming that we fell asleep. What was it that we were watching? Two dogs having a long stroll through the forest while doing lots of decompressing and sniffing. About thirty minutes later, they arrived on a beach and started chasing seagulls and then it was another thirty-minute stroll along the beach. Zzzzzzz….
Thinking of ways to promote calmness in your dog? Try letting them watch a canine channel. Here’s cute little Yoshi watching his favourite movie “The Lion King”. Video courtesy of Yoshi’s pawrents.
We will be collaborating with Pet Coach Singapore to take furkids for adventure outings! DM Pet Coach directly to sign up. Your dogs will be in good hands handled by Fear Free certified and AVS accredited trainers.
Silvor's family bought a bell and during our session, his mummy asked if we could teach Silvor to ring the bell for food. And Silvor manage to learn it quickly in less than a minute. His mummy is definitely impressed with Silvor!
DSCC - to Desensitize and Counter-Condition
Creating positive association with the sight of dog for Wang Wang. Wang Wang was previously bitten by dogs which resulted in him learning to react and defend himself when he sights dogs. We guided his mummy on how to execute DSCC to help him feel less threatened whenever he sees a dog.
During the session, we started with a further distance because Wang Wang reacted even though the assistance dog is Wang Wang's friend. As Wang Wang progressively copes better, we slowly decreased the distance. Before the end of the session, we were walking together in parallel with his Sheltie friend.
We also guided his mummy on loose leash handling, how to execute emergency u-turn and how to help Wang Wang get out of situation where he finds it too hard to cope, so that he can learn to depend on his mummy to help him.
Altering of emotion state takes time. Whether Wang Wang will be completely at ease with other dogs depends on him. It is not for us to determine if it is a big deal or not a big deal. How traumatic the previous bite incidents were for him, is experienced by him. What is important is for him to learn that there is no need for him to react and that his humans will help him when needed, good things happen when dogs are sighted and the good things come from his mummy so he can focus back on his mummy instead.
Hunter learning "Leave It" cue together with his mummy. Hunter learnt quickly and understood in just a few repetition. Well done Hunter!
Progress update from Alena's amazing humans. From refusing to go beyond 50 metres near the car pick up point, to able to run around the car. From inability to relax and eat near the car, to being able to take treats on the car's frame. Proud of you Alena! Celebrate small wins!
