Quick video to show how training and being able to communicate clearly with a dog allows for more life experiences! These two dogs are big and strong and can each escalate in play. Being able to stop them whenever needed and go to “place” to get calm and reset helps us feel more comfortable in allowing them to play safely. We could have one or the other place and extend the play or the place time as needed. Without a strong training background, we would probably not feel comfortable letting them socialize. Good boys Max and Riggins!
And our Daycare Duo is.. Apollo and Bernie! And we have a special live action look at these two goofballs during their play session!
One last post for Bodie (since we have had some questions about how he’s doing) before he goes home today. This is one of our final tests for the Board and Train dogs. We use “come” and then “place” and “down” to make sure dogs can go from an excited state of mind to a calm state of mind when asked. Sorry the video is not the best (need an extra hand!), but you will get the idea…
Socializing dogs is one of our favorite things! Some days we trainers have to work a lot harder than others…meaning that the dynamics between different dogs depends on so many things (age, gender, reproductive status, breed, personality, individual history, level of training, etc.) and how much or little we need to manage the group really varies. Today was such an awesome group of dogs! A wide variety in many ways , but they just figured each other out and almost completely managed themselves and figured out a pretty strong hierarchy by the end of the day. What to many people looks like just a bunch of dogs playing, to us is an amazing blend of all kinds of communication. It was hard to pick a video from the day that shows it all, but this one is later in the day once a lot of things had already been worked out within the group. You may notice how the large poodle mix has the strongest and most dominant personality and does a good job at keeping her space and not letting the young guys invade her too much (even though she loves to play right along with them). The black and white dog and the brindle dog are young intact males (aka “the teenagers”!) who have much less strategy or planning in their play. They focus on the front end of other dogs and are much more invasive and rowdy. The pit and the other large dog engage with the young guys on occasion, but don’t have quite as good a grasp on getting them to tone down when they get overstimulated. That sometimes
causes them to stay out of play - without having a reliable “off button” for the rowdier dogs, they could get in over their heads. The smallest dog claims space by getting herself higher than the other dogs. She also uses exaggerated facial features (shows more teeth) and more drastic physical displacement to send an even stronger message to the young guys. She claims her space and lets them know that she has definite limits. It took her a couple days to work that out with the black amd white
We practice thresholds at daycare… Our daycare dogs are expected to slow down; check in with the trainers; and wait patiently; at every single door. It is so important to build in pivotal, yet simple, points of control when socializing. Teaching dogs to respect thresholds carries over to everything that happens after they enter a new space. Dogs are calmer and more in tune with the trainers (better listeners) from this simple leadership exercise.
It’s been a hot couple of weeks for our Board and Train dogs, so we move inside to work on extending the duration and distractions. Here’s Logan mastering the kitchen scene while beating the heat.
