Just a romp in the “digging pit” on a nice summer weekend 🐶
Working on that walk!! Do your walks look like this? If they don’t, they can! Both Olympia and Maggie came here pulling their owners like crazy. Walks were unpleasant and exhausting. These girls have learned how relaxing and fun walks can be with a learned set of rules for accompanying their humans, and the humans report that it’s now a joy to walk their dogs! It’s one of the best parts of my job when I can change the relationship owners have with their pups for the better.❤️🐾🐾
Training takes all shapes and sizes. Every dog and every situation is unique. These two ladies found each other during pandemic, but walks were a big problem. With structure, guidance and the proper use of tools to communicate, little Miss Bonnie is no longer pulling and surging ahead too quickly for her new mom. Now, she is looking to her owner for direction, checking in, keeping next to her side, making their daily walks a pleasure. All this and we’re only on puppy lesson #2!
Old friends reunited, new friends made, lots of carrying on and goofing off- all this and more was hopefully yours over the long Thanksgiving weekend. Thank you to everyone who came and stayed and played while your humans got together, too! 🧡🦃🥧🐶
It’s Puppypalooza! What do you get when you put a 12 month old, a 10 month old, and a 4.5 month old together? Why, “Monkey in the Middle” with resident goofball Bravo starring as Monkey, of course.😂
Being social is an important part of the learning process for a young dog. Yes, the puppies are here for training, but young ones need a chance to blow off steam and learn pack etiquette and doggie social norms. Even though it looks like “just playing”, there is still a lot of learning going on!
Must be the chillier fall temps setting in, but there’s no #sundaychill here at the training center this morning, so instead we are going to talk about the importance of SOCIALIZATION!
Socialization between dogs goes both ways when it comes to size differences. Everyone knows the “big dog in a little package” dog, or the “Napoleon Complex”, where a little dog acts like a big dog. The root of that mindset is usually a fearful little dog. If you own a little one, it’s super important that you take every opportunity to have him/her interact in a relaxed way around larger dogs so that they learn appropriate dog-dog interaction and aren’t reacting in a defensive way around larger dogs. I’m not talking a dog park scenario, I’m not a fan- it’s an artificial environment that throws a lot of unfamiliar dogs together with high arousal and often uneducated owners- a recipe for a fight. Rather, I’m talking about seeking out friends or family who own a larger dog, getting together with them, and giving the little guy some good experiences. Conversely, if you own a big dog, it’s super important to expose them to little dogs (assuming no prey drive) and teach them the appropriate way to play and behave around those of much smaller stature. Below is Bravo, my 10 month old GSD, and his guest Toby, an adorable Westie. Granted Bravo still falls a bit short with some of his obedience commands at the moment (the cobbler’s children have no shoes), but you can be darn sure he’s had an extensive education on how to properly interact with dogs of all shapes and sizes. He’s not only practicing his social skills, he’s teaching Toby that big guys can be gentle and fun. Good boy, Bravo.
#socializationisworktoo
#training
#boardingisbetterhere
Who says blondes have more fun??
#blacklab
#delilah
#objofdogs
The great thing about training is that we can teach dogs when they should be calm and when they should be excited- it’s all about context. It starts by practicing lots of calm behavior during calm times. The time to teach your dog about being behaved at the front door begins with training during quiet times with little or no distractions. Then as the dog learns new door behaviors, you can start to add in distractions and real world situations. They will be able to reference what they learned earlier during lower distraction times because you have patterned the foundational behavior.
Meet Bella the Stubborn Goldendoodle. Bella is with us for a two week board and train to work on her arousal level in and out of a crate. She’s jumping on people, stealing food, nipping the kids, chewing the baseboards-all kinds of nonsense. This is a video I took for her owner, highlighting progress so far, and although my markers are sloppy I felt that it was a good idea to put it up here and let you see how we work on foundational obedience first, and build from there. Up until coming here for training, Bella had called the shots. Even now after a week of working on “down”, she is still not offering it up to me voluntarily-and so it’s repetition, repetition, repetition. I can’t stress that enough. Dog training is not a quick fix. You need to pattern good behavior with tons of repetition.
How can working on Bella’s “down” help stop countersurfing the burgers you just pulled off the grill, you ask? We are changing Bella’s mindset. All of a sudden she can’t call the shots. She has to listen to and obey the human giving her direction. That shift in mindset translates into all kinds of more respectful behaviors. “I’ll think twice about helping myself to her dinner, because she’s in charge”. Now it’s not quite that simple, but you can see where I’m going with this. A dog who sees its owner as a leader and in charge is also learning that free thinking is unacceptable. Bella is well on her way to being a calmer, better-behaved dog- stay tuned for updates on her progress.
Monday morning sillies!
#rex
#bravo
#goofballs
Sunday morning #chill.
#boardingisbetterhere
#chesapeakebaysunrise
#watersedgek9
Offering on-site or in-home dog training, including board and train, to Annapolis MD and surrounding areas.
