Sometimes little Remi likes to be assured that things will be okay, and we’re never ones to ignore a pup who needs extra comfort. ❤️
Happy Friday, friends! Let the weekend shenanigans commence. 🐾
Arlo the golden retriever had a busy day of meeting a few dogs behind a barrier and on leash. By using a barrier, we’re able to help Arlo slow his pace at investigating new dogs, and guide him in making better choices around them. Such as not putting himself in a spot where he lingers too long and causes himself to suddenly feel crowded in by them. By taking things slow, it also helps us communicate to his owners what to look for when Arlo is ready for the next step. Which is guided leash walks with dogs! 🐾 Arlo has had some unfortunate incidents around other dogs that aren’t his close friends, which have caused his owners to lose trust in how he’ll interact with them. So it’s a huge step forward for Arlo to be able to start forming trust in us to keep him safe and not find himself in a questionable situation. And a big thanks to our helpers Max and Winnie, for giving him a positive experience that prevented him from feeling overwhelmed and defensive.
This morning was a busy one, as it was Blue and Winnie’s first time at the beach! Blue was so confused about the ocean water, but what a great opportunity for his puppy brain to register different types of sensory feels.
Such as the sand between his paws 🏖️, the taste of the salt on his tongue 🌊 , and the smell of the seawater in his nose. 🐶
All these little things help in creating a positive picture for Blue. As a puppy, he’s collecting new experiences that he decides are either scary or fun! We want training to be enjoyable and the places we visit to leave fun memories. So when introducing new experiences, we take the time to guide our puppies into feeling safe and secure, instead of leaving them feeling unsure or overwhelmed.
It’s Blues very first outdoor dining experience, and he rocked it! This is where Blue must practice calm and relaxed behaviors in order to allow everyone to enjoy their meals.
For those who know Blue, relaxed is not part of his dictionary. 😂 He is wild, and free and doesn’t abide by any rules except for his own.
But, after almost a week of shaping and conditioning, we’re starting to show Blue that there’s a whole new world to experience, but only if he can follow a few simple rules.
Can you count how many dogs there were during lunch with us? 🐶
Cooper 🐾
Cooper, our sheepadoodle in training, has officially integrated into playgroup on the field!
He’s finally on his way to making more friends where he can happily and confidently play to his hearts content. Before, we had to take it extremely slow and find the right dogs for Cooper to meet due to his overstimulation and reactivity, which made it unsafe to trust him in a large group.
But with his training, his owners dedication, and us understanding what he needed to be successful, we are overjoyed to give Cooper more freedom and healthy experiences with dogs. ❤️
Hawt Dawg, it’s Friday! 🐶😂 We hope everyone’s having a good one!
Daycare can be rowdy (with fun!), but the one thing we make sure is to never disturb our neighbors with unruly or rude behavior towards them. That means fence fighting or just barking at the neighbors for enjoying their yard.
So when our neighbor popped out with their dogs and started talking to us over the fence, it was a quick energy switch from playing to chilling. A calmer mind has a much easier time listening versus one that’s panicked. Some of these dogs do have stranger danger, so their initial reactions is to bark at the unknown. But if you get one dog barking, everyone will want to join in. Uncontrollable barking isn't a behavior we let any of our dogs rehearse. 🙊
All of our boarding, daycare and training dogs have to be able to have some level of listening and cooperation with the human in charge. It's something that trainer Michelle reinforces daily with our guest dogs. ❤️
Hard work and commitment pays off since we only had to remind these guys once to give space away from the fence to prevent any excitable or nervous barking.
Good job Friday crew! 🐶
Little Nellie was an extremely shy girl during her first few days of staying with us. So we were very happy to see that she made quick friends with Winnie.
Winnie may be big, but she’s shown us that she has a gentle side with our nervous little. And Nellie adores her. ❤️
Our board and trains Albus and Bo taking advantage of a beautiful day for a training walk. With a special guests, Bo’s mom and son!
We took the pups for a walk around the park while kids played, and practiced keeping a calm brain and confident self.
Baloo is at it again in helping Chevy the rottie during his training session. Both boys have different goals, but that doesn’t mean the process is similar!
We found that dogs on an elevated surface really captures Chevys attention, which results in him not paying attention to his owners. And Baloo just wants to say hi to all the dogs, with no hesitation 😅
But thanks to all the hard work Chevys owners have done, they were able to help Chevy recover from the excitement of seeing Baloo on the platform. Chevy is mindful of his pace on the leash, and successfully walks past Baloo without the fear of him reacting negatively.
Also big applause for our friend Baloo who stayed in his place, and respected Chevys space by not trying to follow him to greet. Instead he focused on his trainer, calmly waiting for the next direction.
We finally reached the moment where Gus was ready to play with other dogs. Gus doesn’t have much experience with dogs, especially positive ones since the last big incident involved a dog tearing the tip of ear. So we can understand why he would be weary of other dogs, and why his reactivity exists.But this time, we are able to give him a whole new perspective. Instead of thinking they’re out to get him, Gus got to not just see, but experience the beauty of what it’s like to be able to play with other dogs who have healthy mindsets. Thank you to our duo, Lucy and Vida, for playing a crucial role in helping Gus’ change his mind about what it’s like to actually be around other dogs. 💕
Baloo is small but mighty pup who loves to impulsively rush at things that interest him. For example, new dogs and people! So it’s been our job to help change Baloos initial reactions at seeing challenging distractions.
Instead of trying to tell Baloo “leave it” or throw verbal commands at him to ignore the others, we switch to rewarding Baloo when he shows disengaging behaviors on his own. By taking this approach, this helps Baloo understand faster that there isn’t a big reward for rushing other dogs/people on leash. But there’s tasty treats to collect when he starts to make better choices at distractions.
Thanks to Chevy and Javi for helping us with Baloo while working on their own individual goals. ❤️
Anyone else enjoy the moments of snow during the day? Winnie and Kimber sure did! ❄️
Thanks to our friend Sailor for welcoming Vanilla Bean and Rosie back into daycare! Vanilla Bean the poodle easily gets overwhelmed, and Miss Rosie the frenchie can sometimes be a little socially awkward 😅
So we’re reintroducing them to our play group by matching personalities and play styles so they can reacquaint to our play routine once more.
Who else baby proofs their house not for the kids, but for the dogs?🖐🏽 We know we can’t be the only ones!
Lots of people assume we have the lock on the trash for the kids. Which is a fair assumption. But no, the reality is the lock on the trash is for none other than Sally.
She’s mastered opening the door by creating a crack with her raccoon paws and sliding that bad boy open to find nothing but glorious trash goodies.
You might ask yourself, how does a dog trainer not solve this problem? As a trainer who works with multiple types of dog personalities and behavior, the first thing we look at is why is my dog doing this. It’s an easy answer when it comes to the trash, because it’s the ultimate reward! And for Sally, it’s paid off a bunch when someone forgets to latch it closed.
But some issues go much deeper than a surface answer. In Sally’s case, she’s a primitive breed that was born in the streets to street parents. Genetically, she’s more inclined for forage and be independent. Again, it’s paid off for her to be this way as well so double reinforcing.
Instead of creating conflict where conflict and frustration can be avoided, we use management. Short of keeping Sally closed off to the house, even if we made so to not allow her to reinforce this behavior while we are physically there, how can we do that when we aren’t in the same room or doing an errand in another part of the house?
This is where management comes into play. This way by using a latch that she can’t open on the trash cabinet, we don’t hurt the relationship we’ve worked hard to build with Sally.
But that doesn’t stop her from testing that trash cabinet, especially if she knows we tossed something delectable in there.👹
Happy Valentine’s Day from us at Sage Canines! 💌 When we say it was a full house, it was a total full house for daycare today! And we couldn’t be happier to share a day filled with love and fun with these pups. Although everyday is a day full of love and crazy fun. 😜 Enjoy the day, and the small bits of snow that made the moments a little more special. ❄️
Time to unwind after a long work day 🐶
Joey has been accumulating tons of positive dog experiences left and right! He made fast friends with our foster girl Winnie, and loves that she can keep up with his goofy play-style.
Prior to Joeys training, his owners were very worried about how he reacted towards dogs and weren’t sure how he would interact with other dogs since he already had a bad experience with another family members dog.
The one big thing we learned from training with Joey is that he struggles with high-arousal play and behavior from other dogs. He himself has a hard time regulating those big emotions he feels when dogs are high-strung around him. So it makes sense how that mixture of energy would clash enough to create a dog fight.
But after intensive training and his owners dedication, we’ve helped shape the way Joey feels about dogs and provided him with the right play partners. Before Joey wouldn’t be able to rough house with a dog like Winnie without feeling overwhelmed and cornered. Look at this happy guy now! ❤️
Cooper the sheepadoodle has been doing day trains for a few weeks as we get a better understanding of how he feels about other dogs. You wouldn’t know it by seeing him in the videos now, but this bouncy guy is very vocal and reactive on leash, and supposedly has gotten into 1 altercation with a dog with his previous owner.
With that knowledge in mind, we’ve taken it slow in introducing him to other dogs and reading his body language to help predict how he’s going to react.
After initial 1-on-1 introductions over time, we decided it was time to expose him to other dogs in a more open setting. We started off with controlled and managing him on a long leash as we built trust and helped Cooper control his excitement having more access to the dogs.
And after a few set-ups of controlled introductions to open play, we were able to let go of the long leash and give Cooper the opportunity to explore freely and interact freely with the other dogs. Of course knowing that Cooper can become easily overwhelmed, we are close by to guide Cooper away if interactions or play become too much.
We definitely mark this as a BIG win for Team Cooper!
