What motivates your dog?
Your engagement can mean the world to them. It holds the key to a lot of aspects of their life. So, get off your butt, and go play with your dog!
Working the puppies!
We got some young puppies with us so we help teach them some redirection focus and command around each other. This helps the pups learn that even with other dogs present, we are still a focal point. We donāt do a lot of training like this at this point, but we will do some.
#wak9daycareandboarding #wak9training #playwithyourdoggo #heytreatguy
Dog Kibble Nutrition Guide
Hello Everyone! My name is Galaxy and I am the pet nutritionist on staff here at Wak-9 Dog Training. I have worked in the pet industry for 8 years and I am currently in school through the Academy of Natural Health Sciences to become certified in Clinical Pet Nutrition.Today I wanted to talk about dog food, specifically kibble. I want to discuss what ingredients to look out for in your pets food, what the ingredients mean, and why your pets food is so important to their overall health and well being.
There are a lot of different options for dog food in todayās market. When shopping for your pets food there are a few different things to look out for. One of the biggest things to look at is the first 5 ingredients in your pets food. This is going to be the majority of what makes up the bag of this food; the other remaining ingredients will include vitamins, minerals, and preservatives. The first 5 ingredients of your pets food should include high quality protein, natural carbohydrates (such as vegetables or fruit), and healthy fats.
Protein: When looking for protein in your pet's diet there's a few things to keep in mind. 1. Deboned meat or āmeat mealā is okay to have in your pets food. Now, let me clarify that. If you choose to have a āmeat mealā it needs to say where that meat is specifically coming from. For example: chicken meal versus meat meal. Chicken meal is actually healthy for your dog because not only does it have more protein in it than deboned meat but it also provides things like glucosamine from the bones which is important for your dog's joints. The reason it holds more protein than deboned meat is because these ingredients are weighed out prior to being cooked and deboned meat holds a lot of water weight. 2. Provide your dog a variety of meat. That does not necessarily mean giving your pet a multi protein diet as for some dogs this can be too rich for them. This means rotate out your petās protein. The reason for this is not only does your
My 2 Cents: Suppression
My 2 Cents: Suppression
Avoidance behaviors in dogs are simply a step towards the end result of practiced impulse control and behavioral modification. Some dogs will not even seem to take this step, and usually that is because they are confident with an even temperament. An example of avoidance behavior is a dog that looks in the opposite direction from a dog they would like to bark at. Avoidance is simply the step taken to practice impulse control over a trigger that used to make them react, hide from, or leave the area entirely.
Suppression behaviors are also a related (but different) step along the way to more canine impulse control. The dog may not seem to be avoiding the trigger, but may seem very anxious while watching or even shaking. They are in the act of suppressing what they would like to do, but not actively trying to avoid it. So they may be staring or locked onto the trigger, but suppressing the action of lunging/barking/fleeing by staying in a sit.
Why am I writing about this? Veterinarians, behaviorists, and other trainers often warn that if your dog comes to these steps, they will get worse not better in impulse control. Dog owners are told that later on their dog will act out in a reactive and aggressive manner, because they are just bottling up these feelings.
The result of this is that people shy away from training their dogs at all or give up entirely. Dogs are really counting on their owners to show them that the world can be safe place when they can follow their owner's lead. The only way you will prove this to them is to continue training and allow them to feel more and more at ease as their expectations of the worst are not met.
Suppression and avoidance behaviors are truthfully a necessary step for some dogs. Training is not over when the suppression and avoidance behaviors begin. These are just the steps dogs take to practice what you want and begin to experience that they are safe. Dog owners and trainers need to continue
Buddy potty training update
I would say that Buddy is potty trained. He has been with us for 12 days and is actively alerting to needing to go potty and itās up to us to listen. He still wonāt be able to hold it very long. But I will say, the uninterrupted nights are now back on the schedule! Also, if you plan on having a puppy during the winter, get your warm clothes ready to make a quick reaction to getting the puppy outside. I placed a pop up tent outside to mitigate frost on the ground and a fireplace to turn on to keep warm if needed. Buddy is in and out in less than 3 minutes now when going potty.
If you have a puppy and are struggling with potty training, we have routines to help with that. If the routines donāt seem to help, you may want to speak to your vet about health issues.
#wak9training #playwithyourdoggo #dogsarelifecoaches #centraloregondogtraining
Testing the new tent.
We got the lights up and we are officially in the tent to shield us from weather. Classes and other training will also take place in here.
Dopamine box with potty.
We use major reward systems that we built with the dog to teach them to do things faster. Ziggy sees this box as a massive reward mechanism so now we use it to get him to do things faster. This includes potty on command. Once potty is done, we get into business. I do this with scent dogs to empty their tanks prior to detection. It cues the dog for working and it will reduce interruptions. Same thing for public access.
Check this outā¦ more info on the Waggle and how we use it here at WAK-9!
#wak9training #wak9daycareandboarding
Jax and Tilly eat the lavender bush
When you send your spouse a video of their dog tearing up your stuffā¦ ugh!!!! Yes, even trainerās dogs have a little too much āfunā sometimes!
#wak9 #playwithyourdoggo
Dippy on scent.
One thing we have been working on Dipstick with scent is not picking up the item when found. Knowing that she also does tracking and hot trails, we played with another dog prior to Dippy getting in this scentā¦ where Dippy went to in the video. The dopamine from another dog can cause a spike in interest. These are things we have to work through and test. Once we got her back on the scent, she was able to find the fire cracker.
My 2 Cents ep 10: Missed opportunities
My 2 Cents ep 10: Missed Opportunities
We miss opportunities all the time when working with our dogs. Some of those opportunities come at times for what you do with your dog every day!
Going outside
Exiting the kennel
Picking up their dookie
Feeding them
Meeting friends
Etc.
The list is long. But what you do with each of those opportunities is something that can become engrained in your dog.
When you go to work, you learn to walk in the door, wait to clock in, go to your station and do the job you were trained to do. Your dog learns in a similar fashion.
Carly and I had a good conversation.
Carly is asking some important questions. This is what we do with those reactive dogs. Our initial āconversationā with the dogs sets them up for what we will expect throughout the interaction. Our clarity with reward of freedom and safety helps the dog understand what we expect and how interactions with other dogs will be throughout the day. If you go to Disneyland, do you have to follow rules? You donāt just get to push people around and cut lines. They set you up for expectations even at the gate.
