Macie is a Heel.Sit favorite. We've loved watching her come out of her shell and try new things. I'm so grateful her mom let us try this. It's such an honor to get to watch dogs learn and grow. I'm so happy with the direction our program is going and that we get to do the work we've always wanted to do. #dogtrainer #DogTraining #dog #dogs
Having a dog with big feelings can be incredibly stressful and discouraging, so it's completely understandable that people want fast fixes. But if you truly want to help your dog feel better so they can respond better, it takes time. While working through these big issues, look for small victories. Mundie never barked, wasn't whining, didn't lunge, barely pulled, was still able to take treats, and recovered quite quickly is huge success. Any one of those things alone would've been enough. #dogs #dog #dogtraining #dogtrainer #reactivedogtraining #reactivedog
Moving off the path when triggers are coming your way gives you and your dog a chance to manage the situation. As I've said before, you can not train away reactivity. What you can do is establish training behaviors and skills that you can rely on that make getting through those moments easier. Mundie has a great default Sit/Stay. I don't need to ask her to sit or stay. She's just going to do that to the best of her ability. When the trigger gets close, she's unable to hold that position, but I can manage it from there. She also knows several great pattern games that help keep her brain calmer in these situations. It's taken a lot of time to get to this point. You can't expect it to happen overnight. #reactivedog #reactivedogtraining #dogtrainer #dogtraining #dog #dogs
The work must go on. I would like to rid dog owners of the idea that when your dog is about to have a reaction, you just jerk them close to you, hold on for dear life and soldier on past it. There are times when this may be your only option, but if there's any other option, please choose that. All that does is prove to your dog that they should be very worried about the thing they were already very worried about. Instead, try being aware of your surroundings and creating space for your dog to manage their feelings. I promise you, it's a much more enjoyable feeling. #dogs #dog #dogtraining #dogtrainer #reactivedogtraining #reactivedog
All of our dogs are "working dogs" but Saison has the most important job of all, drawing names for our weekly raffle. Congrats Moose! You've won a credit for a day of daycare, night of boarding, or a training session.
Round two of our Heel.Sit dog olympics. I paired these two together because they're both more nervous dogs. Marzen is quite a bit more experienced, but tends to fall apart with any real pressure. Ainslee did a great job keeping the pressure on today and he managed to hold it together. This is mostly just silly fun, but also great practice.
Round One Raffle Results! The winner gets a free day of daycare or night of boarding. Congrats!
Heel.Sit Dog Olympics Round One : Puppy Show Down!
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A fun little bright spot on this less than sunny day. If you sponsored a puppy, stay tuned for the drawing, which is coming soon.
Reactive just means having a higher reaction than we would like or deem appropriate. It is often associated with aggression, but it can also be over excitement or stress. Mundie's is born of insecurity. She gets nervous and then gets loud about it. I am lucky that Mundie's reactivity is not incredibly dangerous. I do think in the right circumstances she might bite a person but it would be a quick grab and release not a mauling and she does try her hardest to avoid. A bite is only likely to happen if a person tried to reach for her while she felt trapped. She gets the loudest about other dogs, but definitely does not want to attack them. She wants them to go away. It's important to be honest and aware of these things, so that we have a good idea of the risk and what's appropriate. In these videos, she certainly doesn't look like a dog that's trying to be a problem, but this is after much work teaching her boundaries and how to communicate so she can manage her big feelings. My job is to help her make good choices as much as I can and manage her behavior when she can't. #dogs #dog #reactivedog #reactivedogawareness #reactivedogtraining #dogtraining #dogtrainer
You can not train away reactivity. The role training plays in dealing with reactivity is teaching your dog functional skills that they can rely on when they're having big feelings. for example, Mundie really understands leash skills in a functional way that allows her to enjoy the environment but come back to me when she needs to. She's really good at offering sits, so I don't need to ask for a stationary behavior when it's time to manage her while a trigger passes. She's really good at checking in on her own. She's so good at all of these things that even when she is having big feelings, she's still able to do them. This makes managing her feelings in the moment a lot easier and allows her to make a lot of desirable choices on her own. #reactivedogtraining #reactivedogawareness #reactivedog #dog #dogs
This next series of short videos I'm posting is going to star Mundie and her reactivity. The videos are all from the same walk, where she made a lot of good choices and we saw a lot of good stuff happening. It is a good example of what reactivity can look like after a couple years of work. Early on, Mundie showed signs that she processed information a bit different. I think I knew she could maybe have issues but for the first year, it wasn't really a problem. And then, thanks to some careless people, we had a couple life events that really scared her and flipped that switch for her from being a dog that was a little worried to a dog that was pretty reactive. I wasted a more time than I should have hoping the problems would just resolve before I got serious about working on her reactivity. Once we got to work, she made great progress but of course, there's a lot of ups and downs and regressions.. #DogTraining #dogs #dog #reactivedog #reactivedogawareness #reactivedogtraining
moving is almost always a solid reinforcer, whether it's towards something a dog wants or away from something. The dog in this video is pretty much the finished product of playing this game. Notice how nice and loose her leash is and she checks in regularly. She also has reactivity issues and is going to be the star of our next series, talking about that. #puppytraining #dog #dogs #DogTraining
