Happy Hound University

11/27/2024

"What's in your pouch?" Wednesday

I have had people ask me for different treat recommendations, since I encourage my students to change up their reinforcers for the novelty factor and to keep introducing their dogs to new foods. So I decided the best place for me to post about this is on our social media!

The links in this post are affiliate links, meaning that I will receive a small commission from these purchases at no additional cost to you!

This week's "what's in your pouch Wednesday" is going to be a little different than usual because I'm going to spotlight a completely different way to reinforce: squeeze tubes!

This time of year, when the weather gets cold enough that it's unpleasant to be outside without gloves on, it can be frustrating to choose between training your dog and being comfortable! That's where squeeze tubes come in. Because they don't require finger dexterity, squeeze tubes are easy to use when wearing gloves or mittens!

There are squeeze tubes on the market that you can purchase pre-made (like: https://amzn.to/4g1ZPPi, https://amzn.to/3Z2eAL0, and https://amzn.to/3Z3DMRp), but I like to fill my own for less waste, more variety, and less expense!

My favorite squeeze tube is the Squeaky Snacker: https://amzn.to/4eEeYFe, which is actually made for toddlers but works great for dog training!

And then what I usually do is mix water, pumpkin (this thins it out some and reduces the caloric content), and some other sort of yummy food together in a blender, then pour it in! You can use "human" foods like goat cheese or peanut butter, but I also often use wet dog food: https://amzn.to/4eSnoZW or (this is gross, I know and I'm sorry): canned tripe: https://amzn.to/3OjN5ro

If you have a squeeze tube option that you love, post in the comments below and we can get a group brainstorm going!

11/26/2024

A trainer is not a trainer is not a trainer.

This cannot be overstated. Dog training is a wildly unregulated industry. You can ask the same question to three different trainers, and get three wildly different answers.

Many people decide which trainer to go to based on how local the trainer is to them, without doing much more research. And while I wish that consumers were protected enough for that to be a wise thing to do, they simply aren’t.

There are still trainers out there who advocate for using electric collars on dogs and simply “turning it up” if the dog they are working with doesn’t cooperate.

There are still trainers who yank on dogs hard enough that their paws leave the floor, calling it a “correction”.

There are trainers out there who yell, throw things, and scare dogs and call it “training”.

So, when you are looking for a dog trainer, I encourage you to interview them. Ask what they do when the dog gets it right, when the dog gets it wrong, and how they set dog and owner up for success. Ask them to explicitly tell you what training “tools” they will use. Ask them what the last seminar they went to was, and how they stay abreast of the newest research in training.

A good trainer, who understands how careful people need to be with their dogs, should happily answer these questions. Anything less than enthusiasm to chat with you, especially if the trainer seems put out that you are asking questions or if they try to sidestep your questions, should be seen as a red flag.

11/25/2024

With the holidays coming up it can be tempting to put off training for your new puppy. But did you know that puppies have a limited window of time during which they can be properly socialized?

Your puppy’s critical window of socialization begins before they even come home, but it starts to close around 16 weeks depending on the breed and individual. This window of time is when your puppy is most open to novel experiences, and when they need to be introduced to new people, dogs, and environments. Early positive socialization helps young puppies become resilient, confident adult dogs!

That being said, DON’T wait to get your puppy into a puppy class. Socialization truly is time sensitive and needs to be done as soon as possible (as long as your puppy has had their first round of shots!)

We have openings in our puppy classes starting in December! Email [email protected] or see our website for complete details about our puppy class program!

11/25/2024

Due to popular demand we've added another good manners 1 class! We have openings in our class beginning December 4th at 7:30 PM! (Please note, there will be no classes between December 23rd to January 3rd to accommodate for the holidays!)

This class is for dogs 5 months and older who have not taken a class with Happy Hound University before! We go over all of the "basics" of training and introduce obedience behaviors including sit, down, stand, hand targeting, stay, leave it, polite leash walking, and more!

We keep our class sizes small to allow for individual attention, and use positive reinforcement, force free, fear free training methods to make sure both you and your dog are having fun!

To sign up email [email protected] or see our website!

11/23/2024

This week’s puppy class learned all about how wheeled objects worked, and practiced some confidence building while we shaped stepping onto their assigned item!

Our puppy class is designed to build confidence and resilience in our young puppies, and puts a real focus on what proper socialization looks like!

We have openings in our puppy 1 classes as soon as this week! For more information and to get signed up, email [email protected] or see our website!

11/22/2024

A HUGE congratulations to our lone graduate from this week, Teddy, who graduated from puppy 2!

Teddy is a very good boy who made great progress in his classes and will continue to learn and grow with his awesome people!

11/21/2024

Did you recently bring a new puppy home but you're traveling for the holidays?

Rest easy knowing that Happy Hound University's puppy raising board and train program isn't like other boarding set ups. Instead of having your puppy spend the majority of their time in a loud, stressful kennel, or having them in their crate for the majority of the day while a pet sitter comes and goes, our board and train program only takes one puppy at a time and your puppy stays in our home, with us.

Your puppy gets a minimum of 4 training sessions a day to work on manners like settling on their mat, coming when called, walking nicely on leash, and more, and they also get to come with us to our puppy classes to get practice with distractions and off leash social time with puppies their age! You will get daily text or email updates to show you how and what your puppy is doing, with video!

If you're interested in a slot over the holidays, we recommend reaching out as soon as possible before we become fully booked! Email [email protected] to inquire about your travel dates!

11/19/2024

Training tip Tuesday: If you’re bringing home a second dog, make sure you’re happy with your first dog’s behavior!

If you are thinking about bringing home a second dog, but your current dog is destructive, excessively vocal, reactive on leash, is a huge jumper, or has any other nuisance behaviors that you can’t stand… think long and hard about bringing home a second dog before getting that behavior worked on!

I am often hired by folks who bring a second dog home, and they’re shocked at how much harder it is to manage barking, jumping, leashed walks, etc. with two dogs.

If you bring home a second dog, there is a very good chance that the second dog will develop some of those behaviors too AND that your current dog’s behavior will become more intense and persistent due to social facilitation (barking and pulling on leash in particular tend to really increase in multi dog households)

Often times people hope that a second dog will tire their first dog out enough that their behaviors will no longer be a problem, but in my experience that is almost never the case. And when training dogs, you’ll almost always need to work them separately at first, which means double the training time commitment for you!

So, if your first dog’s behavior isn’t already where you’d like it to be, work on that before deciding to bring home a second dog!

11/18/2024

Did you recently bring home a new puppy? Join us at our puppy classes!

We have openings to start as soon as THIS WEEK!

Did you know that puppies have a critical window of socialization that only lasts up until they are about 14-18 weeks old (with some research even putting the end of this period as early as 12 weeks)? As that critical window closes, if you haven’t positively exposed your puppy to other puppies and people they may start to develop fear which can lead to long term behavior problems, including aggression.

Additionally, puppies at this young age learn about bite inhibition when playing with each other. This means they learn how to “pull their punches” when they are playing and not bite to hard, so that as adult dogs they are safer to live with and more likely to inhibit the strength of their bite.

We’d love to see you at our classes! For complete information check out our website, or email [email protected]!

11/15/2024

A HUGE congratulations to our puppy 2 for big dogs graduate Azul!

Our puppy 1 graduate Millie!

And our puppy 3 for big dog graduates Chewie, Felix, and Atlas!

These are some very good pups who made great progress in their classes and will continue to learn and grow with their awesome parents! I can’t wait to see you all continue your progress!

11/14/2024

Did you recently bring home a new puppy? Join us at our pay what you can puppy socials and puppy classes!

We have openings to start as soon as NEXT WEEK!

Did you know that puppies have a critical window of socialization that only lasts up until they are about 14-18 weeks old (with some research even putting the end of this period as early as 12 weeks)? As that critical window closes, if you haven’t positively exposed your puppy to other puppies and people they may start to develop fear which can lead to long term behavior problems, including aggression.

Additionally, puppies at this young age learn about bite inhibition when playing with each other. This means they learn how to “pull their punches” when they are playing and not bite to hard, so that as adult dogs they are safer to live with and more likely to inhibit the strength of their bite.

We’d love to see you at our socials and classes! For complete information check out our website, or email [email protected]!

11/13/2024

We love to hear from our amazing clients!

"I met Mary two years ago when Frankie, the lab/border collie mix that we adopted from a local shelter, challenged me in ways beyond my imagination. Mary came to our house numerous times through the past couple years to help us with different issues/concerns. Each time, she asked questions, observed us with Frankie, and gave suggestions, all with much care, compassion and understanding to help us move forward in the most loving and effective way.

Mary has a deep respect for dogs and has taught us new ways to interpret and understand his behavior so we can continue to strengthen our bond and increase mutual respect. She remains my go-to when any new issues arise and I have never been disappointed! Her expertise and caring are immeasurable and deeply appreciated!!"

Thank you so much to Frankie's person for the kind words!

11/12/2024

Please enjoy this candid shot taken of Olive the lab and Darcy the Native American Indian Dog at our puppy classes last week!

Quick PSA: Dogs (ESPECIALLY adolescent dogs and puppies) NEED to be able to play using their mouths. They need to be given the opportunity to grab and mouth at each other, and to chew on each other's faces. While this may look unpleasant to us, this is normal behavior that your puppy needs to be permitted to do!

Allowing young puppies to play this way allows them to practice inhibiting their bite when they do use their mouths; they understand that if they use their mouth and they bite too hard, their playmate will no longer want to play with them, which they want to avoid!

Additionally, if you don't allow your puppy to play this way with playmates, where it IS appropriate, I often find puppies and adolescents are mouthier and harder to redirect when they are interacting with their humans. If you consider that social play is a NEED for our puppies, then it makes sense if they don't get it with other dogs they'll try to meet the need somewhere else (usually by putting their mouths on their humans!)

So: if your puppy and their friends play using their mouth, if they gnash their teeth together and drag each other around by the jowls, rejoice! You have a NORMAL dog. And as long as both dogs are enjoying themselves and consent to this play (you'll learn about consent testing if you join our puppy classes), you should let your dogs be dogs!

11/11/2024

Happy Hound University LLC offers a wide variety of positive reinforcement, force free dog training offerings!

Our one on one in home training is offered throughout the Northwest Suburbs and our group classes are held in Des Plaines at 1095 E Thacker St. We also recently started offering board and train in our home for puppies, puppy socialization adventures for puppies under 6 months old, and enrichment adventures for dogs 6 months and older who need the physical exercise and mental enrichment of nature field trips!

Interested in any of these services? We'd love to work with you! Email us with questions at [email protected] or see our website for more information!

11/08/2024

A HUGE congratulations to our puppy 1 graduates from this week, Rio, Olive, and Theo!

These are some very good pups who made great progress in their classes and will continue to learn and grow with their awesome parents! I can’t wait to see you all in puppy 2!

11/06/2024

"What's in your pouch?" Wednesday

I have had some people ask me for different treat recommendations, since I encourage my students to change up their reinforcers for the novelty factor and to keep introducing their dogs to new foods. So I decided one of the better places for me to post about this is on our social media!

Heads up, the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning that I will receive a small commission from these purchases at no additional cost to you!

The treats my dogs have been enjoying this week have been:

- Real Meat Air Dried Dog Food: https://amzn.to/4em7iaq. Most dogs go crazy for this air dried treat! And the best part is: it's not actually a treat. Real meat dog food is a whole diet, so if you have small dog that gets full quickly or need to be careful with calories, this is a great balanced option!

- Polka Dog Wonder Nuggets: https://amzn.to/4fzYoXX. These are soft, chewy training treat type treats that are easily broken and half! If you're looking for a new treat to throw into your regular rotation, these are a great "every day" snack!

- True Chews Premium Jerky Cuts: https://amzn.to/40AXXZk. If you are in need of a shelf stable high value treat, these usually work pretty well! Unlike some other chicken jerky that is very tough and hard to break up, these are easily broken up into smaller pieces!

How about you and your dog? Have you recently found a treat or food that has been working well for your training? If so, please comment below! And happy training!

11/05/2024

You may be thinking "what? Beware the lure? But we use lures all the time to teach our dogs certain behaviors!" And that's correct! I love lures to teach behaviors, or as a management strategy. There is nothing wrong with using a food lure.

However: if you are working with a fearful animal, using lures can really set you back.

What I usually see is this: people find a food that the animal LOVES, and start to teach the dog that they will give it to them. They may start by tossing a few treats to convince the dog to eat them, and once the dog has consumed the treats they go "Okay, now take it from my hand" and they hold the treat out in their hand.

The dog approaches slowly, back feet planted and neck streeetched out to get to the treat. The dog takes the treat from the hand, and then scurries away back to what they consider a safe distance (or, the dog eats the treat and may snap because they've gotten too close and the treat is now gone!)

The person does this over and over again, trying to pair their presence with the high value food, and after days or weeks says "Why isn't this working?! The dog should be less scared!"

But the issue is: the dog isn't ready for that step. You can tell by their stretching. They'll push themselves to get close to the food, but it's not because they feel ready for that step, it's because they really want the food.

The trickiest thing about working with fearful dogs is the amount of PATIENCE that it takes. Extinguishing fear is a LONG, slow process, and when you use food to help a fearful dog you really need to focus on their body language and make sure that you are not accidentally pushing them faster than they're ready for. Food should be given generously, and yes we want to build positive associations, but going at the fearful dog's pace is CRITICAL if you don't want to further worsen the fear!

11/04/2024