In a recent Q&A, we actually received a lot of questions asking about how to add more structure to their dogâs daily lives & routines.
The truth is, itâs often times a lot more about how we add more structure to our own routines & schedules as human beings, and the dogs are sometimes just a byproduct.
However!!! We do have an example of a more structured schedule, that would be beneficial for any dog & owner to follow. We even follow a similar schedule with our personal dogs too đ¤
-First things first: gotta empty those bladders from overnight!
-Our dogs donât eat ânormalâ breakfast - so instead weâll usually work on their engagement with a few snacks while weâre prepping our coffee, etc - but if your dog does eat breakfast, feed them here (note: this is where you could be hand feeding!)
-Crate rest - make sure youâre always waiting at least 30 min between exercise/activity & when your dog eats, so you avoid bloat!
-Short walk. And if your dog isnât ready for a full blown walk yet, then add in your leash drills instead.
-A more structured schedule doesnât mean that free time doesnât exist! However, if youâre finding that your dog canât handle that âfree time,â thereâs nothing wrong with adding in more kennel time and/or place work too.
-Structured exercise/walk. At least 45-60 min; & this cannot be you just letting your dog outside in the backyard. You can break this up though! If you donât have a full hour, do 20 min here, 20 min there, and 20 min later on.
-Crate rest directly after exercise. Minimum of 2 hrs.
-Potty break.
-Play time!!! Remember to play with your dog. Fetch, tug, running around, etc - just find what your dog enjoys, & find time to do that together.
-Training practice.
-Place work (& offer a chew, if applicable!)
-Dinner (either hand fed or offered in kennel). Followed by crate rest.
-Post dinner walk. Can be structured or unstructured, depending on you & your dog.
-Bedtime (preferably in the crate
Meet our foster dog, Pepper! Available for adoption through Fur-Angel Foundation â¨
Have you met our foster dog, Pepper, yet?
If youâve done private sessions with us, you might have gotten the chance to meet Pepper when we sometimes bring her out with us - if not, let us introduce you!
Pepper is a ~2 year old, spayed female, mixed breed (from just her behaviors & overall personality, we suspect that she is some kind of mix of terrier like Jack Russell, & potentially some French Bulldog and/or Boston Terrier), from our friends over at @fur_angel_foundation. Pepper is about ~17lbs, which does make her a great size for apartment living!
Now, letâs talk a little bit about Pepper:
1) Home girl can be đśď¸ spicy đśď¸ - but!! She is a work in progress. Pepper initially came to us for a ton of reactivity issues. Dogs, cats, chickens, people, bikes, scooters, cars - if it moved, she was going after it. Weâve cut back on the reactivity a lot & have made great strides (i.e like no more lunging at people, cars, etc)! However, other dogs are still a main trigger at times.
2) That doesnât mean that she canât go to a home with other dogs though. Pepper can be very social, and is even mostly neutral with other dogs! When introduced properly, Pepper gets along well with most dogs. We also suspect that sheâd live fine with cats. Smaller animals, like birds, lizards, mice, etc might be more challenging for her though, as the girl has a pretty good amount of prey drive & likes to hunt (which makes sense for any terrier - itâs what they were bred to do).
3) As you can see from these videos, the girl is an absolute goof ball! We want to make people aware of some of her behavioral quirks, so they can figure out if Pepper is actually a good fit for their life & if they can dedicate the time to her continued training; but at her core, Pepper is a silly, cuddly, & playful little dog! When sheâs in work mode, she can also be very fun to train too!
4) Pepper loves sunbathing whenever she can, dehydrated chicken feet & baby carrots, cuddling, p
Our top ten best dog breeds for first time owners.
10. Shetland Sheepdog
9. Shih Tzu
8. English Springer Spaniel
7. Havanese
6. Standard Poodle
5. Papillon
4. Greyhound
3. Labrador Retriever
2. Golden Retriever
1. King Charles Cavalier Spaniel
Just breaking it down for clicker and/or âyesâ work here đ¤ but youâll absolutely know when your maker (the âclickâ from clicker or âyesâ) is charged up and correctly, when you can get a super clean and fast response from your dog. As youâll see in this video, all 3 dogs were in opposite ends of the house, didnât know Makana had a clicker or treats at his desk/in his hands, and still came running as soon as they heard that âclick.âThatâs the power of consistent conditioning and clear communication.This video is only a demonstration of clicker work, but technically speaking, any marker that you use for anything, should result in a quick and snappy response (after teaching and learning) - if it doesnât, it may not be as âcharged upâ or even as truly understood for your dog, as you may think it is. If youâre working on markers with your dog; are you able to use âyesâ work and/or the clicker at the opposite end of your home/away from your dog, with the same results? Tag us in your videos/stories if you can! Weâd love to see đ and if youâre not there yet - thatâs okay! Message us if you need help.
Remember that your small breed dog deserves training too. Donât do them a disservice by ignoring training, just because theyâre small. âď¸
Remember that your small breed dog deserves training too.
Donât do them a disservice by ignoring training, just because theyâre small. âď¸
Hereâs the thing, we know that a post like this wonât change the world - this is an idea that canine professionals are all too familiar with, & itâs an explanation that can fall on deaf ears often - but if we can even get one person to open their mind up to a new possibility, concept, reality, etc with their dog(s), then we feel like weâve helped to do our jobs. The second that you begin to treat your dog like a human being, youâve already failed them, & unintentionally disrespected them for what they are. An animal. A canine. A dog. Now, weâre not going to pull that line like âtheyâre just dogs,â because we know that theyâre more than that. Theyâre more than that to us too. And weâll be the first ones to tell you that we definitely view our own dogs as our babies & theyâre for sure spoiled! But we never forget the fact that no matter how domesticated they are, they are still animals first and we have to respect that; and we never neglect their needs, just because they donât align with our human ones. Your dog needs a different kind of communication system set up in order to best understand you - they arenât just born understanding human verbal language, it has to be taught. Your dog is a migratory, pack animal; they need physical exercise & time to bond with their pack members - that means that they need to get out more often than just going for 3 potty breaks a day. Your dog has a different way of interpreting affection than you do - you petting your dog when theyâre aroused/exited/nervous has a different response on their brains than if you were physically trying to comfort another human. Your dog has genetics that were specifically bred into them over thousands of years ago - so just because you want your dog to be a certain way or not do certain things, doesnât mean youâre going to get that (Want a lap dog? Get a Shin Tzu, but donât expect that same kind of behavior out of Cattle Dog, just because you want it to be so - one
Things weâd like to see more of going further into 2024 â¨
Weâre only going to go over a few of these, because weâll go over the caption limit very quickly đĽ´đ
but feel free to continue the discussion and/or add what youâd like to see more of this year, in the comments!
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more kindness: for others, for your dog, & for yourself. That last one is one that gets ignored way too often. Take it easy & be a little more gentle. We talk about it often when it comes to dogs, but thereâs a way to be both gentle & firm at the same time - start applying that same idea to yourself & the others around you.
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less pressure: this one has a few different meanings for us. 1) weâd like to see people stop putting so much pressure on themselves - social media can be a great thing, but sometimes it makes us feel like weâre not doing enough, that weâre not where weâre supposed to be, or that weâre just not good enough, based off of something that we watch for 15 secs. Especially when it comes to dog training. But truthfully, much of that isnât reality. 2) weâd like to see people stop putting so much pressure on the dogs in general. Your dog doesnât need to be friends with every single other dog, child, family member, or stranger that they come across. Owners need to start understanding their dog & advocating for their dogs first, & then maybe weâd stop having so many dog bites & dogs ending up in shelters.
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more rest - for you & your dog. Same for you - you canât go without taking a break forever. Thereâs a beauty to the grind, but you need to find balance (even we need to be better about this one đŹ) - itâs not cute to be burned out.
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more education: seriously pick up a book, take a class, or hire a professional. For anything that you want to know more about. This isnât just for dog training, but weâd definitely like to see owners be more active participants in this. For ex, youâre looking to buy a puppy - especially for a breed that youâve never owned before - reach out to a dog train
Not really sure what happened to us as a society (although we have some ideas đ
), where now we think that weâre just entitled to touch all animals - even ones that donât belong us, or even wild ones. đł
The reality of it is, is that you actually donât have a right to touch someone elseâs dog/cat/pet of any kind (especially without asking first!), just because you think itâs cute, or because you have one at home, or just because itâs there when you are. Same thing with all those people out in national parks trying to touch wild bison and moose, or people on the beaches here trying to touch Monk Seals⌠when you get gored or bitten, are you then going to realize that youâre not Snow White, and this isnât some fairy tale? These are animals⌠dogs included. And sorry if this sounds harsh, but they owe you nothing.
Dogs are not public property, and therefore, are not there for your personal âuse.â Ask first. If an owner wants to allow you to touch their animal, thatâs totally fine! But donât be an ass, if someone tells you no, that you canât. They might be training, working through something, the dog might be ill, the owner may not want people in their own personal space, or they just straight up might not want you touching their dog - and thatâs okay! They also donât owe you an explanation.
Dogs owners also keep in mind that you NEVER have to feel bad for telling someone âno, you canât touch my dog.â We hear so many owners tell us that theyâre constantly apologizing to people when theyâre out in public because their dogs are reactive/fearful/etc and donât enjoy new people, and that they feel bad. But seriously, you have nothing to feel bad about.
Think about this way - babies are cute, but you donât see random strangers walking up and just picking kids up out of their strollers or trying to touch them as you walk by in the grocery store⌠thatâd be a major issue. đŠ Usually people just remark on how cute a
Itâs time for a hard truth today, about something that we hear about all too often. The idea that a human can love a âbadâ behavior, trauma, or negative experience out of a dog.Weâre not trying to shame or blame anyone, because we understand that it comes from a place of lack of knowledge - not a lack of care. However, even well intended actions donât always equate to the best outcomes - and there comes a point where itâs unfair to the dog. For example, most emails with owners in the situations usually request help because âtheyâve tried everything and nothing is workingâ and theyâre close just to just getting rid of the dog entirely - but further into the emails, weâll also read that they havenât hired a professional, they havenât worked on any training, theyâre against using crates & havenât even attempted to use them, they donât want to tell the dogs ânoâ or offer the dog any form of structure, and think that loving their dog should be enough to encourage better behavior. Weâre sorry, we know that you know love the heck out of your dog, we truly do! But buying your dog the most expensive dog kibble, showering them with kisses and cuddles, buying them every toy on the market, loading them up with treats, and letting them sleep in bed with you every night is not going to keep your dog from exhibiting poor behaviors⌠and it also wonât correct ongoing problematic behaviors. You want to really help your dog (rescue or not) with behavioral issues? First, hire professional - that can help you understand dog psychology, & help you create a communication system & way of living that the dog can understand. Second, stop thinking that your love is enough - yes, absolutely love your dog with all of you! But also understand that it wouldnât even be enough to solely help & fix a human out of their own issues. Lastly, do some extra research - pay attention to what dogs need most in their life, see if your dogâs breed needs a specifi
Happy Sunday! đ¤
Happy Sunday! đ¤
Switch up these 4 things in you and your dogâs life, and we can watch how things start to shift in your relationship.
Switch up these 4 things in you and your dogâs life, and we can watch how things start to shift in your relationship.
1) Ditch the bowl & start hand feeding. Somewhere along the way, someone decided that hand feeding equated to âover-spoilingâ your dog, but maybe they forgot how dogs got domesticated in the first place. Create value in food for your dog, while creating more value in YOU. Portion off your dogâs regular food/meal & hand feed over the course of of the day, while working on obedience, rewarding while on the walk, or even for just engaging with you - this one is super simple!
2) Use the crate. We know you probably hear us harping on about this one all the time, but itâs because itâs so important! At minimum, you should be using the crate for when you leave the house (for safety reasons!) and when your dog is sleeping at night. We get that you think that your dog is sleeping at night - but in between tossing & turning with you in the bed all night, or constantly getting up to go investigate things in the house - the reality is, that theyâre probably never getting a good nightâs rest. Youâd be amazed by how many behavioral issue start decreasing when your dog actually starts sleeping for 8+ hours a night.
3) If you donât have a solid loose leash walk and/or a more focused heel yet, start working to add one into your routine. A dogâs gait means that they naturally move faster than us humans - having them walk with us, means that they have to think about slowing down to keep with us - and that can be a lot to focus on in itself. When you have a reactive/anxious dog having a more structured walk means that your dog should be more focused on sticking with you & less on the world around them - with also builds trust in the relationship, because theyâre relying on you to âtake careâ of the things that they can no longer focus on.
4) Start prioritizing neutrality over excitement. Itâs so easy to get hype with your dog and go o
Some of the most common issues we see as dog trainers, sometimes have some of the easiest solutions. But!! Itâs the humans that struggle with these solutions, because we get stuck in our own feelings about tools, ideologies, or methods - or we place our own emotions on to our dogs, even when our dogs feel neither here nor there about any of it. Examples-When we let our dogs free roam and let them look out the window all day long, we think weâre being nice by letting them look outside - but when we allow them to bark at everything and amp themselves up, weâre actually doing more harm than good. Weâre building up anxiety and reactivity, and allowing the dogs to self reinforce a poor state of mind and bad behavior. What would be more productive? Keeping a leash on your dog inside, if you know that make poor choices, so that you can guide them away from âwindow shoppingâ and reinforce better decision making. Whatâs one of the most common behavioral issues we deal with? Anxiety. Whatâs a basic tool that we use to help with the symptoms of anxiety? A crate. Whatâs the normal response from dog owners? âWe donât want to use a crate because it feels cruel and I donât like the way it looks.âWhat do you see there? A lot of human emotions and feelings, but not a lot of canine ones. Whatâs cruel about providing a safe place for your dog to decompress? Nothing really - sounds pretty loving actually, to us. And thereâs actually nothing wrong with the way a crate looks - itâs basically just a box - but our human brain tells us that itâs a prison. But your dog simply views it as a den, if you condition it correctly - and you can dress up and comfy up a crate however youâd like to! P.S. because most pet dogs lack things like impulse control and are always âgo-go-go,â they are also (almost always) chronically under slept. Even when you think theyâre sleeping at night - if theyâre left to their own devices to wander the house or jump up and
Training your dog can be hard. Owning an untrained dog or a dog with behavioral issues, can be just as hard, if not harder. You choose your hard and difficultly level. Weâd know what weâd choose.
Letâs talk about operant conditioning and the four quadrants.
Positive reinforcement: simply means to add something to increase the likelihood of the behavior happening more frequently. Most common example would be treating or rewarding your dog when youâre teaching them how to sit.
Positive punishment: this can be one of the ones that confuses a lot of people. For example, we used to work for a business that wanted to have a very âpurely positiveâ image, and said that they only used positive reinforcement and positive punishment based training and handling methods - however, they definitely didnât have a full understanding of what positive punishment was and didnât actually promote the use of it. Positive punishment is the addition of something to decrease the likelihood of the behavior happening or continuing. An example of this, would be the use or addition of leash corrections or e-collar stimulation.
Negative reinforcement: removes something, in order to increase the frequency or likelihood of the behavior happening. A good example of this, or even some thing that we use quite often in training, is spatial pressure. When we are using pressure on and pressure off to communicate to the dog how weâd like them to behave or interact with the world. Luring with food or toy is also negative reinforcement, as we are removing a reward item in order to get the dog to move and/or follow in that direction.
Negative punishment: is where we remove rewards or motivators with the intent to decrease a behavior from happening. This can be removing a stimulus or even when we remove pressure from the leash.
When weâre talking about any of the four quadrants though, weâre never talking about positives and negatives as good or bad parts of training. Positive does not equal good, and negative does not equal bad. Positive simply means the addition of something, while negative means the removal of something.
As two people who deal with anxiety themselves, we donât find that whole âby 30 you need to have anxiety, and a dog who has anxietyâ to be a super cute trend.
And if you deal with anxiety of any kind, why would you want your dog to experience that? To feel that? To live like that?
In our opinion, itâs just not fair.
Start doing things to better yourself, so you can help your dog feel better and be better too.
So letâs take a walk today. Letâs start some âyesâ work today, so we can use it around uncomfortable things later. Letâs start using the crate. Letâs start establishing boundaries for both the humans and dogs in your life. Letâs start focusing on whatâs important, and moving past what isnât. Letâs do the human and dog work. Letâs get outside and some fresh air. And for as corny as itâs going to sound, letâs just try to be better than we were yesterday.
When weâre talking about dog training in general, itâs usually not the commands or behaviors or even obedience thatâs difficult for people to teach - itâs the overall state of mind, and lack of consistency and follow through, thatâs hard for people.
Crate training becomes a great example of this.
You want to know why your dog isnât crate trained yet? Itâs because you lacked the consistency to keep up with the conditioning of the crate. Why they fight you to go into the crate? Itâs because you didnât keep up with changing the state of mind, and shifting the idea of what it means to your dog to be in the crate in the first place (i.e only putting the dog in the crate for punishment or only putting them in it when you leave the house - which by the way, is a negative thing for dogs). Why they cry when theyâre in it? Itâs because you lacked followed through and didnât crate train with intention; and let the dog out of the kennel whenever they cried, whined, barked, or even before they were in a truly calm state of mind.
Crate training isnât hard for your dog. Itâs hard for you.
(P.S. weâre not talking about the dogs with traumatic histories or dogs that self harm, etc - but if thatâs your dog, you need to be seeking assistance and guidance from a professional)
30 minute training session with our foster dog, Pepper, condensed down to 54 seconds. đ
Training for our dogs (personal, foster, or otherwise), doesnât need to be difficult - it just needs to be consistent.
Keep it short. Keep it simple. Keep it consistent.
The âĄď¸magicâĄď¸of dog training happens in the repetitions.
If youâre local, you know that there has been an air of heaviness surrounding our communities and islands lately.
This is our gentle reminder that even though this is technically a âdog-centeredâ page, that weâre still here for the humans behind those dogs too. And yes, the dogs are important⌠but ⨠you ⨠are also just as important as they are.
Weâve been seeing and hearing about so many dealing with burn out, compassion fatigue, and just generally feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and sad lately - and if we can remind you to or encourage you to do anything today; itâs to show up for yourself so that you can better help and/or take care of your the ones you love⌠including your dog(s).
Prioritize your mental & physical health. Seriously. Everything is going to go so much smoother when you physically and mentally set up yourself for success first.
Everything in life requires balance. âď¸ Thatâs something weâre still learning and trying our best to navigate too. The best we can do is just to not let our scales get too far weighted down on one side vs the other.
You got this. đ¤
FB is a đŠ and doesnât let us post with our original audio - hop on over to our Instagram (@kaulike.k9) to view our leash drill demo with the original audio.
