Counter-Conditioning Session / Leila
Many of you know that my own dog, Leila, has faced some adversity in her life, including dog attacks and fights. These experiences unfortunately but understandably led her to being wary around certain other dogs. She particularly struggles with dogs larger than her who are approaching her head-on. This technique, called Counter-Conditioning, aims to build positive associations with things that are not positive to the individual. You can see in the video that we are outside of our local dog park (with some buffer space between). All I’m doing is throwing treats in the grass in the direction of the park - it can truly be that simple to change your dog’s emotional response! PS, this is also a great way to socialize puppies and teach them to be neutral around other dogs!
Little clip from us practicing sustained relaxation while watching other dogs, people, bikes, and cars go by this morning. This is what dog training is supposed to look like! Calm, casual, relaxed. Let’s face it: a little boring. No big blowout reactions, no extreme corrections. It might not be very entertaining to watch, but this type of training is much more effective than “flooding” the dog with stimuli. It’s also kinder to your dog. #dogtraining #positivereinforcement
The whistle, which was only introduced to Leila in the last few months, has quickly become her most reliable form of recall!
A chin rest, commonly used in cooperative care training, also makes for some super cute pictures!
Early morning muzzle training session. Muzzle training is so essential and so often overlooked.
We ordered a new, custom one from The Muzzle Movement (size “Taz”) that will fit better than this Baskerville (size 5, too large for her), but it hasn’t come yet. Will of course show you all when it does!
Here’s what I bring to a training session to keep myself and my dogs organized and successful!
Quick clip of some desensitization training with Leila. I have needed to use a cane off and on for about a year now, so this is a regular part of our training routine. The other day, my cane was propped up against a chair and fell on Leila when she ran by, which of course spooked her. So, we took a couple steps backwards with that incident, but even so, she did great with this training session - it was like the cane didn’t even exist, which is exactly what I was going for!
I started out by dropping the cane near her on the carpet so that the sound was muted and not so loud. Then once I was confident that I wasn’t scaring Leila, I moved to dropping it on the tile, which made a much louder, scarier sound. Still, she did great.
I start out a bit out of frame in this video but come back into frame quickly.
Egg hunt of 2024 was a success! She found all of her eggs in less than five minutes 😂
The 12 eggs only cost $1 and I used dry, stinky treats that I already had at home. This is something you can do all year round for a fun, enriching game!
Did you hide eggs or give a basket to your pup this year? I want to see!
How (and why!) to use a 15-foot leash instead of a standard 6-foot leash.
Make sure your dog has acceptable recall before trying this! 😁
Tonight’s raw meaty bone was a duck wing. Leila certainly enjoyed it, and I hope you enjoy watching her enjoy! That crunch though! 😍
Tonight’s raw meaty bone was a duck wing. Enjoy the ASMR on this lovely Friday!
Feed Leila dinner with me, again! Tonight, I forgot to thaw her food… How dare I!
