Whole Dog Camp

11/17/2024

Mark Your Calendar for The Dog’s Truth Premiere!

On November 17th at 7 PM Eastern, Kim Brophey & Family Dog Mediation: LEGS in Motion unveils The Dog’s Truth—a groundbreaking one-hour documentary that will change how we see and understand our beloved dogs.

Through the lens of applied ethology, Kim’s L.E.G.S.® model flips the script on outdated narratives about “behavior problems,” revealing the natural consequences of the very unnatural world our dogs live in.

At AggressiveDog.com, we believe in helping dogs—and the people who love them—by uncovering the why behind behaviors. Kim’s documentary aligns perfectly with our beliefs: empowering dog professionals and owners with deeper understanding and expanding the possibilities for dogs with aggression.

This free resource is for everyone. Dog trainers, pet guardians, vets, groomers, or anyone who cares about dogs. It’s a life-changing opportunity to discover the root causes of canine struggles and take the first steps toward meaningful solutions for dogs and their humans.

Want to watch the premiere? Comment "The Truth" below, and we’ll send the link to the trailer directly to your DMs!

Save the Date for November 17th, and let’s come together to reimagine a better life for dogs. A life they deserve.

Together, we can give dogs the good life that leads to the good dogs we all dream of.

11/16/2024

Sweet young border collie is looking for her forever home, and Im helping her get ready!

Hand delivery is an important foundation game that puts the handler in charge of the reinforcement, rather than the dog.

So this is one of the first things I am playing with Ruby on her day three with me.

Ruby has previously learned to play "keep away" with toys. She also isn't used to mixing toys and food in one game, but she's learning fast!

11/16/2024

I highly recommend Diana's puppy power hour!

11/15/2024

We can stop the world. Strike.

11/14/2024

Border Collies are fascinating dogs. They stare stalk, lunge, nip because they were bred to do that.

AGGRESSION IN BORDER COLLIES: UNDERSTANDING THE LUNGE-NIP REFLEX

Our breed expert's feature today is on better understanding instinctive defensive impulses that are hardwired into the collie brain, and should not be confused with more offensive/attack patterns of aggression:

Although aggression is an issue that should always be taken seriously in any dog, very often owners – and, indeed, the wider public - may not understand the difference between more attack-motivated behaviour in dogs, and reactions that the dog launches purely under mental pressure, to defend itself. And the latter is incredibly common in herding dogs like Border collies.

I call this behaviour in Border collies the lunge-nip reflex. It is a totally instinctive behaviour in the breed, by-passing more conscious thought processes, and the reason it is there goes back to their earliest roots as livestock working dogs. For the dog must have the respect of the livestock they work at all times, and if he or she does not react quickly enough – in terms of immediate defence behaviour – when challenged or crowded in by them, then they could find themselves either badly injured or dead.

Once we understand that, we can also appreciate why this reflex is most commonly used when something more potentially threatening to the dog – like a stranger person, or dog or even cyclists and traffic – comes more suddenly into their head space, especially when they are more physically contained or cornered somewhere, including in a car or other smaller space, or on the lead, and thus have fewer opportunities for avoiding action or escape.

Lunge-nip defence behaviour is also predominantly a ‘warning’ behaviour, and thus will most commonly result in either the dog ‘air snapping’ or inflicting minimal injury on anyone or anything it nips. Whereas a dog with a greater intent to attack will bite far more strongly and do far more harm.

THE EFFECTS OF MENTAL PRESSURE
Every collie can be different, in terms of how strong their lunge-nip instinct happens to be, and how readily or not this reflex will be launched by them. But the key at all times will be first, to recognise how prone your dog is to this kind of behaviour and second, to understand the things that are most likely to trigger it. Then organise your handling and training of your dog accordingly.

There is a direct link in the collie brain between building levels of mental pressure and how readily the lunge-nip reflex will be used. Mental pressure involves emotional states like fear, anxiety, excitement or frustration. So if your dog becomes very easily excited or frustrated, and then lunge-nips, they will need to be taught far better overall impulse control (as covered previously on this page, and also in my books) to keep their heads ‘cooler’. As the cooler the head of the dog, the less likely he or she is to lunge-nip.

If, on the other hand, your dog’s lunge-nip behaviour is being caused by fear and anxiety about things like stranger people, dogs or traffic, you will need to train them to feel far more at ease around these things, via more constant exposure, while simultaneously rewarding less reactive behaviour in them. Even if you need more professional help to achieve this.

Start seeing your dog’s head like a thermometer, in that the higher the temperature rises, the more likely it is that lunge nip behaviours will follow. Whereas the cooler your dog’s head, the less likely they are to occur. Then do everything you can to both attain and sustain that cooler mental state in your dog at all times. For ultimately these dogs cannot be blamed for impulses and reactions that have been more deliberately hardwired into them, genetically, for generations. But we have the ability to better understand and control them, with better insight and training.

Meanwhile, much more on the origins of lunge-nip and other working behaviours in Border collies appears in the first book in my BORDER COLLIES: A BREED APART trilogy – SECRETS OF THE WORKING MIND, more on IMPULSE CONTROL training appears in book two – ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS & LEARNING – and all aggression issues in Border collies appear in the third book on BEHAVIOUR: https://performancedog.co.uk/shop/books-and-dvds/authors/carol-price/border-collies-a-breed-apart-secrets-of-the-working-mind/
https://performancedog.co.uk/shop/books-and-dvds/authors/carol-price/border-collies-a-breed-apart-book-two-essential-life-skills-and-learning/
https://performancedog.co.uk/shop/books-and-dvds/authors/carol-price/border-collies-a-breed-apart-book-three-behaviour-insights-issues-and-solutions/

© Carol Price 2021

11/12/2024

Whole Dog Camp is like a YMCA, but for dogs! No pool, but we have 3 acres with 8 separately fenced training fields and activities including agility and pick-yer-own flower and herb gardens that make social opportunities so much safer and easier for your dog. Private and group lessons, specialized humane daycare and board and train. Become a member or just drop in for a date with your dog. We've got a new class schedule up at www.wholedogcamp.com and I'm especially looking forward to our trick dog class! https://youtu.be/YJaeImxcOxQ?si=jDAWSTFnLH24a81y

Dogs tricks are more than adorable -- they help you

Trainer Jenny Ruth Yasi, CPDT-KA, FFCP (trainer) provides humane education, pet assisted therapy, and dog trainer education that promotes understanding and e...

11/11/2024

i met a super sweet very smart athletic purebred 30 month old border collie today who is looking for a home. She would love tricks, agility, freestyle. She's well socialized and would be great with sheep! If you are looking, message me...

11/11/2024

You'll notice I'm not saying "leave it."

Here I am conditioning Charlie to ignore food distractions and stay focused on me. I am also conditioning a no-reward marker signal. The NRM (oopsie or ut o...

11/11/2024

Fun seeing a whole skeedadle? herd? flock? Not sure what the correct term is for a whole bunch of Maine reinforcement based trainers gathered together in a room, but it gives me hope! Yes there was one good man there (Don Hanson!). If we were a bunch of shock prong pinch choke trainers, it would have been mostly men. Social scientists can wonder about that ... Thanks Gooddogz Training for a welcome peaceful respite from the chaos of the world. Fun seeing everyone!

Trainer meet up at There’s a lot of knowledge packed into one room. All reward based trainers. Great to see/meet everyone

11/10/2024

My 15 year old dog sleeps like a rock, great time to clip the toe nails! I just clip one or two toenails per day so I dont disturb her much.

11/09/2024

How can you tell "who's boss?"

11/07/2024

I'm a LIMA trainer here to dispel some internet disinformation.

LIMA (Least Invasive Minimally Aversive) training protocol does NOT suggest it's okay to use shock/prong/choke/pinch/hit or any aversive technique as a "last resort."

If you feel like your best option as a trainer is to use an aversive tool, before you do that, you need to pass your case to a licensed Veterinary Behaviorist, who would then oversee your case. And the likelihood that the VBA would allow use of aversives? Nil https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2021-11-01/veterinary-behaviorists-no-role-aversive-dog-training-practices

If a shark is attacking you, yeah, punch it in the nose, but that is not a training protocol. That is not a training method. LIMA requires that we constantly examine our training practice with deep empathy for the dog's experience, and our job is to constantly make our training sessions LESS aversive, LESS invasive.

That means, make the session shorter. Make sure our dogs are physically, and emotionally comfortable. It means we make training fun for our dogs. It means, our dogs are voluntarily participating in our training games. It means, control the environment rather than manhandle the dog. LIMA means we give the dogs agency.

It means if leash walking is frustrating the dog, we need to find a training plan that makes it LESS frustrating, and LESS invasive for the dog.

Reward-based dog training offers the most advantages and least harm to the learner’s welfare, according to the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, which says there is no evidence that aversive practices are necessary for dog training or behavior modification.

11/05/2024

I am very outspoken about my political views, partly for business reasons.

By letting people know we are Democrats, I screen out most of the shock/choke/prong collar "show-em who's boss" authoritarian, forceful style of trainers.

But you don't need to tell me who you voted for. You don't need to tell your husband. You don't need to tell anyone. You are alone with your conscience in the ballot booth.

Thank you for voting!

11/05/2024

I put out tick tubes a couple of weeks ago (I do this several times a year) and it is amazing to see how fast they got emptied out! If you wonder why we dont have a tick problem here, this is part of the reason! We control the environment and that helps control the ticks!

Note: Since this article was published, a careful reader alerted SVMC to professional pest-management guidance that advises against making tick tubes. Please review at https://blogs.cornell.edu/nysipm/2019/06/28/dont-make-your-own-tick-tubes/. Would you believe that there is a simple and inexpen...

11/03/2024

So many great older dogs seeking homes. Oldwe dogs can be easy keepers!

Sweet Ice- is a 5 year old Pyrenees/retriever? Mix. She’s a large girl at 80lbs. She was used to test other dogs at the shelter because she’s just fine with others. She’s kind with people. Sweet girl just wants to be with a family and take care of them. She also ignores cats 💜She’s pretty wonderful

11/02/2024

I think we should collectively agree about something. Here it is; relationships are not actually the way they are portrayed in the movies. If you attempt to smack your significant other across the face during an argument, don’t count on it ending up in some mushy romantic scene on the closest sofa...