Baird Creek Canine Connection

24/10/2024

DOG TRAINER AND COACH

It's one thing to hire a Dog Trainer, it's another thing to hire a Dog Trainer and a Coach!

When you have issues with your dog it's typically because of what YOU are doing or not doing, and it's hindering your relationship with your dog. You are not intentionally hindering this relationship, you just may not understand how to best teach your dog what it is you want them to learn.

My recommendation is to find a good Dog Trainer, a good Coach and a good Teacher.

There is no benefit to you or your dog if YOU don't learn how to train behaviors you want in your dog!

In the end, teaching you how to train should be the trainers responsibility, and it is your responsibility to practice training with your dog between sessions and for the rest of your dog's life.

Your evaluation of a Trainer-

*Good Communicator
*Good Listener
*Does what they say make sense
*Is your dog relaxed, responsive and happy while with the trainer
*Do you walk away after each training session feeling like you have learned something
*Is there a direct line of communication with your trainer and Is your trainer available in-between sessions, if you are struggling

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11/10/2024

WHEN, WHERE AND HOW OFTEN SHOULD I TRAIN?

This is a common question I get from my friends and clients. Although it can differ from one dog to the next, my answer is usually the same: train in real-life places, create scenarios similar to those you will experience while at home as you watch TV, during both your mealtime and your dogs mealtime, waiting at the door to go out (never allowed to exit until they are invited out), on walks and while in public, generalize their environment to help build confidence in your dog. You don’t have to go for long walks with your dog while training them, in-fact, while training your puppy you should never expect them to walk next to you the entire time, it is very unfair. Leash training while in your house is a great idea to start, then expanding to a short walk up and down your driveway, then your street or in a nearby parking lot. Learning to understand leash pressure and conditioning your dog or puppy to return to you without calling their name helps them learn how to behave on a leash as well. Short and frequent sessions are a must! Don’t ask them to do something they haven’t learned yet, never move on to a greater challenge until YOU KNOW that your dog/puppy understands and can perform the task or behavior you are teaching them!

DON”T: train while your dog or puppy is overexcited or there are too many distractions. For instance, when company arrives and your dog/puppy is SO excited, asking them to perform a task they are not GREAT at is not wise. Let’s be fair to them and understand we will need to manage the dog/puppy respectfully and lure them away from what has them excited and work on the training later. Yelling at them and repeatedly asking them to do something during this time WILL NOT work, and it likely will make it worse.

If you have questions about how to train your dog or puppy, please reach out to an experienced trainer for assistance!

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09/10/2024

This is a beautiful example of a wonderful breeder doing things the right way!!

09/10/2024

PERSISTENCE AND REMAINING OPEN MINDED CAN BE THE DECIDING FACTOR FOR BOTH TRAINERS AND OWNERS

I want to thank Julia and Austin for sharing this with me and allowing me to share it with all of you. Maple, is a Bernedoodle and is about 1 year old. Unfortunately, Maple has reactivity issues when at home or while on walks. Maple is a bit anxious and when sees other dogs, she loses complete control of herself and it became nearly impossible for Julia or Austin to settle her down and regain control. After working with Maple and trying various training methods, we eventually settled on a “SideKick” leash (which we saw an immediate positive change), began a “Positive Reinforcement” conditioning process as well as some additional calming intervention. So far, with the dedication by Julia and Austin, this seems to be working very well with Maple! Although Maple’s issues aren’t fixed or extinguished yet, remaining consistent with her training will continue to help her to remain calm where she used to experience anxiety.

Julia and Austin have been amazing dog parents, continuing to work through this process with Maple, never giving up on her! Keep up the great work you, guys! AND, Congratulations again on your new baby boy, Vaughn! Vaughn and Maple will be best buds for years to come!

"Hi Jim! We had a big milestone tonight on our walk!! There was a reactive dog (behind us in the picture) and Maple looked at me for treats and didn't get anxious (I noticed she started to sniff around instead - but we gave her SO much praise and a whole lot of liver). The second dog we saw she did the same thing, the third dog she let out a bark but was able to redirect herself. Training / progress isn't always linear but it seems like we are definitely heading towards the right direction with what we are doing!!

Thank you so much again for your help--we wouldn't be where we are today without you and we are so beyond grateful."

THE TRAINER YOU USE IS ONLY PART OF THE EQUATION - THE PET PARENT AND THE TIME SPENT WITH YOUR DOG IS THE OTHER!

05/10/2024

TRAINING WITH YOUR CANINE COMPANION IS MADE UP OF TWO MAIN COMPONENTS!

Primary: Your Dogs Emotions (Classical Conditioning)
Secondary: The Techniques You Choose to Use With Your Dog

Your dogs attitude toward training with you, makes all the difference!! Will you be making it FUN or Stressful?

Your relationship with your dog depends on it!

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27/09/2024

Finding the right dog(s) and creating the proper environment to begin introducing your new puppy with, is absolutely critical.

Not knowing the dog you introduce your puppy to, or introducing your puppy to another dog you don't trust is a BAD choice.

Your puppy's future is at stake.

Here you see Lady a 2 year old Lab and Jameson a 2 year old Golden Retriever allowing Sofie 8 weeks old and Summer 9 weeks old to visit with them.

Even with dogs you know and can trust, you will always monitor and manage their visits.

I want to thank Nicole and Heidi for helping with this socialization process buy allowing Lady and Jameson to meet the puppies. They are amazing and accepting dogs.

27/09/2024

27/09/2024

What is your communication like with your dog? Do you carry on a one-sided conversation with your dog while training and truly believe they understand what you are saying? The truth is, the more you talk to your dog during your training and teaching sessions, it is just noise to your dog and it becomes detrimental to the learning process for your dog.

I always tell clients, while my dogs, my son’s dogs or my daughter’s dogs are in the kitchen while I’m cooking or just hanging out with me, I will talk to them like they are a human. This makes me feel good and soothes my feelings and the dogs seem to enjoy it. But if I do that that while training, they become confused and have a difficult time learning.

WHEN I TRAIN, THE LESS I SAY THE BETTER THEY LISTEN – THE MORE I SAY THE LESS THEY LISTEN!!

Remember, dogs speak an entirely different language than we do which makes learning from us that much more complicated. The more we can do to make the learning clearer, the greater the likelihood that our dog will be able to learn what we intend them to learn.

Here are a few suggestions to keep in mind while training your dog.

Don’t use CUE words like Sit, Stay, Place, Down, etc., until the dog knows how to do the behavior first. When you see them consistently performing the behavior, then begin using the CUE word. If you don’t follow this protocol, there is a good chance the CUE word will become white noise and quickly mean nothing to your dog. The same is true when you repeatedly praise your dog for doing a behavior correctly. Praising your dog while training is absolutely necessary, but it must be paired with another positive reinforcement and MARKER within an appropriate time frame. TIMING IS IMPORTANT!

Recently, we conducted a training session with several very young puppies. The puppies age varied from 9.5 weeks to 12.5 weeks old and they had not met one another prior to training in this busy environment. While conducting the training session and encouraging the puppies to keep their eyes on me, come to me and sit when asked, I simply used hand motions and said VERY little to them during this exercise. The puppies did great, they were happy and very responsive while learning these behaviors for the first time.

See the attached photos and video.

10/09/2024

Training Topic: PLAY TRAINING (Catch Training Academy)

Play is the key to good manners and a strong bond: In addition to the obvious benefits of mental and physical exercise, play between you and your pup is the secret to developing a great relationship. This great relationship is the key to a well-mannered dog who wants to listen to her owner. Play is also an ideal way to teach your dog to understand communication and rules. In this lesson, we will learn how to teach easy games that are great for playing with your dog: stalk/chase the toy, tug, and fetch (retrieve).

Stalk/Chase Game: This is a great way to get your pup interested in grabbing and holding a toy. Try moving a toy around on the floor at varying speeds, towards him, then away. Making toys act like animal prey will incite your pup’s natural instinct to want to chase and grab them. You can also show your pup a toy, let him smell or look at it for a second, then sn**ch it away as soon as he wants it, acting like it is the greatest possession you’ve ever found. It may sound like teasing, but it’s just a game to teach your pup that toys are fun. When you appear to value something greatly, your pup will want it too! Hint: Squeakers don’t hurt, either.

Tug: Once your dog starts grabbing at a toy, starting a game of tug is easy – just gently pull the toy and your pup is likely to pull back! Soft toys are best for this. Below we will teach you how to play tug with rules so that your dog learns how to control their biting and jumping, and “say please” in order to continue the game. The games we teach are super-fun and great for releasing energy, but they must also teach communication and rules. For example, never allow your pup to grab your hands or clothing. Whenever he does this, immediately fold your arms and turn away from the game as if you are completely turned off. For an instant, your pup will be surprised, stop mouthing you, and look up as if to say, “What did I do?” In that instant, you can praise and re-engage the game.

If your pup continues to play too aggressively, consider that he may need a time-out until he can cool down or he may need more exercise outlets in general. Praise your pup lavishly when he grabs toys instead of you, and make the toys the most fun thing to grab by instigating games of chase, tug, and fetch. For more help dealing with a “mouthy” puppy, ask your Trainer.

Retrieve (Fetch):
1) Retrieve often works best after you have established the first 2 games of stalk/chase and tug.
2) Choose a toy that your puppy likes, but it shouldn’t be so exciting that she just wants to keeps it to herself. She should think that the toy is more fun when you play with it, too!
3) Start your Retrieve from a place where your pup normally loves to bring her toys (e.g., her bed).
4) Get her really excited about the toy, then toss it a few feet away. When she grabs it, praise and entice her to come back to you by making fun sounds such as kisses or a drum roll on the floor. Hint: Gently pulling on a leash often helps to get a puppy coming in your direction.
5) If your pup comes to you without the toy, praise lavishly anyway. Then, grab the toy yourself and repeat step 4, more enthusiastically.
6) When your pup brings toys to you, don’t grab for the toy right away; instead, praise and touch her in a way she loves. This will make her want to keep “sharing” toys with you and bring them to you as a “safe” place to enjoy them, rather than run away from you with them.
7) Once your pup is comfortable bringing toys back to you, reward her not only with praise, but by immediately engaging in more play!

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04/09/2024

When you are looking for someone who loves you more than you love you, look at your dog!

14/08/2024

I want to thank Brent for the following update of their wonderful family companion, Airy. Airy, a pit mix was not able to go for walks and be in public around other dogs without a high level of reactivity, so because of this, for the most part, she remained home. I'm so impressed with Brent and his family for taking the responsibility to work so consistently and sticking to a training plan to help Airy become a fantastic companion.

"Hi Jim. Been awhile but thought I'd send you an update on how Airy has been doing. We have been consistent utilizing your teachings and overall she is doing great. She has turned out to be a really good running buddy for Tracy, able to be off leash up north at our family property and stays close with good recall and even became a patron of Zambaldi while other dogs are present. She is able to behave herself as you can see the big guy in the back ground. Thanks again for the your teachings."

07/08/2024

CONGRATULATIONS LINDSAY AND GUS!!
🎉

Lindsay and Gus passed their Therapy Dog test today and are now an official Therapy Dog Team!!

Well done!!

01/07/2024

Tugboat, is an 8 month old French Bulldog who lives in Sturgeon Bay, WI. I accompanied Tugboat, Susan and Tom in Sturgeon Bay on Saturday, as we made our way throughout the local Farmers Market. Tugboat and Susan did a great job maneuvering through the large crowd of people and dogs at the market.

On Sunday morning Susan and Tom continued training as they took Tugboat over both bridges in Sturgeon Bay, as busy vehicle traffic crossed the bridges. Tugboat passed with flying colors!

Now that we have Tugboat comfortable in many of these busy distracting environments, we will begin asking Tugboat to do many more foundation behaviors like RECALL, “PLACE” and “STAY” in these environments as well.

Tugboat's friendly non reactive demeanor will certainly help him learn more easily.

21/06/2024

Mushu is a 6 month old Shiba Inu. He is really doing well with his socializing and training. Mushu has a great home with Kayla and Tyler who spend so much quality time together.
Keep up the great work Kayla and Tyler!

21/06/2024

CLARK - THE AUSSIE/PIT MIX STORY!

Clark is about 4 years old and was about 7 months old when he was adopted by his new family, Nick, DeAnna, their three children and two senior cats.

The rescue center re-homed Clark with his new family while he had Roundworms, Ringworms as well as Giardia. He was undernourished and a slight case of mange.

We simply will never know Clark’s true story of abuse and neglect.

Once Clark began feeling better after treatment, his behavior began to change for the worse. Clark was reactive to strangers (bad case of “Stranger Danger”) and reactive and aggressive towards other dogs. Clark would lunge aggressively at other dogs and people he didn’t know.

Upon meeting Clark for the first time it was very clear that his mistrust for people he didn’t know put both me and anyone around him in danger. His aggression was VERY apparent! Because of his aggression issues, Nick, DeAnna or their children were not comfortable taking Clark for walks anywhere. and not being able to take Clark for a walk or other places was not good for Clark either.

After speaking with Nick and DeAnna and agreeing to help them with Clark, I requested that they begin conditioning Clark to a muzzle immediately and stay in contact with me with how that was progressing. Using a muzzle is the only safe way to begin to help Clark through his fear and anxiety.

Once this was accomplished we met again in a neutral setting, it happened to be a quiet park on that day. During our session Clark was walked through the trails by both Nick, DeAnna and myself. Clark, on more than one occasion lunged and attempted to bite me, but eventually allowed me to walk and jog short distances with me. Clark was clearly not happy about me on the other end of the leash, but we took it slow and I didn’t push him hard at all. He still would get very reactive if I attempted to pet him at this point.

THIS IS ALWAYS A SLOW PROCESS! WE TAKE WHAT THE DOG GIVES US AND WE SLOWLY CHALLENGE THE DOG AS WE SEE POTENTIAL.

After Clark was walking well on the leash I introduced a nice calm dog into the mix during the session to see how Clark would react. Upon seeing the other dog, Clark became wide eyed and his demeanor changed. He clearly was uncomfortable and there were some reactive moments by Clark during the session while working along with the other dog. Overall though, Clark seemed to be progressing well while Nick and DeAnna began learning how to help Clark get better. They too were doing a great job!

We continued to work with Clark in many different environments asking for simple foundation requests, like sit, down and walking nicely on the leash. We also worked on “Place” training with him as well.

Eventually, we introduced Clark to the Sidekick leash and began walking him in the downtown area of Green Bay, on sidewalks across bridges and on trails, all with another dog present. Clark passed with flying colors. Although his muzzle isn't always needed now, there are still situations and in certain environments it should always be used.

Knowing your dog and understanding how to manage him is so important!

The entire family is now comfortable taking Clark out for walks knowing that Clarks behavior is so much better under control and they know how to handle situations as they arise.
Clark still has issues while inside the house, but we are continuing to work on those as well.

I attempted to attach several short video clips and photos for your viewing, but they have been blocked by FB AI. I suspect that the photos and videos on Clark wearing his muzzle created the "red flag". They clearly don’t tell the whole story about Clark's training and conditioning process, but I believe they would have given you an idea of the progress been made with Clark.

We simply CANNOT FIX aggression, but we can help dogs like Clark become more comfortable, and help their families and handlers understand what is happening, understand how to manage their dog and why continued training is so important.

I want to thank Nick, DeAnna and their entire family for allowing me to help them through this difficult time. They are all doing a great job and I am confident that Clark is in good hands!