Soul Dog Training

08/26/2024

Look at that ear! I had perfect timing today and caught it in action! We took Boreas to the park today to work on his anxiety being away from home. He was a superstar and had a blast rolling in the grass and sniffing his way around the park!

08/26/2024

Share a pic of your pup for National Dog Day! 🐶⬇️

08/25/2024

Brody and I do something that his parents call Camp Claire once a week and I pick him up for 3 hours. We visit different parks, take nice long walks, and might finish with Starbucks and a bit of shopping. He is well known at TJ Maxx and Home Goods and always gets lots of compliments when we are there. They are both dog friendly stores and allow well behaved pet dogs.

08/20/2024

If you pour your dog food out of the bag and into a plastic bin, watch this!

07/20/2024

These were my pups for the last week, this definitely didn’t help with my daughter’s obsession with dachshunds, lol. Pauli is the baby (7 months) dachshund. Timmy (15 months) is the beagle baby and Yadi is the oldest at 9 years. They were so good all week! Kitty cat is Bea!

06/02/2024

Do you use an Apple Air Tag to track your dog? If so, you need to watch this! I never thought about what would happen if they swallowed one. The Fi collar is the one that I use for my dog Oso, he’s a runner and this collar has helped us find him twice when he escaped!

693 likes, 31 comments. “If you want to keep your dog happy and healthy, I highly recommend the Fi Series 3 GPS Collar.”

05/30/2024

Some of my pups from the last week or two, all dog sitting with a few new faces. Most dogs that I watch are dogs that I have trained, but this month I had a few new pups join the family!

05/18/2024

Norman! Do I really need to say anything else? He is my newest student, he is a 10 week old Bernedoodle! I just want to snuggle him forever!

05/18/2024

Meet Spencer (doodle) and Seamus (lab), they are my newest dog sitting clients! We have been having a great time and I have been getting my exercise from all the walks we have been taking. I love spending time with them ❤️!

05/14/2024

Ava is one of my newest clients from last week, she is a rescue and boy did her new family hit the jackpot with her! So sweet and super smart!

05/14/2024

I spent the night with Winnie and Mabel last night, such good snugglers!

05/07/2024

Meet Walter! He is such a big sweetheart! He has a new doggy brother in the house and there is a bit of sibling rivalry going on in the house. We are working through that and it should be getting better soon!

05/04/2024

I couldn’t have said it better myself! This is so worth the read! ❤️🐶❤️

YOU CANNOT TRAIN A NEED OUT OF A DOG

I am a fan of training in general – which shouldn’t surprise anyone, because after all I am a “dog trainer”. In fact, I begin some sort of training with my dogs from the time they come home as little pups and I continue right into old age.

But perhaps that is because I view training as a way of building connection and providing enrichment, rather than a way of achieving control and “obedience”. Training is an activity that my dogs love and it is an opportunity to connect and do fun things together. Stopping training as they age, would be taking away an enrichment activity that they thrive on, so we keep going, simply adjusting to what they can cope with and what they particularly enjoy.

However, I am also a behaviour practitioner. I have been educated to view animals, not just as operant machines, but as creatures with rich emotional lives. I recognise the fact that behaviour is the expression of a need and the outpouring of an emotion. I believe that having this perspective and deeper knowledge of what drives behaviour makes me a better trainer, because I am aware that there is so much more than just observable behaviour to consider when working with any animal.

Unfortunately, people often use training as a way of making things look better, without actually making them any better on a deeper level – kind of like painting over the cracks in a house when its foundations are crumbling. It might look better for a while, but the entire structure is still unstable and at some point, it is bound to collapse.

Except it is far worse than a crumbling house, because dogs are sentient beings that deserve better than having their underlying emotions ignored. Trying to cover up signs of anxiety, frustration or deprivation by teaching polite behaviours is incredibly cruel and selfish.

Too often I see posts in positive reinforcement-based training groups where people are seeking advice to address a “problem” behaviour and, despite the very obvious signs that the dog in the post is struggling because a fundamental need is not being met, the advice given always focuses purely on training away the behaviour, rather than addressing the underlying need.

I find it incredibly sad and actually quite distressing, that so many dogs are desperately trying to communicate what they need and all supposedly knowledgeable people can focus on is how to stop them expressing that need – even if it is in a “nice” way.

Let me be clear, no amount of “training” is going to stop a dog from showing some signs of extreme boredom or distress, if you leave them alone daily for 8 – 10 hours. Dogs are social animals and you cannot train this out of them. A dog getting overexcited when they interact with you, if they spend hours separated from you outdoors or stuck in a crate, is NOT a training issue – it is a welfare issue. Long periods of confinement and isolation are detrimental to dogs – they were not built for this and trying to train them to accept it is fundamentally unfair. You also cannot expect a dog that never has any freedom of movement when out and about to walk “to heel” all the time. Dogs need to move, to run and to explore and expecting them to spend every walk on a 1 metre leash at your side with no tension on that lead as a means of exercise is completely absurd.

Dogs have fundamental needs for companionship, security, freedom of movement and exploration, among other things. You cannot train these needs out of them and trying to do so is incredibly unfair. Meeting your dogs’ emotional needs is how you go about building a strong foundation for their emotional and behavioural wellbeing, as well as your relationship with them. Training should be a means of enhancing and making that well-built foundation shine – not a way of covering up its cracks.

05/04/2024

Sadie is such a smart girl! We are working on introducing her to the new family cat and her fear of loud noises. I can’t wait to see her at her next session!

05/04/2024

Meet Miss Chili! She is an 8 week old Chihuahua mix that is just the sweetest! Today was so fun, I love helping puppy owners get on the right path to having a confident and socialized pup!

04/20/2024

I have been slacking on posting pics of my dog sitting pups s lately! Enjoy these cuties! ❤️🐶❤️

03/12/2024

Little Miss Nova is my newest student! She is super smart and I can’t get enough of those ears!

03/11/2024

I had an awesome session with 5 month old Willow yesterday! She is super smart and picked up everything I showed her immediately! Can’t wait to see her again in a few weeks!

03/01/2024

Great information!

𝟞 𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕗𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕤 𝕒𝕓𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕒 𝕕𝕠𝕘𝕤 𝕟𝕠𝕤𝕖:

03/01/2024

My dogs like them but I have to smash them first, lol. Mixed into plain greek yogurt is a great way to give them a healthy snack!

The holy grail of longevity foods, protecting your dog like a suit of armour.🫐

Blueberries are an awesome source of prebiotic fiber and are chock-full of polyphenols. Studies have found that blueberries delay the aging process by promoting the repair of DNA strands.🧬 Diets supplemented with this blue antioxidant powerhouse can potentially sustain the body’s antioxidant levels and protect against oxidative damage💥, making them one of our top recommendations you can share from your refrigerator!

We use a lot of frozen blueberries as training treats, when fresh blueberries aren’t in season. But be forewarned: more than one blueberry for every two pounds of body weight a day (i.e., five blueberries for a ten-pound dog) can lead to completely benign dark blue p**p, so feed a few, then move on to other Longevity Foods as healthy rewards.

www.foreverdoglife.com

02/23/2024

One of my articles from Pets and Their People!

In Case You Missed It...
Claire Clark of Soul Dog Training replies to a reader with a question about tension in a multidog household. Read more here:
https://www.petprofessionalguild.com/pet-owners/pets-and-their-people/pets-and-their-people-blog/ask-a-trainer-tension-in-a-multidog-household/

02/12/2024

Welcome Big to the Soul Dog Family! He is a 5 month old mini dachshund and is just the cutest! We are working on his stranger danger in the house and his fear reactivity on walks. He was a rock star yesterday and picked up on everything quickly!

02/11/2024

I got to watch Mackenzie this weekend, she is going to be moving to Florida with her Mom, I am going to be so sad!

02/09/2024

My dogsitting pups for the week were Rosie and Louie! It was a week full of chasing chipmunks, flirt pole fun and playing fetch! Louie is a lush, see pic, lol. Rosie is Obsessed with balls, she would fetch for hours if you would let her.

02/09/2024

Say hello to Goose! He is the sweetest pup and so fun to work with!

02/08/2024

Another session with Strider and Flynn the other day! Strider gets startled when people come down the steps unexpectedly so I had been working with him on that and they both decided to come sit by me, lol. Then we went for walks, they have different issues while walking so each walk was totally different. They are such sweet boys!

02/07/2024

Last week I spent the week taking care of these 3 adorable pups! Miss them already! Harlow is one of my puppy clients from last year, she is all grown up now, she is a gorgeous Belgian Malinois. She wants to play with the little ones so badly but they are old and not having any part of it, lol. Humphrey and Houston are the nappers in the second picture.