Huge thanks to all the veterinarians and clinic staff who go slow when it’s needed and get things done quickly and quietly when it’s needed!
Thank you allowing “happy visits” where pet parents come in during a slow time for practice. And thank you for allowing me to come along to help my clients know how to handle visits for their fearful or anxious dogs.
Pet parents feel supported and as though they have a “team” setting them and their dog up for success. 👏👏🐾🙌
Had a little time between clients today and I was right by the Iowa City Animal Care & Adoption Center so popped in and did a quick play date with Gooding and Roberta. ❤️❤️🐾🐾
Both are still available for adoption!
The first time I met these two, the dog “Donut” 🍩 💗 hurled himself at me/the door and jumped on me at least 20 times. That was last fall.
This is now.
Donut is a very active, highly social, athletic, made-for-agility, adolescent dog. His pet parent did not have the opportunity to start learning about her dog and how to work with him until we met, so he was a little “wild child” to start with. 🤪🐾
He’s come a long way in a short time!
The magic is in the training. The success comes from the human’s dedication to learning and practicing, always with kindness. Thank you 🙏 ❤️
Client dog Rocket staying calm in the presence of some of his triggers at just the right distance (people walking behind the cars). His pet parent is allowing him to look and reinforcing at the right time. Rocket is a recovering reactive dog. Rocket’s pet parent is putting in the work every day (inside and out) and it’s paying off.
Long lasting behavior change takes time, work, patience, willingness to learn, participate, and understand that dogs are emotional, intelligent beings, not robots. There are no “quick fixes”.
The Hol-ee Roller Ball (available at Leash on Life) isn’t just for dogs!
Turn your sound up to hear horse happiness. 🐴😋
#enrichment #horseenrichment #holeerollerball #JustforFunEntertainment
Happy Friday and Happy Canine Body Language!
Got a head tilt? 🤪
Let’s see it 👀
Client dog Donut 🍩
Thanks to the veterinarians and staff at the Animal Clinic for inviting me in to discuss ways to help their canine clients have better and safer visits! What a caring and compassionate team they have!
A LOT of dogs can feel anxious and fearful when they visit a place like a vet clinic. Getting vaccines and heart worm tests are necessary for your dog’s health. These things may involve hands on from the clinic staff including holding/restraining your dog.
Communicating with the staff about your dog’s anxiety ahead of the visit can help set everyone up for success.
Teaching your dog to be comfortable in a well- fitting basket muzzle is one way to help the staff care for your dog efficiently and safely.
Check the comments for more about muzzles.
This week I went to the Iowa City Animal Care & Adoption Center to help.
The generous community I know and love once again stepped up with donations to help care for 131 puppy mill dogs they took in just one week ago.
Staff and volunteers have been working overtime to make sure every dog has its needs met. This includes groomers (almost every dog had a severely overgrown, matted coat), veterinarians, vet techs, and countless other people. This has been a HUGE task. It takes a lot of resources, enormous amounts of documentation and paperwork, all while following careful (time consuming) handling and cleaning procedures to minimize the stress on the animals during their initial quarantine period.
Every shelter and rescue in our area is FULL of “regular” homeless animals. Still, some other local organizations stepped up to help and were able to take a few of the harder cases (needing more intensive care) into their foster programs.
Thankfully, the shelter was able to network and locate a responsible transport organization to disperse most of these special dogs to two shelters in two different states where they have fosters and empty kennels waiting. This is the best situation!
Rehabbing puppy mill dogs often requires a lot of professional behavior support. Many of them have lived in cages for years (I mean NEVER stepping foot out of a cage). They don’t understand our world. Both shelters that are taking these dogs have their own certified, professional behavior/training staff which is ideal.
I’m happy to know that with all the resources, donations, and incredible people, these dogs will go on to have the best life possible for them.
I’m sad and angry that this is another situation in a long list and it won’t be the last until humans demand better laws to protect these animals. Google “Iowa puppy mills” and you’ll see news articles about this situation and others like it from all over Iowa… over and over again.
If you don’t know wha
Private in-home behavior modification and training rocks! I’m so happy to be back doing this work.
Clients are happy too! 🙌❤️
Pooka and Teddy are starting the process of learning desirable behaviors of:
1. Go to a specific place (Teddy on his cot and Pooka on the top step)
2. Quiet
3. Stay until you hear your release word
All cued by… the doorbell! 🚪🔔🐾
We’ve worked on each of these behaviors separately and are starting to put it together in “real life” (you can turn the volume up to hear the “ding dong” of their doorbell). Previously this stimulus sent them scampering and barking at the door.
All made possible by the fantastic clients doing their homework. Not just their training homework- they are making sure their dog’s needs are met with enrichment, decompression activities, and a relationship built of mutual trust. 🥰🐕🐩
Having a little fun during a client private training session this morning. 🐾🦴
It is incredibly beneficial to work with dogs and their guardians in their own, familiar environments. 🏡❤️🐕
Private training/coaching right in your backyard!🙌🐾🤓
In this clip Gertie is snacking on a long lasting treat held by one of her pet parents while the other one touches her in different ways (not so much petting, but different kinds of gentle touch).
They key here is listening to (watching) Gertie’s body language. She will tell her handlers when she is comfortable and when she needs them to go a bit slower/take a break.
Gertie is still a young dog and investing the time doing these types of exercises now will help her feel good about and cooperative for future grooming and veterinary appointments. 🐶💇♀️❤️
#teachyourpuppytheimportantstuff
#inhomedogtraining
BFDA is back to IN HOME private training!
I love teaching dog guardians to work with their dog in their own home environment. There are many advantages! 🙌🐶🏡
Here, Rosie is learning to stay at the top of the stairs when a person enters the home and to stay calm when she hears the doorbell. Huge success in just one session! 👏👏🐾❤️
Sometimes people ask why I don’t post the “before” video. Good question! If the dog’s behaviors in response to certain stimuli or in a specific context are undesirable (eg. Hearing the doorbell and knocking everyone out of the way to frantically rush at the door and throwing themselves at the door) then the last thing I want the dog to do is continue to rehearse those undesirable behaviors!
Practice makes perfect folks. 🤷♀️🫣
So while we’re constructing the new, more desirable behaviors, we use management to prevent the rehearsal of the old ones. This might mean a gate, leash, or other means of preventing a mad door dash. Also, putting a note on your doorbell instructing visitors to text when they arrive so you can put your dog in a separate/safe space and give them a long lasting treat to occupy them.
Rosie’s guardians have done amazing foundation work with her for a few weeks, so when we introduce new things as shown in the video, she makes a ton of progress very quickly. 🤩🙏
Awesome adoptable dog alert!
I met several nice dogs yesterday at the shelter while working on a project to educate people about consent petting. This is Mishka. She is wonderful! So is her brother, Malachi. They are both going to blossom when provided the right environment.
The shelter is FULL!
Please spread the word to help them out.
Thanks to the staff and volunteers Iowa City Animal Care & Adoption Center/ Animal Services for working with me on this project.
#adoptmishka #consentpetting #askthedog #caninebodylanguage
Reactive dog client, (a terrier bred to be intensely driven and tenacious).
Me: How have things been going since our last session?
Client: good! Even the neighbors commented on how great he is doing and how much progress we’ve made!
Me: (heart swelling) NICE!! Dedication and practice pays again…
Me, still, after the clients have left: THE NEIGHBORS NOTICED and REINFORCED the clients. 🙌👏👏👏💗💗😋
Teaching your dog tricks is just the same as teaching them the “basics” like sit, stay, come. 😉
As Emily says “it’s ALL TRICKS!” 🤩🐾🐾
Learn how to make all the things fun and fluent in Emily’s Tricks class, all levels welcome. 🥳
See details and register here:
https://www.bestfriendsdogacademy.com/register
The thing I love most about this is listening to the owner tell her dog how special she is. 🤗🥰🐾