Proofing Moose’s obedience in the real world!
Proofing Moose’s obedience in the real world! Moose has been hard at work the past few weeks mastering the skills he will need to be a well behaved dog for his family. I decided to really put everything he has learned to the test by challenging him in the real world. He did not disappoint and showed true understanding with everything he has learned including some snappy recalls even when he wanted to go say hi to a friend of his. Getting dogs to this level of obedience is crucial for them to live a happy and fulfilled life, however many trainers fail to get their clients dogs to this point. There is a growing pandemic in dog training in which dog owners and trainers believe obedience is a dog following a food lure into a sit or down while in a sterile environment such as inside of the home. This is oftentimes considered a “trained” dog by most, however when this very same dog is placed in the real world with distractions they are unable to be reliable. This is the difference between true obedience with a dog and getting a dog to perform obedience, many people cannot tell the difference, but I can assure you that the dog most certainly does.
This is not an exciting video, nevertheless it is a pretty big improvement for Rambo!
This is not an exciting video, nevertheless it is a pretty big improvement for Rambo! When we first met Rambo he wanted to attack anything thing he perceived as a threat. This included a variety of triggers such as doorbell noises as well the sound and movement of a lawn mower. If it was on the other side of a fence he would run and down the fence barking up a storm. If the lawnmower wasn’t on the other side of the fence he would try and attempt to bite at the wheels which could be extremely harmful to himself. In this video he is able to observe the lawn mower as it goes by without loosing his mind, so while it’s not an exciting video and not much is going on it is a big step forward towards showing him that not everything is a monster that needs to be fought.
Moose learning to walk on a flexi leash!
Moose learning to walk on a flexi leash! I can’t tell you how much of a fan I am of using flexi leashes while training a dog! Many trainers hate using flexi leashes and will utterly shutter at the idea of using one. That being said we do things differently than 99% of other dog trainers out there, and how we use flexi leashes is just one of the many ways we are different. I decided to create a short list of the benefits the flexi leash has to offer in training. 1. Stops the dog from pulling on a standard six foot leash creating bad habits. 2. Amazing for teaching recall commands. 3. Allows owners to give their dogs more freedom on the walk without sacrificing safety or with a dog that is not 100% recall trained. 4. Helps with reactive dogs as it gives them more choice and doesn’t force them into a fight or flight response. 5. Allows you to practice distance and duration work with your dog such as sit/down stay commands. 6. Can help in teaching an amazing heel command. I’m sure if I really put more thought into it I could think of more benefits of the flexi leash. It is one of those tools that once I have learned to properly use it in training I could never go back to using a standard six foot leash ever again!
Tank working on some obedience!
Tank working on some obedience! Tank here has been busy going on outings and meeting new people as part of his rehabilitation due to a few bites he has done in the past. Alongside working with him to overcome his issues with people he has been hard at work learning some cool and useful obedience commands, in this video I decided to put everything he has learned to the test by bringing out some distracting and noisy dogs and then went about doing various obedience commands in their presence. Tank knocked the challenge out of the park and I don’t even think he noticed the three yappy dogs only a few feet away. Tank is definitely a very fast learner and I look forward to working with his owners during private lessons to take him as far as they are willing to go with him in his training. One important thing I want to take note in this post regarding tanks case is the separation between behavior and obedience. These are both things that we have been working on during tanks stay but it’s important to note that his obedience has nothing to do with the way in which he feels towards people. In fact anytime we are working on his behavior towards people I make it a point to not use any obedience whatsoever has this can ultimately lead to problems. So many people believe that the answer to solving a dog that has a history of biting people or feels uncomfortable around people is to just drill super reliable obedience, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Unfortunately it tends to be a bandaid solution for many owners and trainers that gives a false sense of success and nothing more.
Moose and puppy Tank learning to relax inside!
Moose and puppy Tank Learning to relax inside! We teach dogs to do lots of things during training, but one of the things we like to teach is for the dog to simply do nothing. This can be a challenge task especially for a younger pup that wants to be doing things 24/7 and can’t stay out of trouble. The thing is dogs need plenty of rest, on average 16 hours of sleep a day to be fully regulated. Teaching dogs how to settle using something like place can transfer and lead to the dog settling down on their own, which means the dogs gets some much needed rest and their owners can get some peace and quiet.
Moose showing off his skills at one of our group classes!
Moose showing off his skills at one of our group classes! Moose has been progressing with his training and we decided it was time to really challenge him by taking him to one of our group classes and seeing how his training holds up around other dogs. One thing that we offer for all of our clients is lifetime access to our group refresher classes so that they can continue to maintain their dog’s behavior that they worked so hard to achieve. This is also a great time to just get out of the house and do something fun with your dog and meet other likeminded owners!
Most trainers don’t know how to handler these types of dogs!
Most trainers don’t know how to handler these types of dogs! That is dogs that don’t want people to come close to them and interact in their personal bubble and then resort to barking and biting to show their disapproval. Perhaps they had a bad negative experience with humans in the past and now see them as a threat, or maybe they just did not receive adequate socialization and have a stranger danger mindset, or maybe it could be something as simple as the dogs genetic make up that causes them to not like human interaction. In many cases it is a combination of these reasons and many more that plague thousands of dogs similar to Tank here, the problem is that most trainers resort to a training program that does not end up help solve the dogs underlying issue. You see most trainers resort to one of two options. The first option is to simply try and suppress the dogs outward behavior so that the dog is afraid to show how they feel about interactions with people, the problem with this is that it doesn’t actually change the dogs feelings and it can lead to the dog one day saying they have had enough, in other words it creates a ticking time bomb. The other way that most trainers rely on is by distracting the dog with treats anytime they walk by a person or the dogs trigger, this is just a bandaid to the real issue and is only effective if the owners are capable of being a pez dispenser for the rest of the dogs life. In order to really make a change with these kinds of dogs they need to be shown another way, they need to change their perception around the people they were once afraid of or could not tolerate. We do this by opening up the dog’s mind and showing them a new picture. Only once we change the dog’s perception of the world they live in will lasting change be possible. In this video Tank is shown meeting a new person for the first time and continuing to choose to engage with the new person on his own while other people walk by. He has had numerous bites
Moose and Puppy Tank on a field trip!
Moose and puppy Tank on a field trip! Both of these dogs are on very different stages in their training journey, however they both were ready for a fun outing at the park and then later a dog friendly store! Puppy Tank has been working on mastering his obedience commands and so we thought it would be a good time to take him out in public and really test the work that he has been doing. From holding obedience commands to walking nicely on leash in distracting environments with lots of people he rocked it! Moose on the other hand wasn’t focusing too much on obedience. He is one of our new board and trains that got dropped off recently and we haven’t really gotten much obedience on him yet. He struggle with some reactivity towards dogs and people while on the walk and so with him we mainly focused on some exposure work and just letting him have a fun time. That being said he did fantastic in both the park and the store and once we get some obedience on him he will be a rockstar!
Changing the dog’s perception!
Changing the dog’s perception! Tank has been busy meeting quite a few new people lately and has been doing really well with introductions. In this video we set up a scenario in which Tank meets Eli, however Eli is wearing a Halloween Jason mask. The purpose of this exercise is to challenge Tanks preconceived beliefs about what will happen in a stressful situation. The purpose of the mask and Eli’s standoffish behavior is to get him to feel a little weird about meeting this new individual, I show tank that this “new” person is actually someone he can interact with and be friends with. Once tank sees that he can be friends we reveal who the stranger behind the mask is, and what do you know it’s his good friend Eli! By setting up these scenarios we begin to open up tanks brain and teach him to be more accepting of strange and stressful encounters. Rather than thinking that person standing of in the distance is here to hurt him maybe they will offer a few pets and attention, or maybe it’s actually a really close friend that he just did not recognize at first. By creating and practicing these scenarios with Tank we are able to rewire his brain and create new Myeline sheaths that will increase the probability of the desired behavior in the future. Meanwhile his old habits and behaviors begin to slowly decrease as they are used less and less. I will attach a quick video on how myeline works in the comments below for those who want to better understand this process.
Puppy Tank working on those recalls!
Puppy Tank working on those recalls! Recall training is something that I see many owners struggle to gain with their dogs, yet I find it to be a relatively easy skill to teach, at least compared to other skills such as sit or down. I think that the reason why most owners have such a hard time with teaching this skill is because they are so focused on the behavior of getting the dog to come back to them. Sure the behavior is a key component, but what makes a recall so powerful is the relationship between you and the dog. That relationship is the cornerstone of our training program and so many dogs naturally have a solid recall with little to no training. What little recall training we do usually entails overcoming competing motivators that the dog wants to do instead of recall back to us. Other than that recall training is really one of the easiest things to teach, that is if you have the proper foundation to begin with. And that foundation doesn’t just help with the recall, it makes teaching everything else a cake walk.
Tank learning to meet people!
Tank learning to meet new people! Now that we have a solid foundation in place between us and Tank such as trust, authority, and cooperation we are able to begin the process of getting him exposed to people in order to address the main reason he is here with us for training. Tank is definitely an interesting case for sure due to his previous track record in how he handles stressful situations. His first course of action when presented with stress is to use his teeth, thankfully he is a very affectionate dog and loves physical touch. It’s interesting because as a dog he craves attention and affection, yet he struggles to trust strangers. For him the biggest thing we can do is show him that strangers are not a threat and he can gain that affection he desires from them. This was roughly the 4th person he has met in the past few days, but it was the first person he didn’t try and use his teeth on. With each meeting he is beginning to see a pattern in which his previous methods of handling the situation are ineffective and that people are not as scary as he once thought.
Learning doorway manners!
Learning doorway manners! All the pups have been hard at work learning a variety of different skills based on their owners individual needs. That being said one thing we will teach all the dogs that come through our program is doorway manners due to it being a safety concern and something I am pretty adamant about teaching to a dog. There are certain skills that can quite literally save your dog’s life. Doorway manners and recall are two such skills and are things that we do not take lightly when it comes to training. I always say that training dogs should achieve one of the three big goals, improving the dog’s quality of life, improving the owners quality of life, and improving safety. If you are teaching a skill to your dog and it does not hit one of those three checkmarks then it is often a waste of time and effort to teach. Focus on the important aspects in your training and you will find much more enjoyment with your dog and make faster progress!
