Foundations are important. If you hear the clicking, this first thing I conditioned Emma to was the clicker. She knows a click means that’s the correct thing. I always encourage people to market train their dogs. I’m a session we’ll talk more about that (I can also make a separate post about it). When you first get a dog the first things you do with them are the things that stick with them for the rest of their life. With puppies they’re the most moldeable at that point of their life. If you have a rescue then you have to build trust and teach them that you can be trusted and that they can trust your leadership. We then build up obedience from that foundation.
This is Emma’s task called crowd control. When I feel like I need space or her and I as a team need more space, I ask her to circle.
I have C-PTSD from surviving Domestic Violence and this task helps me to stay calm and in my body when I’m in triggering spaces.
Dogs are helpful to domestic violence survivors. They bring comfort and grounding even as pets.
Did you know that only 15% of domestic violence shelters allow dogs. That means survivors have to stay with abusers to keep their animals safe or leave their animals with their abusers.
@purina has the #purpleleashproject to help more pet friendly shelters for survivors. They have partnered with @redroverorg to do this. Give them all a follow and join me in helping me with their mission!
While this doesn’t look appealing to humans eating a duck head enriches Emma’s environment. As dog owners there’s a lot we can do to give our dogs high quality environments. I recently wrote a blog post about what enrichment is and things other than training that help give your dog a high quality environment in your home! Check out the link in the comments below for the blog post!
Bathtime Training
What is something you think is important to train an animal to do? I think it’s important to train an animal to participate in their care, or husbandry practices. This training makes it’s easier on us as owners and on the dog or any animal.
I did train my childhood dog to get into the bathtub because she weighed over 100 pounds and weighed under 100 pounds; so there was no way I could get here in an out of the tub to care for her. I really learned the importance of this training when I worked zoological facilities in my twenties and learned training procedures that allow the animals to partake in their husbandry procedures.
If you any problems having your dog participate in their care let us know. It takes time to train but it’s worth it and I’d love to work with you in training it!!
This video shows what training looks like to have a dog trained to get into the bathtub. (She also just plays in the bathtub so she’s not forced to do this)
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Due to some medical testing this past week, Emma and I were home bound. This meant that we were limited to doing training drills with no to limited distractions. Last night we went out with my husband to Walmart and while he shopped we took advantage of that time to film some training drills. They’re a little rusty but that’s ok. We never expect perfect from a dog. Dogs are not robots they’re animals.
* Emma is a task trained service animal. Only task trained service animals may perform public access *
Happy weekend from Blue Dog Training Co!