Black River Dog Training and Pest Abatement

Black River Dog Training and Pest Abatement Black River Dog Training is a small family run training and boarding buisness in Littlerock WA, just minutes south of Olympia.

Worried about your dogs and cats and H5N1? Join me on a live webinar on the subject.
01/16/2025

Worried about your dogs and cats and H5N1? Join me on a live webinar on the subject.

I used to scoff at operant conditioning, because I thought it was just treats for tricks. Or if was dogs that only train...
09/04/2024

I used to scoff at operant conditioning, because I thought it was just treats for tricks. Or if was dogs that only train and compete in a pretty static environment.
But then I started trying to understand how it works. It's still a learning game that is constantly developing, but it's become my most useful tool. Today was this 5 month old Rottweiler's first training session with her owner. She learned the behavior maker that meant food (not treats) in less then 5 minutes. We then used that marker to address one of the behaviors the owner wanted to correct, chasing poultry. There were no corrections given to this puppy, zero. We just marked, "click", every time she looked back at us instead of the duck. Then she chose to stalk the duck a little, but then stopped on her own to look at us..."click". All the sudden the duck held zero interest to this puppy. The duck nibbled at her toes just before this picture, puppy chose to look up at us. She didn't get up, she didn't react.
Operant conditioning works in real life. It's fun to see people and dogs have these learning moments and become a team.

This cot was scary. It wiggles, it squeaks, he could see through the material, he wasn't about to get on it. Easy right?...
08/27/2024

This cot was scary. It wiggles, it squeaks, he could see through the material, he wasn't about to get on it. Easy right? Just grab his coat and yard him up there! Then praise him and move on. But this dog views things like that as potentially being more correction/ pressure then he understands. So his answer would then be to just avoid that cot all together. So he got rewarded for touching it...a few minutes later we're comfortably laying on it. How?
Break the problem or desired behavior into small pieces. Even small successes will lead to replacing avoidance with confidence. That small increase in confidence leads to the next success. It seems tedious and slow, because sometimes it is, but it will snowball. Before long things the dog avoided will be voluntarily sought out. The real gain in my opinion, is that when the dog perceives pressure its more willing to stay engaged and learn after each success.
When it comes to learning, success=confidence. Confidence=effort. Effort=success.

06/28/2024

Fun with dogs!

This schmuck has gotten to be kind of fun now. He was an incredibly arrogant schmuck when we started. He's the first gro...
06/01/2024

This schmuck has gotten to be kind of fun now. He was an incredibly arrogant schmuck when we started. He's the first grown dog/ behavior issues type dog I've worked with (very nearly) zero adversive correction. I've done it with puppies a bunch and love the results, but this is new for me. I've learned a bunch from this dog and it makes me curious. I've sort of "re-started" Cyrus with the same attitude and guidance from Bart over at Canine Evolutions, we're playing with Slip as well. It will bee interesting to see where my opinions and methodology shift in the next year, and how the dogs respond.

Address

Littlerock, Olympia
Littlerock, WA
98512

Opening Hours

9am - 5pm

Telephone

+13607899968

Website

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