Leashes & Litter LLC

06/22/2024

Worth checking out! Conveniently located on Northlake Blvd, they have done a really nice job renovating the space

06/21/2024

Let's talk about this photo. It's cute, except it's not. I see a dog who cannot get up without telling the child to get off. How do you think a dog is going to do that?

The 7 Golden Toddler Dog Rules:
#1: If a dog walks away from you, you DO NOT FOLLOW.
#2: Always leave room for the dog to walk away from you.
---that right there is 90+% of dog bites eliminated---
#3: We do not climb on the dog.
#4: We do not grab or pull on the dog.
#5: We do not hit or throw anything at the dog.
#6: We do not touch the dog's food.
#7: We do not go into the dog's kennel.

I promise these are not overly difficult concepts for littles, nor will they rob a kid of their bond with the family dog. It will deepen that bond, while keeping everyone safe.

"Oh, it looks like Moose is walking away from you. She is saying she wants a break. Let's play with this instead!"

"It's Moose's dinner time! Let's give her space to enjoy her yummies."

"That is Moose's room(kennel) and only she is allowed to go in there."

"If Moose wanted a break, could she walk away from you right now? No she really couldn't. Let's move away from the play house. You can keep playing but now she can leave when she wants a break."

In conclusion, ***parent your child or your dog will do it for you, and you will not like how they do it.***

06/20/2024

"Hmmmm...should I cause mischief, trouble, or both?"

06/18/2024

Just a relaxing morning with the boys....

06/15/2024

Making new friends...

06/11/2024

Trying to burn off some crazy in between bouts of rain....

06/08/2024

Everyone is always sooooooo helpful😂😂

06/06/2024

FREE THE SHOULDERS!

If you’re going to use a front attachment no pull harness then Blue-9 Pet Products Balance Harness is where it’s at, to keep your dog’s shoulders free and happy.

Lilo the Chocolate lab was a great model today. You can see in the top pictures that she was wearing an old, outdated Easy Walk Harness. We know better now that the EW Harness, even when fitted correctly, impedes normal shoulder movement with the straight strap across the chest. It inhibits full range of motion in the shoulder to move forward. This is not good for the long term health of our dogs.

Lilo’s mom upgraded to the Balance Harness today and you can see her modeling the new fit in the bottom pics. The harness fits up higher on the chest, doesn’t sag or droop, and most importantly, her shoulders have full, free range of motion now for their long walks downtown and on the beach thanks to the “Y” shape front.

If you have an Easy Walk Harness, it’s time to switch over! I sell the Balance Harnesses and would love to give your dog’s shoulders some freedom!

06/05/2024

Yup...that's totally where the dog is supposed to sit

06/05/2024

05/31/2024

This!!👇 You have to have patience and time to dedicate when adopting a puppy or young dog. ❤️❤️❤️

DON’T GET A PUPPY AND THEN EXPECT THE BEHAVIOR OF AN ADULT DOG.

I often hear from puppy owners:
“He’s not obedient.”
“He doesn’t listen.”
“He can’t sit still.”
“He won’t xyz…”

Well, no s**t! You got a puppy! That’s what babies, toddlers, little kids, and teenagers do. It’s what puppies do, as well. They literally do not have the maturity and brain development for adult behaviors - because… they are puppies! People expect their 3 month old puppy to calmly hold a down stay for an hour while everyone else is running around the house as if we also expect a 3 year old toddler to sit through a college class with ease, “because they should.” Um, no.

If you decide to get a puppy, then you are also deciding to accept “puppyhood” as well. If you want adult dog behavior, get an adult dog.

05/29/2024

When you're meeting your new dog walker for the first time, it's very important you show them how you like to wash your tennis balls.

05/12/2024

A meeting of the minds...

05/08/2024

In case there was any confusion about who's in charge😂

04/25/2024

Burgeoning Bffs

04/21/2024

Nap time....
sleeping

04/20/2024

The weekenders 🌞🌴🐕

04/03/2024

THIS!👇

Practice. Practice. Practice. We will never get better at anything, if we don’t practice. If your dog is reactive on leash, and you do not walk and work on the reactivity on a consistent basis, then you will not progress. Just like anything else in life. If you don’t take the time to consistently work out, you won’t improve your physical strength. If you don’t take the time to learn new things, you won’t expand your knowledge. And if you don’t take the time to put effort into relationships (with other people or even with your dog!) then you won’t have solid connections. Everything needs practice in order to improve. Your dog’s training is no different!

03/30/2024

The "new kid" picking her napping spot💕

03/25/2024

Closing out Spring Break 2024 🌴🌞🥂
🐕❤️

03/17/2024

Play hard...nap hard....

03/16/2024

🎶 The bulldogs back and he's hyper like before🎶

03/15/2024

LEASH REACTIVITY + BRIBING + DISTRACTION

I often hear that when you’re using food to work on leash reactivity (i.e. using food to pass by a “trigger”) that it’s bribing or distracting the dog rather than teaching them anything. I couldn’t disagree more. There are certainly correct and incorrect uses of food in training, and bribing vs distraction vs luring vs rewarding are all very different things.

BRIBING would be persuasion, by definition. We could go into a different debate on whether dogs can truly be persuaded in the same manner that we are, and that perhaps this is still just a distraction, but that’s besides the point. Bribing would look like this:

1. Dog sees trigger, knows it’s there.
2. Owner pulls food out and places it in front of dog.
3. Food may even be given freely at this time.
4. THEN once food is already present, owner asks the dog for a behavior. Which could even be to just follow the food. (Which can often fail because there’s no real coping skill here.)

The idea of bribing is showing what is available as an incentive first, and THEN asking for a behavior once the incentive is already present and seen. Clearly, this is not an ideal order of events. While sure some people may end up either accidentally or inadvertently training in this way, it’s not how it should go.

DISTRACTION would be preventing full attention to the trigger, by definition. I see this mistake often. Distraction would look like this:

1. Dog does NOT see trigger, and does NOT know it’s there.
2. Owner sees it first and pulls food out and either places it in front of dog and/or asks the dog to do known behaviors. Food may also be given freely and not attached to behaviors.
3. Owner tries to maintain engagement while passing the trigger without the dog looking at it all. (Which typically fails and the dog usually ends up getting startled at some point. There’s also no real coping skill here).

Distraction doesn’t allow for the trigger to be acknowledged and therefore you never actually work on the responses to said trigger, if distraction is the only technique utilized. Also, not the ideal order of events.

LURING would be using food to get the dog to move in a desired way, for said reward, by definition *but* the goal in training is to have it follow behind a cue/command. We don’t want it to stand alone. Luring would look like this:

1. Dog sees trigger, knows it’s there.
2. Owner gives verbal cue/command that we are trying to teach.
3. THEN the owner presents food to move dog in desired way.
4. Once desired behavior is performed, then the food is given.

The big differences here are that the direction is given first, because, the end goal is to have a dog that responds to the verbal cue/command. The lure follows the verbal request (“here this is what I want you to do”), does not stand alone, and food is not given until behavior is completed. Luring is a very successful way to teach a behavior in the beginning stages of learning. It’s what most people do when teaching sit and down, as well. There are more rules and a specific sequences to follow because the whole point here is to teach a coping skill for the dog, where later on the luring is no longer needed.

REWARDING would be giving food as recognition of performing desired behaviors, by definition. This is always the goal. Rewarding would look like this:

1. Dog sees trigger, knows it’s there.
2. Owner gives verbal cue/command OR dog performs behavior voluntarily.
3. Dog does said behavior.
4. THEN the owner presents food as a reward.

The big difference here is that the food doesn’t come out until after the dog has already done the behavior and yes, this is what we are ultimately aiming for (prior to weaning down rewards). There’s no bribing or luring taking place. However, luring, can absolutely get the dog to this point.

There’s a big difference between all four of these and I think it’s really important to be able to differentiate. Bribing and distracting can be useful during less than ideal moments where your options are limited and it won’t hurt to do every once in a while, but they are not something that you want to rely on. Luring is a great way to teach a dog the desired behavior but we don’t want it to be required forever. It is used with the knowledge that it is temporary, the extent of which varies greatly between cases and the parameters within them. And finally, rewarding is where we want to end up. Thats the end goal use of food.

When someone is using food correctly to lure and/or reward their dog, it can actually be very detrimental, insulting, and dismissive of their hard work to call it a bribe or distraction. Knowing the order of events and what the end goal is can make a big difference in accurately assessing what is going on.

03/14/2024

Who's a Pretty Princess💕

03/09/2024

Daycare doggos

03/04/2024

It's always a good time to point at stuff😂

02/25/2024

-"Why are you guys so tired after the weekend?"
-" hmmmmmm" 😂😂

02/23/2024

Weekend plans....

02/19/2024

A client donated these to us when she replaced them for her own dogs...we weren't sure if the kids would enjoy them...but they're a hit💕