Dog Training with Rebecca

03/27/2024

03/11/2024

1 week until Paisley’s pups are here!!
I’m only taking one more deposit for her litter as I think it’s going to be a small litter.
If you don’t know Paisley she is a 14 1/2” ball of snuggles! She wants nothing more than to have your attention. Her beautiful coat and small size makes her super portable where ever you go.
Paisley’s offspring have all stayed in size for the breed ring.
Grand Champion Waterfall’s Finely Tuned BCAT, TKN

U-CH Waterfall’s Write Your Story CGCA CGCU TKN BCAT FDC SPOT ON

Waterfall’s Follow My Heart TKN

Waterfall’s Devine Design (7 pts AKC)

Olive is our smallest daughter at 13.5 inches and 13.5 pounds!!!!
This is Paisley’s last litter. She will permanently be retired in her home.
These pups will have a love for life and their humans with an abundance of energy!

03/11/2024

Friendly reminder ❤️

02/29/2024

Swagger has been a life-changing dog. He has become a medical alert dog as well as my best friend he and I do everything together.

02/05/2024

Please vote for Swagger!!

Swagger has been a life-changing dog. He has become a medical alert dog as well as my best friend he and I do everything together.

01/11/2024

Health testing and understanding structure and how it affects the movement is part of being a quality breeder.

01/01/2024

In case anyone wanted to know. I am back at Petsmart part time as the trainer. There is some wicked good deals this week.

12/18/2023

Watch this. Learn to read signs that the dog is uncomfortable

11/04/2023

Let’s talk dog training and how it actually works.
What do you mean, you might think? I hire the trainer, and the dog gets fixed. Problem solved.

Well, not really.

First of all, a very common thing we see as dog trainers is that dog owners are not proactive when it comes to dog training. We wait until there is a problem, and THEN we start training. That actually is a bit backwards, because now we have to un-learn bad behaviours and teach good behaviours on top of them.
Here’s a nice saying I heard in the No Bad Dogs podcast of Tom Davies:
Bad dogs NEED training. Good dogs DESERVE training.
Training isn’t just there to solve an issue, but it’s also a huge relationship builder and gives your dog a sense of purpose in his day to day life.

Now, let’s say you have a dog that jumps on guests and is overexcited every time he sees a dog.
You hire a trainer. The trainer then explains what is actually going on in your dog’s head. Why he does this and not that, what is needed to change, techniques that may be beneficial. Often the dog trainer will then demonstrate how they would do it and then it’s your turn to have a go. You’re excited, it’s working! My dog is fixed!
Once you get home, it goes pretty well for a week. Maybe 2. But then we go on holiday, or it gets really busy at work or you were very tired and just couldn’t be bothered. And your dog goes backwards again.
How is this possible? I trained for 3 hours with this trainer and paid them X amount of money and my dog is STILL doing it. That trainer didn’t even do their work.

Let’s have a look at it from a different perspective.

You want to lose weight. 25 kgs. You hire a personal trainer. Your PT works with you 1x a week, provides you with coaching, a meal plan that you have to follow and stick to and also creates a workout plan.
You have to STICK with it and do the homework. No one EVER would go to a PT for 1 or 3 hours and then say ‘Hey, I didn’t lose the 25 kgs, it’s YOUR fault.’
No, what we do instead is look at ourselves. Did we not follow the meal plan? Or were we slack and only trained 1x instead of the 4x the PT told you to do?
You do not hire a personal trainer and say ‘Give me the body and the muscles’. You say: Teach me how to do it, so I can keep it up.
Just because the PT already has the body and the muscles, doesn’t mean you will get it without putting any effort in.

See, the same is with dogs. Just because the dog trainer can do it, doesn’t mean you can do it after only 1 hour.
It is YOUR JOB to do YOUR homework. It’s not your dog that’s stubborn or doesn’t want to learn. It’s not your trainers fault your dog is still reacting on dog walks because you didn’t put the training in, in between sessions. We are there to help you.
Even if you bring your dog to a Board & Train or a bootcamp program. This is where the trainer does the grunt work. We do the endless repetitions to make your life easier. But you will have to keep up the maintenance. Because if you work with a PT for 3 weeks straight and you stop after those 3 weeks? What will happen? You gain back all that weight.

We have to look at dog training as a mental mindset. Something you put your mind to, and have to stick with.. just like with going to the gym or learning a new instrument.

Dog training isn’t like bringing your dog to the garage and having them come out 3 hours later and installed a new part and your dog is fixed.
We are not car mechanics, we are trainers.

Let’s say a dog lives 10 years. That is 86700 hours.
If you hire a trainer for 3 hours of your dogs life, that’s only 0.003% of his life. You can not expect that just 3 hours of work, is going to fix your dogs problems.
We, the dog trainers, sometimes only see the dogs for that amount of time. So the rest of the hours, those are yours.

11/02/2023

A battle cry to the public.

So many breeders are selling puppies way below the price should be to get quality care and pedigree/lines.

Please understand that if that is all that is supported you are putting all of our dogs at risk. Responsible and ethical breeders cannot stay in business and hold the standards that our dogs deserve.

From careful selection of parents, health testing, veterinary care, quality nutrition, puppy curriculum, puppy evaluations, and on and on.

I am seeing ethical and responsible breeders pausing left and right and what I need you to know is that if all of our GOOD breeders are reducing our litters and or stopping breeding altogether (we will not breed to any other standard other than of excellence) then what will be left of our dogs? Our lines?

I need this message to be heard LOUD AND CLEAR. Our dogs are at risk. I know the economy is crappy. We are all feeling that, but please save, be patient, and research before getting a dog at a price that is "too good to be true".

I am watching this all unfold before my eyes and I need your help!

Please protect all of our ethical breeders.

Buy responsibly.

Our dogs deserve it.

Our ethical breeders are the ones we want to protect, preserve, and create the healing power of the dog. We do not want the fate of our dogs left in the hands of ill-intention breeders.

10/14/2023

There is a reason puppies are so dang cute, it's to offset the fact they are a lot of work!

No matter where you puppy comes from, the best breeder in the country, or adopted from a reputable rescue who saved them from a literal dumpster... They will be challenging, and require a lot of time and patience. They are babies, and they are growing up in a world not designed for their benefit so they have a lot to learn about how to fit in. And sometimes that includes figuring out how to keep the kids toys out of reach, and getting up at 3am to take puppy to go potty. It's all worth it! And while it's happening puppyhood seems to take forever, but it honestly goes too fast.

But if your someone who struggles with the 3am potty break, or figuring out how to teach puppy not to eat your shoes, or can't handle when accidents happen... It might be best to consider adopting an older dog who is already past their puppy-blues phase and has the mental and physical maturity to figure it all out pretty quickly.

09/22/2023

We know… you see a cute dog that’s shaking their b***y, giving you those puppy dog eyes and is allll smiles. It’s like they’re begging you to pet them and give them loves, and sometimes, they are. 🐶

However, it’s important that we ALWAYS ask permission before petting a dog. This is for a multitude of reasons including but not limited to the dog being in training, a service animal, doesn’t like being pet by strangers etc. Regardless of the reason, it’s important we respect the animal, the owners and their space. It’s also important that we RESPECT THE DECISION and listen if we’re told no. 🐾

08/08/2023

Fear is the easiest things to condition in dogs and the hardest to resolve. Fear can come from many places, many of which we don't control. This infographic is my most downloaded and shared resource. Download your copy here: http://rescuedbytraining.com/fear-in-dogs-infographic/
and for a deep dive into each of these, read the accompanying Fear In Dogs blog series here: https://rescuedbytraining.com/tag/fear-in-dogs-series/

07/20/2023

These are 3 common areas which are easily over looked or not even consciously thought about...but can make a very big difference.
If I could number these in importance then rewarding what you DO want would be right at the top of the list.
Best of all....this can require very little effort.

If you want a calmer dog.....reward when they are calm. Not bursting out of their skin excited...but calm.
If you want a less jumpy dog.....reward when all 4 paws are on the ground.
Want your dog to rest more?....reward when they go to their bed.

Sometimes it can be as easy as adding in rewards when they show us exactly what we want to see....sometimes though we are so caught up in the behaviour which is unwanted that we can ignore all the times when dogs show us (naturally) the behaviour we really do want more of.
Have some small tasty treats on you so you can capture the moments they show you exactly what you want.....if you go to the cupboard to get the treat....the timing will be lost.
If you haven't tried rewarding the behaviour you want to see more of....add it in.

It can be a very powerful message to our dogs.

One thing that so many people do (and I have mentioned this before) is repeating the cue or "command" over and over again.
If I could wave a magic wand....I would instantly change that habit we humans have.
Making a conscious effort to not repeat what we would like over and over helps everything.....

This is a habit that you may not even realise you do.

You may recognise others doing this....you may even realise their habit is having a negative effect on what they want to achieve, and.... you may be doing EXACTLY the same in different circumstances.

Cue nagging creates "deafness" to what you say.....and it is a very big issue.

It is so ingrained that even after talking about this issue in classes....within 2-3 minutes of discussing all the issues this causes and everyone understanding these problematic repeats.....people go right back to doing it......and don't even realise they are doing it.

It takes a real effort to change this habit....but once you do....it can change everything.
Your dog listens and responds....and they understand !

So have a think about these common issues and ask your family if you do these....you may be surprised when they say yes.

07/18/2023

Next Wednesday the 26th of July at 530pm I will start class. Message me here or via text at 2186400009 for where and to be added to the class.
$125!and we will go about an hour. We will work in different locations so the dogs are learning they have to listen and behave outside of home. We will work on loose leash walking and heel. Sit in heel position when you stop walking. Down and relax while you enjoy the surroundings. Sit and down stays. Approaching strangers and strangers approaching them. We will meet for 6 weeks

Things to bring:
Dog and you
6 foot leash and a collar. I’m not picky on type of collar…
Treats of different kinds
Water for dogs and whatever you drink
A chair
A towel or dog blanket

07/17/2023

Let’s work on basic heel work with our dogs! Along with wait and come from longer distances!
If you have already done a beginners class with me we are going to take it up a notch and start working on getting those dogs to walk in heel position next to us. As well as sit stay from at least 20 feet away and come from the same distance and sit when they get to you. We are also going to work on chill, leave it and just understanding the world can move around and do it’s thing while the doggos sit and chill.
These are huge steps to passing a canine good citizen test. All dogs are eligible. You can either get a certificate from AKC or get it added to your dogs name as a title.
6 weeks of classes with homework! $125

If you want to be tested at the end of the 6 weeks for your canine good citizen we can do that. When you pass you will get a form with your pass fail status, a ribbon that says you passed your CGC. Send that paperwork into AKC and receive your AKC title and certificate!

07/17/2023

If anyone is interested in earning their trick dog titles or a good citizen, plus advanced or urban I can test your dogs.  I am a certified evaluator. 

07/15/2023

Here you go to get them into heel SPOT postition