This is Bubba. I take him for monthly walks/training sessions while his owner continuously reinforces what we work on.
In this video, I am describing what I am doing with him as I’m doing it.
As with all reactive dogs, they have a threshold to where they can see their trigger and not react. Some dogs it’s 20ft away, others it’s 50ft, 100ft etc…
Reactive dogs, more often than not have a CER (conditioned emotional response). When they see their trigger they get certain feelings about it. Most of the time, those feelings are negative and fear based.
Our job as owners and trainers is to find their threshold and work towards helping them make happy, positive associations. You want to find the sweet spot where your dog sees their trigger but doesn’t react.
(When they get to react - barking, lunging etc.. it will further engrain their reactivity)
Instead you want them to engage in decompression and sniffing exercises with you, as shown in this video.
Reactivity and CER’s are not easy things to work with. All the obedience in the world will not change how a dog feels about a certain trigger. It’s my job to help your dog learn to turn those bad feelings into good feelings and to help the owners learn how to do that as well.
2023 has been a great year. I have helped 60 families learn how to communicate with their dogs by giving clear cues and integrating play time during training to help strengthen relationships.
I got to work with about 60-70 dogs (some households had multiple dogs) and there is no better feeling than helping a dog become better behaved.
We had 22 graduates (some are not pictured), a few “one-timers”, a few that decided to not continue training with me and many that are still currently in training and looking to land a spot in the 2024 graduates!
I learned a lot from my first year in business and I can honestly say that I am proud of myself and my work. I appreciate all of the people and dogs I got to work with! I truly try to be the best trainer I can be and it wouldn’t be possible without the owners cooperation and dedication to their animals.
Special shoutout to Jerod, my boyfriend for being apart of training sessions when I need him!
Thank you for all being apart of my training journey in 2023 and here’s to an exciting 2024!
Meet Rocky! Rocky is a Jack Russel terrier mix. He is working on being comfortable with people on his property and in his house.
Rocky has bitten people before on the ankle when they have entered the yard. He also developed a habit of going after one of the son’s shoe soles due to him pacing back and forth around the house.
We have been training Rocky to get more comfortable with quicker movements and new people in the house/yard.
One of the first things I taught Rocky was when I approach him/walk around, he goes into a sit or lay down. He picked up on it very quickly and now whenever I get up or walk around the house he goes into a sit.
Rocky’s bite incidents started some time after the other dog in the house passed and on a day where his family was packing up suitcases to go on a trip. We think between those 2 scenarios and him being a guarding/herding breed are big factors to his biting.
We introduced brain games to Rocky and he absolutely lives for them! I saw a big change in his anxiety level when he would spend a couple minutes figuring out how to unknot a towel to get the treats inside.
There is still work to do with Rocky but he is already doing much better than when we first started our journey.
Thank you to the owners for their patience and undying effort to help Rocky learn that there is a better way!
*I do not own the rights to this music*
#doggiedoover #training #jackrussellterrier #dogtrainer #portangeles #sequim #positivereinforcement #dontgiveup #atraineddogisahappydog #mentalexercise #enrichment #desensitization
Meet Annie! Annie is a lab/dachshund mix (we think). She is about 4 months old. Annie has come and gone through Doggie Do-Over training and passed with flying colors.
Her owners reached out for help with learning basic puppy manners and in general, how to train a puppy since this is their first puppy in a while. They wanted to be up to date with the latest positive training methods!
Annie learned how to sit, stay, lay down, walk nicely on leash, touch a hand target with her nose and come to her owners when distracted!
Her recall was amazing. I would throw the ball, as she started to run to it her owner would call her. Without hesitation or a second thought, Annie immediately turned and went to her owner. She was pretty amazing at it and impressed us all.
Her down took a bit more time. We shaped her down, meaning we did not ask her to “lay down” because she didn’t know what it meant. Instead we stared at the ground and said nothing. At first, we rewarded all of her downward movements (looking down, nose to the ground, paws moving forward etc) - after she was doing those behaviors consistently we waited a little longer until we rewarded her to see if she would try something else for the treat.
SHE DID!
Her next “guess” was laying down and we made a big deal out of it. She was so so happy when she got it and after we made a party for her after the first time, she started doing it a lot more quickly following that.
I am so proud of Annie and her owners for sticking to our training plan and helping to turn her into a well mannered pup!
**I do not own the rights to this music**
#doggiedoover #puppytraining #basicmanners #positivereinforcement #sequim #portangeles #puppieslovetraining #dogtrainer #training #recall #goodog #happydog #trainer
