Dog Gone It K9

05/26/2024

05/26/2024

Unleash your dog's full potential with our personalized training sessions. Sign up today and see the difference! 🐾

05/26/2024

Unleash your pup's full potential with our balanced dog training methods! Training can be fun for both you and your furry friend. 🐾

05/09/2024

This is my dog right when I started teaching him down.

01/08/2024

Did you know you can schedule appointments online?

Online appointment scheduling and payments for Dog Gone It K9 LLC

01/01/2024

Did you know the DGIK is a member of the IACP?

04/11/2023

Just a reminder reward your pets for behaviors you like

Fearful, but curious. (Perhaps the best kind of fearful?)

I went over the weekend again and visited my friend Anja’s ranch.

More good progress on the research project I’m currently working on. 👍🏻

I also visited with some of the rescued residents, some of whom are friendly, others who are very afraid of people.

This gorgeous little mule remembered me from last week and came right over to sniff me and eat a few treats.

She falls solidly into the category of fearful but curious.

She is not halter trained and doesn’t want people to do ANYTHING to her, including touching her.

But, she is very curious and interested in me.

I really enjoy working with horses and mules that fall into the fearful but curious category. They usually blossom with clicker training and positive reinforcement training!

The trick with these equines is to find shaping steps that continue to build their curiosity and confidence.

Often, it’s tempting to want to go too fast, which can make the horse or mule more fearful or distrustful.

I’ll see if this little gal wants to visit with me again the next time I return to the ranch!

11/26/2022

https://doggoneitk9.com/2022/11/the-big-three-in-dog-training/

Ford, Chrysler and General Motors are nothing compared to the big three of dog training: Timing, Consistency, and Motivation. Armed with these three principles you can train a dog to do just about anything. If you are ever having difficulty in training, or it seems the dog is confused, ask yourself....

11/14/2022

How our dogs view walks 🤣

11/10/2022

😹😹😹 Why am I not surprised?

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S037663572200170X

11/05/2022

11/01/2022

Rest easy in your retirement pup

Credit: Governor Jay Inslee's OfficeOLYMPIA, Wash. — A K9 with the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife is about to get some well-earned rest. K9 Colter, a Karelian bear dog, has been with WDFW’s enforcement program for more than a decade. For 14 years, he has helped officers with na...

10/29/2022

I like to share this post every year or so. It always seems to be something folks are struggling with. SA is often unintentionally created, and often done so with good intentions but poor understanding.
•Pet your dog, all the time
•Talk to your dog, all the time
•Allow your dog to follow you, all the time
•Allow your dog to be on your lap or laying on your feet, all the time
•Pet, soothe, comfort your dog when it whines or barks for attention...or is simply anxious
•Allow your dog to demand affection/interactions
•Be emotionally dependent on your dog
•Allow your dog to do whatever it wants, whenever it wants
•Provide no structure or rules
•Refuse to crate train your dog
•Refuse to correct your dog when inappropriate behavior occurs
•Refuse to train your dog to be calm, relaxed, and independent by using a “Place” command, and/or “away” time in the crate
•Allow you and your home to be a free-for-all, where your dog has zero leadership and guidance
•Let your dog out of the crate when it whines or barks
•Avoid training or anything that makes your dog uncomfortable or unhappy
•And many, many more...
Basically, baby, soothe, allow, enable, lean on, and create a toxic dependency...so when you leave, your dog is a mess, because you haven’t prepared them to be strong, resilient, robust, independent, and alone.

10/28/2022

Many, many owners (and trainers) have found life changing insight and value from this short read. I hope it’s helpful. 🙏
——
Okay, so this is a word that gets an awful lot of play in the training world, and it’s definition has come to mean an awful lot of things. Many of which, are incredibly counter-productive, if not downright dangerous.
So let’s see if we can’t clarify a few things.
Socialization isn’t:
-About letting your dog freely interact with dogs at the dog park, day care, or with friends dogs.
-About allowing your dog to meet other dogs on-leash.
-About allowing all manner of people, in all manner of mental/emotional states interact/pet/pressure your dog.
-About exposing your dog to the sights and sounds of cars, buses, motorcycles, bikes, skateboards, joggers...and allowing them to freak out, panic, aggress, hide, bark etc.
-About exposing your dog to the sights and sounds of dogs, cats, and other animals, and allowing them to freak out, aggress, lunge, bark, growl etc.
Socialization is:
-About teaching your dog the proper responses to dogs. What is and isn’t appropriate behavior, and correcting the unwanted when it appears.
-About teaching your dog to walk by the barking, lunging dog(s) on walks and ignore them, completely. Correcting if necessary to achieve this result.
-About advocating for your dog and ensuring people aren’t allowed to pressure your dog, by touching, crouching down, attempting “kisses” etc. That means being a big boy or girl, and stopping others from engaging in unwanted, uninvited interactions.
-About exposing your dog to all manner of daily life “things” and ensuring a proper response. If aggression/arousal is present, it’s corrected, if fear/arousal is present (and causes an overreaction/fleeing etc.) it’s corrected. Ask your dog to learn to ignore and not care about these “life” distractions/concerns/temptations. Teach them to listen to the training, not the world around them.
-About teaching your dog to leave other creatures alone. The cat, the bird, the cow, the goat, the other dog, is simply none of their business. If they decide those things are their business, it’s your job to correct and clarify what is and isn’t their business for them.
Socialization has become a ridiculously simplified, dumbed down, all-encompassing idea. Free interaction and exposure have been presented as a panacea, the magic gateway to a balanced dog. That’s a whole lot of B.S. you’ve been sold, by a lot of people full of B.S. 🙂
Socialization is all about teaching your dog how to behave and exist in the world...properly. People have a belief that only interactions create a well socialized dog. They don’t understand that existence is almost always preferable, and more valuable than actual interaction. Yes exposure is critical, but exposure without 100% clear guidance, and corrections for poor choices, isn’t socialization, it’s chaos, and it’s not teaching your dog what’s right, what’s wrong, and that you’ll keep them safe, so they don’t have to.
A well socialized dog isn’t fazed by the world around them. And that doesn’t come from simple exposure and interactions without guidance. Ironically, that’s precisely how you create anti-social dogs.
Think on that for a minute.

10/27/2022

Ever wonder how psychology applies to Dog Training?

Skinner's theory of operant conditioning played a key role in helping psychologists to understand how behavior is learned. It explains why reinforcements can be used so effectively in the learning process, and how schedules of reinforcement can affect the outcome of conditioning.

10/27/2022

This is the Equipment Kit we offer with our training services. Treats and color may vary

10/26/2022

This is a place command

10/25/2022

10/25/2022

LOL 🦇🐾