Use Your Noodle Canine Coaching

06/07/2022

Make sure you’re providing your dogs with plenty of water, and keeping their time outdoors short! This heat is no joke. 🥵 Walking before 9am or 9pm is the current recommendation.

05/31/2022

I’ve had a few messages asking if I do board and trains. I do not, but I do offer day training, and exposure training.

Day training: I come to your home and work with your dog in daily (Mon-Friday) private sessions, as well as take your dog on field trips, when appropriate to do so for their training. I can do this while you are home, or not. It would be more beneficial for you to be there.

Exposure training: Perfect for dogs of all ages who need a little training in public. I strive to make sure your dog is not stressed unnecessarily, or in an environment they are not ready for. Ground work is done in your home before trips out in public.

If either of those sound appealing to you, send me a message and we’ll talk about what best suits you and your dog’s needs. 🥰

03/13/2022

This is now added to the Free Posters page on my website (see comments),

03/10/2022

03/09/2022

The language we use, influences how we view our dogs behaviour and how we implement training.

Credit Do No Harm Dog Training

03/05/2022

Bites never happen for no reason, even if the reason is not apparent to us. It is our responsibility as owners to understand what may motivate our dogs to bite, and do what we can to prevent them in the future. Dogs who bite aren’t bad dogs.

https://www.facebook.com/164332430288151/posts/3669944019726957/?d=n

Normalize normal dog behavior.

03/05/2022

https://www.facebook.com/518147781579570/posts/5173755922685376/?d=n

What if our dog is not good for our mental health?

We champion dogs as a cure all for mental health woes, and that's a lot of pressure to put on our dog and ourself.

Because, let's face it, sometimes our dog can actually add to our mental and emotional load.

And some of us live with dogs who challenge our mental health on a daily.

So let's normalize the fact that we:

love our dog AND feel overwhelmed by caring for our sick dog.
love our dog AND are burnt out by caring for our geriatric dog.
love our dog AND have anxiety caring for our reactive dog.
love our dog AND are triggered by our dog

It's ok to admit that sometimes our dog is not good for our mental health. It can help take some of that pressure off them and us.

03/02/2022

The top reason spring is not my favorite. 😂

03/02/2022

Changing the underlying emotion and then training alternate behaviors is the key to long term success that preserves your dog’s mental health. 🥰

02/13/2022

There are a lot of reasons that your dog may be struggling to learn new things, or not engaging the way you want them to. If you run into a snag, see if one or more of these things could be contributing.

02/13/2022

Sniffaris are a great way to get your dog exercise and enrichment at the same time. Allowing your dog time to sniff all the things also aids in reducing anxiety. 🥰

https://www.facebook.com/IrwinDogTraining/photos/a.452023081507786/5073940339316014/?type=3

"What is a sniffafari?" It is the term used to describe a walk where direction, distance, speed are all decided by the dog. They provide a great chance for decompression for dogs, and for humans if you let it! These are a wonderful option for young puppies to explore their world and for older dogs who might not be able to keep up pace on a regular walk anymore. When you do one you can make mental notes about the things your dog finds most interesting to help better understand natural reinforcers, and bond with your dog.

02/04/2022

Behavior modification especially, is not linear. You will have easy days and hard days, particularly in the beginning. I know it’s frustrating, do your best to stay positive. I love recording training sessions with my own dogs so I can see our progress when I feel discouraged.

02/04/2022

It’s easy to get frustrated by this. Do your best. ❤️

https://www.facebook.com/120516931488557/posts/2104141209792776/?d=n

So, your trainer told you to ignore your dog when they are pestering you, and now it seems like it has gotten worse - what is that about? Well, that is 'EXTINCTION BURST'! 😲

What your trainer means is that you should replace a behaviour you don't like, with a behaviour you do like... but whilst you are doing this, the dog will sometimes exhibit 'extinction burst'. Extinction should never be used as a training method, but it's good to know what is potentially going on when you are training a new behaviour.

Imagine you try your door handle, expecting it to open your door, and instead it doesn't; what do you do? Do you give up, and call the locksmith straight away? No, you try it again! You try it HARDER, you jiggle it more FURIOUSLY (you may even kick or push your whole body into the door to try and open it before you finally admit defeat)!

Often, when this happens, owners give up and therefore end up reinforcing their dog's behaviour again, meaning they learn if it doesn't work at first, they just try harder and they still get the results they want (making it harder for you to deal with later on)...

However, if you continue to reward a more appropriate behaviour, dogs WILL give up and stop exhibiting the inappropriate behaviour, as the reward for the new behaviour is greater than the reward for the old behaviour. At the end of the day, if the door doesn't work anymore, they will learn not to use it!! 👍

02/02/2022

This is the humane hierarchy for dogs. It is defined as follows:

“The Humane Hierarchy serves to guide professionals in their decision-making process during training and behavior modification. Additionally, it assists owners and animal care professionals in understanding the standard of care to be applied in determining training practices and methodologies and the order of implementation for applying those training practices and methodologies.”

Source: https://m.iaabc.org/about/lima/hierarchy/

02/02/2022

Hello, and thanks for visiting Use Your Noodle Canine Coaching! I’d love to tell you more about my beliefs and methods as a dog trainer.

Working with dogs has been a lifelong special interest of mine. I have decades of experience working with animals, including working for humane societies and with rescues, working in veterinary clinics, and boarding facilities. I am currently working towards my CPDT-KA certification through a mentorship program with Tabitha Davies of All Big Canines. Once I have achieved that, I plan to expand my credentials by gaining my CDBC (Certified Dog Behavior Consultant) accreditation.

As a trainer, I believe in and follow the humane hierarchy. What that means, is that my top priority is your dog’s emotional well-being and physical safety. My goal is to avoid using aversive tools or methods that cause your dog to feel pain, confusion, or fear, as I feel they are counterproductive to creating a safe, rewarding, and positive partnership.

I use social play, games, enrichment, structure/routine, and rewards to help you have the best possible relationship with your dog. I support the use of behavioral medications when treating fearful and anxious dogs when appropriate, and with the guidance of your veterinarian.

Whether you have a new puppy you need support with, or an adolescent or older dog, I would love to be part of your team!

02/02/2022

Your dog should enjoy working with you! If you are struggling to get good engagement from your dog, let’s chat about what we can do to improve it!

02/02/2022

Adolescence can be a really difficult time period for you and your dog. If you’re feeling frustrated with your teenaged canine, reach out and let’s chat about how we can help you get through it.

https://www.facebook.com/659672134411723/posts/1604091493303111/?d=n

ADOLESCENCE IN DOGS - WHAT'S GOING ON?

Adolescence is a distinct phase of development that has been identified in many mammals, and as many dog owners know, it can be a tough time for both the dog and their owner. Characterised by increased risk taking, increased social interaction, and increased emotional responsiveness, the adolescent period is often considered an important time for animals to become more independent of their caregiver. The exact timing of adolescence can vary between dogs; however, most dogs reach social maturity at some point between 12 and 24 months of age (Harvey, 2021).

On an evolutionary level, this increased independence would make sense as it would be smart for offspring to push away from their parents as this would allow them to leave the family group and spread their genes further (and prevent inbreeding).

Adolescence is also distinct from puberty. Puberty is the period of sexual maturation triggered primarily by hormonal changes. In male dogs this occurs between 6 and 9 months of age, and in female dogs this occurs between 6 and 16 months (Harvey, 2021). However, adolescence still occurs in neutered dogs despite the absence of sexual hormones indicating these are very much separate processes.

We also know that the relationship owners have with their dog impacts their dog’s behaviour during adolescence. Asher et al. (2020) that dogs that had insecure attachments to their owners were more likely to ignore cues during adolescence than dogs with secure attachments. Similarly, they also identified that dogs with insecure attachments reached puberty more quickly than securely attached dogs.

How can we support our dogs during adolescence?

Given what we know about the importance of the relationship between dogs and their owners for responsiveness during adolescence, building a strong attachment with your dog during puppyhood is key. This can be done by being sensitive to your puppy’s needs especially if they are distressed, avoiding aversive training methods, and by introducing your puppy to lots of positive experiences.

It is also important to consider that adolescent dogs are likely to be far less tolerant of frustration. Galvan et al. (2006) identified that in the face of getting a less-than-expected reward, the levels of activity in a reward centre of the brain called the nucleus accumbens drop below normal levels, meaning it can actually have a punishing effect. This is not something experienced by adults and children.

This may explain why adolescent dogs are so susceptible to frustration based problems when they are not allowed to play with a dog they have seen in the park, or if they do not get as long playing as they expect, or if someone tries to take away their food (don’t try it)! To manage this, we may be better off setting up our adolescent dogs for disappointment free situations, perhaps planning activity times and locations more carefully. Similarly, if social play is highly rewarding for your adolescent dog, rather than preventing it, you may be able to use it to reward a behaviour you want such as recall, if you have other dogs, you can walk socially with.

We are also challenged further by the maturity of the striatum, a brain region strongly linked to a number of emotional systems including pathways involving reward and fear (Casey & Jones, 2010). This is paired with the immaturity of another brain region, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) which is involved in more “logical” thinking and the regulation of emotional response pathways (Casey & Jones, 2010). This means, that adolescents experience strong emotions without always having the brain capacity to regulate them and are very likely to struggle with impulse control.

This has a number of effects. Firstly, adolescents take much longer to recover from a stressful experience than adults and it takes more energy for them to control their emotions. This means they need more recovery time after stressful experiences and more relaxation breaks during the day to avoid becoming stressed.

Secondly, this particularly seems to affect the social cognition of adolescents. With Orobio de Castro et al. (2002) suggesting that children were more likely to judge other’s intentions as hostile during early childhood and early adolescence. This may go a long way to explaining the seemingly sporadic “fear periods” often identified in dogs and is again something we can manage by setting up carefully monitored social opportunities with regular friends during these periods to prevent incidents.

And finally, they also don't have a brain structure that makes controlling their impulses easy. In fact doing so is counterinuitive. So is impulse control really something we should be training in adolescents? Or should we just manage the situation better to prevent them from being exposed to things that may trigger impulsive behaviour during the adolescent period?

Clearly, there is much more to learn about adolescence in dogs. However, with the tips above, we hope that you find navigating this difficult period a bit easier!

Full references available on our website https://animalbehaviourkent.co.uk/our-blog/f/adolescence-in-dogs---whats-going-on

And for more dog behaviour content, check out our upcoming webinars https://animalbehaviourkent.co.uk/future-events

02/02/2022

02/02/2022

Let’s chat about how we can improve your relationship with your dog!