Bright Mind Canine

11/08/2024

There’s a brand new set of Manners 101 students ready to learn lots over the next 5 weeks! Great job tonight everyone!

11/03/2024

Our Saturday scent work teams practiced searching on leash for the first time. When handling our scent work dogs on leash, we must try to:

🐕‍🦺 Avoid inhibiting the dog from doing their job (find the odor)

🦮 Smooth feed out line when the dog needs more space

🐕‍🦺 Smooth reel line in when closing space on the dog

🦮 Properly utilize line to allow optimum amount of space for dog to work out the odor puzzle. Too close & you could block access to the odor, too far and your line could get tangled up in things

🐕‍🦺 Be efficient enough to avoid accidentally yanking them off from doing their job or be too frazzled to not pay attention to what our dogs are telling us

11/02/2024

Check out Natalia & Kinna seearching on leash & in a new interior space for the first time! These two make a great team!

11/02/2024

“Dogs do speak but only to those who know how to listen” —Orhan Pamuk

Wouldn’t it be great if our dogs could tell us how they were feeling? Well, guess what? THEY DO! Although they don’t use spoken language like us, they do communicate with LOTS of subtle body language signals and sounds to let us how they’re feeling 🐕

Although the dog's whole body is involved in communication, the face in particular can tell us a lot about how a dog is feeling 🐶

My rescue dog Daisy always needs extra space due to her anxiety and trust issues around new people. In the photos I took just seconds apart, you can see her displaying two very different emotional states. The second image was captured right as a new person and dog entered the room. Her facial expressions shifted as described in the photo, and her entire body went from loose and wiggly to tense and still 🐾

By recognizing these early stress signals in Daisy, I was able to maintain a safe and comfortable distance from the newcomers as they passed through the room. If I hadn’t noticed her signs of discomfort, there’s a strong possibility that Daisy would have felt threatened, which could have escalated the situation. Understanding our dogs’ communication can make all the difference in their comfort & wellbeing. It can also help us stay out of sticky situations that can be easily avoided ✨

**It’s important to note that we must always look at the BIG PICTURE. This means that we must take in the dog’s whole body AND the context of the situation when trying to assess what our dogs are communicating.** 🧐

10/30/2024

**Fun Fact:** DOG ZOOMIES, scientifically known as Frenetic Random Activity Periods (FRAPS), are those moments when your dog seems to burst with energy! They often involve running in circles, darting back and forth, and generally appearing as a tornado of fur! 🌪️

Zoomies can be your dog’s way of expressing pure joy or releasing pent-up energy. They also help your pup blow off steam after a stressful situation, allowing them to feel more relaxed. While excessive zoomies may indicate a larger behavioral issue, they are typically nothing to worry about. Just remember to clear the area of breakables and enjoy the show! 🍿

Now, enjoy this video of a few of the daycare dogs of Barks & Recreation as they celebrated field trip day yesterday with plenty of zooms around my yard! Starring Violet, Eden, and the zoom queen herself, Lily! 🥳

10/23/2024

📣 MANNERS 101 CLASS- Starts Thurs, Nov 7th at 6:30pm! 🐾

Is your furry companion a bundle of joy but could use a little polishing in the manners department? Does your dog pull on leash or jump all over guests? Do they try and steal food off your plate? Do they blow you off when you call them or seem to have more “selective hearing” moments these days?

Through positive reinforcement training methods, you and your pup will build a stronger bond while learning together. You’ll learn how to communicate with your dog in a clear, effective, kind manner, and teach them skills that will help them thrive in our human world.

Skills covered in this class include loose leash walking, building engagement and focus, coming-when-called, polite greetings, impulse control, working around people and distractions as well as sit, down and stay.

Class Details & Registration:
- For dogs 6 months and older. All dogs must be up-to-date on their vaccines to attend. Proof of vaccines will be due before the start of class
- Class is held indoors and limited to 5 spots
- Cost is $160 for 5 weeks. Each class is 1 hr, once a week
- Contact Barks & Recreation to reserve your spot today! [email protected] 678-870-9010

**Dogs should be people friendly & not reactive to other dogs**

10/21/2024

Our level 2 scent work teams got to search their first novel interior space this weekend and they totally ROCKED it!! Thanks to Kc's Agility for letting us search in her great space! Great job guys!!

10/19/2024

🐾 Scent Work Foundation Class- STARTS NEXT WED, the 23rd @ 6:30pm!!! 🐾

Scent work is an exciting activity you do with your dog that involves them using their amazing sense of smell. This can be used for competition or just for a fun, enriching activity for your dog!

🐶 Scent work is fun AND has COUNTLESS benefits, such as:
- Working your dog’s brain and will tire them out just as much (or more!) than physical exercise. It gives dogs a job and can reduce attention-seeking or boredom-related behaviors.
- Great for building confidence in shy or timid dogs and a great way to exercise high-drive or excitable dogs, too!
- Lowers heartrate and is naturally relaxing. Studies show regular nosework activities make dogs happier and less stressed.
- Great for nervous or reactive dogs!

🐕‍🦺 Scent work is one of the fastest growing dog sports! Dogs are trained to locate a scent and alert their handler that they have found it. Q-tips are infused with essential oils like birch, anise or clove and hidden in indoor spaces, exterior spaces, on vehicles and in various containers.
Scent work is based on the work of bomb and drug detection dogs in an environment that is accessible for dogs of ALL ages, sizes and breeds! There are NO previous training requirements!!

⚠️Class details and registration:
-For dogs 12 weeks and older. All dogs must be up-to-date on their vaccines to attend. Proof of vaccines will be due before the start of class.
- Class is held indoors and limited to 4 spots.
- Cost is $175 for 6 weeks. Each class is 1hr & 15mins once a week.
- Contact Barks & Recreation to reserve your spot today! [email protected] 678-870-9010

10/17/2024

Here’s a few of our amazing scent work students who have just completed Level 1! Over the past six weeks, they've been learning to play this fun game while building their security, motivation, and focus. Now, they're ready to advance to Level 2, where they'll explore searching in all four environments: indoors, outdoors, containers, and vehicles.

As the dogs develop their skills, their owners will also learn how to be exceptional handlers while continuing to learn to read their furry partners. I’m so excited to have more sniffy fun & see how these teams will progress in the coming weeks!

Next Scent Work Foundations class starts THIS UPCOMING WED, the 23rd at 6:30pm at Barks & Recreation! More details coming tomorrow!

10/17/2024

“Sniffing is the BEST” -All dogs ever 🐾

One of my favourite things to see is when people give their dogs as much time as they want to sniff. Smell is the primary sense our dogs use to navigate, interpret, and make sense of their world. They can tell who has passed by and how long ago, and update themselves on their canine version of social media picking up the messages left by other dogs who have been there earlier.

The part of the dog's brain that is dedicated to analysing scent information is a huge proportion of their brain compared to ours (around 40 times the size), and they have up to 300 million scent receptors while humans have around 6 million. These facts alone highlight the importance of olfactory information and sniffing for our dogs.

Sniffing is one of the most instinctive and natural behaviours our dogs possess and giving them time to sniff is a free and incredibly easy way to add enrichment into their lives. Sniffing is also great brainwork as they hunt out and interpret the differents scents they encounter.

A 20 minute period spent out of the house sniffing and interpreting the scents they discover (a sniffy walk or 'sniffari') can often tire a dog out as much as an hour's 'normal' walk, and is also really good for younger dogs (post-vaccination or in safe areas where dogs of unknown vaccination and health status don't go) and senior dogs who aren't quite as mobile and fit as they used to be.

The more time I spend watching my dogs investigating and interpreting their world through their noses the more fascinated I become by observing them, and the more clearly I can see how much enjoyment and pleasure they get from having time to carry out this most doggy of behaviours.

So let them sniff - they will appreciate you even more for giving them the time and opportunity.

10/11/2024

Love this Kinna girl ❤️

Kinna’s search stamina has really improved over the course of the last few weeks. She’s loving the game which makes me happy! If you haven’t tried some kind ...

10/11/2024

When training your dog to stay, it's essential to incorporate duration before distance.

⏰ Duration= length of time a dog is expected to perform a behavior.
📏 Distance= how far away the trainer can be from the dog while the dog continues to perform the desired behavior.

Start by teaching your dog to remain in place for a short period, gradually increasing the time they stay put. This helps them understand the concept of staying still before you introduce movement.

Next, it's time to keep the duration short while adding some distance. Ask your dog to ‘stay' and then take one or two steps back. If your pup stays put, even if only for a second or two, walk back to them and reward. Keep adding distance between you and your dog but don't make them wait at that distance for long. We want to keep the duration of the 'stay' short while we practice distance, as well as keeping the distraction levels down.

10/05/2024

Like many dogs, Roscoe had a habit of jumping up to greet people. While this behavior is normal for dogs, it’s not usually appreciated by humans.

In this video, you’ll see Roscoe’s owner move forward to approach him while he has all four paws on the ground. The moment he jumps up, she stops and steps back. She tosses a treat away to see if he can return without jumping. When Roscoe stays grounded and comes back to her, she enters through the gate. Once inside, she rewards him with a treat for his good behavior.

Had he jumped up, she would have retreated to the other side of the gate to make it clear that jumping isn’t an effective way to keep her close. As she bends down to pet him—an exciting moment that often leads to jumping—Roscoe impressively remains calm and even offers a sit. Good boy, Roscoe!

You can easily replicate this exercise at home by using a baby gate or tethering your dog’s leash to a doorknob.

09/30/2024

Is your dog not a fan of nail trims? A scratch pad can be a game-changer! Think of it as a giant nail file designed just for your furry friend. By encouraging your dog to scratch on the pad, you can help keep those nails short in a stress-free way.

Regular nail care is crucial for your dog's well-being. Overgrown nails can change the way your dog walks, leading to potential structural issues in their feet and legs. This can result in pain, discomfort, and even increase the risk of arthritis over time. Prioritizing nail maintenance is essential for keeping your dog happy and healthy!

09/24/2024

Just like all puppies, adorable three month old Max absolutely LOVES to chew on anything and everything he can find! Chewing is a natural behavior for puppies (and adult dogs!) and serves several important purposes, including soothing the discomfort of teething. It's essential to provide them with appropriate outlets for this hard wired behavior.

I recommend offering natural, long-lasting chews such as bully sticks, tracheas, lamb ears, and dried tendons. Dogs typically prefer natural chews over other options, and they are generally safer for their teeth since they soften as they chew. Just be sure to choose chews that are highly digestible, and always supervise your pup during chew time, as these items can pose a choking hazard.

Chewing not only helps keep your dog’s teeth clean but also has a calming effect, reducing heart rate and blood pressure. Treat your furry friend to some delicious, long-lasting chews today!

09/24/2024

Sniff sniff!

Smell is the primary sense our dogs use to gather information and process their world. Their ability to detect scent is massively superior to ours. Their sense of smell is somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000 times better than that of humans – it does vary between breeds and of course humans have developed scent hound breeds specifically for increased scenting ability.

In Alexandra Horwitz’s book Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know she gives an example that shows the sheer magnitude of the canine nose’s ability - dogs can detect a single teaspoon of sugar in two Olympic sized swimming pools. The fact becomes even more impressive when we see how much water those two pools would contain: that’s one teaspoon of sugar diluted in 5 million litres.

This means that using scent as part of our dogs’ enrichment schedules is a massive opportunity to let them carry out one of the most natural canine behaviours, sniffing, and which also works their brains as they need to analyse and identify the scents they discover.
Scentwork as an activity can be great especially for high energy dogs as the brainwork can tire them out and help them relax (with my Border Collies twenty minutes of sniffing often results in a two hour nap, much the same as after a five mile walk).

It can also be wonderful for older dogs who perhaps can’t walk very far and so walks need to be limited, and the same reasoning makes it ideal for dogs recovering from injury or surgery. We can even find ways for dogs who need to be on total crate rest after major surgery.

The perhaps most simple forms of scentwork include scattering food in an area like a garden or around a room for the dog to hunt out, or to allow plenty of sniffing time when out on a walk. For those dogs who cannot walk, or cannot walk far, we can gather items from out in the world and bring home. Put them in a box or an area of the home where the dog can investigate them and let them exercise that nose.

A great book to give lots of ideas on scentwork and how to introduce it into your dog’s life is Sally Gutteridge’s Enrichment through Scentwork for Highly Aroused Dogs – despite the title referring to specifically highly aroused dogs the instructions in the book can be used for all dogs. The link to the UK store is https://amzn.to/3SflRVd and outside of the UK it can be found with a search in your native store. (As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases).

Scentwork as enrichment is also covered in the book I am currently writing which will be released soon!

If you would like to purchase Alexandra Horwitz's excellent book it can be found here https://amzn.to/46jaQYw - again this is the UK store, but a search will bring it up in other Amazon stores.

09/18/2024

It’s true! The daycare dogs of Barks & Recreation sure are TRICKY! 🤩

Next time you are in the lobby, check out our trickster's board! Daycare dogs who do Tricky Tuesday Sessions with Bright Mind Canine earn a star for every trick that they complete! Look at all of the stars!

09/17/2024

This week, our Manners 101 students began working on the "Go To Place" skill, a useful stationary behavior for various situations, such as:

💚 Keeping your dog from running out when the doorbell rings while you get your Uber Eats.

💚 Giving your dog a special spot to sit instead of being underfoot while you cook.

💚 Preventing your dog from begging at the dinner table.

The expectation is for your dog to quietly remain in their designated spot until released. In the beginning, they may stand, sit or lie down, but ideally we want them to lie down so they can calmly settle. Using a comfortable bed or mat will help establish a clearly defined area for your dog.

To start, place treats on the bed to encourage your dog to hop on. Reinforce this behavior (heavily at first- don’t be stingy! 🧀) while your dog stays on the bed. When you're ready, use your release cue and toss a treat away to signal that they can get off, then repeat these steps until your dog eagerly jumps onto the bed. Soon, you'll want to start luring your dog into a down position once they're on the bed.

In dog training, we focus on the "3 D's": Duration, Distance, and Distractions. Begin by building Duration—encouraging your dog to remain on the mat for longer periods—before gradually introducing Distance and Distractions. This approach will help solidify their understanding of “Go To Place.”