Pawfect Companions Dog Training

03/22/2023

Yes

02/15/2023

Piet had his second lesson this morning. He is a rescue who lacked socialization with people early in his life so he can be nervous around people he doesn’t know. Worked with him with low/medium level of distractions today and he did GREAT!

11/08/2022

If you have trained dogs for a while you probably heard “Dogs are bad at generalizing”.
I explain this concept at least once a day to an online student …
But how “bad” are dogs at it really? Or do we all struggle with generalizing?
Teaching dog training really means to teach humans how to train dogs.
Just this past week, a student approached me asking why her dog seemed to completely “forget” his Stay cue at a local park.
We discussed the impact of distractions, how to advance them gradually and why it takes a while for dogs to understand that the same concept applies in different situations.
The next day she said “So … but why is my dog coming when called at home and ignoring my recall at the park?”
Dogs are not the only ones “bad” at generalizing … in fact, humans are so bad at generalizing that they cannot even generalize how dogs struggle with generalizing :D
If you think about it, generalizing is a high level cognitive skill.
It means being able to extract the “core” of a concept regardless of accompanying circumstances and applying it to any other situation.
This is HARD both for humans and dogs.
When I started dog training, so often students would come to me with questions and I thought “But I told you this.”
I had shown them how to teach a Sit Stay and now they were asking how to teach a Down Stay. It confused me - I had explained the concept and now they should be able to apply it to any duration behavior, right?
No, not right. Just like the dog who can Sit Stay at home cannot automatically Sit Stay anywhere, the brand-new student who had learned how to teach one duration behavior cannot automatically apply it to any.
Both dog and student need to be shown the skill in more situations so they *can learn* how to extract the “core” of it.
My goal is not to have any one student forever, but to teach them how to work through training puzzles on their own eventually.
The longer I am teaching dog training, the more I think that what this actually means is teaching them how to generalize training concepts.
“Break the behavior down into small steps” sounds obvious - but it takes hundreds of training sessions to be able to actually do this skillfully and effectively.
“Adjust the criteria based on your dog’s success rate” - sure that seems easy … but it is so hard to always do correctly.
“Use great timing” - well, as long as we don’t have instant reaction times we will always be working on improving this one …
We are all students of generalization.
Nobody is inherently great at it.
So next time you're irritated by your dog’s lack of generalization skills … Remember that we are JUST THE SAME.

10/31/2022

Great refresher session today with former group class students, Milo and Blaze ❤️❤️❤️

10/31/2022

Can’t stress this enough. Lots of problems with this, up to and including the safety of your pet. Always use a crate, or at the very least a harness and seat belt restraint for your dog when in the car.

08/07/2022

07/19/2022

Had a wonderful session with new client “Faith” today. She is a rescued chih/Pom/BC mix Such a sweet and smart little GEM of a dog!! 🐾❤️😍😍😍

06/20/2022

Love it when I have repeat customers, Maxine and Sam trained with me as pups and now I’m working with puppy Sophia 🐾❤️

06/07/2022

https://medium.com/.hadai/cesar-millan-the-problem-with-his-approach-and-the-future-of-dog-training-49dd8cddb391

On September 13th, 2004, the National Geographic Channel aired the first episode of Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan.

05/23/2022

Seperation anxiety is a problem we’re seeing more of as pandemic protocols change.

https://spiritdogtraining.com/behavior/separation-anxiety/

Not sure if it's separation anxiety or normal puppy behavior? What causes separation anxiety in puppies? See what the experts say!

03/08/2022

Training your dog comes with its challenges. Every dog is an individual and it is definitely not a “one size fits all” Fortunately there are great dog trainers out there who can help! 😊🐾

02/19/2022

I cannot stress this enough. It is vitally important to do your research, know the breed, and be honest about your lifestyle, before you add a furry member to your family.

Know your breed’s origins. No breed is a fluke. Every dog breed out there was bred for a specific job at one point in time. These dogs helped advanced civilization for humans by doing jobs that humans simply could not. Although most of these jobs have been abolished, the personality traits in the breeds still live on. Some were bred for hunting, others bred for herding while many were bred for vermin extermination. These jobs created the personality traits we see in our dogs today. If you have a terrier most likely they have heavy prey drive so don’t be surprised when they lunge at squirrels on a walk and you’re having trouble stopping it. If you have or herding dog most likely they like to herd other dogs, people and often nip at our legs. Whatever the case may be you must be understanding of their genetics and you absolutely must be reasonable when it comes to training them. You can’t expect a hound to have a great attention span when their nose is telling them to hone in on something several blocks away. Understanding your breed type is vital to the expectations of results you’ll get while training them. Everyone sees videos of border collies, Aussie shepherds and Malinois’ on the internet doing incredible tricks and stunts and the first thing that goes through their mind is “I want my dog to be trained like that!” I wish it was that simple. If I’m training a hound I’ll expect that hound like most to have a short attention span, be a bit ornery, clumsy and I’ll find myself repeating something several times before they respond. I accept that as typical genetic hound behavior. Instead I’ll choose to do nose work with that hound where they excel. Once you learn to accept your breed type for what they genetically are it makes training them a lot simpler.

02/14/2022

Training time=a great opportunity for quality time with your best friend, and a little can go a long way!

02/13/2022

Good training includes setting your dog up for success

02/13/2022

PSA: Not every dog wants to say “hi” to your dog and that is absolutely OK