Darn Good Dogs Chicago Inc

❄️☃️🌨️ Is your darn good dog enjoying the snow today? Or are do they prefer to snuggle on the couch and stay warm and dry? 🐿️👀🦮 Or is it all about hunting squirrels, like it is for Squirrel Patrol Sargeant Letty? #snowdog #chicagodogtrainer #positivereinforcementdogtraining #canineenrichment

Saying goodbye to 2024 with a featured Darn Good Dog, Oz!

What your DGDC trainer is working on at home!

🐯 Sometimes, our darn good dog has to wait their training turn! ⏰🥱 Joan Marie's darn good cat Toby is a true night owl! Despite many other efforts to train him to sleep through the night without eating, he always wakes up at 3:30 am and demands food! He's on a special diet that the other cats shouldn't eat, so our dear cat behaviorist friend Valerie suggested a cat feeding station with a automated feeder inside (not in video - training that separately). 😻 To make this station extra reinforcing to be around, there is a plugged in heated blanket next to it and some toys inside his station as well. 💖 We trained Toby force-free to enter the station with food lures and finger targeting - he already knows to follow our finger to walk where we want. He's a confident cat, so no extra reinforcing or conditioning was necessary. 🐕 This station is by @meowspacesforpets and is activated by a magnetic charm Toby wears on his collar. There are also microchip reader activated doors as well. 😴 Now DGDC trainer can sleep through the night because a timed feeder (15 minutes before his early morning hunger pangs) lets Toby know his food awaits! You can use this for your small dogs as well! JM loves it for her multi-pet household - it definitely prevents fighting over resources as well. ❓What are you working on right now with your darn good pet? Even goldfish are trainable, so no excuses! Let us know in the comments.

Thankful for Dog Day 2024

💖🐕 Yesterday was Thankful for My Dog Day! 🎄We gave Letty the gift of a trip to Abbey Farms where she got to have a "sniffari," run off leash nearby, say hi to some other dogs, and just spend unstructured time wtih Mom & Dad. 🐕🪵 She also was introduced to the sound of a chainsaw and the tree shaker tool from a nice distance where she could watch without being forced to get close to the loud sounds they make. She did great! ❓🐩 Tell us in the comments anything fun or special your darn good dog did yesterday! #weloveourdarngooddogs #dogfieldtrip #canineenrichment #chicagodogtrainer

Attention Oak Park River Forest

📣 Attention, OAK PARK and RIVER FOREST darn good dog parents!! 👍🐶 We have expanded our service area to YOU with limited availability. 📅 If you are available in the mornings on TUESDAYS, WEDNESDAYS, and THURSDAYS, let's talk! 📱 Use this link to book your free 20 minute Discovery Call with Joan H to find out how we can help you and your darn good dog have a better life together: https://go.darngooddogschicago.com/discovery. ❔ If these times aren't free for you, go ahead and email us at [email protected]. We are still building our OPRF service schedule and may be able to work with you on a different day and time. www.darngooddogschicago.com

🚦STAY - when you have a high energy, young adolescent dog, it can feel nearly impossible to train! 🐕‍🦺Meet Laika: part PWD, part nuclear energy. At 1 year old, he has three modes: doing, sleeping, pouting when he isn’t doing something. 👩‍🏫 I did Day Training with Laika, starting he was only three months old, and he is VERY trainable. ⚡️ Due to his high levels of energy, he’s always struggled with jumping and then alternatively, being able to sit or lie down for any length of time. ⏰ For some behaviors, it is simply going to take much longer than other behaviors. For example, Sit is often fairly easy and quick to train. For Laika, Stay is about as hard as it gets! 🤔🙇🏼‍♀️ In the end not only did it take a very high value reinforcer to make it worth his while, BUT it took SEVERAL reinforcers at once - a reinforcing cocktail! 🦴🧸😁 I also did very short sessions with long play breaks in between. Laika would get frustrated very quickly if I tried to do several sessions of Stay in a row. It would sabotage any progress we had made. 🐶❤️ Dogs truly are our best teachers! I know I learned so much from each and every dog I work with. 😩 If you are struggling to train your dog to Stay, try shorter sessions, long breaks with your dog’s favorite activities, and try layering your reinforcers rather than just using one at a time. And let us know how it went! #traininghighenergydogs #positivereinforcementdogtraining #chicagodogtrainer #chicagodogtraining

🐶Here is my formerly very #fearfuldog Letty’s newest Expert trick “Hoop Jump Over Back.” When working with fear, it’s helpful to work on calming activities and behaviors AND confidence building fun behaviors. 🤸For many dogs, tricks=fun! Having fun and exciting behaviors with a history of #positivereinforcement gives a dog something to do so they don’t notice things in the environment that might make them nervous. 😀 Teach your dog some tricks today!! #chicagodogtrainer #chicagodogtraining #trickstraining

MONTHS AGO I shared a video of our work in progress on this expert trick “Roll Yourself in a Blanket.” We now consider it done! 🤔 Tricks like this are called “behavior chains” - several behaviors chained together with no other reinforcements or cues given during the chain. 🐕‍🦺 Service dogs perform chains all the time - like going to retrieve something for their owners. 👩‍🏫 We often teach chains BACKWARDS. Why? So that the last behavior has the longest history of being positively reinforced. If you get paid $5 to wave, $6 to clap your hands, and $10 to pump your fist, the best sequence to ensure you will complete all three is Wave - Clap - Pump. 📋 This chain was: Go to target (blanket), Down, Take It - blanket corner with her mouth, Rollover while still holding the blanket, Stay in Down. ‼️ One extra training challenge was teaching Letty to hold something in her mouth while performing other behaviors. She would often grab the blanket but then release for the Rollover. 🐾🏆 Out of context I had Letty hold a variety of different objects (Take It) and then do very reliable behaviors like Sit. Spin, Down, and Beg. This is called generalizing a behavior. ⏰ A HUGE factor in teaching more advanced behaviors is the timing of your click or marker. It took time to build duration in Letty’s Take It of the blanket corner. 🐶 These tricks also build on a long history of learning other tricks and behaviors! 🏆😄 Training behavior chains teaches you the human learner so much about training your dog! ❓What is you and your dog’s favorite show off behavior? Share in the comments! #chicagodogtrainer #chicagodogtraining #positivereinforcementdogtraining #tricksfordogs #dogfun

We celebrate our #rescuedogs every day but let’s give them an extra special shout out today! ❤️ The dogs you see here all were adopted from shelters, or otherwise rescued. Some came from puppy mills, some were puppies from unwanted litters. Many were living in rural Southern states, some were given up my families who fell onto very hard times and made the painful decision to relinquish their pet. 🫶 ALL of them are trainable, loving dogs who have brought their families joy and happiness. As a trainer seeing the potential unleashed that had laid hidden inside a dog who was undersocialized or overwhelmed by #bigcitylife is why I do what I do. It’s such a great feeling. I love all the dogs and all their wonderful families but today is for the rescue pups!! Consider donating to a rescue, signing up to volunteer, or just hanging out with a friend’s rescue dog. #shelterdogsrock #shelterdogsrule #positivereinforcementdogtraining #chicagodogtrainer