Happy Tails Academy, LLC

23/05/2024

When your life is just so 'ruff'! 💙

25/04/2024

This sweet girl is celebrating her 5th birthday today!! Join me in wishing her a very happy birthday! 💜🎂 HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIJOU!!

06/04/2024

When you just get a yummy snack before your enrichment walk... you have to take it with you! 🤣 Bella LOVED carrying her chew around with her while going for a sniff walk today. She had to make sure her housemate Brownie couldn't get it while she was gone!

29/03/2024

Getting your dog to respond to you with no distractions tends to be pretty easy. But it is important to start there so you can build up a high reinforcement history (a.k.a. you dog has received a lot of treats for looking at you when you say their name). This will help when you start to add in small distractions here and there.

During Dashers visit yesterday we practiced this behavior in a new location! After working on gaining his attention around the new distractions (kids playing at the playground about 100 yds away) we worked on his response to his name and turning away from thise distractions. As you can see he is right in front of me and I don't give him a lot of time to look at the distractions. This helped him be more successful with responding! Way to go Dasher!

Make sure you like my page to see more cute pictures and videos! If you like what you see and are looking for training help or just have questions about what I offer, feel free to reach out! I have openings for in-home training currently available!

14/03/2024

Teaching a "Watch" cue can be very beneficial at times! If your dog gets highly distracted in certain areas you can teach them a watch cue to help gain their focus and attention around those distractions.

Of course, we don't want to start off by training around those distractions! Tyler is working in a room indoors with a very controlled environment. This will help him to succeed and get a good understanding of what behavior is expected of him when he hears the cue "Watch". To start this behavior off, make sure you have good attention from your dog. Tank your hand up and simply point to your eyes. When they look up at you, click and follow with a treat!

The better they get, you can fade the hand signal away or add in new small distractions to start working up to the difficult distractions! Way to go Tyler! ❤️

07/03/2024

Experiencing new things is an everyday occurrence for our puppies. I was able to hop on a great training opportunity for Dasher earlier this week! While outside enjoying what little sun we had on Tuesday there was a moment where an emergency vehicle passed close by to Dashers home. To help him associate this loud potentially scary noise with good things I grabbed some of his kibble and tossed it into the yard for him to find. As you can see in the video he isn't concerned with the noise but spent his time sniffing the ground (which is a good stress reliever for dogs) and searching for his kibble (a high reinforcer for him - something that creates a high level of serotonin or the "feel good" hormone).

All in all while Dasher heard the new sound he was able to pair it with pleasant activities! Making it easier for him to feel calm around the noise if he were to hear it again!

25/12/2023

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas filled with memories, laughs, and love! ❤️

13/12/2023

During enrichment walks we like to practice some common behaviors. A couple of weeks ago Lady focused on recall, sit, down, stay, targeting, and "with me" which is her cue to walk next to me. She is still relatively new at some of these behaviors but overall I'd say she is doing well! Way to go Lady!

If you notice she is randomly cued to "be free" allowing her to wander and explore. Typically I do allow more exploration between the quick training sessions but as I was videoing this session I bunched a few together.

Benefits of randomly asking for your dogs attention while walking is to ensure they are constantly aware you are there and paying attention because they know at any time there's a possibility for treats! It can also help keep them safe if an unwanted situation arises. Plus it helps them generalize their behaviors in different areas and distractions. As she gets better these sessions will get a bit harder!

08/12/2023

When you're happy you got a chew this morning and you don't want to leave it behind on your enrichment walk you take it with you. (Then drop it about 5 minutes into the walk and make your trainer carry it for you) 🤣

05/12/2023

Who says an old dog can't learn new tricks?? Miss Bella here was working on walking through a tunnel this past week. The rain kept us from going out but it didn't keep us from having some training fun! 💜

29/08/2023

Get out with your dog today! It's a lovely day for it! If you cant? I will! Just shoot me a message! 😊

10/08/2023

When the weather is warm one fun way for pups to cool down is to enjoy some water play! (Of course this isn't for every dog!) Daisy loves running around and splashing in the stream on our hikes. I love taking her out and just letting her run wild on the long line for some fun! It's a great way for her to cool off, exert some energy, and get me wet and dirty all from the shoreline. 🤣 One way to incorporate some training into this crazy mess is to work on recalls and sits from an excited state of mind. With plenty of practice this can help them listen better in the future when they get excited about something (like people visiting or seeing other dogs) and you need them to settle and focus or even just to take a break from their excitement.

03/08/2023

How did your dog start their day today? With a walk, a meal, play time, or a puzzle toy?? Tyler started his morning with a fun enrichment session which included puzzle toys, dog bubbles, and some fun training. One challenge for you today is to offer your dog a puzzle toy for dinner instead of putting it in a bowl. See how tired they are afterwards! Go on... do it! Let me know the results! After his session tyler was so worn out he had to lay down to drink his water! 💜

30/06/2023

So thankful for better air quality today so we can actually explore outdoors! 💜

13/06/2023

Miss Brownie is enjoying some puzzle toy enrichment as part of her visit today. She loves figuring out new challenges and getting treats in return. 💜

08/06/2023

Bijou would like to know if we could have hiking weather like this every day!

01/06/2023

Bijou is the type of dog that is constantly going. She loves getting out and burning up some of her energy. But for dogs like her, it's a good practice to work on settling amongst the excitement. This is something we have been working on during our visits together. We take a walk around then spend a bit if time just relaxing together and calmly watching our surroundings. She is doing great!! 💙

Things you can't see pictured... Kids running and screaming on the playground behind me. This is a hard one for Bijou to stay relaxed around as she wants to join in the fun of running around!!

30/05/2023

What a wonderful day today!! After celebrating Memorial day yesterday I was ready to go for a relaxing sniff and hike with some pups today. The weather is not disappointing! 💙

25/04/2023

Bijou is celebrating her birthday today!! So of course during her visit we stopped to pick up a yummy birthday treat for her! Happy birthday pretty girl! 💜

10/03/2023

Fantastic informational video!!

07/03/2023

Toy play is a great way to add some fun enrichment to your dogs life! Knowing Winston loves to chase squirrels and birds around I turned that activity into a toy game for him! Not only does Winston get to do what he wants to do (chase 'prey') but that gave him an outlet for doing that behavior making it a bit easier for him to listen to a leave it cue on the real animals! I mixed it up a bit for Winston this morning by dragging the toy around for him to chase close to me and tossing it out like a game of fetch. As you can see Winston was having some fun!

25/01/2023

17/01/2023

What a gorgeous day! Bijou had some extra energy today and who can blame her?? To help burn some of that energy up in a fun and appropriate way I placed her on a long line (15ft line in the video). This allowed her to run at top speeds which she LOVED!! We also took the opportunity to throw in some cues to help keep her focused and practice some impulse control. This game is called Red Light, Green Light for obvious reasons. After she offered the appropriate behavior she was then released to go run around again. The cues included sit, here (come), touch, and down for today.

04/01/2023

We are really enjoying this warm weather while it lasts! And look at this lovely leash work Brownie is showing off. 💜 This behavior is one she has been working hard at and it shows!

24/11/2022

Happy Thanksgiving! We have some family coming in this weekend so I'm prepping up some Kongs for the pups to help keep them busy while we eat. 💜 these kongs consist of bananas, carrots, freeze dried chicken treats, and honey. Once I stuff the kongs they will go in the freezer. It keeps the dogs out of our way while eating while offering them a special yummy treat!

Do you do anything special for your pups? Let me hear about it in the comments! 💜

14/10/2022

It may be chilly but Brownie still enjoyed laying in her favorite spot on a hike at the Narrows Reserve today. Silly girl!

11/10/2022

Fall is one of my favorite hiking seasons. Winston is loving it too! What is your favorite season to go out and enjoy natue? I'd love to know! 💙

29/09/2022

A gorgeous photo to end a gorgeous fall day!