It truly makes my day to get updates from past behavior modification clients on their continued training and behavior wins.
Team Hudson originally contacted me to work through some intensely reactive behavior on leash coupled with poor social skills with other dogs. Following our work together, his family been doing a lot of great and continued work to build his skills and cultivate new social opportunities for him.
They recently shared this big win – slow introductions and training approximations led to a successful introduction, play session, and peaceful co-existence (see picture in comments) with a canine buddy.
Way to go, Team Hudson!
🙌 🐕 🐕
Healthy Dog Play
I love this example of healthy, mutually enjoyable play between adolescent Ben and senior Zeus 🥰.
Note the mutual play bows, soft and loose body language, wide arching loops around one another, and the big, silly open-mouthed grins.
No one tell sweet Zeus that he is 12 years old 😉.
Video credit to the fabulous Boarding at Tiffany's who takes SUCH good care of this guy when we have to be away!
Happy Labor Day!
Here's to a safe and happy Labor Day to all, canine and human alike!
Hopefully you are able to take advantage of the longer weekend and get out to enjoy some nature with your dog! 🐾🌿
Long Line Walking and Engagement
Team Luna looked fantastic working on offered focus, engagement, and loose long line walking during our park session.
Even better, this was accomplished in a new and very distracting environment with a dog park and people and squirrels and more. This team is always training and checking off new behavior goals!
Team Maggie and Mason Reintroductions
What a rewarding end to a very busy week filled with dogs, dogs, and more dogs! 🐾
Team Maggie and Mazon have come a long way rebuilding their relationship after an incident of conflict and aggression between the dogs. We have spent the last several weeks and months building trust and comfort in a systematic and predictable way through a lot of counter conditioning, desensitization, and remedial socialization.
Today was a big step - both dogs were able to freely interact in a controlled off-leash setting. I am very proud of this family and the work they are putting in to help both dogs to be successful and coexist peacefully together. It is (one of!) the best parts of the work I do. 😊
Wednesday Wags from Widget
Wednesday Wags from working Widget!
Precise behavior and responses to cues are important to me, but bright eyes and an eager wagging tail are an important part of the whole picture that I'm looking for whenever working with a dog 🥰.
Team Alexis
When I pulled out my phone to take a session picture, Alexis took the opportunity to show just how fancy she is!
Alexis's family has done a great job building a great foundation of training skills throughout the past years. We worked together on strategies for increasing her comfort and confidence when meeting new people, as well as skills that will help her transition and adjust to her declining vision in a positive and predictable way. 👏
Wednesday Wags from Beanie
Wednesday Wags from Team Beanie! 🐾 I don't think that tail stopped wagging for even a second during our session.
This adorable little dog has such a fun and animated personality. Her human has done a wonderful job laying a great training foundation with her, and now we are moving towards working through her reactive behavior on leash around other dogs.
Beanie is a quick study and is off to a great start!
Wednesday Wags
Wednesday Wags from Pepito and Max! 🐾
These two excelled working on a variety of strategies to reduce excessive barking and reactivity and to shape more relaxed and desirable behavior in the house and yard. They were bright and eager students!
Outing at Lowe's 🐾
Weekends mean time for backyard projects, running errands (so thankful for our vaccines!), and opportunities to work with and train my own dogs.
Running errands to dog friendly stores always provides a great opportunity to generalize life skills and manners around a variety of distractions.
People often remark "What good dogs!" when they see me or my husband (an excellent dog handler - you have to be when you live with me!) working with dogs while out and about.
What strikes me is that there is often the misconception that some dogs are just "such good dogs," as if "good" is a personality trait. This disregards the fact that while dogs are wonderful in general, more often than not, dogs need to be TAUGHT the skills that enable them to function successfully in our world. Our world is full of strange things and situations that don't make sense to them. Smart training and setting the dogs up for success by teaching and rewarding the behaviors you want to see more of is what eventually lends itself to a "good" dog.
I'm the first to admit that my dogs are not perfect, and they each come with individual quirks, triggers, and behaviors that require thoughtful training to work through. But I train regularly, set goals for them and myself, and take the responsibility for teaching and helping them learn what people consider to be "good" behavior.
Train, don't complain. And for goodness sake, reward your dog!
Rolling Into the Weekend
Rolling into the weekend!
Team Scott is working on a variety of strategies to help him relax and stay focused on his person when in public and around increasing distractions. We are incorporating training games and training fun behaviors to build more engagement when on leash and out and about in the world.
Well done, Team Scott! 👏
Redirection/ Interrupter Cue - "Go to Crate"
Team Mars has been doing an awesome job checking off a variety of behavior and training goals. Mars has a history of some fear-based, reactive, and aggressive behavior, and we are working on a wide variety of strategies to increase his comfort and confidence and shape more of the desirable behavior we would like to see.
Mars is learning a wide variety of “interrupter” or "redirection" cues. These cues are taught to mean: "Immediately stop what you are doing and do this thing instead.”
In this video clip, Mars practices his “Go to Crate” redirection cue from a variety of different locations and around increasing distractions. Look at that snappy response to the cue!
The stronger foundation behaviors like "Go to Crate" are (i.e. you practice and reinforce them often, not only when you need to really use them), the more easily you will be able to use them to redirect, diffuse tension, reduce conflict, and to ask your dog to do something cooperatively to redirect their focus when needed.
Asking for well-known behaviors can be so useful to interrupt and redirect away from undesirable behavior in general.
Keep up the great training work, Team Mars! 🙌
Wednesday Wags from Rocky
Wednesday Wags from Team Rocky!
Thos guy is thriving in his new adoptive home and is checking off all sorts of behavior and training goals ✅.
Tucker
Adorable adolescent golden retriever Tucker was all smiles as he settled in his new "Place" bed after some satisfying training games and as his humans and I recapped our session.
We are using his "Place" bed as an attractive option to jump on when he has the urge to settle in and chew on a toy, as opposed to him helping himself to the family room furniture along with his myraid of chew items. Well done, Team Tucker! 🙌
