PAWSitive Approach LLC

08/08/2024

Yep!

20/06/2024

My life with my puppy Kaida ...

21/04/2024

I get this question all the time from parents:

"My dog growls at my kids. How do I stop this?"

Instead of asking how to stop the growl, ask how to STOP THE REASON the dog is growling in the first place.

For example, If your kids are too close, ask them to back up and invite the dog to them instead.

Parenting kids and dogs at the same time is hard.

Reach out if you are overwhelmed as a parent or as a dog pro without lots of kid experience. You are not alone - I can help.

22/11/2023

❤️

It’s not what our dog “does” or “doesn’t do” that is important, it is the meaning we give to their actions, and our emotional response to “what we believe just happened” that makes all the difference. The path we choose can hurt or contribute to the relationship we have with our dogs. And that relationship defines what choice the dog will make the next time and the time after that. Allow your dog to show you how brilliant they can be, approach your training with empathy, humility, and compassion. Don’t allow anyone to tell you that your dog is “stubborn“ or “stupid“ or “willful“ or “knows better“… You get what I mean. Because our dogs are always doing the best they can with the education we’ve given them in the environment we’re asking them to perform in.

16/11/2023

Contact me if you would like to get a Trick Dog Title for your dog!

07/11/2023

Do you want a dog that will always come when you ask him to? Then ALWAYS make it worth it for your dog to come to you when you ask!

30/09/2023

Instead of punishing the growl, find the reason for the growl. Then help your dog such that she won't feel a need to growl the next time!

When we punish dogs for growling, we aren't helping them feel better about whatever it is that is threatening them. Instead, we are teaching to stop letting us know when they feel unsafe.

The result? A dog who stops giving warning signs and "bites out of the blue."

30/07/2023

Dog's have emotions. We should never punish when a dog feels the need to express emotions. Instead, we should help the dog to handle his emotions, changing his emotions to calmness, and hopefully feeling secure.

24/07/2023

WE GET IT! It’s SO easy to feel frustrated when your dog is past their threshold and barks for long stretches of time. It can be especially hard when you don’t get why they won’t just settle down!

BUT, dogs only have so many ways they can communicate with you. Imagine that when you opened your mouth to talk, only a scream could come out and you had to rely on that scream to communicate your happy feelings, sad feelings, worried feelings, angry feelings, and more. AND, every time you screamed, everyone around you told you to be quiet and if you didn’t, you’d have to go to your room for a “time out.”

It can be tough, but it’s totally worth it to take the time and figure out what might be causing your dog to bark. Not only does it speed up the regulation process, which benefits you AND your dog, but it helps you to truly understand your dog’s triggers and set them up for future success.

Figuring out the WHY is the first step. Figuring out HOW to actually help your dog regulate is the next step. Want help with step two? Book a session with us TODAY!

[Image Description: A blue background with navy blue text. Key words are highlighted in white. White paw prints go across the bottom right corner.]

27/06/2023

It's that time of year again. If you find yourself dreading Fourth of July because you know it means a night of your dog pacing and trembling in fear with each loud boom, you're not alone. Noise sensitivities affect many dogs, and they tend to worsen (not fade away) with each negative experience.

But it doesn't have to be this way! You can help your dog feel safe and have a set of strategies in place to improve your dog's experience (and yours, too!). But don't wait. They're coming! Reach out to your vet ASAP if your dog needs meds!

22/05/2023

Baby steps! Make it easy so your dog can be successful!

Love this graphic, perfect!!

Is your dog struggling with a new behavior? Try breaking the behavior down into smaller pieces and slowly build up to the final product.

19/05/2023

Look at the faces on the dogs in the pictures below. Do any of them look relaxed or happy?

Think about all your dog gives you. The one thing your dog would love for you to do for her is to learn how to read/understand her communication/language, and then honor what she is saying.

RAISING DOG FRIENDLY CHILDREN
Teach children to be dog friendly before teaching dogs to be child friendly

I’m often asked - “How can I make my dog more child friendly?”

The question really should be - “How can I make my child more dog friendly?”

Children don’t come with an inborn ability to know how to treat dogs. It’s up to us to teach them.

I’m amazed that there aren’t more dog bites considering how often I see children treating dogs like stuffed toys.

If you think about it, dogs are actually amazingly tolerant and patient with people even when their attempts to communicate through their body language, that they’re really uncomfortable, are completely ignored or not understood.

As parents, it’s an important responsibility to teach our children about how to respect and behave around dogs.

Always supervise children and dogs, even if a dog seems relaxed and friendly.

Here are some links to free, on-line resources if you’re looking for more information on how to keep children and dogs safe together -

https://kidsarounddogs.co.uk/pages/free-resources
https://www.familypaws.com/resources/
https://www.cooperandkids.com
https://www.gooddoginabox.com/top-20-ways-keep-kids-and-dogs-safe/
https://poochparenting.net/blog/

17/03/2023

17/02/2023

Please. For the love of dogs everywhere, stop taking everything out of your puppies mouth. You’re often creating more problems than you’re solving.

Puppies put everything in their mouths the way newly crawling or walking babies do. It’s the age of exploration and discovery and inquisitive little minds with teething little mouths means everything must be tasted. This is 100% normal developmental behavior. It shouldn’t be punished or discouraged.

When we sn**ch things out of their mouths, or chase them or grab it away from them, we run the risk of several issues, the top two being -

1. We teach our puppy that anything they have could be lost the second a human comes near, and that can very quickly snowball into resource guarding - which is already a natural behavior - but we are actually just encouraging it by validating to our puppy that they lose things when we are around. This is especially true in homes with children and toys out all the time. Then this spirals into all kinds of relationship issues down the road.

2. We can teach our puppy the best thing they can do is INHALE the item so they don’t lose it. This gets dangerous and ugly very quickly. It can also create puppies and dogs to then not even think but just grab consume.

Leaves, sticks, grass, mud, dust bunnies, socks (depending on your puppies size), shoes, all the things within reach are fair game for mouthing and chewing on. And yes, I let my puppies explore them all. Their teeth and jaws at this infantile stage aren’t going to do extreme harm to an item right now, so go head and feel what a shoe sole feels like, get it out of your system. If I don’t want certain things explored, I keep those things out of reach, end of story. Management and supervision is key to safety at this age. Baby gates, playpens, even only pottying in areas of the yard where there’s no gravel. The ONLY things I will readily tackle my puppy over is medicine and/or broken glass. Everything else, even if it’s something I truly don’t want them to have, like a pair of underwear or a doll, I take my time in retrieving it, but more often than not, the puppy will spit it out anyway and move on to graze on the next thing they can find, especially if I toss something more interesting nearby. (Drop that stick to come chase this leaf on the ground)

The majority of puppies will explore the item with their mouth, shred it if they can, then move on to something else to repeat this process with. IF they consume any of it, it’s usually very minor and they will p**p it out later. We have to remember dogs have been existing for 18,000 years, 80% of them still living the way they always have, and going through this stage just fine, our human interventions are not always needed, even though we mean well and are trying to help.

Of course there are exceptions to this, and in those cases we have other solutions, but the majority of puppies I see exploring with their mouths DONT a need hands constantly grabbing them and removing it out of their jaws. If you find yourself doing that all the time, it may be on YOU to manage the environment better!

This process combines with the work we teach in all our puppy classes of having a puppy HAPPY to have you approach them when they are enjoying something in their mouth. We call it the “exchange game” where we teach how to trade. But we also teach the puppy we don’t always take it away either. This helps puppies feel safe in letting you take something from them by learning they won’t ALWAYS lose it.

So, long story short, let your puppy - puppy. Grab a leaf, lay in the grass and shred it. Then find a stick to chew on. We have to get better at picking our battles with dogs if we are both as a species going to enjoy our time together.

Editing this post to add - I’d hope it would be obvious but apparently it’s not, so please know in no way shape or form am I encouraging or saying it’s okay to let your puppy chew or mouth dangerous objects or to leave them unsupervised in places that may have serious objects in them. Environments have to be managed just the same way they are for babies, as I mentioned above, and puppies/dogs need to be supervised. I am however, stating that we have to stop helicoptering around puppies that are just being puppies in order to help alieviate some of the behavior problems that develop from not the managing itself; but the micro managing.

10/02/2023

Putting your hand into your dog's food while they are eating is a great way to p**s off your dog! I know I wouldn't like it if someone kept helping themselves to my meal!

We want to build trust. Trust that we will not take what they have. Trust that if we do need to take something from them, they will get something better!

Contact me if you need help with this!

08/02/2023

Yeh, positive reinforcement training doesn't work for all dogs. Really?!!

04/02/2023

Let your dog sniff!!

24/01/2023

Show your dog you love them too!

A little goes a long way when it comes to training. And if we want to make something sustainable, we need to start small.

One minute is enough, it’s achievable.

Use it for whatever is useful for your dog. A find it game, a 1 minute pause and cuddle. A one minute training session.

Make one minute just for you and your dog because that one minute of you focused on them, will make more of a difference than you might think.

And then anything more is a bonus.

11/01/2023

Let's make 2023 better than ever! Spread the word!

10/01/2023

This, exactly!

Why yes my dog would LOVE to say hi, but I’m still going to say “no thank you” and move on. Why?

1. Because I want my dog to learn that every time we see people it doesn’t mean it’s a party for him. I’d like him to continue his focus on us together as a team and not create conditioned excitement and expectation every time we are approached by someone.

2. Because I don’t know what saying hi means to you. Will you politely touch him? Will you allow him space to move away if he wants? Will you put your face too close to his? I don’t want him to have a negative experience so I’m going to avoid that by continuing our walk.

3. Because maybe I feel overwhelmed or stressed in public places and conversations with strangers may make me uncomfortable, so even though you’d like to talk and meet my dog, I’m protecting myself too.

4. Because we’re in a rush and have to get something done quickly.

5. Because I said no. Even social, sweet, friendly dogs and their handlers have every right to say “no” to a request to meet and be touched by people. This shouldn’t just apply to reactive, worried or bubble space dogs. Dogs are not public property, and saying “no thank you” to touching my dog shouldn’t be regarded as rude or unkind, any more than if a stranger asked to hold my baby.

Please normalize hearing “no” OR even better, normalize ignoring more dogs in public. Let them carry on with their handler and admire them from a far. It would do a world of good for dogs and humans everywhere, trust me.

- Helen St. Pierre

08/01/2023

Let me ask you this: If you used a vacuum upside down, would it clean your floors?

01/12/2022

Good to know ....

A new program for socializing puppies in the nest brings big benefits, study shows.

01/12/2022

Perfectly explained. Thank you Sarah Stremming for writing this!

When Things Go Wrong by Sarah Stremming | Sep 26, 2018 | The Cognitive Canine, Uncategorized | 0 comments In progressive teaching and training circles it is taught that rather than worry about what to do if things go wrong, we should worry about what we are going to do to be certain things go right....

25/11/2022

This is how I like to be treated, and this is how dogs should be treated as well!

25/11/2022

Treat placement is very important!

Give your dogs treats when they are where you want them to be! i.e. you're on the couch eating popcorn, and your dog comes over near you to check out what you are doing. If you toss her some popcorn (oh so easy to do), you have just encouraged/rewarded her to beg!! However, if you ignore the dog, and wait until she goes and lays down (notice I said wait, and not tell her to), then once she lays down, get up and walk over to her and give her some popcorn where she is laying, then you just encouraged/rewarded her for going and laying down when you have popcorn!! YAY!!

So be sure to pay attention to where your dogs are and what they are doing next time you share some of your food with them!! It will really pay off!!

22/11/2022

When a dog starts barking and lunging at dogs, joggers, cyclists or other things (triggers) they encounter outside the home, most dog owners feel that making the dog sit and stay while the trigger passes by will solve the problem. After all, the dog just needs to learn to be calm, right?

Well...like a lot of "common sense" approaches, it's not really that simple.

First, a lack of obedience is not the reason most dogs are reactive. After taking case histories for the last 15 years, the dogs I've worked with that display reactivity all have a history of a) early removal from the litter, b) lack of socialization prior to 14 weeks, and/or c) traumatic encounters involving trigger. But there is no consistency when it comes to their level of training.

Second, reactive behavior is an emotional response, motivated by anxiety, fear, or frustration. If the trigger goes away, the bad feelings end. This makes reactivity a distance-increasing behavior. In other words, the goal is to get that other dog, car, or cyclist to go or stay away.

So, when we ask or make a dog sit/stay while the trigger passes, we are asking them to tolerate the trigger moving CLOSER. But, if we haven't addressed the emotion that causes the behavior, we haven't given the dog any way to cope with that proximity.

Think of it this way. You're walking down the street with your friend when you see a man walking in your direction, covered in blood, carrying a machete, and shouting unintelligible things. You say to your friend, "Let's get out of here!" But, your friend says, "Don't be ridiculous. He's on the other side of the street. Just sit here and he'll pass by." Your much-larger-than-you friend pushes you down on a nearby bench and holds you there while the machete-wielding madman draws closer and closer.

Do you feel calmer? Have you learned that machete-wielding madmen are not a threat?

Of course not! Not only does your friend not acknowledge the potential threat, but you also have lost your ability to leave.

While it might feel like you're trying to "get a dog used to" the trigger, the dog is being sensitized. Immersion in a situation that triggers this level of stress has serious risks, including sensitization.

"THAT'S RIDICULOUS, IT WORKS FOR ME"

That might be true. But answer these questions:

1. Can your dog sit/stay around the trigger without any physical manipulation? You don't have to push your dog into a sit or use their leash to physically move and hold them in that position.

2. Is your dog's leash loose and hanging in a "U" while the trigger passes by? That is, if you accidentally drop the leash, your dog's training is so strong that they will hold that position without a leash.

3. Is your dog giving you their full attention as the trigger passes? Meaning, you don't have to do anything special (like hold a piece of food by your face) to keep them from staring at the other dog.

If you answered "Yes" to all three questions, that's great! This is probably a very nice solution for you. Of course, with a little extra training, you could get that same level of attention and calm behavior while walking past the dog, so you could fade out the sit/stay. It also means that your dog's level of reactivity is pretty low and easily managed. Wonderful!

If you answered "No," however, forcing your dog to stay in a situation they want to leave is not going to decrease their stress. If you don't address the stress, you're not changing behavior. And if something goes wrong - the leash or collar breaks or the other dog gets loose - it could make things much worse in the long-run.

Instead, KEEP MOVING and give your dog as much distance as they need to feel safe. For some dogs, it's as simple as crossing the street, taking a few steps into a nearby driveway, or turning down a side street until the trigger passes.

For other dogs, this might not be enough and they need more training to prepare them for these encounters. This is where behavior modification comes in, including desensitization, counter-conditioning, and positive reinforcement of desired behaviors. What that looks like for your dog depends on you, your dog, and your environment.

But, for now, if you keep moving to give your dog the distance they need, you can keep reactivity at a minimum.

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31/10/2022

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!