Companion Dog Training

31/10/2024

The good thing about training a dog for work is that he doesn’t need to be perfect.
Shepherds used to train their dogs for work, and the trials were secondary; dogs would be polished up so they could compete with excellence, but work was the priority.
Today, most train for trials first, and the work is an afterthought.
When a dog is doing practical work, he can make mistakes and learn through experience with guidance from the handler, until he understands the task. This allows the dog to develop without a lot of pressure before he’s mentally able to handle it.
With most people now training for trialing, some make the mistake of striving for perfection, rather than excellence.

“Perfection” doesn't allow room for dogs to make mistakes and work things out on their own.
Those who strive for excellence understand that mistakes are inevitable and part of the path to learning and improvement, while perfectionists tend to see mistakes as failures.
Excellence we can reach for with effort, practice, and persistence. But pursuing perfection sets an impossibly high standard, not only for us but also for our dogs.

Some ideas perfectionists pursue is for their dogs to: work at the perfect distance off sheep, drill them for the perfect walk, make sure every flank is perfectly square, to name a few.
The problem with this, is assuming it is the same for all dogs- instead of making adjustments for a dogs individual type and amount of ‘eye’, directness, presence, excitability, temperament, etc.
Often these handlers have young dogs that “never really got keen enough to train” (when it was the initial over training that caused it) or an open dog that flanks rather than walks up, lacks enthusiasm for shedding, stopping running sheep, enjoying turning back, or other.

If you require perfection you can diminish your dogs spirit and their ultimate potential.
Perfectionists may sometimes gain 2-6 months at the start of their young dogs career, but often lose years at the end of it.

Dogs, and trainers alike, learn from being allowed to make mistakes, and, in turn, learning from those mistakes will pave the way for excellence.

macraeway.com

Patricia Alasdair MacRae

08/10/2024

QUITTING SO MUCH SITTING
How did we become so obsessed with making our dogs sit for everything?
Maybe because it’s believed that dogs that sit on cue are obedient, well mannered, calm, self-controlled and that sitting is incompatible with unwanted behaviours. Maybe because we think it makes us look good as responsible dog guardians.

But is it all really necessary or more importantly in the best interests of our dogs, both physically and emotionally to expect them to sit so much?

Sometimes what we have always believed to be true is not always what’s best for our dogs. As we continue to learn more through research and ongoing education, our methods and beliefs need to change accordingly.

“Sit” is usually one of the first thing puppies are taught. Just one session at puppy school may include up to 20 or more “sits” - that’s a really high intensity workout for a dog at any age, but puppies in the growing stages are particularly at risk.

These sitting repetitions put excessive pressure on the developing skeletal system which may lead to damage or injury that may only become apparent at a later stage.

Senior dogs may find it really painful to sit down and then get back up. Sitting puts pressure on the lower back, hips and supporting muscles. Certain breeds are just not anatomically designed to repeatedly sit.

Asking a fearful or reactive dog to sit in the presence of whatever is triggering that emotion is probably the worst thing to do. The belief that sitting will magically create calmness and stop the negative emotion is not logical.

There is nothing wrong with teaching our dogs to sit and occasionally asking for sits in certain situations, but look at teaching more natural, alternative behaviours, that are just as effective.

In the words of Turid Rugaas – “If you yourself want to sit, sit! If you want your dog to sit, think twice!”

For more detailed information on this subject, here are some links -

https://blog.bharcs.com/2021/03/06/should-we-ask-our-dogs-to-sit/ #:~:text=Young%20dogs%20are%20very%20good,which%20starts%20causing%20compensatory%20issues.

http://www.turid-rugaas.no/sit.html

07/09/2024

𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭 ❌

The quickest way to take effort out of your horse is not knowing when to quit.

Think about this scenario:

A football coach tells his players to run up-and-backs down the field as fast as they can. The players respond, put out their best effort, and run the sprints to the best of their ability. Then, the coach says "Great job! As your reward, let's do that again."

Now, apply the same scenario to your horse:

You ask your horse for a specific response. The horse responds correctly and gives you the 'feel' you were looking for. You say, "Great job! As your reward, let's do that again."

In both scenarios, the players and the horses put forth maximum effort thinking that their reward would be to rest once they completed the task at hand. But instead, their reward was more work. That has to be frustrating, right?

I know that when you finally get the 'feel' you are looking for, it is tempting to keep repeating that feel over and over again to make sure that your horse has that skill mastered―but, you have to remember to 𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 their effort first, then 𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞 the skill later. 𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤.

06/09/2024

WHEN CLICKER TRAINING FAILED

In yesterday’s post, I detailed the work of Keller and Marian Breland who not only discovered "shaping" and bridging stimulus, but also invented clicker training.

Keller and Marian Breland trained animal acts featured in movies, circuses, museums, fairs, zoos and amusement parks across the nation, and also trained many of the trainers that worked in these facilities as well.

By 1951, the Brelands had trained thousands of animals from dozens of species, and in an article for American Psychologist, they said they thought rewards-based clicker training might work on any animal to train just about anything.

And then something happened.

They noticed that clicker training was, in certain circumstances, beginning to fail in ways that they could no longer overlook.

In a 1961 paper entitled, ‘The Misbehavior of Organisms,’ Keller and Marian Breland described their first experience with the failure of reward-based operant conditioning.

It seems that when working with pigs, chickens and raccoons, the animals would often learn a trick, but then begin to drift away from the learned behavior and towards more instinctive, unreinforced, foraging actions.

What was going on?

Put simply, instinct was raising its inconvenient head.

Though Skinner and his disciples had always maintained that performance was driven by external rewards or punishments, here was clear evidence that there was an internal code that could not always be ignored.

The Brelands wrote:

“These egregious failures came as a rather considerable shock to us, for there was nothing in our background in behaviorism to prepare us for such gross inabilities to predict and control the behavior of animals with which we had been working for years.... [T]he diagnosis of theory failure does not depend on subtle statistical interpretations or on semantic legerdemain - the animal simply does not do what he has been conditioned to do.”

The Brelands did not overstate the problem, nor did they quantify it. They simply stated a fact: instinct existed, and sometimes it bubbled up and over-rode trained behaviors.

Clearly, every species had different instincts, and just as clearly, a great deal of animal training could be done without ever triggering overpowering instinct. Still, the Brelands noted,

“After 14 years of continuous conditioning and observation of thousands of animals, it is our reluctant conclusion that the behavior of any species cannot be adequately understood, predicted, or controlled without knowledge of its instinctive patterns, evolutionary history, and ecological niche.”

What does this have to do with dogs?

Quite a lot.

You see a small but vocal group of clicker trainers believe everything a dog does is learned by external rewards, and internal drives are nothing but "old school" fiction.

While the Brelands argued that a species could not be adequately controlled without “knowledge of its instinctive patterns, evolutionary history, and ecological niche," the most extreme militants in the world of clicker training now seek to minimize and disavow the very nature and history of dogs.

Dog packs? There are no such things, we are told.

Dominance? It does not exist in feral dogs or in wolves, and never mind the experts who disagree.

Prey drive? Not too much said about that!

Of course, instinctive behaviors and drives do not disappear simply because they are inconvenient.

As Keller and Marian Breland put it,

“[A]lthough it was easy to banish the Instinctivists from the science during the Behavioristic Revolution, it was not possible to banish instinct so easily.”

Of course, one must be careful to qualify the role of instinct.

Yes, dogs have instincts, but the history of dog breeding has largely been about reducing instinctive drives. As a consequence, most breeds have instinctive drives that are sufficiently attenuated that they are not much of an impediment to basic rewards-based training.

That said, not all dog breeds are alike. Not every dog is a blank slate, as the owner of any herding dog or game-bred terrier will tell you. Prey drive does not disappear because you want it to. Many problematic behaviors in dogs -- especially behaviors in hard-wired working dogs that are being raised as pets -- are self-reinforcing behaviors that express themselves without any external reinforcement at all.

Clicker training, the Brelands remind us, cannot solve everything.

Is rewards-based training the most important tool in any trainer’s box of tricks and methods?

Absolutely. There is not much debate there.

But the Brelands remind us that dogs do not come to the trainer as a tabula rasa, nor should we think of all dog breeds as being more or less the same, or that all responses are equally conditionable to all stimuli.

Dogs and other animals, it turns out, are a bit more complicated that white rats, and the real world is not a laboratory.

In the wild and on the farm, animals have managed to learn, all by themselves, since the Dawn of Time and long before clickers came on the scene.

How did they do that? Does the real world have as much to teach us as the lab? Keller and Marian Breland thought it did.

22/08/2024

21/08/2024

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

Top international agility handler, Bonny Quick on the subject of failure, taken from the book, Agility Bible.

In agility, failure is inevitable some of the time. Failure is useful. It’s necessary. When you fail you learn. Failure gives you a chance to not make the same mistake too many more times.
In competition you are statistically likely to have way more eliminations than clean runs. Lucky you – those are a massive opportunity for learning. As for training – well that’s controlled failure. It’s not always going to go right. It can’t.
Expect failure. Embrace failure. Greet failure with pleasure. With excitement. It means you are making progress.

How do I become mentally stronger?
• Consider how your trainers make you feel. Go back to the trainers who get the best from both you and your dog.
• Surround yourself with people who have the attitude you want to have. Let into your life the people who believe in your hard work and in the partnership you share with your dog.
• Not everyone will root for you all of the time. On your journey there may be people who are jealous of you. There may be doubters. Some may criticise your choices. That is to be expected. Those people are on their own journeys. Don’t be afraid to let some people go, or only socialise with them outside of agility. Prioritise the happiness of your dog and you.
• Do you feel like resilience and mental fortitude don’t come naturally to you? That’s fine. There was a time when a front cross wasn’t natural to you either. But you practised. And you practised again. And now doing a front cross seems easy. Be prepared to put time and effort in to improving your mental strength. You don’t teach your dog to weave and then never touch that skill again. You keep at it. Your mind can change and develop, just like your body.
• It is human nature to dwell on what’s gone wrong; so challenge that with the following strategy. After each competition or big training event, make a note of the following:
- One thing I did really well was…
- One thing my dog did brilliantly was…
- The best thing someone said to me was…
- My most enjoyable moment was…

21/08/2024

I hear it all the time…

Trainers telling dog owners they are forbidden to get a second dog when they are working through behavior challenges with the first.

Like somehow, having a second dog will make things worse.

Or they will absorb all of the “problems” the first dog has.

But I often say the opposite.

Take Winnie for example…

She came to us for help with severe reactivity and separation anxiety.

And after some time, we began talking about adding a second dog.

We didn’t make the recommendation to solve her problems…

But rather to help her human remove some of her focus from Winnie’s behavior and training…

So it wouldn’t be so all encompassing…

While giving Winnie a fun social outlet that she really enjoys.

It took us over a year to find the perfect companion - A social butterfly who was pretty bombproof.

And during that time we worked on reducing Winnie’s stress and reactivity, and building up her confidence. (She’s off her meds now and doing sooooo well)

Here are some important things to think about if you are considering adding a second dog.

(1) Choose the right dog - Find a dog that is socially stable, easy going, and doesn’t have major behavior challenges - qualified trainers are a great resource to help you evaluate dogs to find the right fit.

(2) Protect the new dog’s experiences - Get prepared to walk, train and socialize your dogs separately, especially if the first has unresolved reactivity. It will be more work. And you need to be prepared for that.

(3) Don’t rush the process - Adding a dog should never be an impulsive decision.

(4) Only add a second dog if your dog has the ability to make friends. It may not be the best choice if your dog has aggression with other dogs.

(We also often - not always, but often - recommend choosing a dog of opposite s*x and steering clear of very young puppies)

Listen…

It is VERY common for me to encourage my reactive dog clients to add a second dog when they express interest in doing so.

While getting a second dog will not magically solve your problems (read that line again - it’s important)…

It’s not going to make them worse either… so long as you are strategic.

21/08/2024

🔹️ Co nam się wydaje, że przygotowuje psa na obraz zawodów:
- wchodzenie na płytę w parze z innym psem
- trening meldunków
- zakładanie numeru startowego
- wykonywanie ćwiczeń w schemacie
- praca na nagrodę odłożoną obok miejsca ćwiczeń

🔸️ Co naprawdę przygotowuje psa na obraz zawodów:
- mądra socjalizacja
- relacja oparta na zaufaniu i szacunku
- dzielenie ćwiczeń na elementy i układanie ich w sekwencje logiczne dla psa
- nagradzanie psa w taki sposób, by to interakcja z nami była nagrodą, nie zjedzenie smakołyka czy posiadanie zabawki

1. Jeśli pies na co dzień będzie zaznajomiony z obecnością innych psów, jeśli będzie bywał w różnych miejscach, a świat zewnętrzny nie będzie go przytłaczał ani ekscytował, to dlaczego obecność drugiego psa na treningu miałaby stanowić dla niego problem?

2. Jeśli dobrze zsocjalizowany pies nam ufa, to oddaje nam kontrolę, a więc nie musi przejmować się ludźmi dookoła ani sędzią z parasolką i notesem. Jeśli nas szanuje, to nie będzie rozpraszał energii myślami o tym, żeby spuścić łomot drugiemu psu na płycie lub interesować się zapachem cieczki. W skrócie: nie ma powodu rozpraszać się, rozglądać, zawąchiwać.

3. Nie muszę wykonywać całych ciągów ćwiczeń, żeby w głowie psa stworzył się obraz zawodów. Np. mogę wykonać wszystkie pozycje z ruchu z pominięciem elementów, które w danym momencie mnie nie interesują, np. z pominięciem faz zostawania. Dla odmiany, jeśli będę robił tylko lub głównie pełne ćwiczenia, mogę stracić coś po drodze, np. jakość w chodzeniu przy nodze lub skupienie podczas zostawania. I owszem, pies przyzwyczai się do schematu, ale w taki sposób, że skojarzy on mu się z bylejakością.

4. Jeśli nagradzając psa otwieram mu możliwość zdobycia jedzenia lub zabawki, jeśli skłaniam go do podjęcia wysiłku i tworzę logiczne połączenie pomiędzy tym wysiłkiem a osiągnięciem celu, jeśli dopinguję go po drodze i cieszę się z jego (naszego wspólnego!) sukcesu, to sprawiam, że nie smakowitość zabawki ani puchatość gryzaka jest fajna, lecz nasza wspólna INTERAKCJA. A jeśli tak, nie muszę mu jej obiecywać, kładąc obok placu ćwiczeń plecak z jedzeniem czy wielką żółtą piłkę. I nie będzie to zależne od tego, czy mam na sobie numer startowy, kamizelkę treningową czy zwykły podkoszulek (o ile dodatkowo mam szacunek psa, ale o tym już było).

Czy to znaczy, że mamy nigdy nie robić rzeczy z pierwszej grupy? Bynajmniej, na pewnym etapie warto wprowadzić to jako treningowy dodatek.
Ale – podkreślę – NA PEWNYM ETAPIE, a nie wtedy, gdy nasz pies wciąż uczy się techniki ćwiczeń.
Jeśli nasz pies wciąż musi być prowadzony za nos smakołykiem w chodzeniu przy nodze, to wykonywanie meldunków w parze z innym psem nie wnosi do naszego treningu ABSOLUTNIE NIC istotnego.
REALNE przygotowanie na specyficzne sytuacje (meldunek, grupa etc.) ma miejsce CAŁY CZAS: cały czas socjalizujemy psa (bądź nie); cały czas budujemy naszą relację (bądź ją podkopujemy); cały czas wykonujemy ćwiczenia (mądrze bądź głupio); cały czas nagradzamy psa (dobrze lub źle). Innymi słowy, w 90-ciu procentach nie musimy podejmować żadnego DODATKOWEGO wysiłku. Ogół jest ważniejszy od szczegółów.

31/07/2024

Two stories recently crossed my desk almost simultaneously.

The first was how the tallest dog in the world, a Great Dane living in Southern California, was dead at age 7.

The second was about how the oldest dog in the word, a cross-bred Jack Russell in Louisiana, was still kicking at age 26.

I was not too surprised by either story.

You see, the health and longevity of dogs is directly related to such things as size, breed, and gene pool diversity.

Pick the wrong breed of dog to love, and heartache and jaw-dropping veterinary bills are likely to follow.

Follow a few simple rules, however, and you may save a lot of money, as well as avoid a lot of pain and heartache.

1. Rethink the dog.

Do you really want a dog? This is the first question that needs to be asked. You see, most people want a puppy; they do not want a dog. A puppy is cute and triggers both maternal and paternal instincts. They seem like no problem at all. A dog, on the other hand, will get you up at the crack of dawn, will bark in the back yard, will eat your couch, and may occasionally urinate or defecate on your rug. Here's a test: If you will not consider getting an adult dog from a local shelter or over-stocked breeder, you do not want a dog. You want a puppy. And what you need is a cat.

2. Don't become breed-fixated.

Having decided to get a dog, most people start flipping through the pages of an all-breed book trying to decide which breed. Big mistake. Deciding to get a specific breed can dramatically increase your chance of getting a dog with serious health issues. Dog insurance records show pedigree dogs are less healthy, as a group, than cross-bred dogs. Canine health surveys show that 40 percent of Kennel Club dogs in the U.S. have genetic defects of one kind or another -- hip dysplasia, heart murmurs, deafness, cataracts, spinal problems, glaucoma, Cushings disease, autoimmune disorders, hypothyroidism, epilepsy, congenital skin conditions, polyarthritis, progressive renal atrophy, and genetic predispositions to cancer, to name a few. Instead of focusing on a breed of dog, consider focusing on a broad type of dog: a terrier, running dog, lap dog, guard dog, herding dog, retriever, or pointer, for example. After that, look for either a cross breed of the type, or get the healthiest breed of that type.

3. Avoid giant breeds.

The larger the dog the shorter the life, and the more expensive the care and maintenance. This is particularly true for giant breeds like Wolfhounds, Deerhounds, Great Danes and Mastiffs, which often come with expensive veterinary bills and short lives due to cancer and gastric torsion (bloat). Other common health issues associated with giant breeds are heart problems, and spinal injuries due to massive heads being supported on overly long necks. Along with sobering veterinary bills, also expect to pay more for fencing, crates, food, and boarding. Finally, after shelling out a lot of money, expect a really giant dog to be dead by age seven or eight.

4. Avoid "tea cup" dogs.

Tea cup dogs generally come with a host of problems. Their jaws are almost always over-crowded with teeth, and their bones can be so small and brittle they may break if the dog jumps off the couch. Another common problem is hydrocephaly (water on the brain) caused by too much cerebellum crammed into too-tiny skulls, leading to domed-shaped heads and skull plates that do not completely close over.

5. Try to get a dog weighing less than 40 pounds.

Cruciate ligament and other expensive joint problems are far less likely in dogs that weigh less than 40 pounds. By going with a dog that weighs less than this limit, you remove some of the most common, and most expensive, health care problems from the table.

6. Avoid dogs with misshaped bodies.

Dogs that are out of proportion tend to have higher-than-normal health care issues, whether these dogs have massive heads (like English Bulldogs), or tiny legs (like Dachshunds and Basset Hounds). A lot of truly misshaped dogs suffer from a kind of dwarfism called "achondroplasia" which not only stresses joints, but is also associated with serious back and heart problems.

7. Avoid flat-faced dogs.

Dogs that have extremely flat-faces are called brachycephalic breeds, and they typically have a hard time breathing, get winded and overheat easily, and often have soft palate issues which may require corrective surgery. In addition, due to the flatness of their faces, English Bulldogs, Pugs, Pekingese and other flat-faced breeds are especially prone to eye injuries.

8. Avoid merle-coated dogs, dogs with pure white coats, spotted dogs, and dog with blue eyes.

The genetics here are complicated, and change a bit from breed to breed, but as a general rule dogs that have spotted coats (such as Dalmatians), merle coats, pie- bald coats, all white coats, or blues eyes, are best avoided if you want to decrease your chance of getting a deaf dog.

9. Avoid dogs with exaggerated features.

Exaggerated features are almost always maladaptive, which is why they are not found in natural dogs. Dogs with deep skin wrinkles, long pendulous ears, and extra long backs all come with health problems associated with those conditions. As for "hair dresser dogs" with long, thick coats, remember that they rarely look as good at home as they do when on display at ringside or in a book. Do you really want to spend more time and money on your dog's hair than on your own?

10. Avoid any breed with a disease named after it.

If the breed under consideration has a disease named after it, consider that fair warning! Almost all breeds carry a genetic load of some kind, but some loads are much heavier than others. The last thing you want to discover is that your breed is "really prone" to cancer, hip dysplasia, heart problems, "eye anomaly," epilepsy, or congenital skin conditions.

What about that Great Dane, dead at age seven? He was euthanized after coming down with cancer -- a very common outcome for this breed.

Of course the sadness with this dog probably started right at birth. You see, this was a Harlequin Great Dane. About one in four Harlequin Great Danes are born deaf, and most of these dogs are put to sleep.

Buy a Harlequin Great Dane or a Dalmatian, and you become complicit in the routine and predictable euthanasia of puppies born with these kinds of preventable problems. Who wants to be part of that?

And what about that cross-bred Jack Russell?

Most terriers are small dogs and, as noted, smaller dogs live longer. Cross-bred working terriers like Jack Russell's are particularly hearty due to their genetic heterogeneity. When small size, genetic diversity, and a low-calorie diet are combined, a terrier's lifespan routinely reaches 15.

A 26-year old dog? Clearly, this dog is a very special case. That said, it's no surprise that the world's longest-living dog is not Kennel Club registered, is a moderately small dog, has a normal body shape, has a pointed face, and does not have a spotted or merle-coat.

Bottom line: Canine health and longevity are not an accident. By following just a few basic "rules of thumb" when selecting your dog, you and your family can avoid a lot of unnecessary pain, heartache and expense.

22/07/2024

People who have trained with me have heard me say, "Don't forsake one 'thing' in favor of another."

It means to not forget to practice the old work when introducing the new work.

We use familiar and well-practiced skills to help introduce new skills all the time. It helps the dog learn to move easily from something it knows, possibly even enjoys, into something it is unsure of.

Every exercise is conducted on the speculation that the behavior being practiced will eventually become fluent.

Every successful repetition helps the dog believe there is a reason to engage in that behavior, whether it's for the reinforcement that comes after completion or the opportunity to escape from the pressure of learning this new thing. By practicing something it is familiar with simultaneously, dogs develop confidence in their abilities.

If we are able to invest them successfully enough times, they look forward to learning.

Part of training is creating a desire to learn.

Allowing for mental breaks by relieving the pressure of learning with practicing familiar work is the hallmark of successful training practices. It gives the dog an opportunity to clear its head through the relief of doing something familiar and reinforcing.

Falling back on previously trained skills not only strengthens them, but if they have been reinforced appropriately, the dog will see those opportunities as rewarding, and develop enough temerity to push through the 'hard stuff'.

Dogs that lack confidence tend to develop it quickly once they see how to achieve reward, whether that reward looks like an external reinforcer like a piece of food, a toy, or a game, or the opportunity to get a bit of a mental break, take a breath and organize their thoughts.

Pushing through will get a result, but quiet, meditative practice will get you there faster.

12/07/2024

The "God" decides who Lives or Die, Ask her for Benji, the dog that "Positive" training Killed

10/07/2024

Don’t trick your dogs.

They’re not stupid. They’re not goldfish (although goldfish actually have decent memory). They will remember and they will learn for the next time.

Picture this- your dog doesn’t have a good recall, and they’re off-lead. You pretend to have a treat to coax them back, they come to you and you grab them. Excellent! You win! Except, that will work a total of one times, because as you clip their lead back on, laughing about how you outsmarted them, your dog is learning that you are untrustworthy. There was no reward, and you ended the fun, so they’re not going to fall for that again.

It’s not just recall, but recall is the most prominent example of this that I see. There are only so many tricks we can play on a dog to get them back before they are suspicious of everything you try. They know that you lie to them, so why should they believe you?

The short-term gain isn’t worth the long-term loss of trust.

If your dog doesn’t recall, instead of letting them off-lead and inadvertently teaching them every trick in the book of how to avoid being caught, just keep them on a long line and train recall until it’s solid enough to work properly.

If your dog doesn’t like coming inside from the garden, teach it as a behaviour, instead of waving toys around and slamming the door behind them if they come to investigate.

If your dog needs eye drops, put time aside to teach them how to accept handling comfortably instead of springing it on them and making them wary of hands around their face.

If your dog steals something, don’t pretend to distract them for a second then sn**ch it away- instead teach a solid swap cue. It’s about being prepared for situations instead of jumping in headfirst and having to wing it.

And sure, there might be times when we do have to trick them, it’s rare but it can happen. The next step is to totally rebuild that trust and ensure it never happens again.

They’re dogs. They’re intelligent. We don’t need a GOTCHA moment, we should be on the same team. Every time you trick them, they’re learning, and there will come a time they’re one step ahead of you if that trust is broken too often.