Cyrius Canine Training and Kennel

14/11/2024

You may have heard me try to explain the importance of reward delivery in my sessions. Anna makes great video examples like this to demonstrate how our body, can manipulate their body movements.

09/11/2024

Got our first delivery! Looking forward to 2025 and new adventures. These pups take me along for the ride ❤

Thank you to Bully Max for this opportunity!

Miss Smith:

ADBA CH TDII ACE/UKC TDI NTD NC UJJ HOP RUSH URO1 RACEN UEWPCH CA AP VPA UWPU GRCH Smalltowns Classic Revolver Spot-On, NTD, WPDSOW, Mult. Total Dogs, Mult. MWPP, TD Weekend High Combined, OFA CA, OFA PA, OFA EL, OFA HIPS GOOD, DNAVIP, OFA CRD1/CRD2/CRD4/DM/NCL-A CLEAR, ADBA DNA

14/10/2024

05/10/2024

Next weekend, we hope to show off our skills on a brand new wall!

05/10/2024

Per requests, and lots of beginners, I'm considering another virtual Fitness Course. It will be via a private Facebook group. The first one will be foundation behaviors: perfect for young dogs and very very beginner teams. We will do one new behavior a week, and I will go over the importance and benefits of each. I will have both written instructions and video tutorials.
The second one will be built from the beginners course, based on teams' experience levels.

Is this something folks may be interested in?

Let me know!!

29/09/2024

Kevlar running the mill!

29/09/2024

Kevlar sporting the go pro footage at Empire States Top Dog event!

20/09/2024

New research published in the JAVMA reveals that teaching dogs to voluntarily dunk their heads in water is the most effective method for rapidly cooling them down after exercise.

06/09/2024

Bully Max came out and got some cool footage at the Top Dog show. Kevvy made the cut. The go pro views are awesome!

25/08/2024

This is a great video showing how reward placement affects body mechanics within an exercise!

20/06/2024

A great visual aid for watching for heat injury!

12/05/2024

13/04/2024

There are two key messages for managing hot dogs: – Cool first, transport second. – Cool using water, the colder the better but use what you have available.

26/03/2024

Signs of fatigue can vary from dog to dog. As a handler it's important to identify these signs before sloppy training persists, and injury risk goes up!

Fatigue starts long before your dog is laying down panting heavily, squinting and with their tongue on the ground …
Understanding and recognizing early signs of fatigue is key to keeping our dogs successful in training, and their bodies safe.
The longer you train, the higher the chance that your dog will experience:
🏋️ physical fatigue (tired body)
🤯 mental fatigue (tired mind - too much information)
❤️‍🩹 emotional fatigue (tired mind - too much stress/excitement)
Or often a combination of these!
The subtle signs can be easy to miss. And if we don’t stop training when our dog first tells us they had enough, things usually go downhill fast …
Be observant and look out for the following:

1️⃣ Disengagement
If your dog has been happy and enthusiastic during your session and suddenly disengages, sniffs the ground or wanders off, chances are they had enough. Do not keep pushing them to train … it will likely not be successful.
2️⃣ Overarousal
Your dog was in a focused state of mind, but suddenly “spins out of control”? Even though over-excitement may look like excess energy to us, it can actually be a sign that the dog needs a break! Some dogs “stress up” (become MORE crazy as they get tired).
3️⃣ Fidgeting
Your dog was doing well (for example by staying in a Sit Stay), but suddenly starts adding “random” behaviors? Stepping in place, scratching, sniffing themselves etc. are all signs that your dog is getting tired.
4️⃣ Regression
Your dog was doing well at the beginning of the training session, but seems to actually get *worse* as time goes on? This is a very common and often overlooked sign of fatigue.
We see it especially in reactive dog training, where dogs are fine at the beginning of a session, but exposure near their threshold and trigger stacking makes them more and more stressed throughout.
Don’t ignore these first signs. If you try to push through it, your dog will not magically recover (mentally, physically or emotionally) … but is much more likely to keep making mistakes, rehearse unwanted behaviors or even get injured!
Which of the above signs of fatigue do you see most often in your dog?

08/10/2023

This is a great explanation of the importance of exercising the shoulders, outside of the sport work you are already doing!

19/09/2023

As your dog retrieves the first...second...third...maybe fifth or sixth ball, his muscles start to tire and soon they reach overload, where they no longer can fully control and support your dog's movements. Now, when your dog does those amazing athletic maneuvers to snag the ball, soft tissues like the cranial cruciate ligament, iliopsoas muscle and tendon, and the muscles and ligaments that support the vertebrae are overstretching. Minor tears are occurring. Now the ball is thrown 10, 12 times or more and ultimately your dog lies down, exhausted.

That period between when your dog's muscles are in overload, and when your dog lies down exhausted, is the injury zone (Figure 1). But remember, with all that adrenaline, your dog doesn't feel the injuries happening, so you have no idea that the tissues are being used beyond their capacity.

When this game is repeated day after day, month after month, the small tissue tears become large ones, and suddenly it becomes evident that your dog is in pain and has an injury. Of course, it hasn't been sudden at all-what seemed sudden is just the final result of repeated stress and strain until the tissues gave way.

Chris Zink DVM
Discovering Your Dog

14/08/2023

Kevlar had to put in some work this weekend. For those wondering, weight pull is a sport that doesn't use only his brute strength. It uses his brain. It's very hard on his baby dawg brain.
This pull, while not much, was after he had a moment of doubt. But, he worked through it. I still need to work on timing my fouls more appropriately so it reinforces his hope. I'm very proud of the boy dog when he is using his brain!

My only goal for him, was to do the thing, 20 hours from home, on a new track. He did that and even got some pretty ribbons.
It'll be some time before we get competitive.
For now I want his brain to be convinced, that he can! No matter how hard it seems.

Weight Pull is his mandatory meditation. In training and on the track. He can't hyper excite. He can't get into trouble. He can't pick fights. His drive must be focused. He must, focus on himself and what's in front of him.

This weekend was exciting. And informative. Our relationship to come, still has much to work on. He's teaching me things every day, while I try to teach him too.