Teaching the settle exercise
🚨 The next training video is here! 🚨
Teaching your dog how to settle is one of the most requested exercises so here it is. As always, post any questions in the comments and I’ll be happy to answer them!
Have your say! What would you like a training video on? Maybe you’d like to teach your dog to settle or you’d like techniques to get your dog to focus on you. Would you like to teach a particular trick or something more formal like a retrieve or emergency stop? Whatever you would like to see, pop your suggestions in the comments and I’ll choose one or two to show you how to train!
Here’s Pixie puppy demonstrating a few things from her repertoire to give you some ideas
Hand touches 🤚🐕
What are they, how do we teach them and what do we use them for?
What is proprioception and why is it important?
Proprioception in simple terms is the dog’s unconscious awareness of its body. We use it to teach dogs where to put their feet or sit and it is used for everything from teaching a dog to stay on their bed to how to stand in the show ring. It’s important in everyday life and is vital in socialisation so your dog is happy walking on all surfaces like slippy wooden floors and over uneven surfaces like woodland.
Even more importantly it reduces injury as your dog learns to unconsciously react to changing surfaces like when they get zoomies and run and jump over obstacles at great speed without hurting themselves.
Here’s Pixie demonstrating controlled proprioception. Watch how she carefully places her feet on the bars. She knows exactly what every foot is doing and it stops her from falling. It helps her to balance at the top long enough to control the jump down so she doesn’t fall or hurt herself. For tips on teaching proprioception feel free to message me
Introduction to using a flirt pole
Here’s my top engagement game for prey and chase driven dogs. This is a great physical and mental work out for your dogs as well as enabling you to be the most fun thing on your walks. You can go one step further with this game and teach your dog self control so they actually STOP chasing prey animals on cue! I hope you enjoy this video and I look forward to seeing you giving this a go.
If you want to buy a flirt pole the link to the one I use is in the comments and a there is a huge selection of tuggy toys on the Tug-E-Nuff Dog Gear site. Use code ONPOINT to get 10% off toys and have fun with your dogs!
Some of Pixie’s training so far. Next up is teaching her sit, come and stop on the whistle, retrieve and scentwork. The steps to achieve all this training will be available soon!
Hi everyone, I’ve been very busy working on the Vizsla Training Programme and it will be available to subscribe to very soon!
In the meantime I wanted to share with you a discount code I have for Tug-e-nuff tuggy toys which are AMAZING and my dogs’ favourite recall toys. Here’s Pixie showing just how much she loves her sheepskin tuggy even with the distraction of another dog wanting to play!
Use code ONPOINT to get a 10% discount on anything from the Tug-E-Nuff Dog Gear shop and make yourself the most interesting person on the park to your dog!
Wow 300 likes already! Thank you to everyone who has shown interest in this venture. Whilst I’m busy writing the units for the Programme, here is the most simple “trick” you can teach your dog and what’s more you can use this to build your dog’s confidence, assist walking to heel, recall and focus.
The hand touch is something most dogs pick up almost instantly and is simply your dog touching your hand with their nose. It’s very easy to train so go and get a few treats and let’s have a go.
Hold out the flat of your hand towards your dog. When they sniff your hand, mark this behaviour (I say “Yes”) and give your dog a treat from the other hand. If your dog thinks you are asking for their paw, make your hand look different, either by making a fist or offering the back of your hand. Repeat this 10-15 times and make sure your dog’s nose actually touches your hand. Don’t try to help your dog too much, they are intelligent and they will get this. Don’t put a name to this behaviour just yet either. Until your dog is bopping your hand whenever it is offered, there is no point in giving your dog a cue, you may just end up confusing them.
Dogs love this game, it’s a great confidence booster for nervous dogs and easy enough for every dog to learn no matter their age or background. Here’s a very short video of my Weimaraner Arian giving this a go when she was a puppy. (Weims are just silver Vizslas right?!) You’ll see that on one attempt she doesn’t actually touch my hand so doesn’t get her treat. She then tries to jump for the food and offer a sit. I ignore any behaviour which isn’t the one I want and she learns to repeat the thing I do want.
Post your photos, videos, successes and questions below and tomorrow I’ll tell you how to use this behaviour to get focus from your dog around distractions.
