The Twins (2025)

25/11/2023

Tonight it was get dressed up and go to the Kinrara Distillery. Obviously the twins don’t drink gin. But Venice nicked a sandwich and Jasper laid some 💨💣. Serious red neck 😂😂😂
I’m sure the other guests enjoyed their experience 😂😂😂

25/11/2023

A holiday together at Cairngorm Mountain Resort.

Coire an t-Sneachda! Better in the snow.

Hurtta keeping them warm. The only jacket that gives flexibility on movement and keeps all those African vitals cosy.

BullyBillows collars for style.

Love the twins 💖💙

22/10/2023

Love is…..running on the beach. ❤️

09/03/2023

Just to let you all know.
We still love one another 😂😂
V & J

23/12/2022

23rd December

Behind number 23 of the Twins tips is following on from yesterdays post and today we will talk about building a formal recall.

So before you begin the training decide on what you want that recall to look like, what will you use? A word a whistle? I personally prefer a whistle it’s consistent and the tone remains the same in every situation. Think reinforcers, go high value or go home, dry biscuits won’t cut it. I tend to use liver, roast beef, chicken you get the picture.

We are simply building a response to a sound wave, it’s basic conditioning. To begin this start at home with your puppy right beside you, blow the whistle and drop half a dozen treats at your feet. The reason we drop at our feet is this is exactly where you want your puppy to come back to when they hear the whistle. Repeat this lots before you start to add any distance. Shifting a gear we want to begin to add in a little distance. Wait until the puppy is a little away from you, even another room and blow the whistle, drop half a dozen treats at your feet. fast response? Great!!

So we have added in distance now it’s time to add a distraction. Wait until your puppy is playing with another family member or having a tasty kong, blow your whistle and again drop those treats at your feet. Repeat this until you have built up a good history in distractions.

Now that you have a fast reliable response indoors it’s time to change environment, take this to your garden and repeat distance and distractions. Going well? If no go back a step and begin where you were successful previously. If it’s a yes, move up to another environment. Choose your environment carefully so that you set your puppy up for success, somewhere that isn’t too distracting, you want to work up to more distracting environments. Keep your puppy on a longline whilst teaching this, for safety and to stop your puppy creating bad habits.

Recall is certainly one of the most important things you will teach your puppy so investing the time is worth it’s weight in gold.

Happy training 🎄

22/12/2022

22nd December

Behind number 22 of the Twins tips is Recall and how to begin to building it.

So before we look at building the recall we want to build up focus on our walks, without this your foundations are missing. A reliable recall is so dependent on your puppy’s choices when out on a walk, so we want our puppies to check in with us. How do we do this?

Start with having your puppy on a longline, let them explore the world around them even if this is ahead of you. Communication on your walk is vital, so every time puppy sniffs something acknowledge it, “ ooh what’s that , good boy”. If your puppy looks at you BINGO, mark and reinforce, this will build up a nice history of your puppy checking in with you. Make it fun to be with you, lots of verbal feedback. If you are not fun your puppy will simply stop doing it and will find their own fun. Note at no point did I ask you to call your puppy back, I am more than happy to toss my treat out to them, if they come back great - have a party.

The theme here is allow your puppy to explore and encounter the world but reinforce everything they offer you. Choices and more importantly good choices.

More on building a formal recall tomorrow, in the meantime work on the foundations.

Happy training!

21/12/2022

21st December

Behind door 21 of the twin tips for puppies we are staying on simple training tips.

Play! You can’t really do enough of it. Play releases all the good chemicals. Like a cocktail of joy. Be your dogs cocktail partner.

But when it comes to play you have to play the games your dog loves.

Tug. Some dogs love it. Some dogs don’t really. Use an appropriate toy for this, or it’ll end off shredded. Start by making the toy interesting, hide it behind your back, make it come alive like a squirrel, through your legs, over your shoulders. You’ll have fun too, then reach it out and have your dog tug. Now here’s where you have options. Don’t stop tugging too quickly, and don’t put on too much pressure (that mouth can be sore). There are times you can practice your drop it here but the majority of the time- let your puppy win! Just let it go, let them parade around their prize. Continue playing and congratulating them on their victory. This is great for confidence. I bet they come back stuffing the toy at you. Then you can repeat the tug or repeat from the beginning. If the puppy loses interest then the game isn’t interesting anymore.
Either up your squirrel skills or find something else to do.

Chase. Dogs love to chase. They can chase you or an object. Don’t do chasing a ball for too long and please don’t throw the ball as far as you can with a ball launcher. This isn’t good for their joints. You only need to throw it a few feet!
When it comes to chasing a note of caution. You can use this opportunity to bring in “chase whilst you keep four paws on the floor” and if your dog looks to be getting over the top stop it. Or every jogger this side of the equator will be next. So this game is down to the dog. Also remember some dogs love to be chased! So switch rolls. And incorporate practicing stand, stop or sit here.

Sniffing. A dog’s ultimate skill.
Hide food toys. Let them find them. And you don’t need to help them. Their nose is unreal. It might take longer than you pointing it out, but the process of finding it is the fun part!

Merge your training with play.
After all, if everything is a game it’s learned faster!

20/12/2022

20th December

Behind number 20 of the Twins tips is Lead work.

A nice loose lead is a complex behaviour and way too difficult for a puppy to master. However we can start by breaking down the behaviour and start off by teaching elements of it.

Dogs have an opposite reflex just like us, so pulling them back when they pull will only make them pull again. Remember if a puppy pulls and it gets them where they want to go it’s being reinforced. We want to teach that a loose lead gets them there not a tight one.

Let’s take a bite size chunk and start to lay those foundations for later on. When your puppy pulls towards things simply stop and wait, as soon as the puppy takes a little tension off the lead give them feedback “good boy” or “good girl” and start walking again. Whether it’s to sniff that lamppost or bin the loose lead has earned that environmental reinforcer. Please don’t look for too much here, you are not looking for the puppy to come back to your heel, just that little tension off the lead. This may happen accidentally to begin with, take it and run with it.

It’s much better to set the bar now than six months down the line when your puppy has had six months of pulling. Think how difficult that is for your puppy, we have six months of walking on a tight lead now we want the opposite! The twins are rolling their eyes.

19/12/2022

19th December

Behind door 19 of the twin tips for puppies we are staying on simple training tips. This follows on from yesterday’s post.

Make sure you’ve charged up your drop it cue.

Let’s get one thing straight, High value objects, if your puppy has “stolen” something and you chase them, the value of the object rockets to a lottery win for your puppy. Would you give up £100 million just because someone said you had to? Thought not.

The harder you try applies here! So invest time in being trusted around things your puppy values. Don’t be the person they can’t trust. And sticking your fingers in their mouth….try sticking your finger in a socket first (disclaimer don’t actually try that!)

So you’ve charged up your cue, play with your puppy with a toy, then say “drop it” and stoop down next to them and drop a wee handful of treats. Don’t try taking the toy, just leave it. Wait until they start playing with it, and repeat. Only do this a few times per session.
Next repeat above but this time pick up the toy then give them it back.
Then go again and take the toy following the drop and exchange that toy for another. This shows your puppy that sometimes the thing they had they don’t get back, but keeps you in the circle of trust by giving them something else.

Make this part of your daily training/play. It then becomes normal!
You will graduate through time & practice to those emergency objects. But keep up with controlling environment. Keep your house in order so to speak.

Happy training

17/12/2022

17th December

Behind number 17 of the Twins tip is a nice easy hand target.

This is a wonderful behaviour to teach your puppy, nice little puppy recall when you have added distance. Also useful for husbandry work once you have duration on the “Touch”, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

I love this one. Simply hold your hand flat out and the puppy will naturally move toward it, make sure it is at around head height. Just before your puppy’s nose touches your hand you mark and reward with a treat from your pocket using the same hand you had held out. Repeat this a few times. Marking just before their nose touches your hand. The reason you mark just before is that your puppy is intending to touch your hand with their nose, it is the intent we are looking for currently.
After a few times hold your hand out then wait until the puppy’s nose just touches your hand, mark and reinforce again using the hand you had held out to give that treat. This solidifies that the target hand is good. You can now add your cue to to the behaviour so, cue “ touch” mark and reinforce.
Simple but very effective.

16/12/2022

16th December

Behind door 16 of the twin tips for puppies we are staying on simple training tips. Remember, good training is the basics done well.

Take a small step, like the one in the picture. Sit with it close to you and the puppy on the opposite side. When your puppy shows interest in it give them a treat, placing it on the step. As they recognise looking at the step = a treat start placing the treat closer to your side. This should encourage them to put a paw on the step, or two! Then start to just give them the treats as you would, feeding into their mouth.
Four treats, one after the other, one treat tossed so they hop off. Now wait, do they come back and immediately step up? good! Repeat four treats to one off. Don’t worry if they don’t just go back to the start & go again, they’ll get there!

Once they are confidently stepping up, start to wait a second at a time before reinforcing them. A second between each treat, still sticking with four on, one off. Then two seconds between, then three.
You’re building duration here!
Add a cue, “paws up”, this is a neat little behaviour for vet work & to get the perfect photo.

*tip* keep the sessions short. Too much up and down will be exhausting.

15/12/2022

15th December

Behind number 15 of the Twins tip is Leads, we covered harnesses, let’s look at leads.

A puppy has never encountered a lead until they come home, let’s make it super easy for them and start before they actually need to go out and walk with one.

We all have several weeks before we can take our puppy out for a walk which requires a lead. That gives you time to work on your puppy being comfortable with it.

Super easy tip today, pop down a little food scatter then pop the lead on, puppy finishes the scatter remove the lead and repeat.

Once the puppy is happy with that, let’s start to take steps. Start in your hall, you can encourage your puppy with treats. Puppy is happy in the hall, change your environment so maybe your garden.

Now you are ready for when you can go walks - voila!!

14/12/2022

14th December

Behind door 14 of the twin tips for puppies we are staying on simple training tips. Remember, good training is the basics done well.

Take your harness, pop some treats in your hand, let your puppy put their head through the harness and eat the treats, take the harness back over their head and repeat loads of times. Start doing this before they even go out! Between vaccinations and walking you have a good few weeks.
Once they stick their heads in with enthusiasm, drop a few treats on the floor right in front of them then fasten the harness. Take it off and go again.

Do this a fair few times throughout the day, and you’ll start to see your puppy happily popping into their harness. Then you can let them wear it for a while whilst you play. A couple of minutes then take it off again.

That’s all you need to do.

*little tip* get a good fitting harness but before you attach a leash and whilst your building up the work above, make it a little loose. Plenty time to adjust the fit when you need to. Make it fit at first and they may find it restricting, having the opposite effect from what you’re trying.

13/12/2022

13th December

Behind door number 13 of the twins tips is puppies jumping up.

This can easily become a habit for a puppy if it’s not addressed quickly. Remember you get what you reinforce, so patting and talking to your puppy when they jump up simply reinforces the behaviour.

The best way to avoid this happening is to always have some little treats in your pocket and as soon as your puppy approaches you, toss out a treat. This means reinforcement is happening when we have four paws firmly on the floor.

Easy to nail this in the first few weeks at home, just don’t allow it to start. Get ahead of the game.

12/12/2022

12th December

Behind door 12 of the twin tips for puppies is a super easy one, but has huge benefits.

When out with your puppy, take some really high value treats and a toy with you. Pop them on a long line and every time they check in with you have a party!

Easy, peasy

11/12/2022

11th December

Behind number 11 of the twins tips is a little bit more on socialisation, but with noises and other stimulus in the environment.

A new puppy is soaking up everything around them like a sponge, associations are made whether it’s positive or negative. It’s really important that we observe our puppies when encountering new experiences.

Does your puppy look scared of that particular noise or visual whether that’s a child, car, lorry, skateboard, motorbike…… you get the picture. Things to look out for is your puppy’s body lowering, ears back, tail tucked or simply running behind your legs. If they do you must ask yourself how you can help to make it easier for your puppy. Can you add distance, break it down for them.

I advise pairing up the scary or new thing with favourite treats, helping to build a positive association to the noise or the stimulus that your puppy is unsure of. So the Twins love liver, liver paste, cheese …… there’s not much they don’t like to be very honest. But go high value, make it count.

I am a huge believer that many owners struggle to read their dogs body language, educate yourself with this. Your puppy with thank you tenfold.

You may be thinking that we use lots of food, something we will cover in the Twins advent of tips.

The Twins

25/11/2023

25/11/2023

22/10/2023

09/03/2023

23/12/2022

22/12/2022

21/12/2022

20/12/2022

19/12/2022

17/12/2022

16/12/2022

15/12/2022

14/12/2022

13/12/2022

12/12/2022

11/12/2022

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