Dogs will be dogs - training for you

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Dogs will be dogs - training for you

Offering 1:1 sessions in your own home, using modern, positive methods of dog training.

Covering loose leash walking, basic house management, basic obedience, games, and more!

08/12/2022

Last week, two loose dogs made their way to our road and over three different properties (including Ours), killed and mauled around 30 animals (including sheep, alpaca and chickens).

It was absolutely horrific and traumatic to witness our animals suffering from multiple, severe bite wounds over their bodies. All sheep had bite wounds to their throat and back legs. The alpaca had chunks of flesh ripped from their back legs - every single one of those animals suffered extreme panic, fear, along with physical pain! Further chickens have had to be euthanised due to injuries.

If you are unsure how your dog will manage with different animals - please do not ever leave it to “see what will happen”. Dogs chasing animals aren’t just “super friendly and wanting to say hi”, even if they don’t make contact, it’s still distressing for the chased animals. If your dog doesn’t know how to behave around stock - train them. If your dog isn’t with you - contain them. If you encounter stock/other animals (including dogs!!) when out with your dog - leash them until you have passed them. Be responsible - please!!

We should not have had to experience this. Our animals should not have been killed.

Train, contain, restrain your dogs. Please.

07/07/2022

🐶 Practising the rocket recall with Fonzie who is 15 weeks old 🐶

Recall is the most important skill to teach your puppy/dog in my eyes! It’s something that needs a s**t tonne of work, and every dog is different. I was determined with this guy that we were going to focus on recall +++!

How cool is he!!

❤️🐶❤️🐶

13/05/2022

Let’s talk reactivity.

Every living being is “reactive” for it simply means to respond to a stimulus in either a positive or a negative manner.

Marley is fear reactive. It’s a fancy label for a dog who acts in a rather “aggressive” manner when he is too close to his triggers (mostly unknown dogs).

Today Marley was due for his vaccinations which meant a trip to the vet. Most vet practices we have gone to are tricky to navigate in terms of seeing other dogs etc. vet practices in general are places lour dogs only go when they are unwell or need vaccinations. Of course they are stressful environments as most other animals there are not well, there are many different smells, Different flooring etc.

Today another dog came into the waiting room. Of course Marley got stressed. He started with a low grumble, and then a bark. Then Bindi got stressed because Marley was stressed. Then I got stressed because the dogs were stressed 🤯 oh it was a right old stress storm brewing! You could feel the judgement from both the vet practice staff as well as the other owners….there was no way of exiting the building as that meant going past the other dog.

I knew I had to step up to look after Marley so i took him behind the main counter so he couldn’t see the other dog. I asked him to sit, and I reassured him (pats and voice). He sat there, and he coped. Of course he still knew the other dog was there, and yes I was in the way of staff coming and going, but I needed to look after my dog.

It’s like having the child that is having a mega emotional meltdown out in public and getting all the disapproving looks from everyone! Yeh my dog struggles….BUT he did so well with how we managed it. He relaxed enough to sit and not continue to “react”.

There was always the risk of it turning into a s**t show….but I’m proud of how Marley coped. It was a stressful situation, and in essence, we were trapped. You have to step up and do what your dog needs in that moment. Marley needed space away from the dog who was causing him stress.

To all reactive dog owners out there - I get it, I really do! To everyone else - give a stressed dog space, please don’t judge the owner, and while I’m at it - please put your dog on a lead when you see another dog on the lead.

🐶🐶

16/04/2022

🐶🐶Practising thinking and responding in the face of distractions 🐶🐶

I often get people asking how to start working their dog around distractions. There is so much in the world that acts as a distraction for our dogs - and we can start working around them at home.

It’s hard for our dogs to think when they are out in exciting environments and the Adrenalin starts pumping! This could be from excitement or fear/worry! So…it’s up to us to teach them how to be able to engage their thinking brain even in those settings. We have to start easy, then gradually get them out to harder environments. Marley loves his toys! Flirt pole, tug toys, balls……all of them! So….here he is learning to respond to me better even in the presence of his toy (flirt pole in this video).

It’s early stages so I’m simply lying the toy on the ground between Marley and I. I’m then asking him to do some simple things such as “come” and “go to bed”. You can see he is already excited at the presence of his toy as he is bouncing around and excitable. I have to keep the energy low so he can do the exercise. If he looks like he will get the toy I can move towards it, or I can give him a verbal reminder “uh-uh” so he leaves it and carries on.

If this is too hard for your dog, you may need to simply have the toy in sight of the dog, but not in such close proximity to your dog.

At the end of the session I put the toy away. I don’t want it to become a pattern of doing these exercises and then always playing.

He did well - even with the distraction of Smarty at the beginning 🤣

All dogs benefit from impulse control teaching - let’s get into it :)

14/04/2022

🚨Do you have a dog who goes nuts when someone is at the door?
🚨Does your dog bolt off towards other dogs/people/cyclists etc when you take them off lead?
🚨 Do you have to hold your dog from bolting out an open door (car/house)?

This exercise is good for building some self control. It’s really basic, and can be practiced every day! Like all things with dog training - it’s about consistency, clarity, and perseverance. Here we are starting with the basics - the dogs don’t need to stay down for long, I open and close the door pretty quickly. If I leave it too long at the beginning, they will break their positions. It needs to be easy enough for them to succeed, then we start making it more difficult as they understand more what is asked of them.

I don’t use treats in this group setting because if I do, it tends to bring the energy of the group up too much and distracts them from what we are trying to learn.

5-10 minutes of training every day will see success!

🐶🐶

12/01/2022

❤️❤️

When we first got Marley at 18 months old he was terrible on the lead! The first time we came across another dog on the lead he spun 360 degrees in stress/panic. We dialled things right back and went back to the beginning.

Fast forward a few years and we are still on the training journey. Reactivity doesn’t necessarily ever get “fixed”. There are def ways to work on improving things though!

Marley attends daycare 3 days a week and has adapted well. He still struggles sometimes with new dogs, and initial meetings always need to be managed carefully with him.

Last night I thought I’d take the opportunity to do a session. We parked up near the car park at Petone beach. These sessions are always a bit risky/stressful because I need to ensure Marley isn’t pushed over his threshold and stresses out.

We chose the perfect spot really…..he could see dogs coming and going but they didn’t come too close (helps that the busy road was right behind me!). We sat there for about 40mins, and saw quite a few dogs. He got a bit stressy and grumbly at times, but was able to re focus to me without exploding 💥 It was the best session we have ever done!

Loving his vest made by Rocco & Co. We didn’t get close enough for too many people to read it - but we will!!

Reactivity is such a bumpy journey! Some days are awesome, some days are s**t. Some days it all turns to custard but some days it just works!

For any one with reactive dogs out there - I feel for ya! It’s a hell of a journey, but improvements can be made!

❤️❤️👏👏🐶🐶

21/10/2021

If you like this page, please head over to Paws Outdoors, as this is where we will be posting all the dog stuff.....I will continue sharing on here for the next wee while, but the plan is to make the move fully back to Paws Outdoors page❤️🐶🐶❤️🐶❤️🐶

16/10/2021

🐶❤️🐶❤️

Exercising your dog’s brain is so important! Physical exercise is important too - but we need to get the balance right. The more you exercise your dog physically - the fitter they become and the more they will need/expect. Bindi and Marley could go all day if encouraged - I sure as heck can’t keep up with that!

So….yesterday they had their “free time” blat - chasing rabbits and having a good run around. Today…it was brain time! Marley is used to walking with me, but Bindi isn’t. In all honesty - she doesn’t walk on the lead much at all these days!

The thing with Bindi is that she is not a natural “follower” of her humans. She is independent and finds the environment the most reinforcing thing to her. So….walking on the lead can be challenging for her as she would rather be off in the bushes searching/sniffing etc.

Today we didn’t go far! It was lots of turning, encouraging her to follow, rather than try and lead.

She was a bit more on edge as it is super windy here today, but she did really well!

Dogs don’t need to be run to exhaustion - exercising their brains and making them think is super important and beneficial too!

🐶🐶🐶🐶

18/09/2021

🐶🐶 100% this!🐶🐶

(Info from SpiritDog Training)

Bindi gets stressed by dogs who exhibit stressy/erratic/stalking behaviours (heading dog/collie).

We had a run in with a border collie the other day who was full on in down stalking mode which freaked Bindi out and led to a full on confrontation with the owner. This all could have been avoided if the owner had just put their dog on the lead or called them away.

I can’t say it enough - please put your dog on a leash when other dogs come by on lead. The intention of your dog’s behaviour is irrelevant. It can still be perceived as threatening by some dogs.

And if you have a reactive dog - I get it!!

🐶🐶

30/08/2021

🐶🐶 Loose leash walking🐶🐶

So many people struggle with walking their dogs on a leash. Dogs are not born understanding what a leash means, and how to walk with one.

I don’t need my dogs to walk in a strict heel position when we are out, I just don’t want them charging ahead out in front of me on the leash. For me, walking my dog on a leash is an exercise for their brains more than their body. (They get plenty of off leash exercise too!). It is a controlled exercise where I expect my dog’s focus to be more on me than the environment. If they get too far ahead of me, I will correct them and ask them to “get back” which means getting back to a position I am happy with (usually by my side or behind me). At the beginning of teaching this, I may have to use the lead as well as my voice, so the lead can guide them back to the position I want them in. They also get rewarded with food rewards in the position I want them in. Some may call this being the “alpha”. I see it as being the leader, the guide. If the dog is out front ahead of me and the leash is tight, the dog has his brain switched on to the environment, not on me. The dog is more likely to make their own decisions as they walk along, as opposed to looking to me and working together. Therefore if Marley is out front pulling and with his own agenda, he is more likely to spot a dog first, and more likely to react with barking/growling/lunging as opposed to looking to me and me helping guide him past the stressor.

You can see in the first part of this video - Marley isn’t acknowledging me at all. In the second part, we are connected - he is looking to me, we are more of a team.

This takes time, practice and consistency. If you let your dog pull - that’s what they will do! When we first started walking Marley we could only go up and down our driveway. We then slowly increased our distance. We walked for 10 minutes at a time, three times a day in the early days! Don’t be in a huge rush to get your dog out somewhere you want to go. Work with your dog, at their pace. Loose leash walking isn’t impossible - but it takes time, persistence, practice and consistency!

🐶🐶

26/08/2021

🐶🐶 Happy Thursday! 🐶🐶

Marley wanted to show this video (ok really he has no idea, it’s me! All me!!!!

Marley used to struggle big time with self control. If he wanted something he would go for it. This is normal for our dogs - they are not born knowing how to control themselves. So….we started teaching! He has always had to sit and wait for his breakfast/dinner but that’s not enough.

He loooooooves his toys. We don’t leave toys lying around for him otherwise he would pick them up and bring them to us all the time insisting we play. He wouldnt relax a lot, and it would end up in frustration on our part too. (He would also chew them and end up ingesting all sorts!!). So his toys come out when I get them out. If he jumps around like an idiot trying to grab them off me and behaving rudely, he doesn’t get a game. Sound tough? Who wants a 30 + kg dog jumping all over them with their brain turned off??!!

This video shows him waiting for me to say “get it” so he knows the game starts. When I say “stop” he needs to let go of the tug. This time I also started asking him to get in his bed. This makes him think of doing something else even while his toy is out. It also starts the process of chilling him out. This time he was only on the bed for short periods, we can then start to extend that time. It’s so important not to just have a full on excitement session every time there are toys around. Use them to help the dog learn to regulate their excitement! It’s like a dimmer switch - start the game, build excitement, but also practice dialling it back, then up again.

🐶🐶

12/08/2021

🐶🐶

Bindi’s favourite activity is chasing bunnies and
hunting for babies in bunny holes!! Also chasing ducks….pukekos…..sometimes birds…..

It can be a tricky thing to have a dog with such a hunting drive! Lots of small animals can be seen as “prey”, therefore inciting her chase desire! We have to manage her very carefully and closely, especially when we are out and about if we let her off lead. That’s our responsibility. It’s also our responsibility to Ensure she has the opportunity to do what she was bred to do - hunt. We need to teach some control around it, and manage things as best we can for the safety of all animals. We chose to bring her into our lives, she is who she is, and it’s not fair to expect her to “never” chase anything.

Never under estimate a dog’s drive to do something - be prepared with training, management and awareness!

Unfortunately Bindi would kill a cat if she had the chance (that may be tough to hear, but it’s the harsh reality). It’s our job to make sure she doesn’t get that chance. Because if it happened, It wouldn’t be her fault, it would be on us! And I sure as hell don’t want to go through that!

🐶🐶

02/08/2021

🐶❤️🐶❤️

These two grubs had the best outing this morning. A walk around our place and doing what they love! Chasing rabbits/digging for rabbits!

Happy dogs being dogs!!

🐶❤️🐶❤️

30/07/2021

🐶🐶

Time to start working on a bit of reactivity with this beautiful boy!!

The reactivity journey is long, it can be frustrating and it’s definitely a non-linear process!

🐶🐶

29/07/2021

🐶❤️🐶❤️

This sleepy boy would love to share with you all - he has a wart! The growth on his foot is a wart! A benign papilloma! 😅👍👍👍👍👍👍

Happy days!!

❤️🐶❤️🐶

26/07/2021

🐶❤️🐶❤️

My dog struggles with seeing dogs whilst out and about on the lead but he is such a good boy at the vet!

Over the weekend I noticed he had a teeny tiny little growth on his front paw…..so off to the vet he went tonight. He was such a good boy, sat and allowed the vet to do her FNA (take a sample from the growth) without a hitch.

So yeh, he has some struggles, but what a good boy tonight!

Now we wait for the results from the lab….🤞

🐶❤️🐶❤️

24/07/2021

Practising a bit of a sit/stay/recall with a few distractions present 🙂

It needs to be mentioned that Marley has done a lot of work around chickens and other small animals because yes he sometimes likes to chase! So…..we have done a lot of impulse control practice with him! Is he perfect? Nope…..is it something we need to keep practising - definitely! Hence why we took the opportunity to practice it while we were out and about yesterday!

An important skill to practice - go Marley!

🐶🐶❤️❤️

22/07/2021

🐶❤️🐶❤️

Today I took Marley and Bindi for a run.

Usually I only take Marley as Bindi doesn’t seem to love it as much as Marley does. Marley and I have been doing this particular run a few times lately. We do pass one dog, a border collie, who 99% of the time will rush to the fence barking and “guarding” his fence line. Marley has been doing really well and not reacting to this dog. 👍

Bindi tends to get a bit stressed passing dogs, and starts to whine, so I knew there was a risk taking them both!

We ran past the property and the dog wasn’t at the fence line so I felt good! When we came back however, Simba (border collie) raced to the fence line barking and growling. Marley looked at me (to check in as that’s what we have been practising). However, Bindi lunged across in front of me barking!! Therefore Marley then followed her and barked and lunged as well! Here I was with two dogs going a bit silly at the end of the lead….feeling like an idiot! I got them closer to me and we ran past, my blood boiling. If this was any client of mine I would say “it’s ok, s**t happens, it just shows us we haven’t trained enough for this situation”……I can’t blame the dogs. I haven’t done the work with Bindi. It’s not her fault…it’s mine. 🤦‍♀️

S**t happens (especially when trying to change emotional responses in dogs) but man it’s s**t when it does! 🤦‍♀️

21/07/2021

🐶🐴🐶

When Bindi first met Smarty (horse) she actually jumped up and tried to nip Smarty on the nose! Bindi gets worried by lots of new things..and def got a bit worried of Smarty.

It took some time, but now she can hang around while I’m prepping Smarty for a ride etc. she still gets a bit unsure of her, but she has definitely come a long way!

🐶🐴🐶

19/07/2021

🐶🐶❤️❤️

When we first moved out here to this place, I didn’t know how well our dogs would adjust to being “farm” dogs! Marley’s first “indiscretion” was chasing a turkey 🤦‍♀️ BUT that was before we did any training or work around things that we would be seeing around our new place!

He is such a cool boy - he likes to just be with his people. Sure he gets stressy around other dogs when out on the lead, but we work on that and manage it as much as we have to! Bindi on the other hand, was miserable outside and preferred being inside by the fire!

❤️🐶❤️🐶

22/06/2021

🐶🐶 Tuesday’s dogs 🐶🐶

20/06/2021

🐶🐶

It was a double dog kind of run today! Usually I only take Marley because sometimes the two of them are a bit much to manage if we see other dogs etc! But today - I went for both of them!

It was all good…..then on the way back I saw two people and two dogs….I immediately thought oh no! But they bent down, and leashed Their dogs! They then moved off to the side of the track closer to the river, and I moved over the other way so there was even more distance between us. As we got past I could hear their dogs barking so much…..maybe they were also reactive?? I yelled out “thanks” and off we went.

Both Marley and Bindi were on alert when they saw/heard them, but they got past with minimal stress - yay! Distance definitely makes a huge difference.

I was sooooo grateful that these people put their dogs on leads - thanks so much!!

🐶🐶

19/06/2021

🐶🐶 I really do more with my dogs than marvel at their gross behaviours, but Marley…omg 🤦‍♀️

11/06/2021

🐶🐶

The worst thing about working with a reactive dog is other dog owners!!

I love my dogs. I love running with Marley and he seems to enjoy being with me whatever we do. But he gets stressed by other dogs (especially on lead) and gets on the defence (barks and lunges). We have worked on this a little (living rurally we haven’t put in a consistent effort as we can avoid dogs a lot and still have a varied life!).

Today we ran. I always try and choose areas where either few dogs go, or if we do encounter dogs, there is space to get away! Today we were approached by an off leash small dog yapping at us and not backing off. I went off the footpath and onto the road to give us space (our car was also right there). The little dog followed us straight out onto the road (his owner yelling “come! Come!”, little dog didn’t respond). Marley didn’t respond (luckily - if it had been a larger dog I am sure he would have struggled more!). Owner came and put dog on the lead and said “sorry about that”, and continued his walk. Lucky his dog didn’t get hit by a car coming down the road!

I have been on the other end of the situation and have had my off leash dog run at others (a long time ago). “Oh she is friendly, it’s ok”……NO it’s really not. We have no idea why a dog is on a lead. There are many different reasons and we need to respect that and put our dog on a lead as soon as we see another dog on the lead. It’s just not fair/responsible to let your dog run up to another dog!

My dog worries and gets defensive so I am trying to look after him, keep him safe, and keep all other dogs safe! Please be alert and aware of your surroundings and please leash your dog when you see another dog on a leash. In a perfect world he would “get over it”….well he is almost 5 years old and I think he will always struggle! That’s ok, I love him as he is. But he does have a right to be in my life and do things we both enjoy. I am doing my bit to keep us safe - please give us the space we need ❤️

09/06/2021

🐶🐶

Who has a dog that gets fixated on things? You try and try getting their attention away but you just can’t!

Here is Bindi, fixating on a cat in the window. She would love to chase that cat down! This video shows that at this point - she is unable to actually take her focus off the cat. Her hearing actually diminishes in this state so she can’t actually hear as well as normal! All her energy is on her sense of sight rather than anything else!

The only thing to get some focus from her is to increase the distance from the “thing” that gets her fixated. In this case - I have to drive away from the cat and then I will be able to get her attention .

In order to change her response to cats we need to start waaaaaaaaaaaay back from this situation .

🐶🐶

02/06/2021

🐶🐶

What did I say about dogs being gross??

🤣🤣❤️❤️🐶🐶

30/05/2021

🐶🐶❤️❤️

Took Marley for a run today.

Looks like he has a lot of “gear” on ay! Double leads and all!!

Let’s talk equipment. Nothing beats training - i am all for that! But...at the end of the day, you and your dog (and other dogs) need to be safe. So...I use a halti on Marley because he “over reacts” to other dogs whilst on the lead and we haven’t done enough training around that. He has pulled me off my feet before which is never a good thing, so the halti gives me a bit more “control”.

The double lead is purely there as safety. Working with dogs I feel a big responsibility to ensure my dog is safe and other dogs are safe. The chances of the halti breaking are slim, but possible right? So I put the other lead on just in case.

This whole thing is because I haven’t worked on his reactivity enough. The reason is because he spends a lot of time with other dogs at daycare, he gets to frolic daily on 15 acres, chase rabbits if he wants, plays a lot with balls, tug toys, dunk himself in dirty animal troughs, come for walks with the horse.....I think he has a great life! Where we live, working on his reactivity isn’t really a priority. I thought it would be still - but it’s not, and that’s ok!

But I still like running and I love running with my buddy! So maybe, just maybe, we will work on the reactivity off the property more....

🐶🐶❤️❤️

26/05/2021

🐶🐶 Dogs 🐶🐶

Disgusting. Gross. Frustrating. Lovable. Funny. Best buddies! Faithful. Worth the effort! This guy is gross...but my gosh I love him!!

🐶🐶❤️❤️

20/05/2021

🐶🐶

How do you feed your dogs?

I love this for our dogs. Bindi has the most amazing nose and is determined to sniff out her biscuits. Marley loves the chasing aspect of this exercise. So....I make it harder for Bindi to find hers, and I do Marley’s fast, but easier to find!

These dogs get fed like this daily so are well used to sharing feeding time so there are no “squabbles”.

🐶🐶

06/05/2021

🐶🐶❤️❤️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

The joys of having a retriever in your life...anything is fair game, unless you teach and show them differently. This always makes me laugh! Here Marley looks worried because Bindi wants to grab the toy from him 🤣

29/04/2021

❄️ It was a bit chilly this morning, and someone really wasn’t that keen on getting up to come outside! 🐶❤️

08/04/2021

🐶🐶

We all know Bindi is a hunter. Some days when she comes out with me in the van we spot a lot of cats! Yesterday was that kind of day - she saw heaps of them! Needless to say she gets very intense and stiff and really wants the cats.

In this video she sees someone’s head and thinks it’s a cat! I think this was a result of seeing so many on our drive around and being a bit on edge and alert for anything that may resemble a small animal!

It was kind of funny, but it just goes to show how repeated exposure to things which stress/excite/ignite behaviours can put dogs more on edge.

🐶🐶

06/04/2021

☀️🐶

Does anyone else have a dog who just loves the warmth?

Bindi sits in the hottest place, starts panting, moves away, then comes back!

Crazy girl

☀️🐶

05/04/2021

🐶🐶 Body language 🐶🐶

It’s important for us to get to understand our dogs and their body language.

In the first picture - Bindi is tense, standing staunch, stiff, ears forward, erect, eyes are hard and focused. In real life she was almost shaking, and I wasn’t able to get her attention.

Second photo - relaxed, softer throughout her body, ears relaxed back, eyes closing.

In the first pic she had seen a cat. As i have said a million times before - she is a hunter. She sees cats when we are driving and she gets super wound up. If I see them first I can work with her, if she sees them first (if we are driving) I can’t do much!

Second pic is her just chilling out during the drive.

It is so important that we get to learn our dogs and what their behaviour means. Everything they do is telling us something - it’s up to us to learn what they are trying to tell us.

Bindi doesn’t get excited because she wants to say hi to cats / she wants to chase, hunt down......it would be an absolute disaster. It is my job to ensure she is safe and the cat is safe! It is my job to understand my dog and what she is telling me!

🐶🐶

04/04/2021

🐶excuse the poor photo as lighting was wrong🐶

Marley isn’t bothered by our choice of lawn mower today 🤣❤️🐴🐶

01/04/2021

🐶🐶

Marley just casually chewing my sock while Bindi looks hopefully out the window for rabbits...

🐶🐶

16/03/2021

🐶❤️🐶❤️

The face of a focussed, expectant boy! He broke his last flirt pole (the bungy snapped!!) which was a disaster as he loooves the toy and it is so useful in teaching him impulse control!

We finally got our new one yesterday......happy dog!

❤️🐶❤️🐶

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🐶🐶Practising thinking and responding in the face of distractions 🐶🐶 I often get people asking how to start working their dog around distractions. There is so much in the world that acts as a distraction for our dogs - and we can start working around them at home. It’s hard for our dogs to think when they are out in exciting environments and the Adrenalin starts pumping! This could be from excitement or fear/worry! So…it’s up to us to teach them how to be able to engage their thinking brain even in those settings. We have to start easy, then gradually get them out to harder environments. Marley loves his toys! Flirt pole, tug toys, balls……all of them! So….here he is learning to respond to me better even in the presence of his toy (flirt pole in this video). It’s early stages so I’m simply lying the toy on the ground between Marley and I. I’m then asking him to do some simple things such as “come” and “go to bed”. You can see he is already excited at the presence of his toy as he is bouncing around and excitable. I have to keep the energy low so he can do the exercise. If he looks like he will get the toy I can move towards it, or I can give him a verbal reminder “uh-uh” so he leaves it and carries on. If this is too hard for your dog, you may need to simply have the toy in sight of the dog, but not in such close proximity to your dog. At the end of the session I put the toy away. I don’t want it to become a pattern of doing these exercises and then always playing. He did well - even with the distraction of Smarty at the beginning 🤣 All dogs benefit from impulse control teaching - let’s get into it :)

🐶🐶 Happy Thursday! 🐶🐶 Marley wanted to show this video (ok really he has no idea, it’s me! All me!!!! Marley used to struggle big time with self control. If he wanted something he would go for it. This is normal for our dogs - they are not born knowing how to control themselves. So….we started teaching! He has always had to sit and wait for his breakfast/dinner but that’s not enough. He loooooooves his toys. We don’t leave toys lying around for him otherwise he would pick them up and bring them to us all the time insisting we play. He wouldnt relax a lot, and it would end up in frustration on our part too. (He would also chew them and end up ingesting all sorts!!). So his toys come out when I get them out. If he jumps around like an idiot trying to grab them off me and behaving rudely, he doesn’t get a game. Sound tough? Who wants a 30 + kg dog jumping all over them with their brain turned off??!! This video shows him waiting for me to say “get it” so he knows the game starts. When I say “stop” he needs to let go of the tug. This time I also started asking him to get in his bed. This makes him think of doing something else even while his toy is out. It also starts the process of chilling him out. This time he was only on the bed for short periods, we can then start to extend that time. It’s so important not to just have a full on excitement session every time there are toys around. Use them to help the dog learn to regulate their excitement! It’s like a dimmer switch - start the game, build excitement, but also practice dialling it back, then up again. 🐶🐶

🐶🐶 Who has a dog that gets fixated on things? You try and try getting their attention away but you just can’t! Here is Bindi, fixating on a cat in the window. She would love to chase that cat down! This video shows that at this point - she is unable to actually take her focus off the cat. Her hearing actually diminishes in this state so she can’t actually hear as well as normal! All her energy is on her sense of sight rather than anything else! The only thing to get some focus from her is to increase the distance from the “thing” that gets her fixated. In this case - I have to drive away from the cat and then I will be able to get her attention . In order to change her response to cats we need to start waaaaaaaaaaaay back from this situation . 🐶🐶

🐶🐶 We all know Bindi is a hunter. Some days when she comes out with me in the van we spot a lot of cats! Yesterday was that kind of day - she saw heaps of them! Needless to say she gets very intense and stiff and really wants the cats. In this video she sees someone’s head and thinks it’s a cat! I think this was a result of seeing so many on our drive around and being a bit on edge and alert for anything that may resemble a small animal! It was kind of funny, but it just goes to show how repeated exposure to things which stress/excite/ignite behaviours can put dogs more on edge. 🐶🐶

The pattern game in action. I just wanted to show this video to demonstrate the conditioned response you want to build with this sort of game. We haven’t done it a lot lately, so when we were out on a walk, I though I would give it a go to test Marley’s response. Turns out he hasn’t forgotton it at all! He was walking along thinking about dog stuff, and then suddenly he flicks his attention up (when I started counting) and knows what is coming. I will try and get one when we see a dog, but we don’t always know when we will see a dog! 🐶🐶❤️❤️

🐶🐶Trigger stacking 🐶🐶 Basically a dog-nerd term for “pushed to the limit”. We all have our limits....we all have those days where lots of things go wrong through the day, and the day ends with burnt dinner (or something else) just to top it off! 😡 Animals are no different - they also have their limits! Well....I stuffed up and Marley got to the end (and then some) of his coping level. We walked past the first dog who was barking and running along the fence line. Marley coped admirably. Thoughts in my head were “wow good boy - you’re ‘cured!’”. It was at that point we should have turned around. We went past the next house which also had a dog (he often runs up and barks and runs along the fence too). We got past and Marley was a bit stressed bit doing ok. We turned around.....and....well the video happened. 🤦‍♀️ He had obviously reached his limits and the second dog just pushed him over. So yeh, he lunged. There were some good things - he recovered quickly after he lunged. He re focused on me and walked past rather than continuing to worry and stress about the dog. Trigger stacking is important to think of when working with dogs. I thought Marley was doing so well, I didn’t see any of his subtle signs of stress. In hindsight he was probably grabbing at food more than usual (sign of stress)....but really there wasn’t a lot. We all stuff up. The reactivity journey is bumpy as! 🐶❤️

Just a case of canine craziness this morning! 🤣 It’s usually instigated by Bindi and Marley gives in to her demands! They are a pretty good combo though - they do stop themselves when they have had enough.....and sometimes we step in to stop them if Bindi just won’t listen to Marley’s signs when he is telling her he isn’t keen! Marley is very vocal 🐶🤣❤️

Let’s talk off leash control. It’s not - get your dog to sit, release their lead and then let them run wild, doing everything they want, running up to any and every dog they see with high energy. It is - having voice control over your dog so if you call them - they come! This video demonstrates pretty strict off leash control because we are on a road! Sure it’s a quiet road, but still. Marley doesn’t do this much - it was just something to practice whilst we were out. When staying with me and paying attention to me - he got reinforcement in the form of food. I’d love To have a dog I can walk more off leash like This - but we have a loooooong way to go! We are not perfect - my dogs are not perfect. But we all have a responsibility when out and about with our dogs. Please don’t let your dog run up to dogs - whether your dog is “friendly” or not 🙂 🐶🐶❤️👍

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