Star pupil Milo and his wonderful guardian are working on the first steps of muzzle training. Our goal is to have Milo happily stick his snout into a muzzle and we started with a red solo cup. They are fast learners and have a beautiful connection that is a joy to watch. I’m really proud of them! 💫🤩
Does your dog struggle with groomer or vet visits? Have you been asked to muzzle your dog in certain situations but your dog wants no part of it? We can help you work on that and make muzzle wearing NBD. Give us a shout!
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#dogtraining #positivereinforcement #positivereinforcementtraining #clickertraining #muzzles #muzzletraining #cooperativecare #dogsofchicago #chicagodogtrainer #hydepark #bronzeville #woodlawn #southsidechicago #gagepark #chicagodogs #redsolocup
Chaka and I have a rare opportunity to be alone today so I thought we’d give platform training a whirl. She’s started to walk back into her floppy puppy sits, and ends up an extra foot away from me.
Here I’m doing a few things: reinforcing her for staying in the game with me, delivering her reward in a variety of ways to set up the next rep and/or get her to think more about what I want: a nice sit on the platform. She gets lots of reinforcement for trying this early in the platform game.
For our first time, I think she did great! What do you think? At the end you can see her thinking about what she needs to do. All it took was about 5 minutes. You don’t need to block off hours on your daily planner to train your dog. Have fun and do a little bit every day!
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#dogtraining #positivereinforcement #positivereinforcementtraining #clickertraining #puppy #puppystartright #puppytraining #dogsofchicago #chicagodogtrainer #hydepark #bronzeville #woodlawn #southsidechicago #chicagodogs #sit
What’s your secret to a great recall? Baby Chaka has been in our home for almost 2 weeks, and her recall is looking good! She’s quick. She’s enthusiastic. My tone is upbeat and happy and my reinforcement is tasty!! If you’re struggling with calling your dog back to you, hit me up and let’s see if we can iron out some kinks.
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#dogtraining #positivereinforcement #positivereinforcementtraining #clickertraining #puppy #recalls#puppystartright #puppytraining #puppysocialization #dogsofchicago #chicagodogtrainer #hydepark #bronzeville #woodlawn #southsidechicago #chicagodogs
Give me 🙌 if you and your pup are ready for the Fourth? Here’s Baby Chaka snoozing away while I play the “boom booms” at full volume. If you have tried sound desensitization or if your pet may need meds to get through the evening now is your last chance to make it happen. Please
don’t wait and see.
If you want to try desensitization, start by using some quality speakers and playing any number of fireworks videos at a low volume and pair that sound with something fun or tasty or both! Keep it short and don’t try to go full volume. Over the next few days gradually increase the volume until it becomes background noise and your pup doesn’t even notice it. On the day of, have lots of lick mats, treats and toys on hand and start having BEFORE dusk. You’ll be glad you did!
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#dogtraining #positivereinforcement #positivereinforcementtraining #clickertraining #puppy #puppystartright #puppytraining #puppysocialization #dogsofchicago #chicagodogtrainer #hydepark #bronzeville #woodlawn #southsidechicago #chicagodogs #fireworks
3 things I tell my clients:
1. Say your cue one time
2. Hang on to your treats
3. When it all goes sideways, resort to tossing a ball
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#dogtraining #positivereinforcement #positivereinforcementtraining #dogsofchicago #dogbehavior #clickertraining #chicagodogtrainer #hydepark #bronzeville #woodlawn #southsidechicago #chicagodogs #dogtreats #chicagodogtrainer
Who doesn’t love a vet that makes house calls? #dogsofchicago #hydeparkchicago #goodboy #veterinarian #veterinarianintraining
Flash sale!
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Ellison vs The Toilet Paper Roll
I was reminding a client a couple of weeks ago that even adolescent dogs go through fear periods. During such time objects that suddenly appear and weren’t there yesterday may be cause for alarm. Objects that may have been there all along can suddenly present a danger.
Exhibit A.: Ellison noticing the flapping end of a roll of toilet paper out in the sunroom that has been there for a few months. The real jump scare for him is when Blaze moves from her perch off camera.
Need help with your suddenly mysterious or out of control teenage dog? Give us a holler. We have empathy to spare!
#adolescentdogs #teenagers #teenagedogs #forcefree
#dogtraining #dogsofchicago #dogbehavior #clickertraining #positivereinforcement #hydepark #southsidechicago
First shaping expedition ✅ Ellison’s hand target transferred nicely to objects. So I thought I’d use that to see if he might stick his head inside something. And he did! This will help prepare him when we do muzzle conditioning down the line and helps make getting into a harness a pleasure instead of a chore! I also tossed in some other cues we’ve worked on so he can begin to discrimanate cues and wait for them. Tho occasionally we did get a paw in a cup instead. #shapingisfun #dogtraining #positivereinforcement #positivereinforcementworks #dogsofchicago #puppytraining #clickertraining
Do you have a dog who runs from bath time or nail clippers? Who breaks down at the vet when handled? This is Blaze doing a victory dance because I successfully trimmed all 18 of her nails today! We took our time getting to this place and it was important that she opted in to the process. Give us a shout and we can get you in the road to cooperative care!
Training in action: it’s cold out so that means sweatpants, slippers and shaping! My goal here is to teach Blaze to push (herd?) a ball with her nose. Instead of using luring or targeting we’re shaping the behavior. This means we reward small approximations of our larger behavior.
This is a minute or so into the session. First, I had to communicate I wanted her to use her nose and not her paws on the ball. Then we moved on to the slightest push and ended the session there. No need to “push” further for today 😉. She’s a delight and an inspiration. I hope to offer online trick training classes in the spring! We’re going to have so much fun!
When you ask a Beserker if they wanna do some training 🤣 #clickertraining #cattledogsofinstagram #dogsofchicago #positivereinforcement
