Family Dog Advanced!
The dogs in Family Dog Advanced have blown my mind and surpassed my expectations.
This hard working group is in one of my most advanced classes - all dogs have taken previous classes and have a good handle on “the basics” allowing us to really take things to the next level and challenge our learners.
Last night we worked on advanced Leave It games, heeling games, and finally a game I like to call “chatting with neighbors” where we ask our dogs to lie quietly, very close together while their humans have a conversation.
So many skills being learned here - owners are learning to split their attention between their dog and another person, how to use the appropriate rate of reinforcement to get the behavior they want and our dogs are learning they don’t get to greet a dog just because they’re in their space, and how to be calm and patient. Family Dog Advanced students Boone and Goose ROCKED this exercise!
Good job teams. We only have ONE week left in this great class - I will miss this group!
Goose On a Bucket
Family dog Advanced students are learning how to work on pivot bowls for hind end awareness. Step one is building LOVE for being up on the bucket. The bucket is a GOOD place to be where you get LOTS of treats and good things. You can tell Goose has been practicing his homework - he’s been getting lots of treats for putting his paws up on the bucket and staying there. In this class we were practicing tossing a treat away to see if our dogs would RUSH back to the bucket to put his paws back up. Goose sure understood the assignment! We also started to work on pivoting and moving our dogs around on the buckets - stay tuned for more videos, this group is crushing it!
Family Dog Advanced students worked on “paws up” in class last night. We will be introducing the dogs to pivot bowl and hind end awareness exercises in our next class and between now and then the dogs are supposed to get LOTS of practice doing paws up of different objects out in the world as well as getting plenty of practice at home stepping onto a book or a pivot bowl. The goal is to have dogs who LOVE paws up before we move onto the next step. Here is Guiness hard at work practicing paws up on his morning walk! Such a good student.
Maddie the SUPER dog
Sharing this from my personal page because I think you will all enjoy it!
Two nights ago was sitting chatting in the kitchen with my parents when Maddie starts to alert HARD on this hole in a brick wall.
I say to my parents “Maddie says there’s a critter in that wall” my parents are like “no there’s definitely nothing we have poison traps set up and haven’t seen any evidence of rats or mice in ages”
Maddie alerts over and over and over again so I went over to check and shine my light in the hole - BIG FAT RAT staring back at me.
Good dog Maddie. All the praises for the girl.
We blocked up the hole as good as we could and dad planned to call the exterminator Monday. Was very proud of Maddie who has only had one formal barn hunt session (which she of course took to very naturally)
Rest of the weekend Maddie keeps returning to the hole and alerting, following the rats scent around to another small hole and alerting there. Each time earning heaps of praise for her alert and rattie motivation.
This morning I come down to the kitchen and Maddie IMMEDIATELY starts tracking - the rat had pushed the stuff out of the hole, I watched her intently track his trail around the kitchen, till she ended at the pantry where she game a strong alert “RAT IN HERE MAMA!!” I checked to confirm and yes indeed Mr. Rat was sitting in the pantry, closed up the door and blocked it shut and left Maddie to keep an eye on him while I went to get my dad.
We formed a dream team of rat catchers extraordinaire- caught our rattie friend in a trash can and drove him off and released him away from the house. Maddie is SO proud of herself. And I am so proud of her too she was so persistent in telling us there was a rat even when we didn’t believe her initially, returned repeatedly to alert fiercely even without reinforcement, and waited politely in the background while we caught the rat, rather than giving chase and getting in the way.
I let her have a good long sniff
Drop The Leash - Parallel Training
Check out these rockstars in drop the leash class last night. We are almost to graduation and have been working hard the last five weeks on skills of engagement, impulse control/focus, proofing against distractions and more - and now we get to have fun putting all the pieces together! Here you see the dogs training side by side, moving around off and on their mats, training with their owners and ignoring the distractions around them including the other dogs and owners AND me walking all around them, talking to them and complimenting them. When you and your dog have a beautiful training relationship based on engagement and fun - it doesn’t matter what’s around them, they are happy to work! Are you looking to improve your dogs focus and control, their ability to work around distractions, stay connected with you etc.? Then you want Drop The Leash! New session - LAST session of 2024 - starts November 7th! Head over to www.problemsolvedtrainingmaine.com/classes to sign up! #positivedogtraining #positivedogtrainer
Puppy 3 students practicing stays!
Check out these AMAZING teenagers in puppy 3 class last night practicing approaching another dog and human and settling into a nice stay rather than rushing to greet the other dog or the person.
These types of skills can be a challenge, especially for a bouncy teenager, but practice makes perfect and these guys are crushing it!
The FINAL session of classes for 2024 starts in just a couple of weeks. Have YOU signed up for some classes with your pup?
Check out class offerings at www.problemsolvedtrainingmaine.com/classes and stay tuned as January classes will be released soon!
Shocking news report
THIS JUST IN! Sumi did not feel she was being adequately paid for her hard work in rally class. Despite numerous attempts to communicate her point of near starvation she was ignored by her owner and did the only rational thing a dog could do and collapsed and died mid-course.A formal report against the owner has been filled, we are waiting on the verdict and punishment to be handed out and will keep you updated on this shocking news.
Cooper settles on the road!
Day training puppy Cooper is getting out and about and learning how to navigate the world. This week we have been focusing on leash manners, settling in public, walking/working/training around distractions like dogs and people and much more. Look at him here settling at The Mall while a farmers market was going on nonetheless. Cooper saw lots of people, including children, other dogs, bikes, strollers and much more. Notice our distance, my goal was not to overwhelm cooper with distractions but to help him learn how to settle at the distance he was comfortable at. Good job Cooper!
Highlight on another great class - Family Dog Manners!
This is my basic "foundation" class, good for all ages Family Dog Manners covers a variety of important behaviors and skill sets including:
🐾 Sit, down, stand and generalizing between position changes
🐾 Recall, name response
🐾 Stay (proofing distance, distractions, duration)
🐾 Place (proofing distance, distractions, duration)
🐾 Loose leash walking
🐾 Loose leash walking around DISTRACTIONS
🐾 Intro to heeling
🐾 Intro to Leave It
🐾 Settling work
If you are looking to get started working on the basics for your dog, Family Dog is the class for you! Family Dog is followed by Family Dog Advanced, which builds upon the Family Dog curriculum for even STRONGER behaviors!
There are TWO spots left in Family Dog Manners class starting next Thursday September 12th at 5pm.
Sign up at www.problemsolvedtrainingmaine.com/classes
Sign up now for DROP THE LEASH!
Have you guys heard about Drop the Leash Class? There are TWO SPOTS left in the upcoming session of Drop the Leash starting NEXT THURSDAY at 6:15pm.
Drop the Leash is my more advanced class, designed for dogs who have taken basic classes or have a basic understanding of behaviors such as sit, down, stay and loose leash walking.
In Drop the Leash we focus on CONNECTION between dog and handler, and really advancing our dogs skills far beyond what we do in other classes. Drop the leash curriculum varies based on the dogs we have, but skillsets covered include important things like:
🐾 Focusing on handler/owner despite the presence of a variety of distractions, even increasingly challenging distractions.
🐾 Increased engagement between dog and handler.
🐾 Learning to calmly observe triggers or fear provoking stimuli, and change emotional associations to fearful triggers
🐾 RELAXATION and advanced settle work around distractions and in different environments.
🐾 How to build REALLY reliable behaviors that REALLY work.
Interested in advancing YOUR dogs basic skill set? sign up now at www.problemsolvedtrainingmaine.com/classes
Check him out now. Just a few days later and I can’t GET cooper to jump even if I try!
Puppy BITING!!!!!!!
Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?
Puppy BITING like jumping is another very normal (but often very frustrating) puppy reality all new puppy owners live with.
Did you know that HOW you react to behaviors like biting and nipping can REALLY influence how likely your puppy is to nip in the future? Without meaning too we often REALLY amp our puppies up in this moment - making episodes of jumping, biting, sleeve tugging etc. REALLY FUN for our puppies, which will make them want to do it MORE. Controlling our own reactions and emotional responses is just as, if not more, important than actually training the puppy.
It can be tempting to automatically react out of surprise, frustration or even pain. Crying out, yelling, scolding the puppy, running away, pushing them off, pulling your shirt sleeve away - any of these actions, while completely understandable, are actually going to fire your puppy up more and make them think the whole thing is a game. You try to pull the sleeve out of their mouth, they pull harder - it’s a game of tug! You scream and scurry away from biting puppy teeth, they chase - it’s a game of chase and bite. Any of these scenarios might lead your puppy thinking it’s a fun game to chase, jump on or bite people.
So what do we do when our puppy is over stimulated and starts grabbing and biting at our hands, our legs, our shirt sleeves or pant legs?
Well, as with all things dog training there’s no ONE answer but there are plenty of great things you can do that WILL help:
1. stay CALM. Getting amped up NEVER helps.
2. Stay still. And remove easy targets. Puppy biting your legs, stop walking. Puppy biting your hands, cross your arms and get your hands out of the way. Puppy leaping all over you biting you while you sit on the floor, stand up and stand still. Puppy biting your sweatshirt sleeve, stand still. Don’t become part of a game. give it a second, see if your puppy lets go and moves away on their own, if so mark “
