Force-Free Training with Candice

23/01/2025

Instead of relying on punishment and sq**rt bottles, a more effective training approach involves understanding the purpose of the behavior and providing better alternatives. For example, if the cat jumps on the kitchen counter, identify the motivation behind the behavior. It could be the smell of food, a desire for a better view out the window, a need for elevated safety, or a bid for the cat parent’s attention. Once the underlying reason is determined, a suitable alternative can be provided. If the behavior stems from a problem in the environment, such as a cat being ambushed by another cat, positive behavior techniques should be employed to diffuse the situation. Squirting the cat with water is not part of a sound and loving training plan.

Cats respond to positive training but it’s crucial to start the process by recognizing that every behavior serves a purpose. Cats don’t misbehave out of spite or defiance. Behavior makes sense to them. Proper training strengthens the bond, restores confidence, and reduces stress.

23/01/2025

23/01/2025

WHY I DON'T STROKE A DOG OR PUPPY THAT IS BEING CARRIED! 🐶

As a general rule, if I do not have a well established, positive relationship with a dog or puppy, I will NOT stroke them when they are being carried by their owner.

The reason for this is that when they are being carried, such as during pre-vaccination exposure to the outside world, they are unable to fully consent to an interaction.

If a puppy (or small dog!) is on the floor, they can move towards a person with relaxed and confident body language as a way of signalling they are comfortable with an interaction.

Whereas, whilst being carried- there is no avoidance option available to them. They are effectively trapped with very limited options on how to use their body language to signal their preference to be left alone, such as by orienting their body away.

Additionally, stroking a puppy or dog in this context tends to mean you are reaching directly for their head, something which many dogs find unpleasant - especially when interacting with unfamiliar or less familiar persons.

If I know a dog or puppy well or if that puppy/dog is clearly signalling they wish for an interaction then I MAY waiver my rule and engage with them briefly- stopping after 1-2 seconds to see how they feel and whether they ask for more.

Signs that they are more likely to be comfortable with an interaction are;

✅ Looking at me (with confidence)
✅ Perhaps wriggling their body TOWARDS me when we make eye contact
✅ Ears pricked forward but not too rigi
✅ Relaxed facial muscles and soft eyes
✅ Absence of trembling

Signs that a puppy or dog does not wish to be touched whilst being held are;

❌ Looking away
❌ Staring with an absence of movement in the body and head
❌ Pulling their ears back
❌ Trembling
❌ Trying to wriggle free, but in an attempt to be put down on the ground

22/01/2025

We loved working with Doggie Drawings by Lili Chin on this infographic. Why do you use a muzzle?

22/01/2025

Chin rest was one of Indigo’s favorite cues 💕

The Chin Rest: A Simple Behaviour with Big Benefits for Your Dog

There are many benefits to teaching your canine companion a chin rest. A chin rest is a behaviour in which your dog gently places their chin on your hand, an object, or another surface. While it may seem simple, this behaviour offers a range of practical benefits for both you and your dog.

Teaching a chin rest is particularly rewarding when taught within ACE Free Work. Free Work provides a safe, familiar, and enriching environment where your dog can choose whether to participate. This freedom improves confidence, reduces frustration, and builds trust, making learning a more enjoyable experience for everyone.

10 Benefits of the Chin Rest
Teaching a chin rest brings so many rewards. Here are 10 benefits, and you may even come up with a few more!

1. Reduces Anxiety and Stress
A chin rest can help your dog feel more grounded and secure. The gentle pressure and stillness of the behaviour create a calming effect. When taught in a rewarding way, it becomes a familiar and safe behaviour, ideal for potentially stressful situations.

2. Promotes Focus and Attention
The chin rest encourages stillness and focus, which can be invaluable in busy or distracting settings. For example, I invite Harry to do a chin rest when we are stationary or waiting in potentially distracting environments.

3. Strengthens Connection and Trust
Teaching your dog the chin rest helps create a stronger connection between you and your dog. It’s a moment of trust and communication, where you observe, ask questions, and listen to your dog’s responses. Through this, you’re not only building a valuable skill but also strengthening your relationship.

4. Improves Handling and Grooming
A chin rest is invaluable for consent-based handling during grooming, nail trims, or medical procedures. By giving your dog the choice to opt in or out, you can reduce stress and anxiety while building trust.

5. Versatility and Transferability
Once your dog learns the chin rest, it can be used in various environments, from vet visits to walks, or car journeys. The behaviour offers a sense of familiarity and safety in new environments, helping your dog feel safe and comfortable.

6. A Safety Cue in Stressful Situations
A chin rest can act as a safety cue. By teaching your dog to rest their chin, you provide them with a familiar, reassuring behaviour that signals safety.

7. Suitable for Dogs with Limited Mobility
For dogs on crate or bed rest or those with limited mobility, the chin rest is a great low-impact behaviour. You can adapt the learning environment by ensuring the dog is in a comfortable position, such as lying down, and using a raised object or pillow for them to rest their chin on. This way, they can engage with the activity without unnecessary strain or movement, keeping the behaviour enjoyable and rewarding.

8. Encourages Communication (Mand)
The chin rest can also be used as a valuable behaviour for your dog to communicate their needs or wants. By teaching your dog a chin rest, you are providing them with a way to communicate what they need or would like. For example, a dog might use the chin rest to request social contact, signalling that they’re seeking attention or physical contact. Additionally, the chin rest can be a subtle yet effective way for your dog to communicate when they’re feeling unsafe, overwhelmed, or need reassurance.

9. Chin Rest for Scent Work
The chin rest is a valuable behaviour for teaching stillness and duration, key skills in passive scentwork indications. By encouraging your dog to rest their chin on a target and hold the position, you help them develop the ability to remain still for extended periods, which is valuable in scent detection activities.

10. Chin Rest for Dogs Sensitive to Hand Contact
For dogs who are sensitive to hand contact or being touched around their face or muzzle, the chin rest can be a gentle and non-invasive behaviour to teach dogs. By teaching the chin rest, your dog learns that they can rest their chin on a surface or object without the need for direct physical contact with our hands. You can introduce the chin rest using an object or piece of fabric, like a soft cloth or mat, enabling your dog to rest their chin without needing to rely on your hands.

21/01/2025

There is no judgement here for anyone seeking a change. 💕 No matter where you or your dog are in your journey, I’m here to help you find joy together, whether that’s “again” or “for the first time”.

It's okay to feel bad about your dog's behavior. But there's help out there, and we'd love to get you and Fideaux on the same page, whether it's reactivity, house manners, or something else entirely. No dog is too old to train, and it's never too late to make changes to improve your (and your dog's!) quality of life.

21/01/2025

20/01/2025

Feeling frustrated with your dog?

Here are 3 main reasons we see this happen, and what to do about it:

1) Your dog isn’t clear on what you’re asking for.

Solution:

✅ Don’t repeat cue words over and over, and ensure that your dog has truly learned a behavior before you begin asking them for it.

✅ Work in low-distraction environments until your pup is extremely reliable, then add increasing levels of distractions.

2) Your dog isn’t being properly motivated.

Solution:

✅ Find what motivates your dog.

✅ Some dogs work well for kibble, a favorite toy, or a game of tug, while others need higher value reward. Training treats and string cheese are often a good choice.

✅Dogs don’t work just because they love us. Just like us, they don’t work for free. Pay your dog!

✅Reward every repetition during the learning process, and then reward only intermittently once you have a finished behavior.

3) Your expectations of your dog are unrealistic for your dog’s age.

✅ You can’t expect a 9 week old puppy to be potty trained or to know what’s appropriate to chew on.

✅You can’t expect an adolescent pup to have perfect impulse control.

✅ Work with the dog you have, teaching them what you want from them and rewarding correct behaviors.

20/01/2025

The more I do this work the more I’m convinced that what’s at the core of the most rewarding and joyful dog-human relationships isn’t training experience, or exceptional handler skills, or having raised dogs your entire life. It’s basic compassion and common sense.

It’s the ability to see the world from the point of view of another living being, in this case, from the point of view of our dogs.

It’s taking a moment to decenter ourselves and see our dogs’ behavior not based on how it impacts us, makes us look or feel, but from their point of view.

Dog training info and social media can be downright scary—pseudoscience, egos, fear mongering, and constant assertion of power and control.

People are made to feel guilty for showing their dogs basic acts of kindness or indulging in small moments of pleasure like sharing food or cuddling on the couch.

Our time with our dogs is so brief. None of us are going to look back and say, “wow, I’m so glad I never let my dog on the couch!” or “I’m so happy I didn’t comfort them when they were scared.”

Yes of course teaching life skills matters, but please don’t forget why you’ve chosen to share a life with a dog in the first place.

Don’t forget the joy and give them the compassion you’d want to receive if you were navigating a foreign world that wasn’t designed for you.

[ID: A screenshot of a tweet and tweet replies by Jack Herrera that read We give dogs a hard time for overreacting to normal things, but I think I too would react poorly if someone grabbed me and started trying to give me a bath. A stranger suddenly walks into my house? My reaction likely wouldn’t be quiet and calm. A massive explosion and a shower of sparks suddenly fills the sky for reasons I do not understand? I’d also be concerned!]

Original tweet: https://twitter.com/jherrerx/status/1483310435466153984?s=21

19/01/2025

We have snow forecast this week, so these may come in handy!

Is your dog bored? Need some easy ways to keep your dog busy indoors? Here's 33 simple games and activities you can do to keep your dog entertained and busy

19/01/2025

Door dashing can be dangerous, management and training are recommended to keep everyone safe!

Training your dog is sometimes an activity that slips naturally into the flow of your interactions with your dog throughout the day and sometimes it’s an intentional activity which is purposefully planned. And sometimes we teach our things just for fun. At the present, I’m teaching one of my you...

19/01/2025

One aspect of litter box hygiene we investigate when there are issues with litter box avoidance, is location!

19/01/2025

💡Understanding your dog's threshold is incredibly important when managing their reactivity and anxiety levels. It helps you determine the optimal distance or intensity at which to expose your dog to triggers that cause their reactivity during behaviour modification exercises. Helping your dog by keeping them emotionally below ‘threshold’ can create a more manageable and comfortable environment for your dog, which allows them to remain calm and responsive.

When the concept of “going over threshold” is brought up, people often envision a dog barking, snarling, or displaying aggressive behaviour. However, it is important to recognise that “going over threshold” means crossing over into an emotionally distressed state, which may manifest as shutting down, freezing, exhibiting overly excitable behaviour, or becoming so distracted that there is a loss of connection.

⚖️Pushing a dog beyond their comfort zone (threshold) can lead to heightened anxiety, fear, and potentially aggressive behaviour. It is essential to respect and work within their threshold levels to ensure their emotional well-being which in turn will help facilitate effective training and behaviour modification.

When a dog is over threshold, they are primarily reacting rather than thinking – they are in a fight-flight, freeze, fidget, or fawn state. Their emotional and physiological responses are heightened, making it difficult for them to ‘listen’ or respond to cue’s. They may be too overwhelmed or focused on the perceived threat to process information effectively.

Through systematic desensitization (gradual exposure therapy), and counter-conditioning (changing an emotional response) techniques, you can help raise your dog's tolerance levels towards a stimulus that causes emotional distress over time. By carefully managing their exposure to triggers and pairing it with positive experiences and rewards, you can help them develop more resilience and confidence, allowing them to handle challenging situations with greater ease.

Mardi Richmond MA, CPDT-KA describes it as: -
“Consider the threshold of a front door. When you cross a threshold, you move from one space to another. A behaviour threshold is a similar concept; it is when your dog crosses from one emotional state to another. If you spend time with a dog that is concerned about other dogs, you have probably witnessed the moment when he or she moves from seemingly okay into out-of-control behaviour. That is going over threshold.”

When a dog is over threshold, teaching them new behaviours or trying to modify their behaviour becomes challenging and would be inappropriate to do at that moment in time as they are not in the right frame of mind for learning to take place. Their heightened state makes it difficult for them to learn and retain new information. It is important to bring the dog back to a ‘sub-threshold’ state before attempting any training or behaviour modification.

✏️Furthermore, thresholds are not fixed and can fluctuate. Unlike physical thresholds like a front door, emotional and behavioural thresholds can fluctuate depending on various factors. These factors include the dog's current state of arousal, the environment, previous experiences, and the specific trigger or stimulus.
Having awareness of the dog's threshold levels and being vigilant in their behaviour and responses is crucial for effective management and training.

Adjusting the distance, intensity, or duration of exposure to triggers based on the dog's threshold can help create a more conducive learning environment and prevent the dog from becoming over threshold.

18/01/2025

Have you seen our latest Infographic with the data from our Pet Suffocation Survey? 🐶🐱

Do you want to know what types of food bags pets suffocate in the most?

Do you want to know where pets found most food bags?

Do you want to know what to do to help protect your pets from pet suffocation?

Share this Infographic with friends, family, pet sitters, pet groups, and veterinary staff, etc. to help spread awareness and prevent pet suffocation! You can also print it off from the Infographics page on our website. Spreading awareness is our best defense against pet suffocation!
www.preventpetsuffocation.com

18/01/2025

If you “think like a cat” you’ll start to look at the covered litter box in an entirely different light.

A covered box can make a larger cat feel cramped while in there.

Covered boxes don’t allow as much air circulation so it takes longer for litter to dry.

Odor is contained in the box, so it can be more offensive to the cat who is inside.

A covered box limits a cat’s visual field to see if another companion animal is approaching.

A covered box limits a cat’s escape potential and can create opportunities for being ambushed.

A covered box may not get scooped often enough.

There are obviously cats who don't mind using a covered box, but in general, behavior experts advise against the use of them, especially in a multicat household or if your cat is experiencing a litter box issue. Consider an open, spacious litter box for better airflow and accessibility. Your cat's comfort and safety come first.