Dogs’ lives are short. So find the things they enjoy most and do more of them. Focus less on “problem behaviors” and more on the bond you share. It’s so easy to get swept up trying to change behaviors we see as problematic that we forget to celebrate our dogs exactly as they are.
Gracie turns 12 years old on Saturday. In her golden years, I’m so incredibly thankful for the bond we share, the life I’ve been able to give her up to this point and the life I hope to continue to give her.
There was a time when trainers advised me to punish Gracie’s reactive behavior. A time where I felt so defeated by her reactivity that I literally mourned the dog I wanted her to be. And when I let go of all that and focused on the dog in front of me? Our relationship blossomed, she blossomed. I credit so much of that to positive training, because it’s more than training; it’s a lifestyle. A lifestyle where I empower my dogs to have choice, where I set them up for success and help them out if they fail, where I give them outlets for natural behavior, where I provide them with free access to love, comfort, food, and play, where I celebrate them for exactly as they are, and so much more.
Give your dog the room to grow into their infinite potential. When you’ve reached the point I have, I promise you won’t regret it.🌻
[ID: Series of videos featuring small tri-color terrier: dog is shown outside standing on a bench wagging tail, sniffing grass freely, playing with toys, and licking their human’s hand.]
There is a LOT of controversy surrounding muzzles and there shouldn’t be. Muzzles are not cruel or uncomfortable when conditioned slowly and positively. There are so many reasons a dog might wear a muzzle, but being a “bad dog” is not one of those reasons.
Dogs may wear a muzzle because:
- They have a history of redirected aggression when over threshold
- To prevent them from scavenging dangerous items outside
- Breed specific legislation or local law requires it
- To provide safety to all involved in vet visits, grooming appointments, and emergencies
- Safety of others
Let’s get something straight: ALL dogs are capable of biting under the right circumstances. It isn’t a matter of training, obedience, or moral quality.
Regardless of why a dog wears a muzzle, it does not give us as humans permission to put our dogs in situations that they would feel uncomfortable with. If you see a muzzled dog when out, give them space and give their human a friendly smile and wave.
[ID: A series of videos showing a small tan dog wearing a baskerville muzzle]
✨Paw Cross Trick Update✨
We’ve got it! We still need to work more some duration, but I’m really proud of the progress we’ve made together!
This behavior maybe took 10 training sessions of about 5-6 minutes over the course of a few weeks. Personally, I find Gracie learns best when we work on new tricks only in a few of our sessions a week and let it gel in her brain on the off days when we work on other things in our training sessions.
Here is how I thin sliced to make this as errorless as possible for Gracie:
1️⃣ Started with moving paws outward while placing treat and clicked for inwards movement
2️⃣ Introduced a paw target (Tupperware lid) and clicked for targeting close to other paw
3️⃣ Gradually moved paw target to opposite side so paws crossed
4️⃣ Changed target to sticky note (part of fading target)
5️⃣ Changed paw target to visual cue, which is my hand touching the floor
6️⃣ Once one side was consistent, worked on steps 2-5 on the opposite side
A couple of notes:
▶️ I am double cueing here as I used the verbal cue as a signal to start the behavior during steps 2-5 to enforce a little impulse control so she wasn’t offering the behavior before the paw target or my hand was in place and scratching me
▶️ I noticed that for some reason moving her left paw over her right, her mobility is a little more limited so I accepted smaller crosses on that side to make it easier
[CC: White dog with tricolor face crossing paws left over right for “criss” cue and then right over left for “cross” cue.]
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✨ Paw Cross Trick Training Update ✨
After a couple more sessions ensuring Gracie understanding of moving her paw toward her midline was solid, I introduced a paw target. Paw targets aren’t new for her, so we were able to incorporate it quickly.
In this video, I place the paw target and my hand with some gentle pressure over her opposite paw and mark for her moving her other paw to touch the target.
Something interesting happens in this video. Gracie gets antsy and starts to quickly pull out the paw I’m covering and touch the paw target with it. She does it so quickly, I wasn’t prepared and marked right when she did it. Then, I made a clicker error and marked it again. So, if you watch that’s now what she thinks the behavior is. 🤦🏻♀️
Timing is crucial to ensure you’re marking the correct behavior. This is why it is so helpful to video your training sessions. This was a more noticeable error so I noticed immediately - you’ll even hear me let out a little “I messed up” chuckle.
Don’t sweat it too hard if you mess up, no one is perfect. You can always just work on precision in your next training session, which is what I’ll be doing.
On a side note, I always think it’s remarkable how well dogs process and learn despite our sometimes sloppy instruction. They truly are remarkable creatures.
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One of the training games we play to prepare us for walks (when it finally warms up above freezing 🥶) is an advanced game for responding to leash pressure by disengaging and coming back to the highest place of value: me! This also happens to be a great pattern for teaching disengagement.
⚠️WARNING: Don’t jump right into this advanced stage! If you do, your dog is likely to jerk your arm off! It’s best to start to teach responding to leash pressure by gently adding some pressure to the leash side to side and rewarding your dog as soon as they start to move in the direction of the pressure. Once your dog has a good grasp that the response to leash pressure is moving in the direction of the pressure (making a loose leash again), you can start this game!
Once you’re ready, here’s how you play the advanced version:
1️⃣ Set up your learning environment (low distraction, have your training treats nearby, and get your dogs harness and leash on)
2️⃣ Toss a treat out of reach of your dog. If you’re dog has a habit of pulling, you may also take your dog out of the room, place the treat, and bring your dog back into the room to avoid the excitement of the treat toss.
3️⃣ As soon as your dog looks back from the treat you tossed, use a calming marker word (we use “nice”), and series feed 2-3 treats as you walk away or stand far from the tossed treat
4️⃣ Say “let’s get it” (or something similar) and jog with your dog to go get the treat you tossed
Eventually, like Ollie in this video, your dog gets the game and will cease to engage with the treat you tossed. When this happens, it’s time to move this to a more distracting environment (like the backyard) and practice this game.
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After a ton of regression on our reactivity progress, I put some new training plans into action over the past couple of months to create a lot of value in disengaging for Ollie through indoor training games.
I’ve also ditched our neighborhood walks for the most part. Instead, I’ve met my dogs needs and some wants indoors via training, play, and enrichment. I also worked really hard to track and more actively manage Ollie’s threshold and arousal levels.
Ollie is a reactive dog whose triggers include both dogs and people. By using positive techniques only, this is the result: Ollie is actively choosing disengagement.
I finally feel we’re truly starting to shift towards transformation for Ollie and I’m so hopeful that we’ll be able to have less frequent and less severe reactions over time while out. He’ll always be a reactive dog, but progress - no matter how small - is progress.
Side note as I’m sure someone will say Ollie didn’t even know the trigger was present. However, I assure you the shoveling was very loud and right before I got the video rolling he looked at the trigger.
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Dogs struggling with reactivity are not “bad” dogs.
Reactivity is so commonly misunderstood. It is fear or frustration that are often the culprit of dogs barking and lunging at the other end of the leash. It’s not a matter of disobedience or the dog not being trained.
In reality, dogs struggling with this behavior need some help in adjusting to our world.
Don’t get me wrong... I know how heavy it can feel to have a reactive dog, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Embrace your dog for who he or she is.
The label of reactivity is only helpful to understand the behavior. It’s benefit ends there, because our dogs are so much more complex than a single behavior.
Reframe it with me: There are no bad dogs. All dogs are good dogs.
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Let’s talk about muzzle training...
Muzzle training is important even if your dog isn’t reactive or aggressive. If you find yourself in the position where your dog is really hurt, it’s safest for everyone involved for your dog to wear a muzzle.
Muzzle training is also great to build confidence! Asking your dog to put their mouth in something enclosed can be a little scary the first time, but by rewarding with something your dog finds motivating you’re helping to build some optimism by showing your pup that scary things can have positive outcomes.
I muzzle train with both my dogs to ensure we can safely muzzle them, if needed. For Olle, being able to wear a muzzle is a vital part of enabling him for cooperative care.
If you haven’t muzzle trained your dog, I highly recommend it. The great thing is, you can do this with any round object such as a small cone. I put together a quick reel for you this morning on how to get started!
After the steps I’ve mentioned in the reel, you can start to gradually wrap the straps around your dog’s head, then hold them in place, and finally start to clip the muzzle in place for very short durations.
Also just want to throw out there that muzzles do not mean a dog is bad and if they are trained properly, they can increase your dogs quality of life by ensuring everyone (your dog included) is safe!
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We’ve been working on some back end awareness in order to teach an orbit (where Gracie goes around me backwards).
As a part of this, I’ve been working on teaching Gracie a handstand against a backboard (our @blue9petproducts klimb).
After a little practice, Gracie totally surprised me and got it after 3 short training sessions.
Note: Given her age, I keep training on this to a very low minimum and only ask for one repetition per week, if even. I also made sure Gracie had no contraindications before working on this trick. No trick or training is worth risking the well-being of your dog.
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On the weekends we love to take the dogs to my mom’s and let them run, sniff, and play in the yard.
Gracie has always loved fetch. At 11, that hasn’t changed and she hasn’t even slowed down a beat. I mean just look at that doggie smile on her face. 🐶
I cherish these moments and hold them in my heart. Gracie has been a ray of sunshine in my life since we adopted her in 2010. ☀️♥️
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@dogtv Giveaway Drawing!
I thought it’d be fun to let Ollie draw our winner this time! Congratulations @leyahandmccoy ! I’ll be in touch soon. Thank you to everyone that entered!
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