Dog Training duo Jess & Kat cover the Banbury, Oxfordshire area. Offering classes and 1:1's. Spreading knowledge, one dog at a time.
(4)
We have a combined 19 years experience training classes, 1:1's and Assistance dogs.
🐾🎓Puppy Graduate’s 🎓🐾
A huge round of appaws to each and every one of these pups & their dog parents!
They’ve all shown fantastic improvement week by week and we’ve loved being a part of their journey!
We will be sure to pop a few photos of what they got up to over the next few weeks 🐾
Happy St Patrick's day! 🇮🇪🍀
Can you guess the dog breed? 🐕
It’s National Golden Retriever day!
Here at Ulti-Mutt Dogs we love our Goldies 💕🐾
REACTIVITY REDEFINED
Although reactivity has other causes, many types of reactivity are triggered by the core emotion of fear.
The fear of whatever is making a dog feel unsafe, the fear of a valuable possession being taken away or the fear of a strange person or animal coming into their territory. Anxiety, stress, over excitement, over stimulation, feeling overwhelmed, trigger stacking, or a dog that is tired, in pain or even has chronic itching will often feel irritable and may be reactive in certain situations. When being reactive is successful in making the scary thing go away, it becomes a rewarding behaviour because it’s something that works and makes them feel better.
Reactive dogs are often misunderstood. A dog that is reacting is not trying to be difficult, they are having a difficult time coping with that particular situation and are trying their best to make the thing go away in the only way they know how.
It’s not easy to be the owner of a reactive dog. One of my dogs is reactive and I know how dogs like this can leave you feeling embarrassed, ashamed, angry or frustrated. Why do they have to be so difficult, why can’t they just behave normally? Everyone is looking at me, judging me, thinking that I’m a bad owner, have no training skills, can’t control my dog or have a unsocialised, vicious dog that shouldn’t be taken out in public.
As hard as it may be, we need to take the focus off how we as owners feel about their reactivity and focus on how our dogs are feeling and what is causing their reaction. Whatever it is, it’s not something our dogs can overcome on their own and we need to take steps to help them cope. Reactive dogs need compassion, understanding, management, force free, positive reinforcement interventions and decompression – a return to a normal, more relaxed state after a period of intense stress, psychological pressure, or urgent activity. These interventions take time and patience but are so important in helping our dogs feel safe and learn more acceptable ways of coping.
I have learnt through many mistakes, to recognise what triggers my reactive dog and take steps to either avoid those situations, provide enough distance, or provide her with an alternative choice where she feels safe and more in control. There will always be unexpected triggers around the next corner that are not within our control, but doing all we can to manage reactive triggers has so many benefits.
Larry loves apples 🍎 But eating too many makes for a poorly belly! So when I see him heading to the apple tree, I need to recall him.
Succesful recall requires giving your dog something equal too, if not better than, what they want to go and do instead.
Whether that's playing with dogs, chasing deer, scavenging food, amongst other things.
Larry gets sandwich paste or primula. We switch it up to keep things interesting.
(The collie, Roo, hasn't been trained to a whistle recall hence the slow reaction, whistles are only a recall tool if trained to be that way)
Let us know if we can help you get immediate response to recall 🐶
🐾The puppy stage is an exciting time, filled with new experiences and a bright future for you and the new addition to your family. However, it can be a lot more challenging than you may expect. This is where our puppy classes come in. We can help you build your knowledge, practice essential skills and provide a supportive network to help you through the tougher moments.
Some of the things we will work on in our classes;
• Socialisation - learning how to socialise both in class and when out on your own.
• Body language - how to read and understand your puppies cues.
• Greetings - how to say hello to people and other dogs.
• You and your dog - how to build a strong and long lasting relationship.
• Focus - how to gain and keep your dogs concentration both on and off the lead
• Behaviours - how to identify and encourage desirable behaviours
• Confidence - How to create a safe and nurturing environment allowing your dog to explore build confidence.
Our aim is to give helpful advice, whilst creating a fun and safe environment for you and your puppy.
And our goal is to help you be the best dog parent you can be 🐶
🐾Contact us for more information or to secure your place today
That Monday morning feeling! 💤🐾
Dominance theory fact or myth? Have a read to find out 📚🐾
It's International Dog day 🙌 But we think dogs should be celebrated every day 💗
We had the absolute pleasure of looking after Harry & Luna on Saturday 🥰 Such sweet doggos 🐕💗
We can help with your weekend dog care needs, get in touch!
Leadwork workshop at Grimsbury community hall, Banbury 🐕
✨️Weekend dog care✨️
Ulti-Mutt dogs is now offering weekend dog care.
We are able to provide lovely long countryside walks or helpful drop in toilet breaks on Saturdays and Sundays.
We can also offer overnight stays on a Saturday night.
More infomation can be found following the link-
https://ultimuttdogsuk.wixsite.com/ulti-muttdogs/weekenddogcare
Get in touch if we can help you 🐕
We can also offer Saturday over night stays at your home to look after your dog in a familiar environment and ensure they are safe and happy whilst you are out. One long country walk included.
We love this video, the comparison to dog training is just perfect 🤌
Finding your dogs style of learning is so important for success and getting frustrated will not help you.
Often its a lot easier than we think, we humans do like to overcomplicated things sometimes 😬
If you'd like us to help you learn how to communicate with your dog, get in touch 🐕
Advice from the British Veterinary association 🐕
As Red and Amber extreme heat warnings are announced across the UK, vets issue urgent advice on keeping pets safe from heat-related illnesses.
Take a look at some key canine adolescent facts ⬇️
It's a rough time for everyone involved. But there are things you can do prior to adolescence to lay good foundations. Find out how in our puppy class, next one starting August 2nd.
A frozen treat idea perfect for the warm weather, alternative feeding or extra enrichment.
Licki-mats are only limited by your imagination (and your dogs favourite foods).
Always remember to be mindful of your dogs extra food consumption and balance it with your dogs regular diet 🥰
What are your dogs favourite licki- mat combinations?
A super informative post, give it a read 📚
🤯Aggression Ladder
🧐There is so much to behaviour than meets the eye. I often hear clients distressed, saying that their dog has never behaved this way and don’t understand where it’s come from and that he’s normally so good. Obviously there are events that trigger behaviours but they don’t just come from nowhere, and can be prevented if you know what you’re looking at and how to interpret it.
🙈When a dog behaves in a way that a human being finds inappropriate or rude, we forget that dogs are not human. They behave naturally as they do for their species and we as humans have unrealistic expectations on our dogs. We both ‘speak’ different languages. We mainly use vocalisation and dogs mainly use body language.
🎢The ladder of aggression is what can help you understand how a dog can escalate from what seems like a normal relaxed dog to all of a sudden barking, growling, being reactive and biting.
🥺You may first notice your dog sending something called calming signals. This is not only to help them stay calm but to indicate to you that the dog is not a threat and the messages should calm down a situation the dog is not ok with. This can be in the form of lip licking following a sneeze, excessive blinking, yawning, head turns to avoid. These behaviours will appear out of context and are to ideally defuse a tense situation.
🖐If the messages the dog is sending are being ignored the next thing you may see are displacement behaviours. This is when the dog redirects their attention to something else so the don’t have to deal with the scary thing or situation as well as it can be a form of self soothing behaviour that can give the dog a moment of S can be random ge***al checks, eating grass, randomly scratching or over sniffing in the environment etc... The dog is now exhibiting stress signals.
😳The dog may now move to more intense behaviours if he/ she has not shut down and gone into a learnt state of helplessness. You may see your dog is barking and their breathing has rapidly increased. He ideally is trying to deter the threat. You may even notice the dog he dips his head down, snarling with excessive lip licking. At this stage the tongue will be going right over the nose with every lick. The dog may be bearing teeth and growling. In between these behaviours you may still notice more calming signals.
😤If the dog gets to the stage where his behaviour is highly reactive and he is lunging out, barking and growling, teeth bearing, snarling and or quite still in between while exhibiting these behaviours, then this is a dog who is completely over threshold and not coping. It’s his last resort before he follows with a bite. His body is in overdrive and he is in fight mode as his other behaviours of freeze, fidget and flight did not work. He is in SURVIVAL mode and the next step is to bite to protect/ defend himself/ herself.
✌️Behaviours can escalate in readily quickly. Within a blink of an eye your dog can go from being ok to nervous to flight or fight. Identifying body language, facial expressions and signals is an incredibly important step in PREVENTING unwanted behaviours and making your dog feel safe.
Understanding the reason your dog is displaying undesirable behaviour can help you unlock the correct way to helping your dog. It's so easy to place your dog under an umbrella term of being 'stubborn or spoilt' but it's unhelpful in your training journey. There is always so much more going on. 🐕
We still have spaces on our August puppy class if you'd like to learn how to understand your dog early on 😊
Or get in touch for 1:1 availability 🐕
🐾🎓Puppy Graduate’s 🎓🐾
Huge congratulations to Bruce, Lenny, Ruby & Ralph
We are incredibly proud of each and every one of these pups & their dog parents for all of the incredible work they’ve put in & achievements week by week 💕🐾
To sign up to our August class or for anymore information pop us a message 😊
😎 The Sun has got his Hat on! 😎
Leave your dogs at home, miss that walk; do some trick training instead! You don't have to run your dog to tire them out, brain games do this too!
No dog has ever died from missing a walk, but THOUSANDS have died from Heat Stroke!
Ralph perfecting his cutest pose after successfully acing another week of puppy class! Go Ralph!! 👏👏
We love happy clients and happy dogs!
Luna and her pawrents had an initial consulation with us, we then designed a training plan with a heavy emphasis on meeting all of her needs to help her be able focus better for loose lead walking and recall.
Since then we have had 2 training sessions to work through practical skills so that they can practice without us between sessions.
We designed the plan to fit in with everyday life, allowing for flexibility around work and therefore making training fun for everyone.
Keep up the hard work 🥰🐕
A photo of the gorgeous little Ruby to brighten up your Monday morning 🥰 🥰
Education is key to avoiding using outdated and harmful techniques.
Just because something was once an accepted and widely used form of training, does not mean that it should continue once proven to be unfounded and harmful.
We operate a safe space to be approached for further education without fear of judgement 🐕
Safe to say Larry also loved Dogfest 🥰
Who else went to Dogfest 🙋♀️
Such a lovely day out, and the dogs have been spoilt rotten with new goodies 🥰
As part of our Puppy & Junior class we show you exercises that will help with your dogs proprioception. This is the bodys ability to sense its location, movement and actions.
Let's face it puppy's and junior dogs definitely go through the clumsy stage.
By helping your dog understand their movement and actions you are helping them with their self confidence and in turn, setting them up for a higher chance of success whatever you are doing.
Round of appaws for these superstars smashing the impulse control games! 👏
Why do we work on impulse control?
It makes your dogs life more enjoyable and your life easier. It can help with behaviour around food, toys, greeting, general focus and much more! 🐕
Relatable 😂
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Larry loves apples 🍎 But eating too many makes for a poorly belly! So when I see him heading to the apple tree, I need to recall him. Succesful recall requires giving your dog something equal too, if not better than, what they want to go and do instead. Whether that's playing with dogs, chasing deer, scavenging food, amongst other things. Larry gets sandwich paste or primula. We switch it up to keep things interesting. (The collie, Roo, hasn't been trained to a whistle recall hence the slow reaction, whistles are only a recall tool if trained to be that way) Let us know if we can help you get immediate response to recall 🐶
We love this video, the comparison to dog training is just perfect 🤌 Finding your dogs style of learning is so important for success and getting frustrated will not help you. Often its a lot easier than we think, we humans do like to overcomplicated things sometimes 😬 If you'd like us to help you learn how to communicate with your dog, get in touch 🐕
A frozen treat idea perfect for the warm weather, alternative feeding or extra enrichment. Licki-mats are only limited by your imagination (and your dogs favourite foods). Always remember to be mindful of your dogs extra food consumption and balance it with your dogs regular diet 🥰 What are your dogs favourite licki- mat combinations?
As part of our Puppy & Junior class we show you exercises that will help with your dogs proprioception. This is the bodys ability to sense its location, movement and actions. Let's face it puppy's and junior dogs definitely go through the clumsy stage. By helping your dog understand their movement and actions you are helping them with their self confidence and in turn, setting them up for a higher chance of success whatever you are doing.
Round of appaws for these superstars smashing the impulse control games! 👏 Why do we work on impulse control? It makes your dogs life more enjoyable and your life easier. It can help with behaviour around food, toys, greeting, general focus and much more! 🐕
Hand touch ✋️ This is a really versatile task you can teach your dog. When fulfilling the cue, you are teaching your dog that it's rewarding to be in your presence and in turn, increasing handler awareness and focus. With practice and slight adaptions, it's a great tool to use for recall, leadwork and greeting behaviours, to name a few. If you'd like to know more information, get in touch 🐕 #dogtrainer #dogtrainingtips #oxfordshire #banbury
A dogs nose is their strongest sense! Did you know dogs have up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses in comparison to around six million in ours! Whilst out on a walk and at home our dogs are always taking in information with their noses. Scent games allow your dog to channel their love of sniffing whilst also providing mental enrichment. Here’s the crew finding some much loved Carrots for their Easter treat!
Do you practice calm? In the video you will see Roo having the best time, she loves to chase waves and the sea is her favourite place to play. It’s a real treat for her, however as a reactive dog she becomes more reactive to her negative stimuli in this environment. Why? She isn’t calm. She likely has adrenaline causing physiological changes. She feels her heart racing, her lungs tightening to breath faster, her muscles tightly coiled with unreleased energy. As a result she feels excitement and anxiousness, the need to flee or the need to fight. Therefore, when a negative stimuli is presented, paired with adrenaline, her decision making process is impaired, she resorts to survival instincts against a perceived threat. We want our dogs to enjoy themselves like Roo does on the beach. But if you are struggling with a reactive dog, what is their general state of mind like? Are you promoting calm environments in your day to day? With the right guidance a calm dog is more likely to make good choices. Get in touch if you would like help promoting calm in your day to day life.
🐕 Recall training is an extremely important exercise for your dogs safety and makes walks much more enjoyable. 🐕 In the video below you can see one of our current four legged clients spotting another dog in the distance and making that decision to come away without being called! For help with your dogs recall, contact us today.
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