Bright Animal Training

01/01/2025

22/12/2024

17/12/2024

Throwback to Clio's very first time being sat on, 2.5 years ago.

All achieved using cooperative care and careful, easy, slow training.

No force, no restraint, no pressure. No 'big' fear-based behaviours such as bucking and bolting - all of which are far too normalised in the equestrian world, especially with young horses.

17/12/2024

Check out the beautiful Kobi!

Kobi's family got in touch with me for support with his anxiety-related behaviours. Kobi is a rather anxious dog, bless him, which causes reactivity out and about towards dogs and people. Looking at his history, it is likely that Kobi has struggled with anxiety since birth. Whilst very worried about me during my first visit, Kobi warmed up by the end (it helps that I quickly become The Biscuit Lady!). We will be focusing on overall confidence-building for Kobi, giving him plenty of outlets to self-soothe, and helping him to feel safe around dogs and strangers in the outside world.

I particularly enjoy working with dogs that struggle with chronic or generalised anxiety as a clinical problem, and am looking forward to seeing Kobi's progress as we go.

Here's to team Kobi!

On a side note, interestingly reactivity is by a long way the most common behaviour problem I am asked to help dog guardians with. I can only recall one dog over the last 14 months that I've been asked to help with, that did not struggle with reactivity.

15/12/2024

Meet the stunning Reiver!

Reiver's guardian got in touch with me recently for training support with some groundwork areas with Reiver.

We've started by establishing a solid foundation of clicker training with a focus on target training (the most useful physical tool in clicker training horses, in my opinion).

Target training (teaching the horse to touch a stationary item with their nose - my preference is a fly swat!) can be used for:

- Reducing arousal when the horse becomes anxious or over-excited
- Grounding an anxious horse
- Counter conditioning & confidence-building novel/scary items (so spook-busting)
- Teaching stationary behaviours such as standing tied & at the mounting block
- Teaching all movements, from walking in-hand & cues for paces when backing a horse, to turning on the forehand & rein cues.
- Teaching physical boundaries to a horse (ie for bargey horses)
- Strengthening the horse-guardian connection
- Teaching cooperative care for veterinary procedures, tacking up, worming etc
.. I could go on!

15/12/2024

Inka veterinary update:

Inka had his back & hips x-rayed last week, & as I suspected he has now been diagnosed with mild hip dysplasia. 😣

This means no more runs with my partner, off-lead time, long walks up the fells, or ball or frisbee throws (which I only use during training as his reinforcer). Probably ever. Whilst he doesn't need surgery now, he may well do at any point in future - whether it's 6 months or years away.

Inka is now on pain relief, which he will likely need for the rest of his life, & will be starting regular hydrotherapy sessions in the new year.

I cannot emphasise enough the role of pain in behaviour.

At 3 months old, Inka found his voice & began to bark. A lot. I assumed it was a breed trait kicking in, but now I wonder if it was pain-related. At about 4 months of age, he started to show reactivity out & about.
Again, some of this I put down to other things (genetics - his dad was very reactive - impulsivity, emotional regulation, the influence of breed traits again) but now I know for sure that pain will at least have been a factor. At 6 months of age I strongly suspected chronic pain & first took Inka to the vets for it. 1 year later, we have it confirmed. And Inka almost certainly has had hip dysplasia from birth.

What were the other signs?

- Lack of muscle over Inka's hips, which always looked bony
- Sometimes chewing his front legs & back feet
- Grumbling once when picked up
- Grumbling once when gently moved whilst on the bed
- Small increase in resource guarding, including guarding the bed once from Freja

That's it. Nothing major. No obvious limping etc that most people expect from a dog in pain.

I must emphasise that this is a high energy, high drive, boisterous 19 month old dog, who I now know has been in pain every day (and a lot of the time) of his life.

There is a good reason why learned trainers & behaviourists bring up pain/medical problems when assessing & treating behavioural problems with your dog.

15/12/2024

Baby prep!

The most effective (and easy) way to create a harmonious dog-baby household is management. This means baby gates & play pens!

I've been leaving 'baby things' lying around for the dogs to sniff & adjust to. This also means teaching the dogs that there are now 'out of bounds' areas for them. This could be a particular room or the play pen (note fake baby in the bouncer!) - wherever baby will be.

Clearly Freja thought the play mat was a rather nice new bed for her 🤣 otherwise it's going well!

Loving our new gates from The Dog-G8 Company. When you have 3 large escape artists who can open & even unlock doors, & jump normal baby gates, normal baby gates don't really cut it. Unfortunately, it took Inka about 30 seconds to work out how to open the dog gates 🙈 but condition the dogs to them we will do, nonetheless!

11/12/2024

Every time I see a fb post where a horse trainer has an opinion (criticises) Positive Reinforcement training, clicker training, training with food, hand feeding, etc I see SO MUCH misinformation.

I see it both from the OP and from their followers. They’re called "followers" for a reason! 😀

Imagine if someone said, I tried pressure and release once and it didnt work for me, so I stopped. Or, I tried Western, but I couldn’t get my horse to slide to a stop first time I tried. Or, I tried dressage, but my horse just wouldn’t collect himself. Or, I tried show jumping, but my horse was scared of those fancy colourful jumps. Or, I tried cross country and my horse galloped past the jumps. Or, I tried endurance riding, but my horse gave up in the early part of the ride. Or, I tried polo, but I just couldn’t hit the ball! 😂

You get the gist?

As in all things, when we are learning a new skill, it takes time, effort, practice, study and getting help from coaches.

To make things even more complicated, with Positive Reinforcement training, there are two learners!

To make things even more challenging, most horses have some kind of trauma and baggage, whether it’s your own horse, or a new horse which has to be dealt with at the same time.

To make things even more tricky, we humans often have to undo old habits and muscle memory and mind set. Step back from the horse if you don’t like what they’re doing!

Again, to make things even more complicated, there’s a whole lot of emotion involved in the training and interactions with our horses, because we care! We want them to enjoy the training and we want to enjoy the training. That’s not always easy or a given, when starting on a new big endeavour like Postive Reinforcement training. There’s so much to it!

There’s also so much misinformation out there!

I got blocked regularly by "R+ trainers" for asking questions, asking them to explain their training. So there is a lot of misinformation out there, even in the R+ training world. There is also a lot of less than ideal training.

Take everything people say about their training with a grain of salt.

Use your critical analysis skills and do your own research, don’t take things at face value.

I’ll get off my soap box now 😀

But remember, I didn’t gain the knowledge and skills I have through magic, I gained them through practice, study and hard work (and spending money).

Positive Reinforcement training isn’t something you can just try once and expect to be successful at it straight off.

09/12/2024

"Ethical reasons prevent scientists from researching whip use"

06/12/2024

I'm often told (usually in an exasperated tone of voice) 'but you can't go on holiday abroad/go out all day/*other activity most other people value highly*'.

The truth is that I could not have my dogs & ponies, & go abroad now & then, but I don't want to. I will never put my dogs in kennels, am fiercely protective over who cares for & handles my ponies & dogs, & if I do get the opportunity to go away in the UK & can't take my dogs with me, then I'm not going. Apart from my partner, I also don't have anyone (yet) who I know & trust enough to care for the dogs & ponies for anything more than an overnight stay.

The way I see it is, countries & places aren't going anywhere. Rather than spend all year working & looking forward to a 1 or 2 week holiday abroad, I choose to live my happiest life with my animals around me every single day. It doesn't feel like a sacrifice to me - it's a privilege & the greatest joy in my life. Quite simply, it's worth it.

My partner & I recently went away overnight for a police dog event I was invited to, & we could only take Blue. We both missed Inka & Freja & (me) the ponies terribly.

Many dog & horse owners do want to be able to go abroad or out all day without their dog etc regularly, and that's just fine. But it's not for me. My animals are the centre of my life & I wouldn't have it any other way.

How do people do it?

05/12/2024

Unpopular opinion: Dogs should not be obedient.

That, from me, a behaviourist and trainer.

I wish people would remember that dogs are not robots.

They are not here to do your bidding.

No animal is.

They are not your employees.

Nor are they your belongings.

They are sentient beings.

They are living, breathing creatures with wants, needs, emotions, dislikes and feelings of their own.

You should treat them as your family. When family has a problem, you help them with it.

Family doesn’t have to be obedient.

Family is loved and understood.

Family joins in and does stuff together.

Use games, rewards and Fun Not Fear® to teach them a better way.

Welcome to a much better life with your dog.