Join us Mondays at 6 pm! More info & sign up on the website 😁 #dogtraining #offleashtraining #recalltraining #keeshond #enfieldct
When I first start taking a puppy out on training field trips, very little of the outing actually focuses on what most people picture when they hear the word “training.” Why? Because there are important foundational building blocks that often get overlooked when it comes to dog training and those will serve you better in the long run than jumping right into obedience. The first order of business to me is letting my puppy get acclimated to new environments in their own time. This means lots of sniffing, exploring, and watching the world go by. Now is the time to make distractions no big deal by exposing your puppy to lots of different things! At this age, they will likely disengage on their own. And if you reinforce that behavior, that’ll go a long way in preventing reactivity from happening. I also want to start teaching my puppy that engaging with me is always a good thing to do, and that there are lots of different types of reinforcement that can be earned by doing so (treats, toys, attention from me, access to fun things to sniff, etc). By structuring your training outing in this way, we are also working on putting behaviors on cue like sniffing, play, taking a treat from my hand. This helps make it clear to our puppies from day one what types of reinforcement are available when, which does wonders for building confidence and stimulus control! #puppytraining #dogtrainingtips #dogtrainer #puppytips #puppyhelp #keeshondsofinstagram #keeshondpuppy #forcefreetraining #positivereinforcementdogtraining
NOW ACCEPTING AGILITY FIELD RENTALS!
More info and to rent the field: https://www.sniffspot.com/to/0emi5
To book a private agility lesson or if you are an instructor looking to host events, seminars, or classes please email me at [email protected]
More pics in the comments!
Last week while I was teaching, another trainer asked if they could bring their in season female into the classroom. I’ve never not let a female in heat in my classes (as long as they wear pants) so I said of course! The trainer clarified that they wanted to make sure it was okay since Chester was just chilling on his mat, off leash, and he is an intact male so they wanted to ensure that wouldn’t bother him. He has never batted an eye about in season females, so I reassured them it would be fine but asked my assistant to stand nearby just in case. Chester continued to not care even a little bit, and stayed for the entire class while I kept teaching. No leash. No special training tools. No gates or pens of barriers of any kind. And no cookies given until after I was done teaching either! All trained using positive reinforcement. Getting a reliable behavior like this despite some pretty intense distractions doesn’t require “consequences” or “holding the dog accountable.” It just requires proofing, patience, planning, and practice. And thank you to my assistant Chrissy for having the foresight to snag a video! #positivereinforcementdogtrainer #placework #placetraining #dogtraining #dogtrainer
Working on some behavior chains with Zephyra! These more complex tricks will be used for her Elite Performer trick dog title. For this trick, she is going to pull on a rope to open the door, retrieve a specifically named item, and then close the door with her paw. There are a ton of skills that go into this trick! Retrieving an item, a paw target, pulling on a rope… and she’ll need to do this all on a single cue! A great way to get your dog to perform multiple behaviors on a single cue is a process called backchaining. With back chaining, you start with the final behavior in the sequence- in our case, closing the door with her paw- and then you slowly add on the behavior that comes before that and the behavior that comes before that until you get all the way to a fluent sequence of behaviors performed when given one signal. A trick like play dead is another example where back chaining can be useful! #trickdog #trickdogtraining #standardpoodle
There is a difference between reinforcing BEHAVIORS and conditioning EMOTIONS. My issue with “you get what you pet” is we’re conflating the two. Go watch the longer video for more on this concept!
It’s a Christmas miracle… there’s a new video up on my YouTube channel! 😂 If you wanna see two of my favorite games for making heeling fun & engaging for your dog (and a tip for getting some flashy fancy prancy heeling to happen without using a food lure) then you’re gonna wanna check this out! #heeling #obedience #dogobedience #dogobediencetraining #heelwork #heeltraining #dogtrainingvideo #dogtrainersofig
Clicks & treats for Molly and her dad James who have been making HUGE strides in their loose leash walking!! This has been an ongoing struggle for Molly but her dad is putting in the work and it shows. What a massive improvement for this girlie! Yay! #looseleashwalking #positivereinforcementdogtraining
