Canine Rogue

01/03/2023

Virtual course with lifetime support and access to materials all about cooperative handling! This is sure to be a wonderful help, well worth the price of the course, this is a really great trainer! ❤️

Hands Off! An online program for stress-free vet care and grooming through cooperative handling.

…it’s LIVE!

Stress at the vet is the #1 reason for declining veterinary care. This brand new program will teach you how to:

1️⃣ Identify stress in your dog and how to become your dog’s advocate
2️⃣ Reduce stress in care right away
3️⃣ Train your dog to cooperate in their care, not just comply

The course includes lifetime access to online course materials, including written instructions and demo videos, as well as bi-weekly group Zoom calls to get your questions answered and see/participate in real-life training.

The end result is

🩺 Strengthening your bond by turning care into a joyful experience
🩺 Saving time performing at-home care
🩺 Resting easy knowing your dog can get the care they need to stay happy and healthy

Is this the training program you’ve been looking for? Sign up today and snag the introductory price of just $299 before it’s gone!

https://hungry-dog-training.teachable.com/p/hands-off

22/02/2023

From 4Paws University
Anecdotes are not the same as education! 👍

14/02/2023

🫠

Happy Valentine’s Day! Automatically save 15% on all decals and tees - today only! canineaesthete.etsy.com

09/02/2023

I haven’t posted any grooms in awhile, so here’s a random selection of my babies! 🥰

01/02/2023

Wonderful examples of cooperative care in grooming!

17/01/2023

Very well said!

IT DOESN’T REALLY HURT, IT JUST…….

Whether it is a discussion about shock collars, citronella sprays, prong-collars, choke chain corrections, “bonking” a dog on the head with a rolled up towel (I mean SERIOUSLY??), throwing a shake can at a dog or forcing them into a down, I am sure you have all heard this before:

It doesn’t really hurt, it just……. (Insert: Startles, interrupts, stops the behaviour, corrects or whatever other sanitized term is used to convince others that what is being done is harmless.)

I want to answer this as simply and briefly as possible:

PUNISHMENT (ADDING SOMETHING TO STOP OR DECREASE A BEHAVIOUR) DOES NOT WORK UNLESS IT IS AVERSIVE.

There is no way around this fact. Stimuli (stuff the dog experiences) are either:

1. PLEASANT
2. AVERSIVE
3. NEUTRAL

Only a pleasant stimulus will increase behaviour.
Only an aversive stimulus will decrease behaviour.
A neutral stimulus has no effect on behaviour.

You cannot divorce a stimulus from its emotional consequences. A pleasant stimulus makes a dog feel good – so the dog will work for more of it. An aversive stimulus makes a dog feel bad, so the dog will work to avoid it. Dogs do not work to gain or avoid neutral stimuli. If a shock collar or vibrating collar or whatever, was not aversive, it would have NO effect on behaviour.

YOU CANNOT USE PUNISHMENT AND AVERSIVE TOOLS WITHOUT EMOTIONAL FALLOUT. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE.

14/01/2023

I know it’s not dog related, but this makes me laugh so very much 😂🐈

12/01/2023

Let’s talk about stress responses! 🤣

There are three natural, instinctive reactions all animals share when they’re stressed (including dogs and US!)
1) Fight
2) Flight
3) Freeze

Fight and flight are really obvious, right? A dog either tries to run away, or it lashes out and growls and tries to bite. These tend to be the easier indicators to notice when we’re doing things like grooming so we know we need to back off and figure out ways to lower stress.

Now freeze… that one tends to be tricky for a lot of people, professionals included. So often you’ll hear people say, “Oh, look how GOOD that dog is being, just sitting there! Look how nice it is!” Then they’re inevitably surprised when the dog lashes out and bites “out of nowhere”. The signals of a freeze stress response can easily be confused with a dog who is relaxed to an untrained eye, and it’s why learning dog body language is so crucial, especially with grooming.

When you think of a freeze response, you can think of a wild rabbit hiding in the grass. It keeps itself completely still and frozen, hoping to hide. In the event it needs to bolt, however, it makes sure to keep itself in a way that it can spring up and run at a second’s notice.

This is the same thing we can see in our dogs. If a dog is relaxed, it will be very loose. If you pick up a leg, you won’t have any resistance. They’ll look around, sniff, and overall just seem calm.

A dog in a freeze response, however, will literally FEEL stiff. They will keep themselves planted down hard on the table. If you go to lift a leg, they will tightly keep their weight on it. They will have a tight, closed mouth (or a very stressful pant) and will hardly move. These dogs in this freeze response honestly make me the most nervous, and they’re the ones I really look out for. Often times, dogs in a freeze response have had their other stress signals punished out of them, and they make it so they give you less warning before they jump to a bite. These dogs take a lot of work to teach them to use their other signals again, and that you aren’t a threat.

Now… which stress reaction do we think this coyote is having right now? 😬😂

11/01/2023

Roundabout story of why I love getting to “start” puppies for their grooms.

Spectre is my dog, she’s a working line german shepherd and just turned 8 last month. When she was young, every single day we went for walks in the neighborhood. Every single day, I brought with yummy treats and reinforced good behavior like a loose leash and checking in with me, and I also stuffed her face full of treats when anything stressful was going on, like us passing dogs barking through their fences or windows.

Some years ago, I was pregnant, then had a little baby, and life got in the way of our daily walks. I’ve made it a goal recently to start up again, but Spectre definitely is out of the routine of going every day. Even with that, the effort we put in as a puppy is so ingrained in her system that whenever something stressful happens, her muscle memory kicks in, and she starts checking in with me even though I rarely still bring treats on a walk. You can see in this video, we’re passing an excited, barking dog through their fence, and she watches and notices them, but still walks nicely beside me and checks in from time to time.

This is exactly why I love when I get to “start puppies from scratch” with grooming! Right from the beginning, I approach grooming with a training mindset, gently working through and desensitizing the difficult things, and making the process as relaxing and fun as possible. It takes extra work on the front end, but it creates adults who are extremely stable for the grooming process and usually drag their owners into the building on grooming days! Setting up for success is so, so much easier than working to fix problems once they start, and I appreciate so much when owners trust me and my process with their little babies. 🥰

07/01/2023

Since dogs coming into a groom shop are often too nervous to take treats, premack is probably the main way I help my clients get used to the process. For example, if they get nervous when you lift a leg to use the clipper, but are ok with it on their back, you do it in stages. Have it on the back, then touch the leg gently and immediately move away. Go back and do it again and again, and maybe the next time lift the leg up without using the clipper on it, and then go right back to clippering a “safe” area. Every time, you’re showing them a couple things:
1) By being calm and still, they get a break from the scary thing. Also, the scary thing isn’t so bad because it leaves without anything too stressful going on, like corrections for not being still, being forced into a position where they aren’t comfortable, or the clipper hitting them hard in a way that hurts.
2) Their stress cues OTHER than biting are being listened to, so they’re more likely give warning before biting.

I still 1000% recommend owners at home use treats and stay at a stress level where the dog is happy to be working on things, but since some things with grooming just have to get done for the dog’s health, premack really goes a super long way to help groomer and dog find a language that works to foster trust. ❤️

We mentioned "Premack" last week, and this is a version of it - reward your dog's behavior of patiently waiting for a walk by giving them a walk!



[image description: by the number 1, a woman with long hair and wearing a pink dress is reaching towards a shelf of dog related items. by the number 2, a small white dog with brown patches is jumping up. by the number 3 is the reverse of the first image, with the same woman reaching towards the shelf again. Lower on the page, the white and brown dog sits politely holding their leash sweetly. Text reads "Do the Dogwalk Waltz 1. When you go to pick up the leash 2. If your dog jumps 3. put the leash back down. Your dance is done when pup stays four-on-the-floor. Reward them with a walk!"]

07/01/2023

Logic-ing your way through a harness is definitely next level 😂

06/01/2023

A good portion of my job is teaching dogs who were punished for showing stress signals that it’s ok to show disproval, and more importantly, that I’ll LISTEN when being told! By taking a break or working on something less stressful when a dog lets me know they’re reaching their limit, I show them I “hear” them telling me they’ve had enough, and are more willing to trust me that I’ll stop before things become too much for them.

03/01/2023

💯

Really important to remember

💜

03/01/2023

Oh, I just love this so much! I know I usually gear things towards grooming, but this is just all around wonderful advice. When dogs are backed into a corner and do not have an escape route, I personally feel this is the most dangerous position a dog could ever be in. This is why I have loads of clients (literally, LOADS!) where they’ll get aggressive if you reach into a kennel, but they’re absolutely perfect once they’re out. Feeling vulnerable and threatened doesn’t mean a dog is bad! It just means they need alternative handling to feel safe. ❤️

01/01/2023

I think my biggest advice would be to really study up on dog body language. If you learn to “speak dog” you’ll be able to better trust your instincts when it comes to basically everything. ❤️ What advice would you give to a first time dog owner?

31/12/2022

28/12/2022

Wonderfully concise! Little bits at a time go a very long way.

A dog who is demonstrating fear-based reactivity does not need to be punished or forced to face his fears. Slow and steady wins the race without damaging the dog in the process. Kindness, not coercion.

27/12/2022

Yeah, what gives?? 😂

23/12/2022

This is definitely how it goes in our house. 😂 Do you have a pet translator in your family?

21/12/2022

I love this so much! In grooming as much as any other area of dog training, it’s important to be aware of training methods used with your dog, even ones that are unintentional and something the groomer might not even be aware of. This is why I feel so strongly that grooming and training should really go hand in hand to help create happy, confident dogs.

To answer the question for myself, as well, the main thing we are looking for is when the pet “gets it right”. We always want to be consistently rewarding correct, trusting behavior either through treats or even praise and breaks. We also want to be rewarding our pets for showing us discomfort signs BEFORE they escalate to “bad” behavior. We want to foster an ability to have a conversation through body language with our dogs so they don’t have to resort to aggression to be heard. If we pass that threshold, we missed a sign. If a dog is consistently going over that threshold, then we need to reevaluate, because something is definitely not working, and the last thing we want to do is to push through and punish the dog, terrifying them into not using their warning signals entirely.

In addition to checking websites for methodology (and sneaky pictures) it's a good idea to just come right out and ask for specifics.



[image description: on a green background there is a white bearded man giving a hand signal to a grey spotted dog lying down in front of him. Nearby is a blonde woman gesturing for the dark grey dog in front of her to stay, and another short-haired person is gesturing for their brown dog to sit. The text reads: "before you hire a trainer, ask: what will happen to my pet if he gets it right? what will happen to my pet if he gets it wrong? Are there any less invasive alternatives to what you propose? questions originally posed by Jean Donaldson, founder of the Academy of Dog Trainers."]

17/12/2022

A little training fun for the holidays! A bonus to “for fun” training like this is it tends to help dogs in general with things like head shyness and anxiety related to touch. For example, if a dog gets used to antlers coming near their face, they will be more likely to not care about a comb or scissors coming at them, too!

03/12/2022

This is extremely important to remember when setting your dog up for a good grooming experience. With puppies, we want to start positive grooming associations as soon as possible so they have a history of fun visits before getting to the more difficult stuff. With older dogs, it might mean having to work through past trauma from painful shave downs, injuries, or having been pushed through the more scary aspects of the process too quickly. Good or bad, dogs remember how they felt the last time they were groomed, so let’s always try to make it fun!

If pup finds food on the counter a few times, guess where pup is going to jump up again?

If scrappy gets lots of goodies for coming when called, guess what pup will do when called in the future?

Your dog isn't obeying or disobeying - they're predicting the consequences. Figure out how to make those consequences work for you!



[image description: a fortune teller gazes into a crystal ball. Below her, a dog gazes towards a jar of dog treats. Text reads: "Behavior science is about predictions. The behavior you get depends on the consequences your dog predicts."]