Balanced Paws Dog Training

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Balanced Paws Dog Training Dog training services and advice. Areas include Newcastle, Hunter, Port Stephens and Lake Macquarie.
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Big congratulations to these amazing humans and their pups. They all graduated puppy class at Dr Paws Kotara Veterinary ...
13/05/2024

Big congratulations to these amazing humans and their pups. They all graduated puppy class at Dr Paws Kotara Veterinary Clinic last week. Watching the pups grow, learn and build confidence over the weeks is the best part of my job. Everyone did so well and watching them progress each weeks was wonderful. Thank you all for allowing me to be a part of this journey with you 🐶❤️🐶

A little late posting these gorgeous pups and their humans. Congratulations on your graduation 🐶 It was so lovely to wat...
09/03/2024

A little late posting these gorgeous pups and their humans. Congratulations on your graduation 🐶 It was so lovely to watch you all grow and learn. I’m so lucky to be part of this journey with you all.

Dr Paws Kotara Veterinary Clinic

First Puppy Graduation for 2024 at Dr Paws Kotara Veterinary Clinic. What an amazing group of humans and puppies. So gla...
02/02/2024

First Puppy Graduation for 2024 at Dr Paws Kotara Veterinary Clinic. What an amazing group of humans and puppies. So glad to be back and so happy I get to be a part of this journey with you all.

Congratulations little ones, you all did so well.

Puppy graduation week. Congratulations to all of you and your amazing humans. Watching you learn and gain confidence eac...
22/09/2023

Puppy graduation week. Congratulations to all of you and your amazing humans. Watching you learn and gain confidence each week was such a pleasure for me. Thank you all for allowing me to be part of this journey with you. Have fun little ones 🐶
Dr Paws Kotara Veterinary Clinic

We’ve still got a couple of spots for puppy classes starting next week. Give Dr Paws Kotara Veterinary Clinic a call if ...
19/09/2023

We’ve still got a couple of spots for puppy classes starting next week. Give Dr Paws Kotara Veterinary Clinic a call if you’d like to book in 🐶

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16/06/2023

These little ones worked hard during last weeks puppy class. I love that they feel safe enough to fall asleep like this 🐶🥰🐾

Dr Paws Kotara Veterinary Clinic

29/05/2023

Happy birthday to our beautiful old boy 🐶 we’ve been so lucky to spend 13 years with you. Thank you for choosing us and loving us. Each year you bring us more joy and happiness. We love you Merve 🐶❤️🐾

Another gorgeous graduation group from this week. Congratulations little ones. You all did so well and your humans are s...
26/05/2023

Another gorgeous graduation group from this week. Congratulations little ones. You all did so well and your humans are super stars. It was lovely to see all the effort put in over the last 4 weeks. A big thank you to all for allowing me to be part of this journey with you 🐶
Dr Paws Kotara Veterinary Clinic

My little sun bears 🌞 🐶 Hope everyone’s doggos are staying warm today.
24/05/2023

My little sun bears 🌞 🐶 Hope everyone’s doggos are staying warm today.

It’s graduation time again. These little munchkins had their last class last night. Congratulations to you all. It was l...
23/05/2023

It’s graduation time again. These little munchkins had their last class last night. Congratulations to you all. It was lovely to see you all learn some new and helpful behaviours over the last 4 weeks. Thank you to your humans who worked very hard. Have fun little ones and thank you for allowing me to be a part of this journey with you all 🐶🐾🐶

Dr Paws Kotara Veterinary Clinic

Congratulations to our latest group of puppy class graduates. This little group was full of energy and kept us very ente...
14/05/2023

Congratulations to our latest group of puppy class graduates. This little group was full of energy and kept us very entertained over the 4 weeks. It was great to see you all progress over the weeks. Thank you for allowing me to be part of this journey with you.
Dr Paws Kotara Veterinary Clinic

Lots of little cuties graduated last week. Congratulations little ones. It was great to see you all grow and learn each ...
05/03/2023

Lots of little cuties graduated last week. Congratulations little ones. It was great to see you all grow and learn each week. Your humans should be very proud of you all. A big thank you for allowing me to be part of your journey. I did get some sneaky videos too, will post those later.

Dr Paws Kotara Veterinary Clinic

Management is so important and even more so when you have a new puppy. If we manage things early on it helps prevent unw...
08/02/2023

Management is so important and even more so when you have a new puppy. If we manage things early on it helps prevent unwanted behaviours developing. Set your pups up for success by managing their environment early on 🐶

Thank you Dogs Disclosed for this great post.

THE MARVELS OF MANAGEMENT
Management in dog behaviour terms is making changes to an environment so that a behaviour can’t be practised. It’s a simple, often over looked way to prevent unwanted behaviour. Management can replace the need for long, complicated training methods or can be used to stop the behaviour from being practiced and reinforced as you work on teaching your dog an alternative behaviour.

The longer an unwanted behaviour continues the more reinforced it becomes and the harder it is to change, like changing a bad habit that has been going on for a long time.

Think about how parents manage the environment of a toddler. How do they stop their child from opening a cupboard where chemicals are kept, prevent access to a swimming pool, or prevent little fingers being stuck into plug points? Would they spend time and effort in teaching the child not to do these things, while always feeling stressed that they might still do it, or do they manage it by using a cupboard where the child can’t reach, put up a pool fence or use plug covers.
These are just some simple examples of how we already use management without giving it much thought. Why then can’t we do the same for our dogs?

So many dog owners insist that their dog needs to be trained not to steal food, not to run out the door, not to drink from the toilet, not to overturn dustbins, not to steal clothes etc.

There are many behaviours where the simplest and most logical solution is just to manage it, prevent it from happening and then decide if it’s really worth the effort and time it may take to train our dogs not to do these things, without any guarantee that it will work.

I’m a big believer in management because it works so well, makes such a difference in setting our dogs up for success and reduces stress in both ourselves and our dogs.

Our first graduations for 2023. Congratulations little ones. As always, it was a pleasure to be a part of this journey w...
07/02/2023

Our first graduations for 2023.
Congratulations little ones.
As always, it was a pleasure to be a part of this journey with you all. Watching you all grow and learn each week made me so happy.
The snuggles and puppy breath were an added bonus for me.
A big thank you to your human guardians for choosing our puppy classes Dr Paws Kotara Veterinary Clinic

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope your day is filled with family, food and lots of dogs 🐶🎄🎅🐾
24/12/2022

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope your day is filled with family, food and lots of dogs 🐶🎄🎅🐾

It’s graduation time again, last group for this year. These awesome group of pups and their guardians graduated from our...
09/12/2022

It’s graduation time again, last group for this year. These awesome group of pups and their guardians graduated from our puppy classes this week. We had lots of laughs in between some great learning.

A big congratulations to all of you. You worked so hard. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this journey with you and your pups.

Dr Paws Kotara Veterinary Clinic

30/11/2022

No time to train? There is always time to train. Check out this great training session. This is what training your pup should look like. No stress, no pressure, simple reps and lots of rewards. Thank you Thinkdog with Lewis Nicholls another great video 🐶

Even us trainers love some positive reinforcement. I received this message from an amazing client after our session toda...
22/10/2022

Even us trainers love some positive reinforcement. I received this message from an amazing client after our session today.

“Thanks so much for today Mel. We learnt so much”
“PS I think we broke him 🤣”

This is Storm at home after our session today. He worked so hard learning to ignore some pretty big distractions in the park.

Rest up buddy, you’ve earned that sleep 🐶🐾🐶

Graduation time again. We had a great group of pups and their human guardians. Everyone did so well and seeing the pups ...
16/10/2022

Graduation time again. We had a great group of pups and their human guardians. Everyone did so well and seeing the pups progress each week was so exciting.

A big congratulations to all of you and thank you for allowing me to be part of this journey with you 🐶

Most of my clients already know how much I love check ins. This is something I’ve been doing with dogs for a long time. ...
26/09/2022

Most of my clients already know how much I love check ins. This is something I’ve been doing with dogs for a long time. It’s one of the easiest things to capture and I love how it increases the connection we have with our dogs when we’re out and about 🐶

One of the biggest issues I see is a dog that will engage with absolutely anything else but their guardian when out and about, not only is this extremely demoralising for their guardian it also means that they won't be able to get any sort of training done in that environment at all. 😰

The fact that so many people have this issue makes a lot of sense, our dogs see us all the time at home and we become old hat, whereas the outside world has so many new experiences and smells to offer that they don't get to engage with the rest of the day. We are but one of the millions of choices they can make when they leave the house, so if they do at all it honestly is a bit of a miracle.

This is where our check-ins come in to save the day!🦸‍♂️

Unless we reinforce our dogs for 'checking-in' with us, they have no reason to know that this is something they should do. So, if we reward/reinforce the moments our dogs do look at us, of their own accord, we make sure our dogs know that checking-in with us whilst in the environment is a valuable choice to make. And, if we make checking-in with us a positive experience for them, over time the number of check-ins we get will increase and the behaviour will become more established.

Like with anything we do have to start somewhere that is low distraction for our dogs, so they do check-in with us at least occasionally. But once they get the idea, they will find paying attention to you in a wide variety of environments valuable. This will help hugely with any recall or response issues you have when out and about, and also allow you to gauge the amount of freedom we can give them in a particular space.

Are they checking in regularly?

❎ No! Keep them on the lead, shorten their long line, or go to a lower distraction environment.

✅ Yes! Increase the amount of line they can have, and potentially let them off-lead!

Over time rewarding check-ins allow your dog to see you as just as, if not more valuable, than what is going on in the environment. This means we get better responses all around for training and engagement when out and about. For this reason, I LOVE check-ins! To me, they are the gold dust of all dog training! ✨

Graduation time again. These little cuties had their last class with me this week. What a pleasure it was spending time ...
17/09/2022

Graduation time again. These little cuties had their last class with me this week. What a pleasure it was spending time with them and their human guardians. We covered lots of different behaviours and topics to help them learn to cope in our crazy human world. We’ll done everyone, you’ve all worked very hard. A big thank you to you all for allowing me to be part of this journey with you. Have fun little ones 🥰🐶🐾

Happy birthday to our gorgeous Gracey. It’s Gracey’s 10th birthday today. Thank you for finding us all those years ago. ...
31/08/2022

Happy birthday to our gorgeous Gracey. It’s Gracey’s 10th birthday today. Thank you for finding us all those years ago. We couldn’t imagine life without you. You’re funny, quirky and oh so sweet. We’re so happy we’ve got to share your life with you. Happy birthday sweet girl 🥰🐶🥰

Another graduation night done. A big congratulations to little Ronny, August and Rosie. Such a beautiful class, you defi...
18/08/2022

Another graduation night done.

A big congratulations to little Ronny, August and Rosie. Such a beautiful class, you definitely kept us entertained. It was such a pleasure watching you all progress each week. Your humans have worked hard to ensure you’re off to a great start in life. Thank you all for allowing me to be a part of your journey. 🐶🐾🐶

It’s graduation week 😀Congratulations to Bertie, Gennarro, Bertie and Alfie. Such an awesome group. Watching you all lea...
17/08/2022

It’s graduation week 😀

Congratulations to Bertie, Gennarro, Bertie and Alfie. Such an awesome group. Watching you all learn and progress over the weeks was such a pleasure. A big thank you for allowing me to be part of your journey. Have fun little ones 🐶🐾🐶

What a great post. Let’s lower our expectations and embrace the normal. Thank you Dogs Disclosed 🐶
11/08/2022

What a great post. Let’s lower our expectations and embrace the normal.

Thank you Dogs Disclosed 🐶

NAUGHTY OR NORMAL?
What we may think of as problem behaviour that needs to be “fixed” is very often just a dog behaving like a normal dog. Dogs that don’t behave the way we expect may be labelled as untrained, disobedient, unsociable, reactive or aggressive.
We often expect so much of our dogs, expecting them to obey our every instruction, understand, adapt and conform to our world, forgetting that they are not only a different species, but also have breed specific, instinctive, natural behaviour.
While we would all love our dogs to be well behaved, obedient and sociable, the reality is often very different. Besides the fact that dogs will be dogs, their genetics, life experiences, the environment they find themselves in and their individuality all play a part in the way they behave.
Accepting that our dogs will behave like dogs do, makes it easier to deal with the frustration we may feel when our dogs are not behaving the way we expect them to.
Doing what we can, using force free, positive reinforcement methods and managing the environment to change behaviour we don’t want, accepting that there may be some things that we can’t change, will help both us and our dogs live with less stress.

A big thank you to No Monkey Business Dog Training for this great information on puppy socialisation. I work with a lot ...
30/07/2022

A big thank you to No Monkey Business Dog Training for this great information on puppy socialisation.

I work with a lot of owners that have unintentionally gone about socialisation in the wrong way. We can really mess this up if we’re not sure how to do it the right way.

If you have a pup and are not sure how to go about this please reach out. I’d love to help you 🐶🐾🐶

Socialization of a puppy is so misunderstood sometimes, and even though you’ve seen me talk about it again and again, I repeat it with every puppy you see me raise because I really want to highlight that it doesn’t matter what the breed or size of the dog is, this information is critical for humans raising a dog.

The socialization period - which used to be called the “critical period” - is a period of time in which your puppy is most accepting of new things. It’s when they are gathering all the information they can about their surroundings and the environment they will exist in for the rest of their lives. Things that are familiar and exposed to them in this period buffer them against them developing extreme fear or anxiety from them later on. It DOESNT prevent behavior issues completely, but it absolutely can lessen their severity. The period length varies based on the individual dog, but also we’ve discovered different breeds have different lengths of this period which is super important to be aware of when choosing your dog. It typically ends by 12-14 weeks, but can go as long as 16 or be as short as 10.

Think about everything we want our dogs to do with us in society today. Beach walks, walks downtown, restaurants, shopping trips, car rides, etc etc. it’s a lot more than we used to ask of dogs, so as a result, our socialization efforts need to be more than it used to be too. 150 years ago we didn’t worry so much about our dogs needing to be okay with the sounds of blenders, or motorcycles or understanding what the Amazon prime van meant, but that’s all changed now. So if we want our dogs comfortable with the world we live in today, we have to show them what it’s all about early, positively and frequently.

That means when raising my puppies, my goal is to expose them to all of this world, and all the things they are probably going to see, hear, feel and watch at least once. No, it’s not about taking them to the dog park, or letting kids climb all over them, it’s about showing them that shiny floors exist, school buses make loud noises, and joggers may run by them quickly sometimes.

Playing and meeting other dogs is absolutely part of it too, but in carefully structured ways, and with supervision. Just because my puppy has dogs at home to play with, doesn’t mean they don’t need to meet lots and lots of other dogs to learn about all the various ways they play, and communicate.

But it doesn’t just have to be meeting dogs. It can be just watching them too. Yes, other dogs will walk past you and that’s okay. Same with people carrying bags or pushing strollers. This is all my job in teaching my puppy that the world is big and has lots to see and explore.

Genetics play a role in the success of socialization also: it is NOT all in how you raise a puppy, they have predispositions and personalities as individual as we do, BUT even if I’m working with a shy puppy, or a confident puppy, the goal is still the same. I may just go at a different pace and change my tactics a little. This goes for breeds too, dog breeds I know who have a likelihood of developing strange danger (ahem, Aslan/joker) I may handle how I expose them to new people as a puppy differently than let’s say a breed that wants to be the town mayor (ahem, winter)

At 10.5 weeks old and 2 weeks home, here’s a list of places Corduroy has already gone and been exposed to at least once-

Home Depot
The Beach
Downtown concord
Rollins park
Campground
The Camper
Marshall’s
Sandys
NMBDT
The barn
Puppy play and train
Day training
Tjmaxx
Playground
Basketball court

He has seen bicycles, boats, strollers. He has heard motorcycles and kids screaming and dogs barking and basketballs bouncing. He has walked on shiny floors and sand and wood chips and tarps. He has met close to 100 new dogs and even more people. This exposure will continue at a heavy pace until he is about 12-14 weeks old, where the socialization period will likely start to close, then it will be about maintenance and continuing positive associations but also being prepared for the adolescent crazy phase to begin.

Every puppy I do this with teaches me something new, and Corduroy is no exception, but I can tell you from raising not only my own dogs, but also the boarding puppies and shelter puppies I do this with too, that is worth every extra hour I need to put in.

If you want more help on learning about socializing your puppy, take our perfect puppy starter workshop - we hold it monthly via zoom and go over all this and more!

I’m a little late with these graduation photos. A big congratulations to all of you. It was such a pleasure to watch you...
19/07/2022

I’m a little late with these graduation photos. A big congratulations to all of you. It was such a pleasure to watch you grow and learn each week. Your human guardians were all amazing and have already set you up to succeed in this crazy human world we live in. We’ll done little munchkins and thank you all for allowing me to be a part of your journey 🐶🐾🐶

07/07/2022

🤷‍♀️Often clients will say, “I don’t understand why he won’t listen on walks, he’s so good at home”. I have also heard, “My dog is just stubborn and doesn’t want to listen”.

🐶Dogs can become easily distracted just like toddlers. Your dog also may not have been taught how to do the things you want him/ her to do in different places. They can also be so overwhelmed in an environment that they literally cannot hear you as their brain is focusing on so many other things.

🐾Dogs do not generalise behaviours like people do. If I taught you how to change a tyre, I would probably only have to show you a couple of times. You then would be able to do it anywhere, no matter the place or weather conditions, whether you’re with other people or not.

If you teach your dog something, you would have to teach him/ her in a low distracted environment like a room of your house, then in the garden, then down the road, then in a park, again, in a different park etc…. This would all need to be done while the dog is in a relaxed emotional state so learning can take place.

👍Training should always be done in a fun way so it’s not boring for the dog. If you are trying to get your dog to come when called then you will need to teach your dog that you are more fun and rewarding than what they are doing. No matter what your dog has done, or how upset you are with him, NEVER call your dog in an angry voice. This will most likely teach your dog to avoid you… would you want to avoid your mom yelling at you and rather go play with your friends in the sandpit? On another note, I would want my dog to come to me because he wants to, not because he is scared of what will happen if he doesn’t.

🍗Whatever you want to teach your dog should be worth it for the dog, the same as you will go to your job to get paid your salary. The harder the job the higher the pay. The reinforcement can be whatever your dog is into, tug with his favourite toy, high-value food like cheese, sausage, ham, etc…

🐕Reward your dog for his attention, the more you reinforce a desired behaviour the more likely the behaviour will occur in the future. It takes patience and practise as well as understanding that your dog is not a robot.

Very well said Trick Woofs 🐶🐾🐶
30/06/2022

Very well said Trick Woofs 🐶🐾🐶

We can’t expect our dogs to join us in our world, perform our tasks, join our social structure, without first meeting them in theirs.

We need to understand their needs, their communication and their motivations. That way we can welcome them in a way they will understand better. And have a better understanding that they make huge adjustments for us.

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