Time to dig out the winter clothes!
I have just walked through the centre of Lichfield and seen at least a dozen dogs choking at the end of a slip lead. It was like a walk back in time to the Barbara Woodhouse era before trainers had the opportunity to study dog behaviour and learn their trade as any other professional would.
This is what loose lead walking looks like. It's not difficult and it's not complicated to teach. It does require kindness, compassion and whole load of chicken and patience over a relatively small space of time, but it is easy to achieve.
To see the amount of dogs choking on slip leads genuinely breaks my heart.
We have become a nation of non animal lovers. We are falling so far behind the rest of the world becoming one of the last nations to outlaw restricting collars and nooses (slip leads) in training.
This is 2024 not 1974. We understand the issues relating to slip leads, chokers and prong collars.
We understand the long term effects of raised cortisol caused by dogs pulling into these devices, we know better ways of training the dogs without relying on pain, discomfort and fear. We all know that most dogs have a drive so high they will pull into a slip lead, regardless of the damage and yet we still see dogs at the end of a noose making choking noises and we consider it acceptable.
If we were to walk down the street and see a grown adult pulling a noose tight around a child's neck to teach it not to walk into the road, we would (quite rightly so) report them for the abuse it is.
Please guys, if any so-called trainer suggests using a slip lead in lieue of training your dog, please walk away and source an up to date ethical trainer.
Look for the UK Charter of Behaviour and Dog Training logo on their website. Ensure they are registered with the ABTC (Animal Behaviour Training Council) and are affiliated to an accredited training association that assesses their members to ensure ethics as well as efficacy.
We used to lead the world with animal welfare, but are being left so
I love it when Otis comes to visit for a play date with May. Otis was awesome through classes and has grown into a splendid, well behaved dog. Even though only 18 months, he is doing his Mum and Dad so proud.
There's not many dogs that May doesn't destroy in play 😆🤣🤣
Today in pup class, we looked at the 'down' cue. Remember, you are not teaching the dog to lie down, it's been doing that everytime it sleeps since it was born. In fact, it has become very proficient at lying down. In dog training, when we 'teach down', we are simply motivating the dog to lie down when we ask the dog to. That's why we use rewards, so the dog learns when it lies down, if asked, good stuff happens. More importantly, the dog wants to be told to lie down and that makes training easy.
Of course we can use aversives, pain and fear to teach 'down' by forcing the dog into position or using slip leads or choke chains, but:
a) we don't need to abuse the dog to get compliance
b) we risk miss-association (i.e. dog associates the aversive with your hands, the dog next to it in the class, the environment, etc.) and before we know it, we have a reactive dog.
c) the dog won't get excited just because Mum/Dad asked pup to do something and jump into position, in any environment or at any distance.
Look at May demonstrating what should happen when you train and progress the down cue without aversives. Immediate response, wag of the tail, ignores all distractions and looks back at me for either further instructions or a release cue.
Most important of all, look how happy she is to follow my cue and in return I can have her off lead anywhere, knowing I can keep her safe. Win/Win 😀
Huge congratulations to my awesome Tuesday morning advanced class who have been working through the APDT Good Companion Awards. They have not just completed the awards, but have passed the highest Advanced level.
I am so proud of all these dogs and handlers and they always bring cake. They have even run their own classes when my spinal issues have made it impossible for me to complete the class.
Well done guys. You are genuinely awesome and I do not believe there is a class anywhere in the country to match you guys.
Thank you all for making my job so easy and enjoyable. Love you all.
Feeling blessed to have these on our doorstep.
Lovely creatures to bump into on our walks.
It really does highlight why we should always train a solid recall. You never know what is just around the corner.
For those in my advanced classes that I promised to film this for, if you are looking at improving the emergency stop, work on your 'away' and then use that to get your repetition and reward in.
'Harnesses encourage pulling', 'You need a lead attached to a collar to control a dog', 'You can't teach loose lead walking without using an aversive (slip lead or the like)', 'You can't stop a cocker from crossing infront of your feet on a walk', 'You'll never teach a cocker to walk nicely in public'
YEH, RIGHT! Tell that all that nonsense to puppy Willow. Check out that dip in the lead. All you need is patience and the right gentle and kind technique.
Never a need for harsh treatment, slip lead, prong collars, chokers, lead yanking in dog training. We should be better than that now!
Anyone else put their dog on a pedestal and serenade her? Seems reasonable to me.
May, your are wonderful all the time.
Fireworks. Whether your dog is sensitive to fireworks or not, go through this process so that your dog releases dopamine on the sound of fireworks and not cortisol. In layman's terms it will act as prevention as well as cure.
Good luck, guys!
