Focus On Dog Training

Danni the beagle going well with her training in town today!🐶👌

Gibor getting loads of attention out here in the wild west!🐶 Not the typical breed you find in werribee!😂 coming along nicely with his leash walking!🐶🐶

Bonnie and king leave today after staying for a week of training!👌 Both dogs were very reactive around other dogs, whilst a week is not enough to completely change how they feel around other dogs we have manlde good progress!👌🐶 🐶

Teaching dogs to relax around other dogs! King can be pretty explosive on leash around other dogs! ➡ something that we spend a lot of time doing around other dogs is the art of being calming! ➡ when king offers calming signals(sniffs ground/looks away) he gets rewarded. ➡ when he gets fixated, then I apply a consequence(low level stimulus on the ecollar). ➡ The key is to read your dog's body language before they get to that explosive state(hyper fixating/ears/tail positioning etc) ➡ The aim is to change the way King feels around other dogs ➡ lot and lots of reps, practice makes perfect!

Bonnie working on being calm around dogs in town today! 🐶 Bonnie is making good progress. Broke position a few times, but overall much calmer around other dogs! when we start training in high distraction environments we try to set the dog up to succeed: ➡ short training sessions(normally 15 minutes) ➡ try to work dogs under threshold(not always possible in places you can't control) ➡ higher rater of reinforcement ➡ Avoiding peak times(training dogs earlier in the morning etc)

Bonnie going well with her leash walking!🐶 Bonnie gets over excited around dogs and struggles to control her emotions! We spent a considerable amount of time working around calm, well rounded dogs in a controlled setting before we start working in real life situations!🐶👌

Apollo working on finding some anise and birch odour today at the park!🐶 ➡ There are many fun things that you can do with your dog such as nose works, agility, tracking etc! ➡ Nose works can provide drive fulfillment? Great for nervous dogs and generally a fun thing to do with your dog! ➡ It's good to mix up your training, rather then just working on obedience all the time!

Knox left yesterday after staying 9 nights! Will be sadly missed!🐶 Knox's owners had done a great job creating an independent dog with nice foundations! We spent the majority of his stay working on his neutrality around dogs, lots of downstairs, place training and leash walking!🐶👌

Knox's parents have done a great job with Knox training!👌 ➡ The past week we have been teaching Knox to be calm around other dogs and has been helping out during sessions! ➡ Lots of leash walking and down stays. ➡ lots of repetitions ➡ lots of positive reinforcement! ➡-R for coming out of position!

Knox going well with his place training!🐶 When we teach any command its important to have a criteria: Place training ➡ calm on the bed/Place ➡ no biting leash/barking etc ➡ ideally lying down(we will add this later) ➡ staying on the bed until released(free/break) If you don't have a criteria for your obedience, it can look a little wishy-washy!🐶👌

Ares recall coming along nicely!🚀👌 ➡ lots of reps! ➡ slowly scaling enviroment and distractions! ➡ long line to enforce the command ➡ High reward history 👌

Are's leash walking coming along nicely!😀 ➡ I spend lots of time in a low distraction environment before training it to places such as town/around other dogs etc. ➡ lots of structure on the walk, walk next to be for 10 minutes,"break" a few moments of sniffing etc. ➡ Not allowing everyone and every dog to say hello, instead leash walking should be a calm activity!

Ares working on his lifestyle training at the footie(the real footie!)on the weekend!😀 ➡ When we start working the dogs in high distraction environment I will keep the session very short! ➡ They will get their breakfast in the training session ➡ if it's too difficult for the dogs we can always make it easier but going further away etc! ➡ advocating for your dog, telling me he's in training and can't say hello!

Recall training Teaching your dog a command(whistle, come/here) move towards me in my direction takes time! ➡ To begin we start on a 5metre/10 metre long line ➡ when the dog is not pay attention we will use recall command(come/whistle) and reward ➡ if dog doesn't we will move backwards and leash pressure on the leash to help! ➡ Once the dog is reliable coming back in a low distraction environment we will then slowly scale enviroment and distractions: ➡ Level 1 may be in garage/outside house ➡ level 2 quiet reserve ➡ Level 4 Beach ➡ Level 9 outside dog park etc. ➡ we will use tons of +R to get a highly motivated dog who reliable wants to come back to us ➡ they're are always competing motivators(birds,other dogs/peope et). For some dogs the you will have to use -R to make the recall more reliably. ➡ lots of repetitions, creating a strong reward history and paietence are key!

🐶Solid down stays ➡ Having a reliable down stay is much better then a sit stay! ➡ Most dogs can easily lie down for several hours, an extended sit is much more difficult! ➡ it's much harder to bark and react at other dogs when lieing down ➡ Having a release command is very important, this teaches the dog to stay in position until released. ➡ +R keeps the dogs motivated and enthusiastic, too much +R can make the dog over aroused! ➡-R makes the command much more reliable, there are always competing motivators. We want the dog to want to the command, also he needs to learn that you have to as well!

Too much 🍫 🍫 Had Bruno the 2year old chocolate lab for a session to work on dog reactivity and leash walking!!🐶🐶 Bruno did great in today's session, we started working around Mocha as a distraction!🐶 We also covered some down stays, introducing release commands and place training! Go the 🍫 labs!👌🐶🐶

Twix's recall coming along nicely!🐶🐶

ASTRO's board and train program came to a finish today!🐶 ASTRO can get extremely overexcited around other dogs, and will lunge, bark and lose control around other dogs! ➡ we spent a long time building strong foundations with ASTRO ➡ calm loose leash walking at heel ➡ release commands ➡ place and down stays ➡ lots of repetition around calm dogs

Big day for ASTRO! Lots of distractions at the beach and in Port Melbourne!🐶 ASTRO struggles to control himself around other dogs, so we have be working a lot on being neutral!👌

ASTRO working on being neutral around other dogs in town today!🐶🐶 ➡ ASTRO gets very overexcited around other dogs! ➡ ASTRO needs to learn that you can't say hello to every 🐶 you meet! ➡ Having a communication system with your dog is vital(e.g you can't come out of position until "free") ➡ Rock Solid obedience commands such as loose leash walking, down stays, place training! ➡ lots of positive reinforcement for good choices! ➡ And of courses getting the reps in!