Pet professional and dog trainer specialized in providing compassionate, qualified care for pets with behavioural and medical needs.
(1)
Whatever training decisions you are making, however you choose to explain things to dogs, know that you’re also teaching feelings. Feeling about what school is like, what you are like, what it’s like to be with you, lead by you and under your control, whether you intend to or not…. Make your training intentional 🐾
How much pain would you have to be in to walk with a limp? To cry out in pain? To even grimace around people you don’t know? Probably a lot right?
There are so many ways our dogs can feel pain before we see them start to yike, whimper, or limp. Our dogs can’t tell us how they’re feeling, so we need to be keen observers. We especially need to trust that they’re telling the truth. Dogs aren’t deceptive, lazy or stubborn. When they tell you something is wrong, believe them.
Pain can look like:
💠Reluctance to participate in things they used to enjoy.
💠Short fuse with dog or human friends.
💠Having a low tolerance for frustration.
💠Disinterest in eating.
💠Out of context panting, yawning, or dilated pupils.
💠Sleeping more or less than usual.
💠Most sudden changes in behaviour.
If you think your dog might be uncomfortable, talk to your vet. Tell them why you think your pet may be in pain! Ask about how it can be definitively ruled out. Be their advocate; they’re relying on you!
This is something I say to my clients often: behaviour change is about looking at the long game. The long game is why we choose force free training! The long game is what success looks like.
They say it takes 60 days for humans to make a habit. 60 days! So, when we’re changing a dogs behaviour, we can expect it to take some time. That’s why we use the laws of behaviour science in our training plans: because we won’t see our results right away. Luckily, many researchers before us gave us the data we need to predict what WILL happen given enough repetition, time, and skill! Instead of throwing mud at the wall and seeing what sticks, we can choose a plan that we know will lead us to the end results we want.
That’s not to say you have to just deal in the meantime. We have a web of management plans to make sure you have a right now solution. But, for things to really change, we have to stick to a plan for some time.
The good news is: we have our dogs for a long time! Spending 2-3 months working hard on a behaviour problem means a lifetime of the fun stuff! Quick fixes fall apart just as quickly. Instead, commit and be patient. Behaviour science always work- play the long game.
Love this graphic so much!
This is also why using R+ for training is so important. We’ll get the behaviours we want, and the happy affect comes along for the ride!
Both operant and classical learning are happening at all times; they are not standalone principles. When I say this, it often causes pushback and confusion, so I teamed up with Doggie Drawings by Lili Chin to create this graphic. I hope it helps! Please share and do be sure to like Lili's page!
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Creature Comforts Dog Training posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Send a message to Creature Comforts Dog Training:
#SelfIsolation 𝐃𝐀𝐘 4️⃣ “𝘖𝘬𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘨 𝘸𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘌𝘝𝘌𝘙” Yesterday I shared a video of myself using toys to bridge the gap between toys and personal play. I mentioned in my caption that you could also use food. This is Mambo. He is a shy, nervous rescue from Mexico. He finds social pressure overwhelming and he has no particular interest in toys. Some might assume that he just had no interest in play, but as it turns out, with a little help along the way, Mambo was able to find his groove! If you listen carefully he even does a quick, quiet “HA!” (doggy laughter) in the second round in this video. Mambo is most comfortable with people in the context of training for food. So I met him where he’s at! I’m not doing any training here though- there’s no specific behaviour that Mambo needs to offer in order to earn food. Instead, I’m keeping a steady stream of treats coming and shooting them away from me, along the floor at different points in our play. Mambo being overwhelmed by social pressure, I want to make sure he gets frequent breaks. This video is not our first session! It’s taken Mambo some time to build trust. I’ve received a fair number of “no thank yous”. But by continuing to offer invitations to play, and being conscientious of his need for space and freedom, I wanted to share some of his “yeah okay that’s funny, you’re not wrong crazy ladys” #MakeYourDogLaugh #PlayWithYourDog
#SelfIsolation 𝐃𝐀𝐘 3️⃣ “𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘨 𝘸𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦!” This is one of my favourite issues to address when it comes to #CaninePlayTherapy because you wouldn’t believe how quickly the never-not-ever player can become a yes-yes-gimme-more-o-dat player. There are a lot of reasons dogs might feel uncomfortable when you first decide to try personal play with them! One of the most common behaviour problems for puppies are biting, mouthing, and jumping up. Understandably, we address these things by discouraging these behaviours and replacing them with new ones. When we invite them to do these things again, it feels like a trick! Tricky, tricky humans. Other dogs might be a bit freaked out because they’ve just never seen a human flop around on the floor for no good reason. Try as we might to send the canine “let’s PLAY” signals, we’re just a bunch of oafish apes muddling our way through it. It can take time to get the point across, especially with dogs who have never had the opportunity to play with humans like that. One thing we can do is “bridge the gap.” You can use toys, or you can use food (more about using food tomorrow). Whatever it takes to get your dog interested and engaged! Here I am doing some personal play with my pal Jazz. He, like a lot of family dogs, learned that play solicitation with humans was naughty. Getting him to have a wrestle with me was tough- in the beginning, he felt a lot more comfortable with a toy involved. So I said whateva! Bring your toy! Let’s get down! You can see in this video, my interest in the toy is minimal. I don’t hold onto it for more than a second, and I mostly just shove Jazz away using the toy. We’re not playing tug or fetch, but for Jazz’ comfort, the toy is part of the game. It’s just not the whole game! I want to have a conversation with him about personal space, boundaries, and how funny it is to be alive. We can use the holee roller as a medium for this conversation! I don’t know about you, but I ge
#SelfIsolation 𝐃𝐀𝐘 2️⃣ Let’s talk about 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐥 when you #PlayWithYourDog Arousal is a hot topic in the world of dog training. What exactly are we talking about when we use this word? In the context of psychology, arousal is the state of being physiologically alert, awake, and attentive. Arousal is not good or bad, it just is! In some contexts, we want to lower arousal- like a fearful dog who might become adrenalized and make poor decisions. Otherwise though, excitement and arousal are a normal part of life for all mammals. When playing with dogs, I hear a lot of concern about arousal and dogs becoming overexcited. I understand the concern- playing with dogs can be frightening, especially with big strong dogs. They are all teeth and muscle and we are handing over a lot of trust when we play, just like our dogs are showing us a lot of trust when THEY decide to play. I’m going to talk a lot about how we can negotiate consent and boundaries with our dogs using personal play over the next few weeks, but keep in mind, this negotiation is not a one way street! If your dog is over-the-top and you feel scared, you get to choose to stop. Just like they do! This video is of Wile E and I having a rough-and-tumble play session. We can play like this because we have a long, long history of consensual play where we respect eachothers right to say no! I don’t worry about her arousal- in fact, I encourage arousal! I want her to feel alert and attentive when we play- if she wasn’t, I wouldnt be doing a good job of #MakeYourDogLaugh Just remember: when you’re talking about consent and boundaries, it’s for both you and your dog. In order for play to feel fun, you both need to know you’re safe. But you also need to feel excited!
Alright y’all here comes the ruckus! 🥳 I’ll be taking advantage of this #SelfIsolation free time to talk about playing with your dog. Be ready for talk about the science we do have about play, how you can negotiate consent using play, and why I think we all need to #MakeYourDogLaugh Today, I’m just sharing some regular night time sillies with Wile E. You’ll be seeing plenty of her as we work our way through the how’s and whys of #CaninePlayTherapy Wile E and I have a robust play history- our play is quick, but consent tests are still frequent for both of us. If one of us stops moving, the other checks in like “hey is this still fun for you?” When Wile E leaves the room, I don’t chase her. I do invite her back though and she obliged with a very saucy drive-by bite on the camera. The most important thing to see here is how many choices are made to engage- almost every second, one of us checks in. I’ll be sharing more tomorrow about consent tests, but for now- just giggle along with us and consider asking your own #QuarantineDogs if they wanna do something stupid today 💁♀️
Love when we get to work on two skills at once! Miso had a naughty habit of chasing pigeons and other things that move when he’s out on walks. I’m teaching Miso “leave it” for when he’s locked on to something he might need to “border collie” at. I’m rewarding him with tug because I want him to have a place to dump that energy, and Miso LOVES tug. I’m also teaching Miso “drop it” for when he finds something he shouldn’t have on walks. Luckily, teaching this fits right into our leave it plan! All I do is say “drop it” and scatter food on the ground. You can see here, when I say drop it, Miso abandons the toy and orients toward my other hand. This is only our second session and he’s got “drop it” down pat in this set up. Dogs like Miso make me feel like I’m cheating! He’s just too clever!
Happy side effects of training with #positivereinforcement 🥰 Rudy can’t keep his eyes off me!
The best part about winter is taking 3 black dogs to the park at night and actually being able to see them against the snow. Also aren’t our three residents just an incredibly lovely group of dogs? Raven goes home tomorrow and we’re all going to cry 😭 Good thing Wile E, Rosie and I have each other. We can spend the weekend recovering from our woes 😂
Today was rainy and slushy and all around yucky! We cut our walks short (on Jazz’ request/demand), threw on a warm and fuzzy Christmas movie and giggled together on the couch. Jazz still thinks I’m funny 🙃
Guys guess what! Jazz thinks I’m funny!
Puppies with hiccups. That is all.
And in the perhaps more immortal words of Hazel the red lab: ain’t nobody f*kin with my stick
Want your business to be the top-listed Pet Store/pet Service?
