Pawsitive Sense Puppy Imprinting

18/06/2023

Hosting Arrowhead’s 10th Doodle Romp was a blast! Lotus and Asha got to see lots of family.

16/07/2022

So happy to report Lotus is doing well after her spay. It’s the teeniest bit sad to think there will be no more Lotuslings but we’re very excited to resume the next stages. More training and fun coming up!

14/06/2022

Just sitting here of an evening, enjoying my job.

25/05/2022

A simple trick to help your dog make a habit of keeping track of you when running off-leash. Watch for the second he realizes I’m headed the other way.

24/03/2022

Can’t go outside today cause of miserable weather! So Murray and I are practicing loose leash walking, inside and outside turns, automatic sit on stop, all in the kitchen.

15/03/2022

I love Susan Garrett’s teaching. The best part of training puppies at age 9-16 weeks is that they are at peak focus pretty much whenever they’re not sleeping! That is, if you’ve done your connection work first.

24/02/2022

Homeschoolers welcome!

Very Private Riverside in Valerie D.’s Land, Ontario | We are committed to a private yet supported, roughing-it outdoors camping opportunity. Pitch your tent beside a river with...

25/01/2022

Lotus still does her guardian of the home duties faithfully. But she has also perfected the “hey missus, the littles need a snack” look. 
Arrowhead Labradoodles Luke Erb

15/01/2022

https://poddtoppen.se/podcast/1520189814/shaped-by-dog-with-susan-garrett/how-to-create-kid-friendly-dogs-and-dog-friendly-kids

Visit us at shapedbydog.com Raising dogs in a home with kids and kids in a home with dogs can be harmonious when you have the right expectations for great outcomes. Now, I don’t have children, but my dogs are around many children as I have a lot of nieces and nephews. There can be a great deal of ...

06/01/2022

I love the chart and numbering distractions idea jncluded here…

One of the most pressing questions for anyone who lives with a dog can be "how do I train my dog to come when called?".

27/12/2021

A lot of dog owners initially teach their dog a skill in an easy environment, let's say a Sit Stay in their living room, or coming when called in their yard.
Dogs usually catch onto these initial exercises very quickly and eagerly sit and come as told.
Owners think "Great! Now I will apply it at the park".. and of course, when he is running and playing with his friends, the dog acts as if he has never heard "Sit Stay" or "Come" before.
"He is defying me! He clearly knows this behavior and is choosing not to do it! He is a stinker" - owners might think.
Not so fast ... we will better understand this when we think of skiing. Because teaching a dog a new skill is actually a lot like learning to ski.
To be fair, we have quite the double standard when it comes to us as humans learning a new skill and our dogs learning a new skill.
Every person would allow themselves plenty of time to acquire and practice something new in a variety of gradually advancing settings.
For our dogs however, we somehow assume they have to do it correctly in all places right away?
When you go skiing for the very first time (whether as a little kid or an adult), the ski school will put you on the smoothest, least steep, little run the ski area has to offer. At our local ski area, it’s “the bunny hill". The bunny hill sets you up for success.
The ski area management wants you to have a good experience and come back and ski more. They have a lot of interest in making this as fun, rewarding and free of failure as possible for you!
The bunny hill is the equivalent of teaching a new behavior to our dogs in our living room. No distractions, high value treats, lots of reinforcement for getting it right. The dog will feel as pumped after this training session as you do after your first bunny hill run!
But after those first sessions is where we start to deviate. For our dogs, we now expect them to rapidly generalize this skill to any kind of environment and distraction. When it comes to ourselves however, we are more realistic about advancing newly learned skills:
Would you attempt to ski down a cliff after 3 days on the bunny hill?!
No, of course not! You probably already have a rather sophisticated idea of how you would further advance your skiing skills. Over time, you would practice on *gradually advancing* runs and maybe take more lessons.
We are quite good at understanding how to make advancing skills fun, rewarding and safe ( = little to no failure) for ourselves.
But for the dog ... sometimes it looks different. Your dog needs exactly the same gradually advancing practice in different places to build up to the master level skill of staying at the park with distractions around.
You have to consider in every single training session:
Where and under which circumstances your dog performs a learned behavior has a huge impact on how difficult it is! (Just like skiing in a snow storm is harder than on a sunny day)
You need to make training as fun, rewarding and safe ( = little failure) for him as you would make learning to ski for yourself. Do not expect your dog to ski down a cliff after his first three sessions of learning a new behavior! Slowly help him understand and practice his skills in varying environments and with gradually increasing difficulties.
Be fair about this and don't have a double standard when it comes to you learning a new skill vs your dog.
Happy training :)

10/12/2021

Initially Luna shook and trembled at traffic. Now she waits patiently for the noisiest trucks, then checks in for her reward. Her feelings have changed from fear to anticipation. This is Imprinting positive associations over a trigger that was previously frightful.
Arrowhead Labradoodles Luke Erb

08/12/2021

The Puppies love their games. Not only does it keep them from jumping up while you are eating, the brain work out exhausts them for another round of napping. The downside, I rarely taste my food anymore, I’m so busy training as I eat.

07/12/2021

One of the most fascinating parts of becoming a dog trainer, for me, has been the study of animal body language. Here’s a puppy body language test for you… Can you tell which of these puppies is on their very first adventure in the woods?
Starring Luna, the blond, and Maggie, the brunette turning blond
Arrowhead Labradoodles Luke Erb

06/12/2021

Truth. Enjoy the journey of training, or no one is winning.

I'm going to be really honest here about expectations of our dogs.
Social media vs Reality.

We live in an age where everyone is able to portray anything they'd like to. What they view as the 'best version' of themself, the version that they want others to see. What does this mean? When I'm posting photos of me, I try to avoid posting the double chinned photos. We do the same things with our dogs, right?

And then we compare ourselves, sometimes without even knowing we are doing it. Oh, I wish my dog recalled away from other dogs like that...oh, I wish my dog would pose for a photo like that...oh, my dog is so much more excited around guests than that...
We forget that behind every brilliant photo is the blooper reel. How many attempts were made to get the photo before you were happy to post it? The amazing photo of the dog sitting on a log in a sit pretty pose - was it a one take shot, or are there 40 versions of a similar photo on somebody's phone?

The dogs that recall away from distractions easily. How many hours of training and management have gone in to that? Does anyone post the videos of their adolescent dog oblivious to their calls as they are off in the bushes?

And does having good recall mean that they will recall immediately every single time? Probably not. My dog has very reliable recall, but there will still be the odd time where he won't come back as quickly, because social and environmental factors can, and do, trump training sometimes. E.g. "hang on mum I'm just going to finish smelling this really good bit of wee then I'll be with ya", or "I'll come but I don't want to stand on that pebbly surface you're on, I'll meet you half way - it looks like I'm not listening to you, but why would I run across an uncomfortable surface when I could just wait here?". My dog once wouldn't recall to me, and when I examined the situation, it was because a dog had come to say hello to me that has a history of guarding food. I had a big bag of treats dangling from my waist. He read subtle communication from that dog and made the best social and environmental choice for everyone in that moment. He didn't keep walking ahead, but just waited for me instead. (Somebody will ask, what if there was an emergency? I use different emergency recall tactics, and he knew he wasn't being recalled for anything urgent. Waiting for me didn't put him in a situation that would cause conflict).
Do I believe that a dog can have reliable recall? Yes, absolutely. Do I believe that they can have 100% will-recall-immediately-in-all-situations-without-hesitation recall? No, because they have free will (and so they should!). We need to normalise this across all areas of training and behaviour. Dogs staying close and engaging is important but but we need to keep expectations realistic. (I'm not saying let your dog harrass other dogs because they have no recall - but do understand that sometimes even dogs that have good recall will take a minute or may have understandable reasons for hesitating).

Let's stop comparing ourselves and our dogs. We know how awesome they are. We know how far they've come on their journeys. We know what they are great at, and what they love doing. We need to embrace our dog's personality and uniqueness, and not want to quash it away so that they can be like somebody else's dog or a dog that we have lived with before.
So remember, next time you see a photo or video of somebody's dog doing something that you think looks great. They might be doing something good, I don't want to discredit that. But don't discredit your own dog because of somebody else's. We have no idea what the behind the scenes might look like, or what other struggles that dog might be going through that your dog is actually pretty good with. Our dogs are not robots, they are sentient and make choices. No dog or person is perfect, no matter what social media tells you, and don't let your newsfeed stop you enjoying your best friend's company.

05/12/2021

We welcome Maggie to the imprint program. Maggie likes her snuggles.

01/12/2021

Chunky little Luna likes to dance.

20/11/2021

Puppies exploring the world! Notice how much info they read with their noses.

20/11/2021

I brought these two home tonight, took them out to p*e and as they both quickly sat on my feet to get their bottoms out of the snow, I thought of sharing this important potty training tip:
GET THE PUPPY MOVING!
You will be waiting forever if you wait for shivering puppy to get off your feet and p*e. So jump, clap your hands, run in circles. Puppy will follow you, keep him moving, soon his body will shout “wait, if I’m going to be this active, I got to clean out.” When it happens, cheer and treat. Eventually, name the act, then you have a word to trigger them when you need them to go quickly.
Arrowhead Labradoodles Luke Erb

14/11/2021

Lotus on one of her first cuts.

20/09/2021

Rosco’s early training. Day three.

20/09/2021

Rosco came for a short Imprinting stay.

13/09/2021

Need to get your pup out of the city? Check out my HipCamp site with lots of September/ October dates available!

Very Private Riverside in Valerie D.’s Land, Ontario | We are committed to a private yet supported, roughing-it outdoors camping opportunity. Pitch your tent beside a river with...

11/09/2021

With a 20-day break from puppy training, I took a mini-course from Susan Garrett to see what I could add to my repertoire. She’s big on practicing behaviours through games. It’s been fun to do some fresh bonding stuff with Lotus.
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13/08/2021

Kai is back for a vacation! He’s changed his looks so much, but retained a lot of gentlemanly manners, making him a pleasant companion in our home. Good job, Kai’s family!