Holistic Animal Behaviour ADOLESCENT CLASSES:
Adolescent Class 1 Wednesday mornings 9.30-10.30am.
Adolescent Class 2 Thursday afternoon 5-6pm.
Our adolescent class is perfect for dogs aged 4 months - 9 months old. We take the "show on the road" and train at different places.
2024-08-21 - This Week's Venue: Constantia Nek
Callie and Archie have never been to any of my classes before. Both are adolescent dogs who have entered their second fear phase or hazard avoidance phase. Both came into class barking their heads off and very fearful of each other and the environment!
We took them to a quiet area close by and I showed their guardians how to counter-condition and desensitize them to the environment and each other as well as playing the engage-disengage game! Within 20 minutes, both dogs were happily engaging with each other and the environment!
By the end of our first lesson, both dogs were coming when called and able to enjoy their time together! Archie is much more bolder than Callie! He is also quicker to respond to environmental stimuli! What fun our first class was! The dogs ended up exploring and playing together! By taking things slow and steady and not flooding the dogs, we changed their emotions and behavioural response from fear to seeking and play! Gosh I love what I do!
For more information, please contact me via WhatsApp on 083 527 3446 or email [email protected].
FORCE-FREE, Science based behaviour and training ROCKS! 💖🐶🥰🥳💥
Sweetest little Alfie is joining our puppy class! He has to be the smallest, most feistiest puppy I've ever met! He's the size of a fluffy slipper! Already climbing into his mommy's herb and veggie garden! Digging is soooooo much fun!😂💖🐶🥰🥳💥
Appropriate Puppy Play
2022-07-09 Hout Bay Puppy School - Canine Africa.
Healthy Puppy Play! When puppies play, it should be FAIR. This means ... I chase you, you chase me, I'm on top, you're on top!
What a fun play session we had with some "rough and tumble" play. There is a very specific set of rules to "rough and tumble" play. This is called M.A.R.S. Animals need to feel relaxed, unstressed and unthreatened in order to play. Play only happens when dogs feels safe and secure. Indication of healthy play involves:
Meta-signals — invitations to play, ie: high pitched barking, play bows or anything that is used to solicit play.
Activity shifts — pouncing, chasing, etc, with activity shifting the entire time during play.
Role reversal — they take turns and they’ll take turns winning, I chase you, you chase me / I’m on top, you’re on top.
Self-handicapping — larger dogs will normally handicap themselves creating equal play.
This is often seen with puppies playing with adult dogs. The adult dog will often flop down, allowing the puppy to play with them all over their ears, head, necks, etc., creating fair play.
Each puppy has its own unique play style and they should be matched with puppies with similar play styles to avoid puppies getting scared or angry as well as inappropriate play, i.e. rolling and pinning!
We want to teach our puppies to play nicely so always keep play sessions short and ensure that you remove your puppy for a couple of minutes should they get a bit over emotional or over aroused! Observe dogs playing and see if you can identify M.A.R.S? 🥰🐶🐾😍
FORCE-FREE, Scientifically based training ROCKS! Setting our puppies up for success! 🥰🐶🐾😍
Gosh we just love all these puppies! 🥰🐶🐾💖
2022-01-15 Phoenix the Terrier doing Terrier stuff at Hout Bay Puppy School - Canine Africa!
When choosing a puppy, make sure that it suits your lifestyle and be sure that you can meet your dog's needs. Terriers love "fast moving objects"! It is unreasonable to expect them to behave any differently. They were originally bred to hunt vermin. They don't distinguish between your pet hamster and a wild rat in the barn. If it moves, its fair game! They're explosive in their expression of their DNA sequenced predatory motor pattern, they're tenacious, they go at mach 5 and they keep their eye on the prize!
Training for calm is imperative with any terrier. Having an excellent "recall" and "lets go" is vital. Teaching them to self-regulate and disengage from stuff from an early age is going to keep them out of (most) trouble. I absolutely adore terriers!
Phoenix is having an absolute blast rehearsing her predatory motor pattern (grab-bite > shake-bite > kill-bite). Teaching them to engage in this behaviour appropriately is the ultimate way to go! She's absolutely fearless in her pursuit of fun! 💖🐶💖
2022-01-08 at Hout Bay Puppy School - Canine Africa
Retrievers doing what Retrievers do! I had the perfect opportunity at Hout Bay Puppy School - Canine Africa to show guardians what we mean when we say "hardwiring" or "predatory motor pattern". In this video, a chicken was killed by a Caracal the night before and the puppies got to investigate it and the environment around it.
We had a Spaniel, Jack Russell Terrier, Great Dane, Staffordshire Terrier Mix and a Retriever at puppy school that morning. It was wonderful to see how all the dogs responded to chicken wing that was left behind.
Teddy, the Retriever took full advantage of the opportunity, he retrieved it but didn't quite know what to do with it once he had it in his mouth. Being a Retriever, they retrieve things and the predatory motor pattern ends there normally. That is what they were bred to do.
This is why most Retrievers are quite "mouthy" when puppies and like putting things in their mouths or enjoy bringing the "stuff" they've retrieved to you! Loads of giggles where had all around! 😂💖🐶💖😂 Teddy is just too sweet for words! 💖🐶💖
FORCE-FREE, Scientifically based training ROCKS! 💥🐶💖
2021-11-27 Hout Bay Puppy School - Canine Africa Outing Mainstream Mall!
Skadi got to meet Indie whose 10 months old. Look how stunning the body language is. Nice loose bodies and play bows! Indie graduated at our puppy school a few months ago. I often use her to meet the puppies because she is such a lovely, friendly dog who reads body language very well! Her mom put some really hard work into creating this fine gal! 💥💖🐶💖💥
2021-07-30 Snuffle Mat Fun with Nova!
2021-07-30 Home visit with Nova!
Such a sweet little girl BUT very busy and feisty! We did a little bit of snuffle-matting! What fun she had figuring it out! 💥💖🐶💖💥
2021-08-22 It's not always the little dogs that are scared of the big dogs! Nala going "What the heck is that?" with little Molly! Molly is very confident around the big pup's and is very happy to engage despite her size! The rule in our puppy school is: The less confident pup gets to leave if they don't want to engage at that moment! We never force engagements ... forcing engagement between dogs creates reactivity if they don't want to engage and can't leave. Eventually when a pup has built more confidence, they'll initiate the engagement! 💥💖🐶💖💥
2021-07-17 Recall
2021-07-23 Teaching the puppies "RECALL"! They're just awesome! Remember if your practicing recall, make sure that you are not too far away from your puppy! You want to set them up for SUCCESS! Also ... if your puppy is doing a "drive by", running up to you and then running past you, you need to become WAY more INTERESTING! I find that going down on your haunches works really well! 💥💖🐶💖🥳
