BuddiesK9Training

07/08/2023

Crates. As someone who used to be against their usage, but now uses one.
Crates are controversial. And rightfully so. Just as in anything, confinement can become aversive. Look at prisons? Confining people even though their needs are attended to is unpleasant. Grounding a kid to his room is a punishment. In covid we all lost our minds.
But what we are looking to here are humans, what makes a dog different? Why would it be ok to crate a dog?
When we consider a humans sleep and resting habits vs a dogs….we see a huge difference. We will find dogs sleeping throughout the day, resting for long periods of time, especially after exercise. As humans we require only 8 hours of sleep, and we are busy for the entire rest of the day. We tend to not sleep much in the day, and we are constantly keeping our minds busy. As humans doing nothing outside of our 8 hours sleep is not common.
But there are some variables that fall into place here. Dogs don’t usually take very long naps throughout the day. What we will commonly see is a dog that will nap a bit, get up, move, get a stick to chew on, chew a bit, and then sleep a bit. They will do some activities in-between. They will also need to eliminate and play.
So when is the crate non-aversive?
If we perfectly time the variables around it, we can crate a dog without it causing aversion.
Activity….crating a dog after they had a long nap is not going to be so fun. If your dog had a nice long play session, it may be a lot better.
Entertainment…crating your dog without something to keep them a bit busy in there can befrustrating and boring. Adding some toys in, especially an interactive or food toy can give them something to do between naps.
Time…no longer than 4 hours. For both the purpose of eliminating, drinking and frustration. Crating a dog too long is by far the most common problem with a crate.
Comfort…ensuring that the crate is the appropriate size and comfortable is essential. Alongside that it also has to be in a safe place your dog feels comfortable being alone in.
Conditioning…we need to introduce it properly to our dogs, making sure they have a positive association to it and feel comfortable being in there.

By exercising our dogs well before we crate them, make sure they eliminated prior, providing entertainment and comfort in the crate and not crating them too long…we can successfully use it non aversively.

07/07/2023

26/06/2023

Keeping your house (and dog) clean.

Having a dog inside comes with the challenge of keeping both them and your house clean.
Today as a certified trainer, I will give you some tips on how to tackle this head on, in the laziest way possible.

Tip 1
Invest in a good pet hair vacuum.
This will be a game changer. But if you use it to the full.
Use the vacuum on blankets too.
To quickly get rid of hair on your bedsheets or the dog’s blanket:
Lay it flat on the ground.
Vacuum it, holding the edges with your feet.

Tip 2
Slobber!
First of all, know when your dog is most likely to slobber. Like with meals.
After a meal or when they see you eating some tasty food, wipe their mouth with a towel that you keep around. The same with drinking water.
Another useful tip here is to have a rope toy that you play tug with after meals and drinking.
You can also make it a habit to pick up the toy and play with it after having a drink.
Keep that slobber towel handy! Wipe when you see slobber.

Tip 3
Keeping the dog clean.
We can’t bath our dogs daily, as it is bad for their skin and takes time.
Make a habit of brushing out your dog every day and finishing it with a pet friendly wet wipe or damp towel. And wipe those paws when they come in.
A way to clean them between baths?
Take a towel and wet it with some warm water, clean off your dog with it, ruffing the hair around. Rinse it in-between if necessary.

Tip 4
Keep the dog bed and sleeping arias clean.
Make sure your dogs bed is regularly vacuumed and washed. To make it easy you can permanently have a blanket wrapped around it. And another on top. Then you only wash the blankets.
Make sure your dog has a clean bed to lay on outside, so they don’t spend too much time laying down on the dirty floor.

Tip 5
Potty train, and never use puppy pads.
Having a dog potty trained can prevent any p*e or poo stains in the house. If they do have an accident in the house. Make sure to use odour controlling products to clean it.

Tip 6
Carpets.
Keeping carpets clean will need at least a 3 time a week vacuum.
When your dog messes slobber on the carpet clean it up asap, you can then put some baby or foot powder on it and vacuum it up later. Using some odour powder on your carpets from time to time and then giving it a vacuum and wipe can help the smell.

Tip 7
Teach your dog were to and were not to be.
Try to teach your dog to sleep in certain places and don’t allow others.

05/05/2023

16/04/2023

In this article, well-known clicker trainer Karen Pryor, discusses safety for children around dogs. According to Pryor, dogs are stimulated by movement and noise, and children are known for their movement and noise! Still, working toward and achieving positive and comfortable relationships between dogs and kids is possible.​

One of the most valuable skills children can learn is to stand still and "Be a Tree" if a strange dog comes near them or if a dog is bothering them or becoming too enthusiastic.​

Here is how to "Be a Tree":​

- Stop.​
- Fold in your branches (hands folded in front).​
- Watch your roots grow (look at your feet).​
- Count your breaths in your head until help comes or the dog goes away.​

"Trees" are boring to dogs. A dog will just sniff at a child/tree and then go away. No matter what the dog does, it is important for the child to stand still, avoid eye contact (by looking down at his/her feet), and stay quiet.​

Read more here: https://www.clickertraining.com/node/3535 ​

​

08/03/2023

Cooperative care.

The single most useful thing to teach any animal.
What is it?

Cooperative care is when we teach animals to voluntarily participate in their own care.
This makes everyday care for them much less stressful and a lot easier.
It could also avoid some dangerous situations and events.
Cooperative care is taught to almost all animals, from zoo animals to farm animals and of course our pets, it is widely used.

In the case of dogs there are a few common situations we teach voluntary care for.
Bathing
Grooming
Nail clipping
Teeth brushing
Wound care
Vaccinations
Veterinary check-ups
Vet visits
Wearing a muzzle or a cone.
Climbing in and out of a car or truck.
Being handled by others
Having ears handled.

These are just those I can think of, but there are so many more.

I will be slowly going through this list and making posts on it.
I will cover Horses, Dogs and Cats.

I offer a full voluntary care training course for all animals where we cover all the main behaviours required, for those wanting to teach it to their pets and learn more about it.

So stay tuned to learn some voluntary care.

10/01/2023

Pets can suffer from separation distress at any time but enforced lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic have made it a common problem. Behaviourists and trainers all over the world are dealing with the fallout. But what is separation distress and how can you help your pet? ​

​

If you feel like your pet may have separation distress, contact a COAPE Qualified behaviourist to help you today. ​

​

You can find a list of COAPE-endorsed behaviourists here: https://coape.org/find-a-behaviourist/

30/12/2022

30/12/2022

Why not follow Pack rules with dogs?
The rank reduction programme is based on the dominance theory. It is used to lower a dogs status to stop behaviour that is believed to be caused by the dog is seemingly being dominant. The rrp enforces the believed pack rules onto a dog who is being “dominant” to make him see you as the alpha, thereby making him submissive to you and ultimately stopping his “dominant” behaviour.
The problem with this is that the believed pack rules are not even followed by wolves, wolves do not live by dominance hierarchies. Wolves live vary harmoniously and the pack consists of mostly the parents and offspring. They work together and do not fight over rank, the males leave the pack and start their own packs, they do not fight their father for his spot, or any other male for theirs. The males find a female and start their own pack.
So if not even wolves follow these pack rules, why would dogs?
As studies on feral dogs show dogs do not follow these rules either. They don’t even follow the real pack dynamic. One dog will mate with multiple dogs, the bitch would raise her pups all by herself and they do not hunt. As we can see with wolves they form breading pairs and mate with the same wolf for life, they will raise their pups together and will work together to hunt for food.
As we can see, dogs do not live under a pack, dominance based social structure. So why would we then apply rules based off of this on an animal who does not understand it? That is why we don’t. Seeing they do not understand or work under dominance hierarchies, labelling their behaviour as dominant simply does not make sense. So there is then no use to applying a RRP.
Seeing that it teaches the dog nothing, and at best might make the dog depressed witch may make it look like it worked. When you stop applying the rules assuming you have solved the problem, you return to normal. There is one problem with this, the actual behavioural problem was never solved, so it will simply resurface. This means that either you have to continue the rrp forever, or call it. So all in all ineffective at least.
How is it dangerous to apply?
There are many reasons. First would be that it could break your relationship with your dog. When we look at the rules of the rrp we can see that it ends up removing a lot in your dog’s life that he previously enjoyed, this will cause frustration for your dog, and will cause him to become protective over the resource or try harder to get it, which may cause aggression. Or he will become depressed making it look like the rrp worked. Seeing that you are the one who is withholding these things from your dog, it will ruin your relationship with him as he will associate you with the removal of a valuable thing to him. Another aspect to consider is that by removing these things from your dog you can end up getting hurt because your dog might bite due to resource guarding.
Second it will not give much room for loving your dog. So you will end up treating your dog like a prisoner and not be able to enjoy your dog. All of us probably love our dogs, and we want to be able to enjoy time with them, hug them, cuddle them, play with them and have a dog who is happy to see us. So you will no longer have best friend but instead a slave. Your dog will also not be able to create a trusting bond with you because you no longer do these things.

Let’s look at some of the common aspects of a RRP:
Owners should eat first:
The basis for this is the misconception that the Alpha wolf would eat first, witch they don’t. Besides the fact that it is based on a myth, incorporating it would be difficult as everyone higher than the dog will need to eat before him. Ultimately your dog learns nothing from this from a behavioural standpoint.
Dogs are not allowed on furniture:
The thought here is that by allowing the dog to lay at the same spot as you, the dog would think he is at the same status as you are higher. In reality the only problem that can come from this could be resource guarding, which is not dominance.
Don’t play tug:
“Alpha” wolves or those of a higher status are believed to always win when tugging on meat. In reality tugging on meat by wolves is a combined effort to tear flesh apart, and has nothing to do with dominance. There are also studies that reveal that dogs play differently with dogs than they do with people. It revealed that with people it is more of play and not a contest.
Dogs should not go through doorways first:
Here it is thought that the “Alpha” would go in front. This is possible but mostly because they are more experienced and know where to go so they lead the pack, it is not dominance related. This is also not practical, imagine it rains? This may well still be something we teach as it is better to not have your dog pull you through doorways.
Dogs can’t lay on the top of the stairs:
It is believed that the “Alpha” would always lay on a higher surface than the rest of the pack. This is once again has nothing to do with status but rather safety as it provides a better vantage point.

Understanding how they can seem to work.
By removing something the dog likes after the dog has come to expect it is negative punishment. This can cause the dog to have the same reaction as they would with aversive punishment. Random punishment can cause the dog to feel helpless, cause conflict, response suppression and even depression. The RRP will end up punishing the dog randomly and therefor will have these affects and it will seem as though the dog is calmer.
Different dogs and breeds will view different things as important and have different thresholds. So the RRP will end up having a different effect on different dogs. Dogs will display resource guarding over things they see as valuable, this can be perceived as dominance and by taking that away the dog will not be able to resource guard as it does not have access to that resource. Dogs will also learn what works to keep their resource, this may also seem like dominance when it is actually a learnt behaviour. In actuality we should find out what is valuable, why and why the dog feels the need to guard it and fix that, not just remove resources.

24/12/2022

The guilt still eats at me. I still can’t let go of what I did to some animals. I was so convinced that what I was doing did not affect them, was for their own good or the only way. It’s why it hurts so much when I see other people who are so blinded. I know what that poor animal is going through. I know the unnecessary anger and frustration that comes with using punishment and force. I know the love gets lost through the process. I know the fear people instil in you. I WAS THERE. For 6 years I was there. For 6 years I caused animal’s pain and fear and called it training. For 6 years I thought it was the only way. For 6 years I did not know a dam thing about how they think and feel. For 6 years I was blinded. I lost myself.

A year ago I found myself again. I had to relearn everything from scratch. I had to unlearn so much. My perspective changed, my goals changed, and the sky became the limit. There was no more anger and frustration, only joy and some laughs. Mistakes no longer bother me, I laugh them out and try again. My one and only goal is for the animal to be happy and enjoy it. I did not expect anything so any progress came with so much joy, for the both of us.

Honestly training went from being a chore to being a fun game. The joy of an animal doing what you want willingly, and enjoying it. It is a win win. I didn’t have this overwhelming need to control them. I didn’t have a fear of them disobeying me. And because I have tons of research to back me I no longer cared what people thought.

I realized they were never the problem. I was.

23/12/2022

We are excited and proud to announce the completion and imminent launch of the MHERA: Mood Matters Book!

This insightful book provides a pivotal empathetic opportunity and tools for people to understand how to improve the lives of all animals - from our companion animals, to effective captive wildlife conservation and management.

By investing in this book, you’re investing in the emotional, mental and physical well-being of your animals, your client’s animals, and your own.

Gift yourself, colleague or family member with the joy of knowledge this Christmas - the book is available from the 5th of January 2023, for online purchase through DogWise, Amazon, Apple Books and Google Books.

22/12/2022

Crate training is more popular in some parts of the world than in others, but as with everything, there are some misconceptions about this training technique. ​

Crate training, done correctly, could be highly beneficial to your dog's mental and emotional well-being as it creates a safe haven for your dog when he is feeling tired or nervous. ​

Read the full article on how to crate train your dog here: https://coape.org/crate-training-how-and-why/

20/12/2022

The last thing we want is a dog who wants to bite us when we come near his food. This is normal behaviour for dogs to display. They treasure the resource in this case food and want to keep it for themselves. So they freeze, snarl, snap etc. to try to get you away from their resource.
What we ultimately want them to learn is that is not necessary to guard their stuff from us, and that we give and do not take.

The food bowl exercise:
We want the pup to associate us approaching while they eat or being around their food with good things. So we will be adding good things when approaching their food.
Starting out we will be giving the dog half of their food in their bowl and keep the rest with us. When they are finished we can add in a bit, let them finish that then continue till our half is finished too. Remember to put your hand into the bowl when placing food inside. The next step is to move on to adding food just before they are done eating.
Now you can start to remove the bowl when they are done then put more in and give the bowl back.
Lastly you can approach them, put in all their food and then add some high value food into their bowl while they eat, and then leave. Do this every now and again to maintain the association.

This is to PREVENT food related resource guarding.