Setting up your dog for training success

How to create a good dog training environment:

🐾 To begin with, train in a non-distracting environment to help your dog stay focused, then generalise the behaviours to more distracting environments.

🐾 Train when your dog is motivated.

🐾 Break behaviours down into small easy to learn steps.

🐾 Always allow your dog to opt out of the training when needed. For example, you may find your dog starts to sniff the floor suddenly, that’s her asking for a break. 

🐾 Minimise opportunities for your dog to choose an incorrect response, providing you with repeated opportunities to positively reinforce all of your dog’s correct responses (mark & treat).

Things I tell my clients to make their puppies’ and adult dogs’ day to day the best they can be

1. Everything starts with and is influenced by learning to ‘talk dog’ and understanding your dog’s needs (both physically and emotionally).

2. Good quality socialisation and habituation, working at your dog’s pace, is so much more important than teaching traditional behaviours such as sit, down, etc. 

3. On that note, a ‘sit’ isn’t as important as you think it is. And can matter of fact become an aversive for a dog with physical ailments. Don’t make it a default part of other behaviours you teach your dog.

4. Be your dog’s safe place and provide as much choice and agency as you can for your dog. 

5. A happy tummy and gut makes for a happy dog! 

6. Be more dog, you fur friend will love you for it.

Why a trusting relationship with your dog is worth a million times more than any ‘obedience’ training

Yesterday, Wolfgang got a special, big treat (‘cause she’s the best!) in form of a sausage. And whenever she gets too big a piece and it needs dissecting, she usually finds herself a quiet spot to attend to it.

But we were all cosy on the sofa and I saw in her little face how she was ‘debating’ over whether to pop down or how to go about it. 

So I offered my cupped hand and said ‘Do you want Mami to help?’. And she immediately dropped that juicy sausage on my hand and sat back, looking at me in anticipation while I broke it up into bite-sized pieces for her. Patiently waiting for me to feed her every delicious bit. 

And these moments of trust are what it’s all about (for me, at least).

For a dog to let go of such a high value food without a worry in the world (and no, I’m not in her head but she looked blissfully zero bothered). 

I use the ‘can I help’ cue for all sorts of situations including:

• When she stepped into something and can’t get it out of here paws (I walk to her or she hobbles over to me).

• When there is a little poo stuck and she can’t bum-shuffle it off (and gets quite freaked out over it).

• When she tries to get to the end of the Kong but can’t quite get that last bit right at the top out.

• If she tries to get to something but can’t quite reach….and much more

A few tips on how you can build a trusting relationship with your dog:

• Learn to talk dog so you can understand and communicate with your dog, and within this….

  • Allow your dog choice and control over their environment

• ALWAYS be your dogs safe place

• Don’t mess with your dog’s resources, AKA what’s important to them.

  • That includes simply letting them eat their meals rather than making a whole song and dance around waiting for five minutes, then reciting the alphabet before they can dig in.

• Accept your dogs personality: teach them cues so you can easily navigate this human world together but also accept that they might not want to allow strangers to pet them and that they, too, have crappy days where they might react to the environment.

• Don’t use aversive methods!!!!

Loving Miss Daisy

I've just received a wonderful review from a client who I've been working with on separation distress (for their rescue hound mix Daisy, isn't she the cutest).
We've been working together for a while, months! As that is what it (mostly) takes to help a dog over separation related issues (commonly known as 'separation anxiety').
We went from helping her to get over initial departure triggers (I.e. the human putting on shoes or a coat - slowly changing her association from panicked to relaxed) to slowly building up duration of absences (3mins, 5mins, slowly slowly is most often the key to success, teaching the dog a routine that surrounds the human coming back).
Daisy happily copes with 90 minutes now, sometimes even longer. Any longer is still difficult for her though so we are taking it back to baby steps, to help her over that hurdle gently.

Also, she went from hating long car journeys to breezily traveling along now. And from pulling like a truck on the lead to happily bouncing alongside her humans. All down to her humans' effort and care, being patient and understanding and just so so wonderful with her.

I do love my job!
Go Daisy!

OMG....WE WON AN AWARD!!!!

While the Will Smith / Chris Rock Oscar shenanigans are still circling the worldwide media, we too have an Award to announce [cue trumpets announcing Wolfgang entering the room riding naked on a white horse…).

Oh yeah, we only went and won ‘Dog Training Service of the Year’ at the Corporate LiveWire Global Awards.

And we even got a wonderful one page feature in the winners book….

So please excuse ourselves as we hop into a champagne bubble bath (with sausage dippers for Wolfgang of course)….