Recognising the importance of consent in our daily interactions with our dogs - from petting to playing and from husbandry procedures to training - is an essential first step to a better relationship with your dog.
We've won an Award!!!!
Very excited to announce that we have won another Award 🎉🎉🎉🎉
🐾 'Best Canine Behaviour Consultant 2024 (Southern Sweden)' at the Scandinavian Business Awards.
🙏 A massive thanks to all my wonderful clients who’ve taken the time and have left me great testimonials which hugely impacted on the judging panel’s decision.
🐕 And the biggest thanks to the one and only, Miss Wolfgang. This one is yours my little golden nugget ❤️
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).
THIS WAY
THIS WAY..for when you need to direct your dog in a general direction but don’t need them to come to you.
I use this verbal cue when the dog is off-lead to let her know “to come in my general direction” as well as for on-lead, as an ‘emergency exit’ behaviour to quickly get out of a potentially tricky situation.
Things I tell my clients to make their puppies’ and adult dogs’ day to day the best they can be
Everything starts with and is influenced by learning to ‘talk dog’ and understanding your dog’s needs (both physically and emotionally).
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.
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.
Be your dog’s safe place and provide as much choice and agency as you can for your dog.
A happy tummy and gut makes for a happy dog!
Be more dog, you fur friend will love you for it.
Teaching a harness or collar hold
Most dogs find it intimidating when you suddenly reach for them to grab their collar or harness and can become mouthy to keep your hands away from them or shy away from your reach.
Hence it’s important to teach them that this can be a positive experience, so you can then use it in potentially stressful situations.
How to teach your dog to ‘leave it’ without frustration
Quick tips for....
Set your dog up for success by starting this exercise at a distance and in an environment that is super easy and non distracting for your dog
Your dog doesn’t need to fail to learn. In fact, errorless learning will provide much quicker success. Plus, this ensures your dog doesn’t get frustrated by the learning process and instead builds confidence and a positive association with training
Remember training with your dog should always be fun, for the both of you.
Dog Training Tips
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!!!!
MULTIFUNCTIONAL CUES - WHAT, WHY & HOW 🤓🐕
Let’s face it, us humans are prone to be a little lazy (me included!) and what’s not to love about a cue that you can use in all sorts of different scenarios and for a variety of different behaviours.
Plus, we often forget our dog’s cues when we are caught up in a stressful situation, so having one or two words to fall back on will make every day management delightfully smooth.
Here is how to teach your furry friend these cues.
When The Going Gets Tough…. Force-free management tools for when things get messy
You are working with your reactive dog on making the world a less stressful place for them…
You are out and about socialising your puppy….
You are training with your adolescent dog, ironing out a couple of teenage tricky behaviours…
One moment the world is at peace, then suddenly something happens that sends your dog into melt down frenzy (out of fear, over-excitement, frustration…).
In this heightened emotional state most dogs struggle to respond to a cue, and management is key.
The following force-free management tools will help you to swiftly, and positively, get out of a potentially messy situation.
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)….
CHOICE MATTERS TO YOUR DOG!
Let’s face it, our dogs have very little choice and control over their day to day existence. They have no say over when they want to eat (or how much!!) or how much time to spend in the park. Whether they actually want that stranger to pat them on the head (while they can’t get away ‘cause there’s that thing called a lead that renders them stationary) or if this really is the ideal time to go to bed.
So whereas there are some things that we of course do no need to decide and manage on their behalf, in order to ensure they stay safe and healthy, providing choice for your dog wherever possible will make a huge difference to their overall wellbeing and will certainly improve the relationship you have with your furry friend.
Choice as well as being able to predict what happens next, whether that is via a routine or offering choice, make dogs feel safe. And feeling safe means less stress and more contentment; resulting in a confident, healthy and happy dog. What’s not to love?
Five Quick Tips....Recall
1. Take the time
To generate reliable recall, it’s important to take the time to build a 100% positive experience with your chosen recall cue (command) with high value rewards (such as chicken or hot dog). If your dog’s recall isn’t rewarded often and well enough then your dog will be more likely to continue to do their own thing, i.e. playing with other dogs or sniffing something of great interest which is terribly reinforcing in itself, and ignore your call.