Creature Comforts Dog Training

09/30/2021

Whatever training decisions you are making, however you choose to explain things to dogs, know that you’re also teaching feelings. Feeling about what school is like, what you are like, what it’s like to be with you, lead by you and under your control, whether you intend to or not…. Make your training intentional 🐾

08/25/2021

How much pain would you have to be in to walk with a limp? To cry out in pain? To even grimace around people you don’t know? Probably a lot right?

There are so many ways our dogs can feel pain before we see them start to yike, whimper, or limp. Our dogs can’t tell us how they’re feeling, so we need to be keen observers. We especially need to trust that they’re telling the truth. Dogs aren’t deceptive, lazy or stubborn. When they tell you something is wrong, believe them.

Pain can look like:
💠Reluctance to participate in things they used to enjoy.
💠Short fuse with dog or human friends.
💠Having a low tolerance for frustration.
💠Disinterest in eating.
💠Out of context panting, yawning, or dilated pupils.
💠Sleeping more or less than usual.
💠Most sudden changes in behaviour.

If you think your dog might be uncomfortable, talk to your vet. Tell them why you think your pet may be in pain! Ask about how it can be definitively ruled out. Be their advocate; they’re relying on you!

08/18/2021

This is something I say to my clients often: behaviour change is about looking at the long game. The long game is why we choose force free training! The long game is what success looks like.

They say it takes 60 days for humans to make a habit. 60 days! So, when we’re changing a dogs behaviour, we can expect it to take some time. That’s why we use the laws of behaviour science in our training plans: because we won’t see our results right away. Luckily, many researchers before us gave us the data we need to predict what WILL happen given enough repetition, time, and skill! Instead of throwing mud at the wall and seeing what sticks, we can choose a plan that we know will lead us to the end results we want.

That’s not to say you have to just deal in the meantime. We have a web of management plans to make sure you have a right now solution. But, for things to really change, we have to stick to a plan for some time.

The good news is: we have our dogs for a long time! Spending 2-3 months working hard on a behaviour problem means a lifetime of the fun stuff! Quick fixes fall apart just as quickly. Instead, commit and be patient. Behaviour science always work- play the long game.

07/15/2021

Love this graphic so much!

This is also why using R+ for training is so important. We’ll get the behaviours we want, and the happy affect comes along for the ride!

Both operant and classical learning are happening at all times; they are not standalone principles. When I say this, it often causes pushback and confusion, so I teamed up with Doggie Drawings by Lili Chin to create this graphic. I hope it helps! Please share and do be sure to like Lili's page!

04/21/2021

It hardly needs repeating, but in case anyone wanted new data about how harmful aversive methods are, here ya go!

This group of behavioural scientists used both biological and behavioural measures of welfare to understand how dogs trained in different ways were affected by the training.

The 3 groups of a combined total of 92 dogs were trained using either "aversive-based" (training based on use of physical punishment as primary motivator for learning), "mixed" (a mix of punishment and reward), and "reward" (with rewards as the primary motivator for learning).

Training sessions were filmed, and behaviours which are understood to indicate stress levels or negative emotional state were measured.
Immediately before and after training, a sample of saliva was taken in order to measure Cortisol (a hormone released in response to stress).

Additionally, dogs were exposed to a scenario to understand their optimism vs. pessimism - the latter being understood to be more likely when you expect a greater chance of loss over probable reward,

It was found that the dogs in the "Aversive" group showed more instances of panting and negative behavioural state than either the "mixed" or "reward" groups, but that even the "mixed group" showed the same inclination for low welfare measures.
The same was true in the non-training scenario, where dogs in the "aversive" and "mixed" groups showed poorer measures of welfare than the "reward" trained dogs.

Negative state behaviours included:
- tense & low body posture
- moving away from the handler

Cortisol measures found significant increases in cortisol levels for dogs in the "Aversive" group, compared to the "reward" group.

Interestingly, only the "mixed" group used pinch/prong, and Ecollar, whereas the "aversive" groups used check chains.
However, it was also seen that no matter the group, the higher a proportion of punishment was used, the more stressed the dog.

The implications of the study suggest that rather than pain from physical punishment being the reason that dogs find this style of training so stressful (yelping was rare, and whining found no differences between groups - both common signals of pain in dogs). Dogs find the use of physical punishment, especially when in high proportion, emotionally damaging.

The use of physical punishment seems to have far-reaching effects into a dogs life, even affecting its cognitive bias (optimism vs. pessimism) when facing a new situation.

There are numerous other studies suggesting the use of physical punishment can increase the likelihood of a dog showing aggression - simply go into Google Scholar, and search "aggression punishment dog".

Link to the study I am referencing:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0225023

12/30/2020

This post is coming a little late, but as of December 26th, Creature Comforts Dog Training has closed temporarily in accordance with the newest provincial mandate for COVID-19 safety.

Frankly, this post is coming late because this lockdown hit me like a ton of bricks. I’m SAD. And I’m sure I’m not the only one! I miss the dogs, I miss my job, and I miss stability the most. It’s hard to feel like we’re back where we started in March.

But the thing is we’re NOT where we started in March. We’ve come so far, helped so many dogs, learned so much, and had so many unforgettable moments with dogs and their people. I’m bummed to be locked down, but I’m doing everything I can to remember that even if I’m stopping, this is just what moving forward looks like right now. That this, just like the first lockdown, will end and I’ll get to have my hands on many pups every day again soon. For now, I just have to trust that some expert somewhere knows what the heck they’re doing with these mandated closures!

If you’re waiting on a response to your email, I’ll be getting to them today and tomorrow. Thank you for your patience and I promise we’re thinking of you guys constantly. DM me if you have any questions!

12/16/2020

After much puppy stress, I’m finally ready to tell you guys a bit about this guy. Things to know about C**t: he’s a dog-savvy little sprite who enjoys bringing the ruckus but avoids conflict at all costs, he likes his sleep a LOT, people are only as good as the snacks in their pockets, and he’s got big 🧐😈 energy (in that particular order). He’s sweet, intelligent, thoughtful, and self-assured. Also, running trust-leaps into mama’s arms are his favourite pastime.

It hasn’t all been fun and rainbows though. The weight of the stress I’ve experienced raising C**t was, at times, extremely overwhelming. As he went through stages that I know full well are perfectly normal for a puppy of his age, I was STRESSED. Thoughts I knew were ridiculous were playing like a broken record in my head like: "my puppy is sometimes moving away from strangers and what if he is IRREVERSIBLY AGGRESSIVE FOREVER." I knew these thoughts were irrational. Knowing that changed nothing. I worried on.

So if you’re out there raising a puppy and you’re thinking "WHY AM I SO UPSET ALL THE TIME", just know it’s the puppy. It’s not you. It’s the little bundle of needs, expectations, p**s, and terrible ideas that you recently welcomed into your home. No amount of preparation, knowledge, or skill would’ve made you exempt. It just comes with the territory.

These days, I’m feeling better and better each day. The best thing I did to ease my stress was to enlist the help of the best Toronto’s pet industry has to offer. S/O to: - You have all, at one point or another, talked me off a cliff with C**t whether you knew you were doing it or not.

My point? I’m not sure! I hope that this bit of vulnerability helps you feel better about your puppy though. I know when I read everyone else’s posts (s/o to for keeping it real about the puppy blues), I feel better and less alone. So here’s to feeling better, here’s to feeling supported, and most of all, here’s to the bright, shining future we each have with our terrifying little blobs.

12/12/2020

Hope the algorithm doesn’t take vengeance on me for two posts in one day, but I can’t sit on this news for a second longer!

I am beyond delighted to announce the newest member of the Creature Comforts Dog Training team, Miranda McGillivray. Miranda is a graduate of and a long-standing dog walker mainstay in Toronto’s Roncesvalles neighbourhood with her business

Miranda will be bringing a lot of skill and experience to the team while keeping with our “R+ for human and animal learners” approach. I wish I had words for how lucky I feel to be adding another massive talent to our team. In lieu of those words just know: I literally CANNOT wait to get your dogs into Miranda’s capable and kind hands!

Everybody say hello and welcome to Miranda! We cannot wait to show you everything she and these dogs can accomplish!

12/12/2020

The beauty of using science in dog training is that you know it to be true! If you’re trying a practical application and you don’t see results, you can troubleshoot knowing it’s not the principle itself that’s faulty. It is something in your application of it that needs adjustment.

Which is why when I hear someone say “I tried classical conditioning and it didn’t work”, I know we’ve got some digging to do! Here are a few of the most common errors made in classical conditioning training plans. Have you felt like classical conditioning doesn’t work? Slide into my DMs, let’s find your missing link 😉

09/30/2020

‼️ 𝐛𝐢𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 ‼️⁣
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You guys, sitting on this news for the past month or so has been incredibly difficult and I am SO glad that it’s finally time to share.⁣
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Creature Comforts is beyond honoured to announce that we are welcoming Tamara Arnew of to our team. Tamara will be joining us as a behaviour technician and tackling some cases through our Walk and Train program.⁣
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Tamara is a parkour instructor and a naughty dog specialist. She’s worked with rescue dogs for a long, long time, and has made the slow transition (through education and experience) from being a professional dog walker for reactive and special needs dogs to being a professional trainer. We’re excited to be Tamara’s next step in her impressive career!⁣
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I hope that you all can join me in giving a big, warm, Creature Comforts welcome to Tamara. You’re going to be seeing a lot of her around here in the next little while and I can’t wait to show you guys all that she’s capable of!

09/15/2020

Today I want to invite you all to think about how you can make your relationship with your dog more equitable! We expect a lot of our dogs and I think it’s only fair that we let them expect a lot of us too.

08/06/2020

Saw a post on Facebook today from my colleague that got me thinking about the word “compliance”.

When an aversive trainer is successful, the best we can possibly hope for is compliance. Our dogs perform because if they don’t, bad things will happen to them. They learn to fear us, shut down, or only enjoy themselves when we’re not around.

When we use the framework of cooperation, we end up with dogs who continually opt in to interacting with us. We end up with dogs who, when something out of the ordinary happens, they look to us for instructions. We end up with dogs who look us in the eye, wag their tails, and tilt their heads when we say whatever gobblety g**k human nonsense we want to say to them! And we end up with dogs who know that when s**t hits the fan, they need to go find their human. Stat.

Ultimately, we can’t train to prepare for every situation that will come up in life. There’s just too many variables. When we train without force, coercion, or pain, we prepare ourselves for those curveballs. We let our dogs know that no matter what happens, we’re a source of joy. When we train without the use of pain or intimidation, we become the vessel through which magic enters their lives instead of simply someone impeding their access to life’s joys!