Doggone WILD

08/17/2023

12/12/2021

No matter what happens stay calm and feel confident so you can exert love and create joy! Teaching little Fritz to have patience before we cross the street as well as a lesson on heel. Im super proud of Fritz!

09/15/2021

Knowledge is power! If you knew better you’ll do better 😌

Credits to Dobercademy for this post

Why I don’t use punishment or aversives whilst training my dog

1. They don’t teach an alternative behaviour

Aversives or punishment doesn’t teach my dog what to do instead. It doesn’t teach my dog to engage with me in a more relaxed and reinforcing manner. It doesn’t build trust or relationship and definitely doesn’t build a partnership between us.

2. They teach negative associations

I don’t want my dog’s behaviour to become worse around his triggers. I don’t want him to become more fearful when he sees another dog. This would mean he has double the stress & fear! That of the other dog and what happen to him if he reacts! I don’t want to make him feel like that. Punishment and aversive tools & techniques will re-enforce that there is plenty to fear around other dogs and may even make the behaviour worse.

3. Punishment & Aversives suppress natural body language, signals and warnings

Punishment works in the moment and suppresses our dog’s emotions and feelings. It may make us feel better having dealt with the situation and controlled our dog but in reality what training have we achieved and how does our dog feel having suppressed his emotions in order to avoid pain in the situation?

Remember we are dealing with what our dog is feeling - not his obedience.

Why can’t my dog just sit and chill?
- If that worked there would be no reactive dogs
Forcing your dog into a sit (if indeed they can even manage that in a situation) only serves to increase the stress/frustration level, the kindest thing to do for your dog is move him quickly away from the trigger whilst you are in the process of teaching him alternative ways to cope and behave.

Can my dog “get over it”?

Reactive dogs can be taught to feel differently about their “triggers” with their owner’s consistent patience, help & guidance. We may not always be able to completely eliminate the fear or stress of a trigger but we can definitely help our dog to learn to cope better and teach him more appropriate behaviours around them.

I prefer my dog to trust me and feel safe in my presence knowing that I will take good care of him and show him the way.

07/20/2021

Credit for this post: Eureka Dog Services 

🛇 Use your Manners! 🛇
The Sniff test - Stop doing that!
The sniff test - a badly engrained habit that society has been taught, without a clear understanding of what they're actually doing.

🚩When you reach out towards a dog, you are using body pressure AT them, giving them no time to assess whether you are safe & whether they require further investigation to pick up your information. You are forcing an interaction of a relationship that hasn't had time to develop. To some dogs, this is quite rude & the reason a lot of dogs snap at or bite people. This can cause alot of behavioral issues because of layered stress due to forced interactions.

🚩If they are on lead, they have no where to go if they are sensitive to spacial pressure, so can end up shutting down, shying away or snapping at your hand so you back off. This is an example of how a dog is now using pressure to turn off pressure & make you back off so they aren't so stressed.

🚩People think by offering your hand it can give the dog time to sniff to know you're friendly... they can sniff without being forced to sniff your hand.Their noses are far more superior than ours & they don't need close contact forced upon them to smell you.

🚩Some dogs might not want to know you. You have no relationship with them and that's perfectly fine. They aren't your dog so you don't need to touch them or steal pats for your own satisfaction.

🤔 If you are meeting a dog, what should you do?
⚠Ask the owner if you can interact with their dog. Not all people want strangers touching their dogs. Especially strangers who you are unlikely to see again.
⚠Stand up straight & relaxed, with your hands at your side.
⚠Ignore the dog & talk to the owner.
⚠Don't stare at the dog & don't try to force an interaction by going in for a pat. If the dog wants to know you, it will come up to you & sniff around. Usually they will move away & then come back for a second sniffathon. Some dogs will bunt your hands & wag their tails, which are good signs that you're likely an accepted new friend. Give them a few slow pats down their back (NOT THEIR HEAD) & then stop. Is the dog happy? Has it accepted your interaction? This will determine whether you can give it more pats.

🐶This is a more stress free option for dogs & a reason why in consultations we can develop a good level of trust, especially with fearful dogs & aggressive dogs, without a bunch of negative side effects from forced interactions.

04/29/2021

Patience training 101 !

04/29/2021

Dopeys progress in off leash training. We are FAR from finished though. BABY STEPS

11/26/2020

This was my family's first dog, her name was Tina she was a cattle dog

10/29/2020

Nyc dog's

10/20/2020

Just as much as we need them, they need us 100x more!

10/19/2020

Pitbulls get the worst rep. And they are one of the best dogs.