Gallery 6
Milo
Milo is a very young, highly energetic, female Boxer with lots of attitude.
She had some foundation obedience, but was putting far to much value on other dogs, ignoring her handler if a dog was close.
This is very common and can be, in most cases, tracked back to taking the dog to off leash dog parks, or, as in this case, putting the dog in doggie day care facilities where there are no qualified trainers supervising the interactions.
Well, thanks to the owners making the recommended changes, and putting in the time and effort required, we are starting to see some great improvements in this young girl's behaviour.
"Honey"
The Labrador Retriever.
Honey can be, as most Labs, a bit too excited and loves meeting people, which she would greet by jumping excitedly up on them whilst wiggling her whole body in delight.
She had absolutely no respect for personal space, taking her for a walk was a matter of hanging on for your dear life as - the handler was pretty much just an anchor which was not helped by using equipment such as a retractable lead and a harness. (Both pieces of equipment can work really nicely, but the dog has learn how "not to pull" first as it will otherwise encourage the dog to pull more. We teach both handler and dog different techniques to achieve this including building engagement and strengthening "pack drive".
The video to the left, demonstrates the power of Classical Conditioning when done properly, in this case involving recalls.
This is only her second session in public, from here we'll up the ante somewhat; it will be a new venue with more distractions etc.
February 9th 2020The next video is a small taste of what we worked on at Riverway Saturday, March 1st 2020, different environment and more distractions to contend with.
Dogs tend to gravitate towards one person in the family a bit more than others, and in this case she was responding a bit better to the male owner rather than to the female, with some other dog, this might have been the other way around.
This kind of behaviour is normal, it does not mean the dog "love" one person more than the other, but it can cause frustration as the dog may listen to one of the owners more so than the other when asked to do something - and quite often completely ignore it.
It is therefore very helpful to occasionally train with that person and the dog on their own, this will help with strengthening the bond, increase the level of engagement, which in turns leads to better obedience and less frustration.
March 1st 2020Short video showing a bit from our place training this morning, Friday, March 13th 2020.
Knox had never done this exercise in this environment before, and as it incorporates a default "down" when on "place", chances are something will give - and it did.
I thought it was important to show this with "warts and all", it's early days and we cannot expect nor demand ,perfection.
Oh, shock horror, the handler had to correct the dog.....
Little bit more practice and they'll be ready to take this to the next level with lots more distractions.
Below, new area, lots more distractions. :)
"Knox"
Knox is a very young, male Siberian Husky, just turned 6 months old when I started working with him.
First things first; foundation obedience, learning to yield to leash pressure instead of doing "the sled-dog thing", and of course, ensuring he gets a solid recall.
Mike and Millie - the Staffy pups
Been working with these two lovely 6 months old Staffy pups for a while now.
Neither of them had any foundation obedience in place, and most importantly; no recall at all.
Thanks to a lot of engagement exercises, we have built a great relationship between both dogs and their handlers, recalls are coming together very nicely, and the progress overall cannot be faulted.
We've had to change how we train due to COVID0-19, than not only means having to observe strict social distancing, but also having to train the two dogs completely separate from each other, with only one handler being present at the time.
In many cases, training two dogs in the same location, with both dogs present, can be helpful as the dog not being trained is watching the one being trained.
However, in this particular case, we discovered right away that separate training had a great, positive effect on Mike.
Mike is not as assertive nor confident as his sister, Millie, when the two are in the same space, and today, being on his own, he really came out of his shell, he was much more confident and did some wonderful work.
April 5th 2020
Video right:
From this morning's session (April 12th)at Riverway, just look at the engagement this young dog is offering - also take into consideration this is brand new environment for the dog - and she is on a 5 metre leash, so she can go anywhere she likes - if she wanted to.
Two videos from our session on April 19th 2020.
This was all about building confidence; neither of the dogs had seen this equipment before, let alone gone through a tunnel. :)
I have deliberately included footage in Millie's video, showing what happens when you ask too much too soon, and instead of slicing the wanted behaviour into smaller slices, they were lumped together. This is all on me, yes, shock, horror, trainers make mistakes too. :)
The two videos above shows a snippet of their very first session at The Strand, Townsville. Lots of new distractions, including the strong scents from the ocean and the beach, and both pups nailed it.
This was our last, formal session, these young dogs have come a long way in a space of only a few weeks - and it's all because of their highly dedicated owners. :)
May 3rd 2020
