Our Safe Dog Handling & Interactions online course has become our foundation course, essential for all dog lovers.
Lucky for you, we have space on our last course of 2023!
For all the details and to book your spot go here.
All our interactions with dogs are welfare based and that’s what this course is about. When we are interacting and handling dogs with care, compassion and their comfort in mind, we will be safer too.
This course helps raise and establish your awareness of how dogs are experiencing interactions with you and adjustments you can make to maintain and improve their comfort.
This is the last run of this course this year and it’s well worth your while to join in. There are four meetings and lots of resources for your review. Your entire course can be downloaded and all meetings are recorded so you don’t need to worry about missing dates.
Book today!
For all the details and to book your spot go here.
If you are volunteering/working with a rescue organisation, we will donate a place for you to participate.
Learn more about studying with us and why you should choose AniEd! If you feel you are experiencing any barriers to studying, talk to us and we will do our best to help you. Payment plans are available too.
It will be no surprise to any of you reading this that our dogs do not and cannot live long enough. As the saying goes, it’s their only fault.
I accept and acknowledge this. My mantra is that they’re here for a good time, not for a long time. So I want to make sure dogs have the goodest of times over every minute of their relatively short lives.
While I want to keep my dog safe, a safe and sedentary life is slowly killing many many pet dogs, assigning them to a long and often miserable life. Yes we can keep them safe but they also need to live. Live a good dog life.
Decker has always been gung-ho and has been very hard on his body (and on mine). But he has been robustly healthy, and I didn’t make an insurance claim until he was about 8. Soon after turning nine, running at his usual torpedo speed, he got caught between some rocks and shredded his CCL. A good healthy and strong ligament but a few toes misplaced by centimetres resulted in a bit of a reckoning for me.
All the care I had put in at every step of the way, from before he was even conceived, and I couldn’t prevent this from happening. He didn’t have the predispositions most often associated with this injury and joint disease, and I thought I had done all the things to make sure this sort of thing didn’t happen. Shows what I know.
Since that he has experienced several other near-death incidents, largely associated with him living his best life as full on as possible. All of which, he has so far recovered from apparently unscathed.
While his behavioural resilience is solid and astounding, I can see each of these knocks are accumulating. His old body is not bouncing back as it once did. Every little knock, on top of all the other knocks, is taking some life from him.
At the same time, it’s knocking me. I can’t control incidents and accidents, I can’t prevent them. And I don’t want to restrict his living his life to the absolute fullest. This lack of control feeds my anxiety.
And my anticipatory grief.
He is old.
Decker is an almost 12 year old AmStaff. This is a dog who is typically very hard on their body and are not known for living on into their teens. When I say Decker is old, I mean he’s old for an AmStaff. Just recently, as I qualified this to another person, they interjected and agreed that he is old. For a dog.
But no matter our dogs’ age, we go into this pretty safe in the knowledge that they will likely be leaving before we do. Indeed, we may go through this many times over our long lives; I have loved and lost many many dogs. Every time, I go into it with the hope that we will have forever together, but the knowledge that we will have just a few short years.
I live with and love an old dog. And I have all sorts of conflicting feelings about that.
Anticipatory Grief is Real
Grieving relating to pet loss is certainly very real, but grief doesn’t just come after loss.
As our pets age, or if they experience chronic illness, we can start to grieve for the life and experiences we won’t have with them. We start to imagine what life might be like without them, and think about how we are going to cope with that. Anticipatory grief might even have us thinking about the practicalities of their loss and after their loss.
The strong emotional experiences associated with grieving loss can be paralysing. This can overwhelm in anticipation of loss too, and the concern may be that this impacts how we spend what time we have left together.
Our pets are unlikely to be aware of this, lucky for them. They probably don’t have awareness of their impending demise and are not thinking about the life they won’t get to live.
When we experience anticipatory grief our awareness and sensitivity may be heightened. It’s important that we can recognise it and its effects on us providing for their needs. They still have life to live and they still need to live that life to the fullest. No matter how long.
Maybe anticipatory grief can be a bit of a gift too. Don’t get me wrong, there’s lots of crying and pain. But maybe, just maybe, anticipatory grief can help us start to prepare for loss and narrow our focus to concentrate on making sure every minute we have left together will be the best.
It can help us be in the moment with them, increase our awareness of each moment together, the sensory experiences of those moments.
The thoughts of what’s to come is overwhelming but in this moment, we are still together. Make it the best moment, and the same for the next moment, and the next.
Focus on those feelings and remember, they’re here for a good time, not for a long time.
I take photos. So many photos. Photos of our adventures together. I get to live it, remember it, and photograph it. He is living his best life and I’m just along for the ride. Decker’s adventures can be followed here (@fwwhiskeyontherocks).
There are lots of ways to help a dog showing fear-related behaviours, but “facing their fear”, “socialising” them, exerting social pressure or coercion and/or attempting to lure them with food are generally not appropriate, safe, kind or effective.
The dog’s behaviour is information telling us what they need. When they display avoidance behaviour, distance and relief meet those needs.
Helping them feel safer is key, not attempting to be friends with them. That might come, but safety first!
Our approaching them, touching them, and even talking to them may not bring them comfort in those moments, when their brain is telling their body to get outta there!
Preventing new people coming in on top of them, giving them space from unfamiliar people, having them on lead, and their own human making sniffing for yummies happen are really important foundations for guest greeting protocols.
Think of establishing a new and predictable guest greeting routine and practice with familiar people first.
It might look something like this:
have your guests call or message rather than approaching the door
secure your dog in another room or area, ideally where they can’t see your guests, before you answer the door
bring your guests in and settle them
scatter some amazing yummies on the floor in the area you will hang out with your dog
visit with your dog, calm them a little, pop them on lead
when you bring them into the room with your guests, move to the furthest spot
encourage your dog to snuffle for the goodies
continue to toss treats for them
Alternatively, have your guests wait outside and bring your dog out on lead. Circle around behind your guests and have them enter the house and settle. Bring the dog in after and give them space and time for snuffling.
With that in place to establish more predictable guest greeting routines, we can start to teach the dog new skills.
Monster is Moving
This is a communication game and a great way to improve predictability and provide them with ways of controlling what happens to them.
At their safe distance (which they determine and we interpret via their responses), we teach the dog to control the situation:
1. Teach the dog to move away and eat tossed treats – food is tossed away from the Monster, into free space
2. Wait for them to learn to look toward the Monster before tossing & moving. Reinforce by tossing away. Two rewards: distance + yummies
3. When offered fluently, add a verbal cue, “Ready!”
Say “Ready!”, wait for them to look toward (eye contact not necessary and lifting their head might be sufficient), toss so they can move away.
4. At BIG distances, and after lots of practice establishing this exercise as part of a predictable guest greeting routine, cue “Ready!”, toss, Monster moves, toss again.
The Monster moves only when the dog can move away.
Practice guest greeting routines and this game with people with whom the dog is comfortable before introducing Monsters! Distance is always your friend, and is the function of fear related behaviours.
You are asking the dog if they are ready at each stage. Listen to the dog and give them what they need!
We have started a new program of webinars, that we hope to develop further, and the best bit is that they are pay-what-you-can!
We want to get evidence based information out there to everyone and reduce barriers in terms of accessibility and financials. This weekend, and next, we are starting this venture.
I have kept the numbers small and am going to take a few more so we have a group, with nobody falling through the cracks.
Our first, examining behavioural euthanasia, is this weekend.
And the following, looks at applying fundamental principles in creative ways:
You can find more information and book your spot here.
Are you interested in applying for our CBTT program, when applications open?
Maybe you are aware of the buzz about teaching husbandry behaviours to animals and want to explore even more…?
We are bringing this course forward, for one, because it’s an awesome and important course, but also, for those wishing to continue with our CBTT program. This course is the perfect starter to get a taste for working with us and for immersing yourself in evidence based education.
Teaching husbandry behaviours to captive animals was very much inspired by Project Pigeon, a US government sponsored program teaching pigeons to guide bombs. This took Skinner’s operant shaping outside the lab and to another species. About a decade later, during the 1950’s some of his colleagues, the Brelands, began working with marine mammals in parks.
The rest, as they say, is history but it took us quite a while to bring these principles from captive wild collections like zoos into the companion animal veterinary context.
The ever broadening popularity of programs such as iCatCare Cat Friendly and Fear Free continues to spread awareness, building on increasing interest in the welfare of our companion animals during husbandry procedures that’s been developing in the industry for last two or three decades.
Understanding this history is important as the evolution of this area has really accelerated. And that means we must scrutinise and carefully critically evaluate the approaches we take to avoid fads and social media hype.
Concepts such as “choice” and “cooerpative care” sound like something we want to add…but what does this really mean for our animal learners? Often times, when we use food and attempt to reduce force (from our point of view), we believe we are applying these concepts under a positive reinforcement umbrella. But, just because we want to provide choices and just because we use food doesn’t mean the animal’s experience is choice filled and cooperative.
How can we know if we are really doing what we intend? Can our dogs really be ‘cooperative’ or give ‘consent’?
We will investigate this intensively during this course.
This thorough understanding allows us to develop husbandry interventions and programs…but we also must be able to apply this understanding.
And that’s why excellent mechanical teaching skills are emphasised too. If you are teaching cleanly and from a welfare-perspective, fuzzy concepts like “consent”, “choice” and “cooperative” care, are not required.
On this course, you also have free access to our Foundation Mechanical Skills program so that you are sure to have the support to apply your programs so that you learner is supported and learns efficiently. Teaching mechanics are a welfare issue!
What do I get when I take this course?
24/7 access to the course online area, from anywhere, for six months (& beyond)
six remote course group meetings during which we will go through course content and set up you up for ongoing homestudy and teaching practice
regular individual remote coaching sessions, as needed, and distributed throughout course delivery
multi-media learning resources for viewing and downloading
about 20 mini-lectures (in the form of written presentations supported by videos, images, exercises & multi-media resources) covering husbandry program development and related evidence presented in small-ish bites so that you can take time to process and analyse
free access to our Foundation Mechanical Skills program which is packed full of practical information & demonstrations to help you apply clean & welfare-centric teaching
comment facility at the online course area for participation, enquiries, interactions
ongoing online interaction with fellow-students and your tutor as we take this journey of discovery together
Submission of final assessment work is optional but you are encouraged to work through assessment and self-evaluation to support knowledge development and skill building.
Obviously, to get the full benefit, we encourage the fullest possible participation.
After successfully submitting completed final assessment work, you will be awarded an AniEd certificate of achievement.
When is this course?
This Deep Dive course opens on Monday 21st August and as soon as you have completed enrolment on or after this date, you will be sent the first of your course content so that you can begin!
Our first remote meeting is on Sunday 10th September and you much have completed enrolment by this date to join this run.
Where?
Anywhere, any time! This course is entirely online so you can participate when and where you like….from your sofa…in your PJs… You will have access to all the course materials to download to your device so you can work even without an internet connection.
Who?
This course is for all trainers, teachers, behaviour pros, hobbyists and pet guardians with a keen interest in teaching our animal learners in the most welfare centric way, and in examining our applications of positive reinforcement based interventions.
To get maximum benefit, you should have a basic understanding of applying operant teaching, using markers (like clickers) and delivering reinforcement. It’s particularly suited to dog care pros such as veterinary personnel, training/behaviour pros and groomers.
All are welcome, no matter how you teach or train. This course emphasises a reinforcement based approach to teaching and teaching approaches that maximises the learners’ control. As teachers, we are responsible for setting up our learners for success so application of punishers and aversives is minimised.
How long?
This course consists of six remote meetings which act as cornerstones to guide your ongoing learning across six months.
However, we don’t put pressure on learners about deadlines so this is individual and can be discussed with each learner. More about Studying with AniEd here.
How much?
This course costs €220. You can pay the entire fee or discuss an agreed upon payment plan with us. (Simply ask by emailing info@anied.ie)
Course fees must be paid in full before you can access the online area. Please read the terms at application carefully before committing as there are no refunds, full or partial, for any reason, after you have been given access to course materials.
What will I learn about?
There are six parts to this course, each part examined during each remote meeting.
Part 1:
examining fuzzy concepts
giving the animal “control”
principles of husbandry teaching
history & evidence
Part 2:
understanding the veterinary experience for all stakeholders
Part 3:
Level 1 Husbandry Interventions & Programs
Setting the Scene
Part 4:
Level 2 Husbandry Interventions & Programs
Teaching coping/management skills
Part 5:
Level 3 Husbandry Interventions & Programs
Husbandry at Home
Part 6:
Level 4 Husbandry Interventions & Programs
Teaching husbandry behaviours
Anne Rogers will be your tutor on this course. Here she works with her beloved Decker on some ear husbandry:
Email address/account, a suitable device and internet access; course materials are presented in MS Word, PDF and links for downloading. You should not have difficulty on most devices and OS.
Stationary for note-taking (if that’s the way you work).
You need to be able to use the internet, blogs, social media, and if you wish to participate to the fullest, be able to record and upload short demonstration clips, complete assessment work in Word documents, PDFs and other basic computer skills.
To complete some assessment work, and get the most out of most of our courses, you will need access to at least one dog or animal learner. While most discussion is dog-focused, all animal learners may participate.
Means to video yourself and upload your clips for guidance and feedback and to submit assessment work. You will be required to upload video assessment work, according to assessment guidelines, to a video sharing site, such as YouTube.
Access to MS Teams (we will send you a link, you don’t even need an account, just an email address), and a device that allows you to participate in online video meetings for group meetings and private coaching sessions.
You will need general training/handling equipment, markers, reinforcers, husbandry tools such as brushes or grooming equipment appropriate to your chosen procedures & programs. It is recommended that you purchase toy or mock veterinary equipment, such as children’s doctor or vet kits that include toy stethoscope and so on. Having access to a safe table or elevated surface on which to work with your learner, such as a grooming table or sofa, for example, is helpful too.
APPLY!
Are you up for this challenging and rewarding course? Join us today!
In developing a program for in-home care visits, I really wanted the opportunity to hang out with cool dogs. Just me + your dog!
I recognise that there are lots of dogs who will benefit most from hanging out at home, while their humans are away, rather than going somewhere else for care. I want to help these special dogs but really I want to hang out with some cool dogs!
What happens during in-home care visits? Recently I provided six visits, over three days for Mo, who is Behaviour Matters team member.
Given our understanding of canine behaviour and managing canine stress, we can structure these visits so that the dog has appropriate outlets for their stress and to facilitate their recovery so that they can relax until their next visit.
Initial Crazies
When a person enters the home, whether familiar or unfamiliar, the dog is expected to experience a surge in arousal, which prepares them for interactions, positive, negative or unknown.
In a new context, with their humans away, spending time alone, and a person entering, we might expect the dog to experience greater swings in these responses.
Rather than attempting to “calm” the dog, I prefer to channel it and provide the dog with outlets to redirect their experiences. These are the initial crazies!
Mo tells me, in no uncertain terms, that he’s not quite got all the crazies out just yet so football should continue!
Usually providing something for the dog to bite at, chew, or even just carry can help. I might pair that with some chasing or other energy expenditure that allows for focusing on something. That’s what arousal does; it hones focus so that the dog can deal with that specific challenge.
As the crazies begin to reduce in intensity, we can switch to some games that encourage a little more thinking through arousal, and rollercoaster in some sniffing breaks.
This helps the crazy to taper off a little so that we can clear the way for some sniffing and get ready for further activities that provide more well rounded activities.
The Go Find It! game is one of my favourites for bridging those gaps and rollercoastering.
Once we have some of the initial crazy out, we can structure a visit to allow for both physical and mental exercise and entertainment.
We start with more engrossing and exciting activities and rollercoaster throughout.
Activities will depend on the individual dog, their circumstance and preferences. Their behaviour is information telling us what they need, and what reinforcers their behaviours. These will be the activities they will seek out so I want to make sure there is an abundance of reinforcers available for that dog.
One of my favourites, particularly if the dog isn’t going on adventures with me, are SNIFFARI boxes, bringing the smellside inside!
Mo loves bubble chasing but as a less arousing and exerting version of this game, we played bubble-hunting instead! By firing the bubbles into the longer grass, they remain stuck, allowing for more systematic hunting.
Walks and outings just won’t be the same without their humans and I’m definitely going to be taking some extra precautions if bringing the dog out and about. At the very least, I will often add one extra point of connection, just in case their primary equipment should fail for any reason.
Once the dog has been able to come down a little from those initial crazies, and we have worked a little on engagement, we can go adventuring.
Outings are not “obedience exercises”, but we do practice lots of engagement exercises. Engagement means that the dog chooses you, without cueing, nagging, jerking. We know it’s time to work on engagement, when the dog chooses to engage.
Sniffy walks are the best for dogs in general, but also when their routine is otherwise messy, they provide for excellent exercise, both mentally and physically, and outlets for stress.
Just being is my favourite thing to do with dogs. But it doesn’t necessarily come easily to dogs and certainly not when their background level of stress may be raised due to their humans being absent and the subsequent routine changes.
By directing and redirecting their stress related behaviours, they will be able to calm and settle themselves. With rounds of rollercoasters, a wind down can be applied allowing the dog to be nice and chilled by the time I’m leaving.
There is no reason for us to expect to be able to touch a dog or that our touching them will be comforting to them.
When the dog seeks out contact, I will very respectfully ask them where and how. By capping touching to no more than a 3-count and only when solicited, the dog learns how to control those interactions boosting comfort and safety.
Winding down starts at least 30 minutes before departure, but may depend on the dog. Making calmer and exploration based activities available along with peaceful hanging out, facilitates the dog finding it easier to choose calming in preparation for alone time.
It’s all rollercoasters! Listening to the dog and allowing their behaviour inform our approach means that we can provide acceptable outlets for stress and help them to recover.
More about rollercoasters and winding down here; trust me, you and your dog need this!
On our #100DaysOfEnrichment program Sniffaris are olfactory, and often, multi-sensory, adventures. And although they are often contrived, they can be an excellet way to broaden your dog’s olfactory world, without using food.
I have found them to be so beneficial for so many dogs, in different ways, that they feature on 100Days twice!
Quite simply, I did some beach combing and was able to bring those experiences in to make some sniffari boxes. Once thoroughly investigated, the addition of water creates a rock pool expanding the sensory experience even more.
Collecting smelly things and bringing them back to your dog, once safe, can be an awesome way of helping dogs who are restricted for whatever reason still experience the world through their nose and provide calm exploration.
We have lots of new and shiny things coming your way this summer and autumn.
While we’re not quite ready for bookings just yet, if you want in and at the top of the line, email (info@anied.ie) or message us (@aniedireland) and I will get you on the list straight away. This may also help you budget for courses you plan to take.
Get ready to mark your calendars!
Developing Husbandry Procedures & Programs
Take a deep deep dive in to the development and implementation of husbandry programs.
While husbandry training has become greatly popular in dog training circles, which is a good thing, an examination of the basic principles is needed.
Can these procedures really be “cooperative”? Do dogs have “choice” in these interactions? What more accurate and quantitative models can we apply?
This and so much more should be investigated and our best efforts applied to making sure we can really make husbandry as welfare friendly as possible. And that means understanding the dog’s experience from their point of view.
Full details coming soon!
Pay-What-You-Can webinars
We have a couple of afternoon webinars coming up that allow us to take a deeper dive into some fascinating topics.
We will be starting the challenging topic of behavioural euthanasia, examining our roles in supporting pet guardians facing these unenviable and heart wrenching decisions.
This will be a compassionate exploration where we are all safe to bring our questions about this topic that so often leads to polarised discussion.
Details:
And then we will look at just how applicable, versatile and important the foundation principles of teaching are. I will illustrate each of these principles with examples from real cases, tons of video footage and a look at how we can apply these seemingly simple ideas to even complex cases.
Details:
We are asking for €5 – €30 or whatever you can.
Booking will be available soon and if you want to get ahead of the pack, get in touch!
Summer’s here and we have a new and shiny service we are trialing for just a month.
I am desperate to get back to spending time with dogs. I get to do so little of that now, with so much work remote and with students. I still love all that, but I need my fix only available in hanging out with cool dogs.
This is a private and fully individualised service and of course, I will be caring for your dog as I do my own. I will be able to bring my expertise, which is behaviour, to keeping your dog as comfortable as possible, and enriching their alone time.
To help maintain your dog’s comfort, I will establish a somewhat predictable routine for your dog with me. Your dog will always be handled, and interacted with, compassionately, according to their preferences and at their pace.
When dogs are alone and a person visits, they can get quite excited. That’s normal and to be expected. By supporting your dog in working through their excitement, I will be able to help them to settle better. We do this with Rollercoasters; combinations of activating and pacifying activities and interactions.
It is expected that your dog’s behaviour may be different while you are away and there’s a different person caring for them. We keep a visit log and will share that with you at handover when you return home. It will take some time for your dog to settle back into your routine after you return home and we will discuss their behaviour at handover.
Although there will be individual adjustments, and I will always do my best to accommodate your individual dog, the following provides a general overview:
Morning visit:
this is usually the longer visit of the day to get your dog set up and ready
we will go on a longer outing during this visit, if that’s appropriate to your dog, as it’s generally cooler in the mornings
I will make sure that your dog has plenty of opportunities to toilet
we will include lots of activities that exercise your dog physically and mentally so that they can relax until our next visit
your dog will be fed most of their meal during the morning visit, or in a toy, when I leave, if that’s appropriate
Day-time visit:
this is usually the shorter visit of the day to provide your dog with a break and ample opportunities to toilet
we may go on short outings, but this may be limited by the heat of the day
this visit will be about lots of sniffing games and training games and lots of fun!
I will make sure your dog is comfortable and settled for the evening ahead
the bulk of their food will be fed during the first two visits of the day so that they are not too full overnight
Night-time visit:
for their last visit, we will go for a short outing as appropriate for your dog
I will make sure that your dog has plenty of opportunities to toilet
we will concentrate on winding down during this visit
I will hang out with your dog to help them settle and relax for bedtime
Check out our free program, 100 Days of Enrichment, for a glimpse of all the fun your dog and I will have!
I am so looking forward to helping dogs feel comfortable while their humans are away, and I can’t wait to get to know new dogs. If you or someone you know might enjoy this service, please do let me know.
AniEd Ireland 