Another busy week of dogs, dogs, and more dogs!

Awesome Pets & their People

This week we had Molly for her last daytraining session and she did so amazingly well that we got to take a walk in our local park and have lots of fun!

Link

Molly’s ability to cope with distractions and her responsiveness has improved so much that we were just able to walk, investigate and hang out.

We played lots of sniffing games to keep her with me, rather than get distracted. Look at her nose go!

Link

With Molly’s improvement in the foundation our work has laid, she and her family will continue to build on this closer to home.

Harry came for his first puppy session with his new family to get the best start with all that puppy stuff!

Zepp came for some behaviour work with his people. Among other things we worked on some sofa manners, including how to teach a dog to get off the sofa when asked:

Link

Leo came for some behaviour work too, as we begin to work through some adolescent behaviour – dogs go through a teenage phase too!

Basil came for a training session to help boost his responsiveness and comfort with specific triggers, when out walking. As you can see, he’s pretty relaxed about this whole training business…

Double the fun, double the cuteness and of course, double the trouble, Meryl & Doug.

These two came for their first puppy session with their people, and everyone learned loads!

People Training

This weekend our Canine Studies – Foundation learners came for their second day of tuition. This course is for pet sitters and dog walkers and on Sunday they worked on learning theories, luring, capturing, shaping, and canine signaling.

On top of that they learned how to evaluate a dog’s weight using a body condition scoring system. Most pet dogs in development countries are overweight and what’s more worrying is that people, even including some pet care professionals, have trouble identifying a dog who is overweight.

Many of you will have seen this and similar BCS tools:

This great resource helps you more quickly evaluate the amount of fat carried on your dog’s ribs:

Share this far and wide – the first step in helping improve your pet’s health is to assess the extent of their weight gain.

AniEd Dogs

Dilis, Boomer and Zak were ‘working’ this week, along with lovebirds Decker & Daisy:

Daisy is even starting to play and initiate interactions with Decker:

Link

Have a great week 🙂

This week we had lots of applicants in for interview, well more of a chat really, for our new Canine Behaviour & Training Technician program that’s starting next month. CBTT7 will be starting soon and we can’t wait!

Awesome Pets & their People

Molly was back for more Daytraining this week and we were able to achieve more polite leash walking in new areas with much improved responsiveness and reduced vigilance from Molly!

Link

Link

And by making dog walks more dog, we can take some of the pressure off loose leash walking all the time, which dogs find really hard:

Link

We had a home visit for follow-up with Teddy as part of our continued program to help him settled in and become more comfortable with triggers.

We also hung out with his sister Daisy and the dogs played with the snufflemats their owner has made for them!

Ted learns that triggers mean yummies, and soon mean to look to his mum:

Link

Help your dog pass major triggers, when there’s no other way, like a large dog in a window (only a couple of metres from the pathway) barking at us, as is the case here:

Link

Doing a U-turn to avoid triggers that may cause stress and a reaction requires lots of enthusiasm – Ted’s certainly got that:

Link

Ralph came for a training session and we discussed adolescent excitement, dog-dog play and lots and lots of recall training.

Ralph and his people will be working through our recall exercises over the next month or so to improve responsiveness and self-control.

First step is to condition a new recall cue, so that hearing those words causes a whip-lash turn:

Link

Once we can surprise Ralph with his new recall cue when he’s mildly distracted, we can begin to build an approach and collar grab into our recall routine:

Link

Putting it altogether we can play the high energy game Recall Relays so that recalls mean fun and rewards:

Link

When we can play recall relays in lots of different environments, we can begin to really challenge our recall cue by adding distraction recalls:

Link

Link

Not only does our new recall cue mean that the dog will always be rewarded, but also means that to access distractions they must recall first.

Lola came for some behaviour work – she is even more adorable in real life! She has spent much of her early life confined to a crate but is now in a great new home and we will be working through some behaviours to help her settle and better cope.

Teaching default sits is a great exercise – think of all the things that your dog can’t do if she’s sitting…!

Link

Newly rehomed dogs will often require help with separation; we get started with Lola right away:

Link

Providing dogs with fun puzzles is great but especially for dogs who need a confidence boost:

Link

People Training

More Canine First Responder course delivery this week for the Animal Care students of Ormonde College of Further Education, Kilkenny with everyone earning their certs and a greater understanding of what to do in an emergency.

This weekend, our CTI3 learners are back for their second weekend of tuition, working on Canine Health & Disease and Animal Learning & Applications.

They are working hard on learning about canine health, responsible ownership, disease and disease prevention, emergency care, environmental enrichment, learning theories, canine signaling, the effects of aversives and training techniques luring, capturing, targeting and freeshaping. They will certainly deserve their rest after all that!

Looking forward to a sunny week, next week!

A busy week of dogs, dogs, dogs and one cat…

Awesome Pets & their People

Molly did some really fantastic work during Daytraining this week and we made lots of progress when we went for short walks – go Molly!

Here she practices Crate Games, 1, learning to settle in her crate, that polite behaviour gets her nice things and that rewards happen away from the door:

Link

This stunner, Balto, came for some behaviour work and we put lots of new exercises in place to help him and his family.

 

Practice collar grab exercises with your dog everyday, even if you only do five reps at a time – it all adds up, helping your dog feel more comfortable with collar handling, a vital skill.

Link

Make sure to go at your dog’s pace, listening to them to maintain comfort and safety.

Elvis, and his buddy Millie, came for a training session too and we worked on confinement comfort…but really needed to spend more time working on posing…or at least both looking at the camera at the same time…

Bella and Ruby came for a visit too. Bella has just been adopted and we want to make sure that these two girls learn to get along and develop a great friendship.

We looked at lots of the best ways to manage their behaviour with separation and careful integration so that we can avoid the rehearsal of any unwanted or inappropriate behaviour.

On walks we are going to practice lots of parallel walking so that the girls can become more comfortable with one another, in wide open space, without direct approach or contact, and while everything is moving.

Link

Here’s a top tip: do you own an adolescent dog, a new dog, a puppy or a worried dog?

Bring treats with you on every walk. Any time you or your dog spot something concerning that causes your dog to alert, stop and watch your dog closely.

Each time your dog looks at the distraction, feed them a treat, one after another.
Soon your dog will begin to get the game and look at the distraction and then back at you (hey! where’s my treat?!). Your dog is learning that distractions mean to focus on their person – without you saying a thing!

Link

If your dog reacts, vocalises, can’t take food or is unable to look away from the distraction, the situation may be too much for them. Get them out of there and try again, when further away.

Rua and Loki are quite a pair – full of life and mischief! They came for some behaviour work to help them cope better with stress, learn to settle when apart and make life easier for everyone!

Loki is learning to happily wear a muzzle right now; an important skill for all dogs.

We recommend this training program for helping dogs learn greater comfort with muzzling and taking your time so that they are comfortable with the feel of the muzzle on their face.

If your muzzle training reaches a bit of a lull or you want to give your dog some extra help, try adding this exercise:

Link

Prince, such a cheeky chappie, came for some behaviour work too and is going to be learning all about crate training and handling comfort from now on!

An unexpected visitor

A very sweet and friendly cat, yes, a feline, found us and we soon made friends. He has no collar or chip, and is injured and quite skinny.
He is very comfortable with our handling and contact and had a yummy lunch, before we brought him to the vet for treatment.

We have a lovely rescue space all lined up for him, should no owner come forward, so hopefully he is on the road to recovery soon.

Although we didn’t introduce him to the dogs, to prevent any distress, Daisy and Dilis had a great time sniffing one of the blankets he slept on, giving it a very thorough going over!

People Training

Today our CN4 group came for their last day of tuition on their Canine Nutrition course.

We covered lots and lots, with some great discussions on homemade and commercial diets, food and behaviour, dietary adverse reactions, obesity and dietary support and management for a range of conditions.

A busy day with Decker lending a hand because who better to tell us about canine nutrition than the dog himself!

AniEd Dogs

These four troublemakers had lots of fun being office dogs:

🙂

Another short week in Ireland; it will be tough going back to a full week of work for many from tomorrow!

Lots of rainy weather over the past and coming days so don’t forget to keep your dog busy with rainy-day entertainment:

Link

Link

Link

Link

Or why not practice some of our Train Your Dog Month exercises?!

There seems to be continued confusion about microchipping which is now a legal requirement for all dogs.
We have updated our information post about microchipping several times as new information seems to slowly trickle down here and Dogs Trust Ireland have shared a Top 10 FAQs:

We also sent you a piece on a more balanced attitude to being a dog trainer, working at what should be your dream job…Somewhere in between

Awesome Pets & their People

Molly was back for more daytraining – she had lots of yummy Kongs and a lovely nap…

And we got some training done too:

Link

Gorgeous Boxer girl Bailey was back for a follow-up session:

She, and her people, have been doing so well that we signed off on Bailey’s case and they will continue to work to maintain our program. We will always be here to support them so hope to see them again.

Jessie from A Dog’s Life, now in a new foster, came for a session to make sure everyone is settling in well.

This stunning dog is looking for a new home; find out more about her here.

How adorable (and irresistible) is Jessie?!

Link 

Mason, also from A Dog’s Life, has worked his magic on his foster family and they have now become his forever family – YAY!

He and his new sister, Lucy the Basset, are getting on great, with careful management by his people. Good news!

Elsie, who has just been adopted from A Dog’s Life, came for a session with her new family to help everyone settle in and get to know one another.

Moe cam back for his first  follow-up, after initial consultation, and he and his people have made amazing progress. We were ready to do some stooge-dog work to help teach Moe alternative and more acceptable behaviours when he sees other dogs.

And then we had some fun with ball play!

Riley, the Tibetan Terrier puppy, came for his first session and had a great time learning how to train humans…

People Training

We have a new Canine Behaviour & Training Technician group starting soon and already have a list of applicants for interview. CBTT7 will be underway next month and we can’t wait to get the ball rolling. More here.

Don’t forget that we have Helen Zulch back for another weekend seminar/workshop in June! There is only one working space left for the Saturday and couple of spectator places on both days so you better sign up quick so that you don’t miss out!

More information here and on our Facebook event here.

AniEd Dogs

Zak cuddled up to the heat:

And the rest of them went to work:

Hopefully we have some more lovely Spring weather in the coming week…enjoy!