by Tenille Williams | 11 Aug, 2022 | Dog Behaviour, For Dog Owners, Puppy Training, Training Tips
Have you ever heard of counter conditioning?
You may have even used it before without realising it.
You might need to use counter conditioning if you’ve ever:
- Felt embarrassed by your dog’s behaviour while out in public because they’re freaking out and you can’t get through to them
- Wished you could just talk to your dog and explain that your neighbour’s possum shaped lawn ornament is not a demon
- Felt like you’re being towed behind horse and you may as well be on grass skis every time your dog sees another dog
These are often fear based responses and they keep both you and your dog from being able to enjoy your time together to the fullest.
With counter conditioning, you can:
- Change the way a dog feels about something that they’re fearful of
- Turn a negative association into a positive one
- Transform your dog’s behaviour in the presence of that originally scary thing.
As a trainer who uses counter conditioning often, I can help you break down the science into simple steps and achieve results like improved confidence in your dog.
A dog that actually looks forward to seeing things that previously triggered them.
A more enjoyable time together on walks and out in public.
Are you ready for this?
Work through step by step in Frantic To Focused, my signature course that helps owners with dogs who are reactive to triggers (including but not limited to other dogs). You can see all the details by clicking here.
by Tenille Williams | 20 Feb, 2020 | For Dog Owners, Puppy Training, Training Tips
“We should have socialised her more!”
The owners feel bad. Their dog has serious issues now.
They feel they should have socialised her more.
They tried though.
They took the advice of the vet to keep her home until the vaccinations were finished.
Then they were able to start puppy school.
They did everything the vet nurse said.
Their puppy was scared and hiding.
“You need to socialise her more,” was the standard advice.
For six weeks of puppy school she hid from the other puppies.
She fought off the vet staff and learned that biting keeps them away.
She went to dog school and only became harder to handle amongst all the other dogs.
Eventually the owners had enough and stopped going. It was clear no one was enjoying it.
Now their little scared puppy is all grown up and is not safe for dogs or people to be close to.
She knows exactly how to keep threats away.
She uses her teeth.
She learned it back in puppy school.
She learned it when she was being socialised.
This is not the owner’s fault. According to the experts they took advice from, they took all the right steps. They only listened to what they were advised.
They knew that when you get a puppy, you need to, “socialise it,” but no one told them what that really means.
People think it means get your puppy used to other dogs.
Really, if socialisation has 100 parts, getting used to other dogs is just one of them.
It’s so much more than that.
But we can still keep it simple.
Socialisation is getting your puppy used to all the things they will need to be able to cope with in their life such as environments, people, noises, objects, handling and other dogs.
Furthermore, the most critical time to do this is up to the age of 16 weeks. While vaccinations aren’t in full effect yet.
And the risk of a serious behaviour problem is much higher than the risk of disease. You just need to use some common sense and not take your puppy to areas highly trafficked by unknown dogs, especially not putting them on the ground in such areas.
But since other dogs is only a small part of correct socialisation, avoiding these areas isn’t a big deal.
And if you want to be paranoid about your pup picking up diseases, you better not go anywhere either, because you can bring home these diseases on your shoes.
Especially if you’ve been to any areas where sick dogs go – like the vet clinic.
Many people refer to this time of the year as puppy season. The best gift you can give yourself and your new puppy is helpful education which sets you up a more balanced dog and helps avoid serious behaviour issues.
See the free puppy section of the vault for a free puppy socialisation checklist that you can use to socialise your puppy safely. Access here.
The goal is to help your puppy to have either neutral or calm positive experiences with these things and environments, and avoid both negative experiences or a total lack of experience.
Above all, get out there and enjoy the big wide world with your puppy.
Woofs and wags
Tenille
PS Like anything, there are good and not so good options. This post is not to say I am against vets or puppy schools, it’s about finding the right one and seeking behaviour and training advice from experts in that field rather than in a different field entirely.
by Tenille Williams | 19 Feb, 2020 | For Dog Owners, Puppy Training
It’s always puppy season here at Dog Matters!
If you know a someone who is getting a new puppy, or you are yourself and you would like to make sure you cover the important priorities so that your puppy develops into the best dog they can be, grab the Puppy Priorities short course here.
In it I cover all the puppy-hood essentials like correct socialisation – why and how to do it safely, toilet and crate training, stopping puppy biting and mouthing, prevent chewing and destruction, getting your puppy used to the leash and more. You can register here
If you want to continue to train up your pup or adult dog, you can join the full Dog Matters Academy and train your dog from any stage to a dream dog.
Inside, you can start with the puppy program and progress to, “Oh, Behave!”
Oh Behave is the full manners and obedience course for dogs of all ages. Not only will you learn the classic obedience commands but also learn how dogs learn, manners training, useful skills around the home, leash skills, socialisation skills are even tricks. It’s training that’s fun for both you and your dog and you’ll come away not only with a well behaved dog who listens to you, but a better understanding and way to communicate with any dog you ever own. Join here.
Woofs and wags
Tenille
PS If you already have an account you can log in using your email as both username and password (unless you’ve already changed your password) at dogmatters.vipmembervault.com and start with our free content all at your fingertips.
by Tenille Williams | 15 Jan, 2018 | Bored Dogs, Dog Behaviour, For Dog Owners, Puppy Training, Training Tips
The Importance Of Mental Stimulation For Pets
These days, everyone is busy. This means that many dogs spend a lot of time at home in the house or yard with not a lot to do. Yet at the same time, our dogs have often been bred to work and use their amazing brains to do jobs for us. Like people, exercising the brain can help a dog to feel tired, even more than physical exercise. It’s important to leave your dog with things to do when you’re gone but also very important for a dog’s health and wellbeing to spend time exercising their brain when you’re home. This doesn’t have to take up a great deal of time – in fact dogs learn best with several short training sessions rather than one long one.
Brain Boosting Games For Your Dog
Find it!
Wouldn’t it be great if your dog could find your keys or your mobile phone? This trick provides great mental stimulation and is useful for you around the house as well. When a dogs search for an item, they use their amazing power of scent. Having a dog use their sense of smell is a great way to exercise their brains and keep them tired and happy.
You don’t need to teach your dog to use their nose, they already know that. You just need to teach them the object you want them to find and show them that it’s worthwhile to find it.
Here are the steps:
▪ Show them the object you want them to find – you might want to give it a unique name for later when you expand to more items. Let’s say you’re teaching your dog to find the keys. Show them the keys and when they look at them, sniff them or touch them, say, “yes,” and give a treat (or any reward that motivates your dog)
▪ Place the keys on the ground and mark with, “yes,” and reward for the dog sniffing them on the floor
▪ Keep moving the keys around different places of the room and continue to reward for your desired outcome – this could be just sniffing them or picking them up. Reward for small steps towards your end goal
▪ At this point, put a command to the task like, “find keys!”
▪ When your dog is consistently giving you the reaction you want, start to hide the keys where they can’t be seen. This will encourage your dog to use it’s nose.
▪ Gradually increase the difficulty of the location as long as your dog is winning. If they are struggling, take a step back to where they were last successful and practice some more
Object Discrimination
If your dog knows how to fetch, you can start giving each individual object it’s own name. This is an impressive trick when you work your way up to several objects and is a great brain challenging game for your dog. You can combine this game with the Find It game to have your dog fetch different objects by name using their nose. But you should have each one going well separately first before tying it together.
Here’s the steps to name your objects for the dog to fetch:
▪ Choose the first object you want to name. Let’s say it’s a stuffed bear.
▪ Place the bear on the ground and say, “bear,” followed by your dog’s usual fetch command.
▪ Reward your dog for fetching the bear. Practice this several times and then try dropping the fetch command so you are just saying, “bear”
▪ Once your dog is fetching the bear on command, place the bear on the ground again as usual but this time, place a second object on the ground as well. Let’s say it’s a toy sheep.
▪ Test the bear command and only reward your dog if he sticks with the bear. If he gets it wrong, he won’t get his usual reward. If he gets it right, throw a party! Your dog can now fetch the “bear” item by name. Add more items around it to proof the “bear” command.
▪ Repeat this process with the sheep on it’s own and any other objects you want to name.
▪ The real test is when you have trained multiple items and you put them all down together. See if your dog can remember which one is which and only fetch that toy on command.
▪ Remember like all training, if your dog is stuck, take a step back to where he last succeeded.
Hide and Seek
Another task to encourage your dog to use her nose is hide and seek, where your dog has to find you! Make sure you have their favourite reward for them ready for when they do.
This trick uses the dog’s sense of smell, exercises their brain and gives them exercise as well. It can be easier with two people but you can do it alone if your dog can hold a reliable stay.
▪ Have your dog stay or have a friend hold your dog with them in another room
▪ Go and hide. Make the first few easy
▪ If you have a friend helping, they can say, “seek,” and let the dog go.
▪ The first few times, you may need to also call your dog once or twice to show them that they need to find you and give them a bit of help
▪ When they find you, give them a big reward!
▪ Make it slightly harder each time but always keep it fun. Ways to make it harder is to hide inside cupboards, behind doors or go outside and try it in a safe outdoor area.
Tidy Up Your Toys
Wouldn’t it be great if your dog tidied up all their toys when they were done playing? Combine this trick with the object discrimination trick for a super advanced version and blow your friend’s away with how smart your dog is. Your dog needs to know how to fetch for this trick. Be prepared for your dog to be nice and tired after a session of training this helpful trick.
Steps:
▪ Start with just one of your dog’s toys on the ground and a basket to put the toys in
▪ Stand with the basket in front of you and give your dog the fetch command for that object
▪ Hold your open hand above the basket
▪ As your dog brings the object to your hand or goes to drop the object at your feet, hold a treat above the basket. As your dog goes to take the treat, the toy will fall into the basket. Mark (“yes”) and reward your dog when this happens and give lots of praise.
▪ Repeat multiple times until your dog is reliably dropping the item into the basket
▪ As your dog is successful, stand behind the basket and point to the basket as the dog approaches. Reward after the dog has dropped the toy inside.
▪ Now you can introduce a new cue to this task. To do this, say the new cue right before the old cue and then phase out the old cue. So say, “tidy up, fetch” and then reward as usual. After a few repetitions, try saying, “tidy up,” by itself and see if your dog understands.
▪ Gradually move further away and reward less often by asking for more toys to be tidied up before you give a treat.
Is it important to keep providing mental stimulation for dogs at any age?
It’s absolutely important to provide mental stimulation for a dog of any age, even an older dog. An older dog may tire faster but they will still enjoy it and appreciate you for it.
In fact, mental and environmental enrichment is important for all animals!
Consider: Do you have another pet that may be bored?
Young puppies need mental stimulation too and the younger you start, the faster your dog will learn things you want to teach them later on. Ins saying that, you can definitely teach an old dog new tricks! Like elderly dogs, pups may tire quicker so keep sessions short and fun.
Training these kind of challenging tricks not only helps your dog to get tired and satisfied, it also continues to make them smarter as they develop their skills and learn how to learn. And best of all, giving your dog mental stimulation through training increases the bond between you. So it’s a win-win for everyone involved.
