Blog
Breaking the ice!
Many of the dogs that come to me for training, have issues with their recall. ‘Recall is fine, until we see another dog or person’ ‘Her recall is great unless we’re in a new place’ ‘His recall is good unless he finds something to sniff’ Are all things I hear in my classes. One thing […]
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Extinction – A lesson from the dinosaurs
When can I stop rewarding her? Is a question I get asked in almost every group of classes I teach. The simple answer is – Don’t! When dogs are no longer being rewarded for doing something, then they just stop doing it. Click here for more about rewards and reinforcement You wouldn’t go to work […]
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Is your dog a free loader?
When offered a choice between free food and working for food, can you imagine which your dog will choose? Hint – Its not the free food! Researchers have found that ‘animals will perform an operant response to obtain food when abundant free food is available’ Translation Please! Simply put, your dog would rather endure a […]
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The 3 D’s of dog training
Have you ever heard about the 3 D’s of dog training? It’s something I mention, and work on extensively, in my training classes. Without the 3 D’s, there is no dog training. Let me give you the D’s! Duration Duration is probably the easiest to build, and the one I like to work on first. […]
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Halloween – Make sure your dog doesn’t get spooked!
Halloween can be so much fun! Dark nights, lots of sweets, scary movies, my kinda thing! But for some pets it can be kinda scary. Here are our top tips for staying safe and having fun with your dog. Chocolate can be lethal! All kinds of chocolate can make your dog ill, or worse. If […]
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Luring
Luring a behaviour is something that is often criticised by balanced trainers. It’s often seen as a bad thing, and I think that’s unfair. Its actually an effective way to teach new behaviour. And the way in which most pet owners teach their dog their basic commands Luring is simply teaching your dog to follow […]
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Visual cues
In the first stages of dog training, many owners use luring to get the dog to do what they want. Whether its a sit or a down, big gestures are used to get the dog to obey. It might be turning the hand up to get a sit. Or pointing to the floor for a […]
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Can your dog discriminate
Yesterday I wrote about generalisation, today we’re talking about discrimination. This is another essential component to a well trained dog. In scent work, we need to train a dog to pick out a particular scent amongst a multitude of items, or other scents. For Rio, that means picking out the scent of cloves when strong […]
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Generalising your dog training
Can your dog listen to a command while you do a hand stand? Or, maybe a little easier to test, while your back is turned? While you are walking? It sounds a little silly. But its important your dog can carry out your commands in any situation. It might not always be possible to be […]
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Capturing your dogs behaviour.
Has your dog ever done something amazing out of the blue and unexpectedly? Something that made you jump for joy and filled you with pride? I hope you rewarded it. And if so, you used a technique called capturing. Capturing is one of my favourite ways to train a dog. It teaches a dog to […]
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