Rehab Club brags from January 2018 (Silence is golden)

Silence is golden

Standing quietly, watching two dogs move around calmly and check in with their humans for support and praise.

For us, that’s the stuff of smothered cheers. Silent celebrations, and huge grins.

Sometimes life is all too hectic and we miss the chance to slow down and really watch our dogs.

If your dog tends to react to other dogs by barking, lunging or screaming then you probably have reflexes like a steel spring.

When was the last time your “reactive” dog could just hang around and watch another dog safely?

Rehab Club is our special wee bubble where we make the real world more predictable. You can relax and feel safe enough to let your dog make their own choices.

You might even be surprised by the progress you have made without realising – just like our amazing January group!

January Brags

Janey (GSD) and Elsie (Staffie cross) successfully walked on relaxed short leads, practiced approaching, passing each other and making awesome choices.

Mabli (staffie) learned how to get closer to other dogs and people without losing her mind to excitement.

And Bounce (Shipperke) practiced relaxing around young, bouncy dogs in a safe space where no-one was running over or threatening him.

Clare and I are SO very proud of all the hard work these folk put in, and we love seeing it pay off. We’ve promised to start filming the sessions so we can show just how big these changes are!

Want to experience that blissful calmness with your dog?

You need to have started a behaviour package with Well Connected Canine, want more chances to practice and be ready to work with a super supportive group of people!  Drop us an email to info@wellconnectedcanine.co.uk to check for spaces on Sunday 18^th February (venue near South Cave).

There are just four places available each month so don’t delay!

Enjoy those silences

Morag and Clare

When to stop talking (to your dog)

Watching a group of dog trainers and owners struggling to stop talking to their dogs in a full day workshop was the highlight of my weekend. It’s harder than you might think!

Clare and I travelled down to Worcestershire to teach “Living with and training a deaf dog” for the Association of Pet Dog Trainers activity weekend. Some people brought their own deaf dogs, but many were taking the challenge of training their hearing dog without using any spoken commands.

Once everyone chose and practiced a marker sign (the physical version of a clicker), we worked on attention, check-ins, tapping, targeting and then only Rally, Obedience and Agility skills.

What did they learn?

The delegates with hearing dogs could clearly see how much more focused and attentive their dogs were to silent training (apart from the laughter when it went wrong!).

Deaf dog owners came away really thinking hard about consistency with their signs – do they look the same if your dog is by your side versus standing in front? Timing is so important, but so is where you place your hand to make the marker sign.

A wee challenge for you

I want you to try training without talking, really no talking. Hand signals are fine and you probably use them a lot anyway. But no telling your dog to lie down, or to heel, or to give paw. See what happens – does your chatter make any difference? Does shutting up actually improve your dog’s concentration?

I’d love to know how you get on with the challenge.

Have a great week

Morag and the collie girls

PS the marker sign I most commonly teach gained the affectionate name of “spasming starfish”, just ask me to demonstrate next time I see you…

PPS If you want to sharpen up your training skills, I have just two places left on our Dog Training Fundamentals one-day workshop on Saturday 8^th July http://www.wellconnectedcanine.co.uk/events/dog-training-fundamentals/

 

May 2011 Class Schedule

Wednesday 11th May

6pm Beyond the Basics - Getting Started (ideal class for those who have completed basic training)

7pm Beyond the Basics - Rally-Obedience (for fun and competition, working Level 1 and Level 2 exercises)

8pm Confidence Course II (for dogs who have been assessed and/or completed a set of classes with us previously, suitable for dogs who wish to learn competitive dog sports but still struggle with focus)

Thursday 12th May

6pm Perfect Puppies (for puppies up to 6 months of age) or Adolescent Angels depending on demand!

7pm Beyond the Basics - Heelwork to Music (for all levels)

8pm Confidence Course I (for dogs just starting to learn how to relax in exciting or stressful situations)

New events

Positive Training for Ringcraft Success Seminar (using rewards based training, TTouch and groundwork to improve your dog)

Competitive Obedience with a Rewards-Based Perspective Seminar (will be taught by an experienced teacher and handler)

Chase recall sessions: working with a small group of dogs and handlers to improve chase recall from prey

Association of Pet Dog Trainers Companion Awards Scheme: recently launched this Spring, these awards allow you and your dog to progress through the scheme based on achievements in class with your regular trainer. These will be incorporated into our regular classes but we will be holding an assessment day in June/July for those who are ready to take home proof of their progress!

As always if you have any questions about the course content or suitability of your dog please do contact me by phone, text or email.

Best wishes

Morag, Finn, Farah and Bronte: our newest family member from Lizzie's Barn Sanctuary, a very special deaf and partially sighted collie girl

Some pictures from our confidence building course

CU class Week Six

(sorry I missed out on week 5 - its been hectic!)

Pics to come later - can't find my camera cable at the mo.

Tonight's goals were to increase Max's levels of relaxation while also increasing activity and movement. I suggested that Trish work through the Relaxation Protocol (Karen Overall) stages right from the beginning of class, and whenever he was getting too hyped up to return to their mat and keep going with the RP. This was on the basis that Max has been settling very well doing the RP on a mat at home. Based on the fantastic results tonight Trish & Max are going to take their RP practice 'on the road' to help him develop calm focus in lots of situations.

First stage: Max practiced RP on his mat nearby, Farah and Mirri worked on parallel game, using two cones for 'touch' and a mat as another target, gradually we increased the speed and excitements levels.

Stage Two: Max worked in the box (two touch targets, a mat and a 'go round' target) while Mirri carried on - no dog right beside Mirri or Max. Then introduced Finn. Max was a little distracted, but used the Give Me A Break game to allow him to sniff Finn calmly through the barrier, then everyone went back to working. Max was mostly off leash!!
Developed this by having Max and Mirri (dogs who have the most work to do) working either side of a barrier, off leash, doing various targeting tasks. FANTASTIC!

Stage Three: one dog recalling while other relaxes (with barrier), then both dogs recalling slowly at same time. Moved to walking head on and passing close by with no barrier - all dogs managed this beautifully!

Great session, everyone was clearly progressing nicely and I hope that by transferring the RP outside Max and Trish will be able to make a big jump forward. Planning a socialisation walk for this weekend to keep the vibe going.

CU Class Week Four

Our goals for this evening were to introduce Mirri (reactive lurcher) to the parallel games, work on group relaxation and find a way to help Max with being less distracted around dogs and other excitements. Both Mirri and Finn find it difficult to cope when other dogs are being excited, moving quickly etc and typically would bark/lunge in varying degrees of intensity. We are hoping to use the parallel games to gradually expose both dogs to increasing levels of stimuli in a controlled manner. Max on the other hand just finds movement of dogs/people really exciting and goes over threshold pretty easily - for him its less about fear/anxiety but produces very similar reactions.

[Pictures to be added later]

We started off with a modified version of the CU Campfire exercise: doing passive relaxation on mats in a circle/close by one another. Our version started in our respective corners, then moving one at a time closer to one another, always separated by the ring gates. Within about 5 minutes we were all within 6 feet of each other *big clicks*

Moving onto parallel games we alternated between dogs to build up the criteria. Initially one dog stays stationary and plays Look-At-That while the other works on heelwork and attention, swop over, then both moving calmly. Any other dogs are relaxing and watching from the sidelines. Main achievement was having both Max and Mirri doing short recalls simultaneously!!

Last week we briefly tried a variation on the Give-Me-A-Break game where Max would play Look with Finn, then be released to go play. When any sign of reorienting to handler lots of rewards etc. It didn't work basically because a real dog was just too much....so this week we tried using 'stuffies' - life size stuffed dogs. This is an idea borrowed from TTouch, because for some reason dogs always seem to respond as though they are real, initially at least. For Max we started with me as the object of interest, he played great Look games and when released only jumped a little, and did reorient. After 4-5 repetitions he was switching back to Trish so fast!!! Repeated the same process with the stuffies, while Mirri watched from a safe distance.

We did the same thing for Mirri with the stuffies, and then introduced a real dog (my deafie Farah). The interesting thing was Mirri was clearly thinking the whole time, and was much happier staying by Janet. When she did approach Farah it was lovely and calm. Another big success!

Next week I hope to do more movement work, and plan to have two dogs relaxing on mats while another heels around them - will see if we need barriers or not!

Control Unleashed Class Night Three

We were a little smaller for this session since Janet (TTouch trainer) and Mirri couldn't make it. However that did mean we could try out some more demanding exercises because Max is pretty familiar with both of my dogs.

We revised look at that and the 'leave' game - Max is happily ignoring several treats even when thrown past his face so we're starting to add in the verbal cue now. Farah is pretty good and Finn is getting there - moral is that I need to practice more!!

We spent much of the night doing variations on parallel games - hopefully there are a couple of pics showing the set-up we used: basically we set up the trellis' to divide up our hall longwise.

Activities we played with

• relax on mat - one dog either side of gates, getting progressively closer, playing Look At That each time the other dog moved


• one dog relaxes on mat, other dog works on stationary active attention (tricks/targetting etc)


• Both dogs work on relatively stationary cues


• one dog on mat, other dog heeling


• one dog active attention on the spot, other dog heeling


• both dogs heeling


• moving towards barrier simultaneously


• one dog relaxes and watches while other recalls slowly, then faster: swop tasks

We mixed up short bursts of these activities with the other CU games, plenty of breaks for dogs and handlers etc.

Max coped incredibly well and is doing well learning his on/off switch at long last. Farah was a little star as always, totally unfased by anything anyone might be doing and just so keen to work its like she has lasers instead of eyes. Working a lot on send-to-mat activities with her just now.

Finn was superb, chilled out in his crate when he wasn't needed even though Max was running around (a major trigger) and watching calmly while Max recalled when Finn was on his mat. *super proud mum moment*

Next week I hope to increase the parallel games to two dogs running simultaneously and help Max do more off leash work too. Will be interesting bringing Mirri back in, but this is definitely the work she seems to need so fingers crossed.

More fears and phobias (children and footballs)

Tonight's gentle walk turned out to be more of a training exercise than I planned, but thankfully I grabbed a treat bag and clicker before we headed out! As usual there was me + sensitive fearful Finn + deaf wannabe-traffic-herder Farah. Usually on these walks I can focus on Farah's training while Finn bimbles along taking in the smells. Tonight we ended up doing some good work instead! I've tried to condense a long story into a series of challenges that we faced and a bit about how we coped with them (this post has already vanished once!)

1. setting off to the post box, once on the slightly busier road Finn appeared not quite right (tail tight, ears tense and pulling a little on the leash) so we stoped, played some Give M A Break CU games and touch the post box :--). Worked very niely and on we went.

2. kids kicking a ball in the back garden of a house way across the street from us, definitely not that close. Finn starts to freeze up slightly. Stop and do TTouch zigzags, bring him in beside me and c+t (click + treat), walk on using Balance Leash (will post pics soon!) and c+t for any signs of reduced tension at all. Within a minute or so almost back to normal and focusing nicely.

3. kids in our normally quiet fields up by the horses. Finn seems okay but I notice he's not running around like a happy collie, lots of displacement sniffing I think. Move on through the fields, at a safe distance do a minute of cued relaxation and massage.

4. near the exit of our walk there are three kids playing football. After little moving around we get a comfortable distance - about the length of a football pitch! We play Look at That, then release to go sniff. Try for some passive relaxation but its too much. Feel good that we coped, but grumpy that we can't walk where we wanted to!

5. on our way to the alternative exit past some gardens that back onto the fields, there are some little kids playing in one garden. Out of sight but definitely in hearing!! Hmmm, some zigzags, some simple attention behaviours and then *woo hoo* we find a stick! The one thing I forgot to pick up was a toy, so we make the most of the stick and play games as we pass by the gardens (still a good 20feet away from them though). This is great - although Finn is stressed he is able to play with me, not too hard mouth/eyes and no running ahead to escape.

After all of that we just need to get home - thankfully no more challenges on the way, but we do stop to do some quality sniffing and play touch the tree trunk on our way :-)

Hopefully I will be able to sort out the cd of sounds on Friday and then we can begin the counter-conditioning/desensitisation process in earnest.